Almost 2 feet of snow fell on Mount Hood last weekend, allowing the Timberline ski area to open for business Tuesday.

KGW File photo

A skier swooshing down the slopes of Mt. Hood.

Late in the day, Mt. Hood Meadows announced it would open on Friday November 23rd with limited runs. Also, Mt. Bachelor announced that it would also open on Thanksgiving Day for downhill and nordic skiing, as well as tubing.

Meadows and Bachelor both have snowmaking machines and they hope to take advantage of predicted subfreezing temperatures over the coming days to add to the snowbase.

SkiBowl also planned to open on Thanksgiving for inner-tubing in the snow, with assistance back up the hill on specialized sled lifts.

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Other places did not fare as well as Mount Hood. The storm left 6 inches at Mount Bachelor near Bend, and either left a dusting or completely missed resorts in Western Washington. The storm moved into Idaho and Montana, but no resorts in Utah and just a few in Colorado are open, said Rick LaMont, who runs the Northwest ski and snowboard Web site, SkiTiger.com.

"It's not looking that good in the rest of the West, but it's still very early," LaMont said.

Resort operators like to open earlier than their competitors and as close as possible to Thanksgiving, a time when skiers are eager to return to the slopes after months away. Demand drops in February, when thoughts start turning to spring.

Tuesday's opening at Timberline comes just two days after the average Nov. 18 opening day for the past 20 years.

"We get more Thanksgiving openings than we don't," said Jon Tullis, Timberline spokesman.

But ski operators fear that global warming will soon make December starts the norm. Resorts in Oregon and other places are trying to make visitors aware of the issue with initiatives such as "Keep Winter Cool," a partnership of the Natural Resources Defense Council and the National Ski Areas Association. It is designed to increase the public's understanding of global warming and what they can do to help.

At Meadows, day skiers and season-ticket holders can purchase SkiGreen Tags for $2 a day or $20 a season. The money allows ski resorts to use nonpolluting renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind power, Tragethon said. He added that sales of the tags to season ticket holders are up 30 percent this year.

Tragethon said about 25 percent of the resort's power is coming from clean energy. The goal is 100 percent.