Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort opens for 47th season

By Paul Takahashi

Friday, Nov. 26, 2010 | 2:15 a.m.

The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort experienced a lot of snowfall this past week – albeit some of it artificially – in preparation for today’s season opening.

Over the course of the week, large snowmaking machines piled white powdery snow over the ski runs, new signs went up on trails and staffers had training sessions. Anticipation ran high in the Mount Charleston area for the winter season.

“It’s going to be a really super year,” said Curt Sheffield, the resort’s director of business affairs. “We’ve been prepping since January.”

Today marks the start of the resort’s 47th ski season, which typically runs from late November to mid-April. This year, visitors to the ski resort, located on State Road 156 in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, might notice some changes from last year’s record 181-day season.

The Sports Shop has been remodeled and its merchandise upgraded to include new ski and snowboard helmets. The Big Horn Café has an updated menu with some healthier options, such as salads. The resort has rebuilt its snowmaking reserve, expanding its water capacity five-fold to about 7.5 million gallons of water.

To entice more skiers and snowboarders, the resort is offering an expanded Ski Bus route starting today, Sheffield said.

In its second year, the Ski Bus, which brought riders from The Lodge at Tenaya, 5717 Sky Pointe Drive, to the resort at Mount Charleston, now offers more stops: Santa Fe Station, 4949 N. Rancho Drive; Town Square, 6605 Las Vegas Blvd. South; and UNLV, 4505 S. Maryland Parkway. A roundtrip ticket costs $20.

Interested residents can also ride the City Shuttle system this year by going online or calling (702) 645-6053. Las Vegas residents can arrange to have a shuttle pick them up for $40 and drive them to the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort. A roundtrip ticket costs $40.

The resort is hosting events and promotions during the week to attract visitors during the slower weekday hours.

One such promotion is the resort’s ski and snowboarding lessons. For a fee of $80, adults and children can receive lift tickets, all-day use of rented equipment and a two-hour lesson on the mechanics of skiing or snowboarding, mountain safety and skier etiquette.

“It’s so important to learn the right way,” Sheffield said. “If you learn it right from certified instructors, you’ll have a much better day and experience.”

The upgrades and promotions are an effort to get more Las Vegans to notice the resort and the winter sports possibilities about an hour from downtown Las Vegas.

“I’ll walk into a grocery store wearing my Las Vegas Ski Resort hat and get stares,” Sheffield said. “No one knows about it. It’s really a hidden gem.”

The Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort has 11 trails that can be accessed by three chair lifts and one surface lift. Lift ticket offices, located in the base lodge area, open daily at 8:45 a.m.

The resort, at an elevation of 8,510 feet, gets about 10 feet of natural snow in an average season. For more information, including hours of operation, shuttle schedules, mountain conditions and season passes, visit www.skilasvegas.com or call (702) 645-2754.