Snow this week means skiing and more near Merced

Eating turkey, gravy and stuffing may be a sport for some, but some more traditional cold-weather sports could be viable options earlier than they have been during several recent years of drought.

Forecasts for a winter accompanied by El Niño means snow in the Sierra will be falling this week, according to the National Weather Service in Hanford.

With or without snow this week, Yosemite National Park offers ice skating and small patches of leftover snow where families can frolic, said Lisa Cesaro, public relations manager at DNC Parks and Resorts.

“The forecast is calling for snow up here, which is great for us, but we do have some (other) activities that are geared toward winter,” she said.

The rink is a good place to skate within sight of Half Dome, she said. Park visitors should plan for a wide variety of weather, she said.

The Awahnee Hotel, Wawona Hotel and Yosemite Lodge at the Falls also offer traditional Thanksgiving menus for visitors who’d like to eat in the park. She recommended families dress warm and call ahead for reservations.

Yosemite’s Badger Pass Ski Resort is planning to open its slopes Dec. 11. “It’s looking promising,” Cesaro said. “We’ve had three storms that have delivered snow and more on the way.”

Badger Pass updates can be found at www.yosemitepark.com/badger-area-info.aspx.

For those who can’t wait that long, skiing is expected to begin this week at Dodge Ridge Ski Area in Tuolomne County and China Peak in Fresno County. Each is about two hours away from Merced.

Dodge Ridge is set to open today, officials there said. That would mark the 10th time in 40 years that the ski resort about 30 miles east of Sonora off Highway 108 has opened before the holiday, according to a Dodge Ridge news release. The ski area typically opens in early December.

“We feel very blessed to have this kind of a start to the winter,” CEO Sally Helm said in a news release. “Lots of families have gotten their season passes this year knowing we have an El Niño pattern in the forecast. I’ll be on that first chair with them on Wednesday.”

This ski season is off to a promising start after two dismal seasons in which the ski resort closed early for lack of snow because of California’s drought. Tuolumne County’s tourist-dependent economy has been hit hard by four years of drought, especially the restaurants, motels and other businesses along the Highway 108 corridor that are dependent upon winter tourists, officials have said.

The latest information on the slopes is at www.dodgeridge.com.

China Peak is looking at opening Friday, assuming forecasts hold, said resort owner Tim Cohee. He said the last time the slopes about 70 miles northeast of Madera on Highway 168 opened that early was 2010.

Cohee said the last four years have been tough on the resort, and it compounded in the last two skiing seasons.

The resort primarily offers skiing and snowboarding. There is a small area for tubing for children younger than 12, he said.

The resort also offers rooms, a restaurant and a bar. For more, go to www.skichinapeak.com.

This story was originally published November 24, 2015 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Snow this week means skiing and more near Merced."