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.
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.
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.
Ashland’s Oak Knoll Golf Course should be kept open long term, the Golf Course Subcommittee voted last week in deciding to recommend that the Ashland Parks & Recreation Commission look at ways to maintain the more-than 90-year-old course as one of its recreational amenities.
Ashland Parks & Recreation Commission is prepared to make between 5 and 10% cuts to its park services budget, as directed by Ashland City Manager Joe Lessard. Oak Knoll Golf Course could close, and the number of temporary employees could be slashed.
Mt. Ashland Ski Area, which saw only half its average snowfall this year, shuts down for the season at 4 p.m. Saturday, March 26, but live music will continue on the bar deck until 5 p.m.
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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