Mt. Ashland Ski Area reopens after power outage

ASHLAND, Ore.- The Mt. Ashland Ski Area reopened after some hiccups occurred during its opening weekend.

According to General Manager Andrew Gast, the Ski Area closed early on January 13th because of a power outage. Pacific Power told NBC5 that fallen trees through a section of mainline caused the outage and winter conditions made repairing the line in a short time difficult. Before that, Mt. Ashland’s Winter Chairlift had mechanical issues that rendered it useless for a bit on Thursday. Gast said while the opening weekend wasn’t what they hoped or planned for, they were able to bounce back quickly.

“The staff’s done a really good job of rolling with the punches and handling everything that’s been thrown at them.,” Gast told NBC5, “In fact, the date I got from Noon from talking to our parking folks is that this might be a record setting day. We have more cars in the parking lot than we ever had before”.

Gast says they originally planned to have their 60th anniversary party on January 13th, but it has been moved to January 20th due to the power outage.

Twilight Ski also officially begins January 18th. Gast said it’s a great opportunity for those who can’t come ski during afternoons of weekdays.