PORT ANGELES — Take one look at Hurricane Ridge and you’ll realize the obvious — there will be no downhill skiing there this winter.
In fact, any hope for snow sports melted away with the few feet of snow the mile-high area did receive this season.
“The bottom line is we’re pulling the plug,” Hurricane Ridge Public Development Authority General Manager Curtis Shuck said Tuesday. “There’s no hope in sight.”
Most areas at the Ridge were snow-free on Tuesday, when Shuck could only shake his head as he took pictures of the bare meadows.
This will be the first winter since the downhill lifts moved to the Ridge in 1958 that the area had no operating days.
The development authority runs two rope tows and a Poma lift at the Ridge under a use permit with Olympic National Park.
Warm winter weather delivered a blow to skiers, and also to the financial outlook of the authority.
“We have had to lay off staff that have been with the ski area for almost 30 years,” Shuck said, adding that the operation is at “life-support status.”
Arrangements are being made to refund 2004-2005 Hurricane Ridge season pass money along with ski school tuition.
Larger ski resorts typically do not refund season pass money during low- or no-snow winters.
However, with a more intimate clientele, the public development authority is not willing to make that kind of a move.
“We’re hoping that that’s going to be reciprocated,” Shuck said.
Hurricane Ridge 2004-2005 season passes cost $185 for an individual and $375 for a family.