After announcing last week that the ski-snowboarding area broken its all-time season attendance record, Mt. Ashland Ski Area managers announced Sunday that its season has been extended to April 23, adding two weekends on to a schedule that typically would have ended on April 9.
Southern Oregon University first-year leader Gabrielle Weyhrich has been named the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Women’s Wrestling Coach of the Year after guiding the Raiders to a national title over the weekend in Jamestown, North Dakota. A championship parade celebrating Weyhrich’s Raiders wound Wednesday from through campus, ending with a trophy presentation in front of Lithia Motors Pavilion.
Southern Oregon University students join more than 30 other teams taking the Southern Oregon Polar Plunge on Saturday in Medford to benefit the Special Olympics. Registration for the event opens at 9 a.m. and the plunge starts at 11 a.m. at the Rogue Valley Country Club regardless of rain, sleet, snow or sun.
Mt. Ashland Ski Area, which has benefitted from recent storms and is expecting more snow over the next several days, opens for the 2022-23 season on Saturday, with lifts operating from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, to Monday, Dec. 12.
New Mt. Ashland Ski Area General Manager Andrew Gast won’t have far to go to his new job, as he’s currently director of finance and administration at Southern Oregon University in Ashland.
Andrew Gast, a lifetime skier and outdoors person who lives in Ashland, will take over duties as general manager for the Mt. Ashland Ski Area. He succeeds Hiram Towle, who accepted a position as general manager of the Bridger Bowl Ski Area in Montana.
Beginning downhill skiers and snowboarders will have an easier time learning and honing their skills when the Mt. Ashland Ski Area opens this winter. The area will open a new learning center featuring a “magic carpet,” a conveyor belt that will allow skiers to slide onto the belt and move up a portion of the hill while standing still.
A request for proposals for managing the operations at Oak Knoll Golf Course is expected to go out for bid in November. The course would likely remain a golf course, officials said, but the commission is open to hearing proposals for additional uses for the property.
Hiram Towle, the general manager for the Mt. Ashland Ski Area the past eight years, is leaving in mid-October to take over as general manager at the Bridger Bowl ski area in Bozeman, Montana.
KS Wild Side: Rogue Riverkeeper works with volunteers and partner organizations to collect water samples weekly from more than 15 recreation sites and other locations where people commonly enjoy streams, rivers, and lakes, and posts results on the Swim Guide webpage and on the Swim Guide app.
The Ashland Independent Film Festival announced Monday the nonprofit’s six on-screen film lineup as a documentary showcase coming April 14-20 to the Varsity Theatre. Each Varsity feature will be paired with a short documentary directed by a local filmmaker.
Oregon drivers who for decades have been banned from touching gas pumps could soon have the right to fuel their own cars, under a bill the state House overwhelmingly approved Monday.
After announcing last week that the ski-snowboarding area broken its all-time season attendance record, Mt. Ashland Ski Area managers announced Sunday that its season has been extended to April 23, adding two weekends on to a schedule that typically would have ended on April 9.
During a visit to Central Point Sunday, Deb Haaland, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, announced $21 million was on its way to Oregon to help reduce the risk of wildfires. Joining her were U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, and Mike Shaw, chief of fire protection at ODF.
A procession celebrating spring wound its way from the ice rink on Winburn Way to the Ashland Plaza on Saturday afternoon, drawing an estimated 150 participants with a like number of spectators.
Reader photos: Carlyle Stout of Ashland took these photos in Lithia Park after the last storm on March 1.
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