Squaw Valley is still reaping the rewards of a bountiful winter. The Lake Tahoe resort received nearly 60 feet of snow this winter, three of which fell last week. The ample snowpack means the resort is toying with the idea of continuing operations through the summer and fall, right into the start of the 2017-18 ski season.

April 9 atop the Tram. | Photo: Grant Kaye Photography/Squaw Valley
April turns on Silverado. | Photo: Ben Arnst/Squaw Valley
On April 14, Squaw officially hit 700″ and this is what it looked like!
This is Squaw Valley’s weather plot at 8,000′. Normally, they need a 10-foot ladder to climb up to it. On April 1, they needed to dig down 10 feet to reach it.

The CEO, Andy Wirth, is currently considering keeping one of the lifts open.

“Gosh darn it, it’s been an incredible winter, an unprecedented winter, an incredible winter,” Andy Wirth joyously reported to Truckee Tahoe Radio on Saturday. “All the different words you can use preceded a lot of times by expletives. It’s just amazing.”

Watch the latest Squaw snow fall on April 16.

“I’m actually considering staying open through the summer and fall so it becomes the 16-17-18 season,” Wirth said. “We’re taking a hard look at that. Maybe we spin Shirley [a back-side chairlift] through the summer. There’s so much snow up there.”

The back side of Squaw benefits from windblown snow, which means more snow will deposit and freshen up conditions naturally.

In other good news, the National Weather Service just announced the Northern Sierra Nevada region just experienced it’s wettest water year on record. This news also marks the end of the state’s four-year drought.

Stay tuned for more updates on Squaw’s continued summer skiing operations.