Image provided by: Clackamas Community College; Oregon City, OR
About Cougar print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1976-1977 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1976)
SNOW ANEMIA a financial crisis Harry Bielskis let it snow! When the news staff and the advertising staff of the Cougar Print first decided to join forces and bring a special winter sports issue to Clackamas Community College, they didn't foresee the slow metabolism of Mother Na ture. As we came nearer and nearer to our advertising and news dead lines the slopes of Mt. Hood re mained almost as bare as they were in mid-summer. No snow! It could have put a clinker in the works. Our photographers waited with baited breath for the snow to fall so some decent pictures could be taken to adorn the issue. And the advertising salespersons were having a hard time convincing the ski areas and ski shops to spend money on an advertisement which asked peo ple to go up to bare and dirty slopes. But hope and faith have pre vailed. We know there will be a lot of snow soon - perhaps even by the time this issue is pub lished. So the Cougar Print is happy to bring you something new and different and a little special from our regular fare -- the Winter Recreation Issue 1976. We hope to make it a yearly tradition. Page 8 Mt. Hood Meadows is experiencing a situation shared by other skiing establish ments -- not enough snow to open the skiing season. The lack of white stuff is resulting in many grey hairs on the heads of owners, employes, and operators of local ski lodges, and the skiing community as a whole. "We have lost business, a lot of busi ness, and the loss can be roughly esti mated at tens of thousands of customers. This figure is increasing each day it doesn't snow," said Mike Mitchell, Mar keting Director for Mt. Hood Meadows ski area. Mt. Hood Meadows usually opens its skiing season when a three-foot snow base has accumulated, and this amount is normally seen by Thanksgiving weekend. Last year at Thanksgiving, five feet of snow covered the skiing area. This year at Thanksgiving only a quarter inch of snow dotted the Mt. Hood Meadows slopes. Traditionally, this is the largest skiing weekend at that establishment -- about 5000 skiers. We normally have 300 employ« our service at this time," said Mitel "but because of the current snow col tions we are limited ^o a staff of 1 30." Not only does this problem affect immediate employes of Mt. Hood I dows, but it reaches out and threat the community and those services wl base their existence around winterra ation. "The community is being put inti bind," Mitchell said, "restaurants, hot gas stations, and stores are losing I dreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps much as a quarter of a million dollars, the last two weeks alone." Ski areas in Colorado, Vermont a the Midwest have machines capable producing artificial snow when the w ther is not obliging. The constant a temperature of those regions will keept artificial snow on the slopes, makingth type of machine a worthwhile inve ment. "Those machines can't be used inti area," stated Mitchell, "the temperati doesn't fall low enough to make got snow and our weather is usually prod» tive. It would be too difficult and expt sive an operation to make artifSeal snow, Until it snows, area skiing establis ments have no way of predicting tl opening of the skiing season. Many si school operators hope for snow befo the week of Christmas, which they no mally find to be their busiest time. "I'd like to see the entire studei body, faculty and staff of Clackam Community College join us in our prays for snow," said Mitchell, "not just fo Mt. Hood Meadows alone, but for th whole area. A lot of pressure is taket off during this time and if there is stil no snow, the area may find itself in ale of trouble." Clackamas Community Colle«