Oregon Public Broadcasting

Up until this week’s snow storm, most Oregon ski areas were still not operating at full strength because they lacked snow.  As Pete Springer reports, that all changed late this week.

Call any local ski resort snow phone and you’ll hear something like this.

Meadows snow phone: “We had 21 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours, including 11 inches since close yesterday.  It’s worth noting that we’ve had 44 inches of snow in the last 48 hours.”

That's the Friday morning report from Mt. Hood Meadows. 

And reports at other ski areas are similar: lots of new snow and finally a chance to hit the slopes.

A spokeswoman for Mt. Bachelor says cold temperatures there mean the slopes have plenty of wonderful, deep powder.

And other smaller ski areas, such as Mt. Ashland and Hoodoo, finally have enough snow to open this weekend for the season.

Oregon ski areas are usually open by late November.

But snowfall has been below average so far this year -- about 35 percent of average on Mt. Hood, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland.