By Owen Woods | owen@alamosacitizen.com

MONARCH Mountain will be open for the season Thursday, December 1. After a dry beginning to the winter, recent snows provided Monarch with enough fresh powder to start operating lifts. 

Monarch will kick off the winter season by running the Caterpillar, Pioneer, Tumbelina, and Panorama lifts. Open runs and uphill access will be announced Thursday morning. Monarch plans on having a mix of 30 groomed and powder runs open all day. 

They are reporting a base total of 19 inches and a season total of 39 inches. More snow is expected Friday, with a 90% chance of moisture. 

In his regular blog, Monarch Mountain’s general manager Scott Pressly wrote, “Mountain operations has been hard at work getting everything ready for the big day.”

Photo by Chris Burtschi