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Photo by Andy Atkinson Becky Peterson, 16, of Central Point hangs on to her snow tube as she comes barrelling down a hill off the Mount Ashland access road Sunday afternoon. Snow's here Mount Ashland will open Wednesday By BETH QUINN The weekend storm clouds that left holiday shoppers dodging puddles on the valley floor contained a silver lining that blanketed the surrounding mountains with 20 inches of fresh snow. Medford's 3.18-inch drenching in less than 48 hours caused no serious flooding but delivered an early local ski season. Now sporting 41 inches of snow at the base, Mount Ashland plans to fire up four chairlifts on Wednesday to kick off the resort's 36th season. And on Friday they'll flick on the lights for night skiing. Eager skiers have been browsing local ski shops for weeks. "The hard-core person was in here a month and a half ago trying to buy new wax so he could take care of it himself," said Bob Matthews, owner of Medford's Rogue Ski Shop. But the selling season for less-committed skiers really got underway 10 days ago when Mount Bachelor, near Bend, opened. "Most of the pre-season is tire-kicking," Matthews said. "What really comes out when you get an early opening isn't so much the hearty hard-core. It's the weekend warrior who now decides he's going to go." The big loser in the weekend's wild weather was Mount Shasta, which received only a 3-inch dusting that left the Northern California resort with 7 inches at the base. Three feet of snow is required there for opening day. Mount Bachelor, the other resort popular with Rogue Valley skiers, now boasts a base of 64 inches at the bottom of the volcano and 76 inches at mid-mountain. At 8 a.m. Sunday Crater Lake National Park recorded a snow depth of 49 inches at the 6,000-foot-level headquarters complex below the caldera's rim. More snow is in store for local mountains from today's storm, which National Weather Service forecasters predicted would begin early this morning. With up to 10 inches in store for Mount Ashland tonight and another storm expected for Thanksgiving Day, the La Nina weather pattern is delivering on predictions of a cool wet winter. "The pattern tends to be that we get bigger and stronger storms through here, and we seem to be seeing some pretty decent storms come through," said meteorologist Bill Ludwig. With a strong jet stream arrowing across the Pacific Ocean and straight toward Southern Oregon, the 1998-1999 ski season is shaping up to the liking of hard-core skiers and weekend warriors. "Until that jet stream decides to go north or south of us," Ludwig says, "we're going to be in the path of plenty of storms." Rivers begin to drop From Friday through Saturday, 3.18 inches of rain pounded down on Medford, a smidgen below the 3.23 that's normal for the whole month of November. The downpour churned local rivers and creeks into muddy torrents that approached flood stage on Saturday. The Rogue River in Grants Pass crested at 43,385 cubic feet per second at 11 p.m. Saturday. The Applegate River crested in Applegate crested at 4,500 cubic feet per second at 8:30 p.m. The Illinois River in Kerby crested at 27,356 cubic feet per second at 3 p.m., and Bear Creek crested at 3,024 cubic feet per second at 3:15 p.m. By midafternoon Sunday, the National Weather Service reported all local streams in steady decline. And forecasters said the rainfall expected this morning won't bring a repeat of the weekend flood worries. While some rivers may appear boatable, officials warn that the Illinois River will remain above dangerous rafting levels through Tuesday. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA