Sports

Eaglecrest Ski Area is closed today and tomorrow due to warm weather and rain.

For now, Juneau’s city-owned ski hill anticipates having the Porcupine chairlift in operation Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

“We went from having a lot of fun up on the upper mountain and Porcupine area last weekend to obviously a lot of rain,” Eaglecrest General Manager Matt Lillard said Wednesday on KTOO’s A Juneau Afternoon. “It’s certainly hurt the amount of snow that we have and the conditions. So we’ll be closed the next two days, and then on Saturday and Sunday we’ll be reopening.”

Lillard says the latest conditions can be found at skijuneau.com.

The National Weather Service calls for more rain in the Juneau area through most of the weekend, with a chance of snow by Sunday night and Monday.

A public meeting Monday night on how activities fit into middle school rekindled sore feelings about the Juneau School District’s ban on middle school sports travel.

When the school board decided to ban travel for middle school athletics – a decision that went into full effect this school year – many attempts were made to reverse the decision. Parents and students organized petitions, protests and spoke at board meetings, a group called Save our Middle School Sports started on Facebook and community members formed a task force to look at alternatives to the ban.

The school board wasn’t swayed by any of it. Then-President Sally Saddler said the board wouldn’t revisit the issue unless the district’s Activities Advisory Committee developed a middle school activities philosophy.

Floyd Dryden Middle School Assistant Principal Haifa Sadighi is on the committee. She says it started working on a philosophy last spring.

“It was almost like, let’s get this done and then that might be able to provide us with a platform for advocacy and then move into revisiting the policy,” Sadighi says.

Right now, the philosophy is a one page document stating the mission of activities in the middle school. It outlines the why and how with an emphasis on maximizing participation.

Teacher Molly Box is also on the advisory committee. She says early drafts of the philosophy included the opportunity for middle school athletic travel.

“But because the policy is there right now that there is no travel, it was contradictory to put it in our philosophy at this point, but the AAC is very supportive of middle school travel as an opportunity for all kids,” Box says.

The philosophy does say “intramural and interscholastic activities will be offered with comparable emphasis at both middle schools.” District activities director Sandi Wagner clarified intramural is competition within one school; interscholastic involves two or more.

“There’s no limit as to how many schools. Right now you can’t travel to do that, but five years from now that may change, six months from now that may change – who knows?” Wagner says.

In order for the board to revisit the middle school athletic travel ban, three board members would have to agree to put it on the agenda. Board member Brian Holst asked to do just that in November. No one else on the board supported him.

Middle school parent Scott McAdams says the issue should be looked at again.

“What we found out this year though the Icebreaker Tournament is that if we don’t reciprocate, we won’t be reciprocated back. If we don’t travel to Ketchikan or Sitka or make a village trip or two, those teams will not come here,” McAdams says.

The annual middle school basketball tournament in the capital city historically attracts up to five visiting communities. At the Icebreaker in December, only one showed up.

Parent Rhoda Yadao has an eighth grade son who plays basketball. She said he was disappointed.

“Looking at going forward he says, ‘I sure hope the kids under me are able to have the opportunity to travel,” Yadao says.

The Activities Advisory Committee hopes to finalize the middle school activities philosophy on Wednesday and present it to the school board in February.

More terrain will be open up for anxious skiers and snowboarders this weekend. The Black Bear Chair will start operating at Eaglecrest Ski Area on Thursday.

General Manager Matt Lillard says they decided to open up the ski area’s east side after determining the accumulated snow could hold up to multiple days of skiers and snowboarders.

“And the other reason was really the fun factor,” Lillard says. “We didn’t want to send people up there for an experience that was simply not enjoyable.”

Lillard says the Black Bear Chair and east side trails will be accessible only through the Ptarmigan Chair.

“We will be limiting the number of rides people can take on the Ptarmigan Chair because we really want people to stay up on the Black Bear Chair and use it as the main mode to take your laps in for skiing. We are working on a system to do that,” Lillard says. “Really, the Ptarmigan Chair is strictly a way to access the upper mountain.”

Lillard says it makes more sense to send skiers and snowboarders up to the top of the mountain rather than have everyone walk across from top of the Hooter Chair over to Black Bear.

Lillard recommends only advanced and expert skiers head over to the east side because of obstacles and relatively light snow cover. As of Monday, there was about 38 inches of snow at the top of the mountain.

“There’s definitely still thin spots and the snow is a little crusty at the moment. But where we’ve packed down is quite enjoyable,” Lillard says. “As we get later into January, we’re just to find any way possible to start skiing and riding.”

Skiers and riders can get off the mountain on the Sneaky and Williwaw trails.

Since the ski area opened early last month, skiers and snowboarders have been limited to the beginner runs off the Porcupine Chairlift.

The west side of the ski area, the lower mountain and the Hooter Chair will remain closed because of inadequate snow.

Skiers and snowboarders may be distressed about the lack of snow this season, but managers of Eaglecrest Ski Area are not worried. There are still at least four months to go in the season and plenty of opportunities for plenty of snow to fall in the Juneau area.

Tuesday afternoon’s dusting may have been the first recorded snow at sea level in the last three weeks.

Only the runs off the Porcupine Chairlift at Eaglecrest have been open to skiers and snowboarders since the ski area opened earlier this month.

Eaglecrest’s Jeffra Clough said during Tuesday’s A Juneau Afternoon on KTOO that programs like Mountain Explorers, Mighty Mites, and Women’s Reach the Peak will be delayed until at least January 10, a week later than the original schedule. The ski area also will not be open on Monday, January 5th as originally planned, but it will reopen Thursday, January 8th.

As of Wednesday morning, there were 7 inches of snow at the base and 34 inches at the top of the mountain.

Ski area managers have extended a helping hand to Mother Nature. When temperatures dip to 20 degrees or lower on the mountain, snowmaking machines have been cranked up to provide a base for the real snow, when and if it falls. The machines operated overnight off the Porcupine Chairlift through Saturday, and until Tuesday morning near the base of the Ego and Lower Hillary’s runs just uphill of the Ptarmigan Chairlift.

“It’s a very cool system,” said Matt Lillard, general manager of the Eaglecrest Ski Area. “If you ever want to come up to take a look, just find a cold day early in the year and drive up to Eaglecrest and you can see them in action.”

“To make snow, you basically need cold air and water,” Lillard said. “It really is that simple.”

Eaglecrest uses three fan guns or snowmaking machines that draw water from Cropley Lake.

“There’s a compressor in each one that makes compressed air,” Lillard said. “And then you add water at greater than 200 psi and a big fan to it. It really shoots it up into the air, and then it crystallizes and forms snow in the air, and then falls to the ground.”

Since the water supply is a gravity-fed system, the snowmaking machines can only be set up on the lower part of the mountain.

“So, if you’re looking up at the faces of Ego, Sourdough, and Sneaky, we can make snow about a quarter to a third up those trails and that’s the extent we can do it,” Lillard said.

He said it’s impossible to make snow for the upper part of the mountain without expensive booster pumps.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with latest conditions, quotes, and additional details.

Juneau Douglas Ice Association Coach Mark Kaelke conducted an all-girls clinic for JDIA players Tuesday at Treadwell Ice Arena.

Kaelke says participation in all-girls hockey programs has been shown to help keep girls in the game of hockey.

Kaelke and his daughter, Emma, who last season captained an 14-and-under state girls team to a national semifinal appearance, worked with 13 girls whose ages ranged from 6 to 16.

The goal of the event was to help keep as many girls as possible in the program while growing the game for Juneau girls, perhaps to a point where Juneau can one day field an all girls team.

All photos by Steve Quinn.

The Juneau Skating Club held it’s annual holiday recital at Treadwell Ice Arena last weekend. The club made this an inclusive event, featuring adult and youth skaters whose skills range from introductory to advanced.

All photos by Steven Quinn.