If you are lacking in snow for the winter sports season, as the ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe region are, hire a Native American to do a snow dance.
Are you listening, Squaw Valley? Northstar-at-Tahoe? Heavenly? Alpine Meadows?
Look what happened at Vail Ski Resort in Colorado.
Vail was reporting a 15 percent decrease in total skier visits at its six properties, and Vail’s popular back bowls had been roped off late into the season because of a lack of snow, according to The Wall Street Journal.
So what did Vail do?
It hired Eddie Box Jr., 66, a member of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe of Colorado, to do a snow dance, much to the delight of skiers and snowboarders.
Here’s how it went:
Since the snow dance was performed on Jan. 7, Vail has received at least 25 inches of snow, and the back bowls opened Thursday for the first time this ski season, the WSJ reported.
Apparently, this wasn’t the first time Vail brought in a Native American to perform a snow dance. Box’s father performed the first snow dance at Vail in 1963. By the end of that day, the mountain was covered with eight inches of snow.
Like other mountain resorts across the U.S., Lake Tahoe resorts are starving for fresh powder for the skiing and snowboarding season. The region just recently broke a record of 56 straight dry days, including a completely dry December. Can you say snow dancer?
Ah, but finally on Friday, the Tahoe resorts were starting to get some snow, according to Ski Lake Tahoe.
But if the Tahoe ski resorts really want a good dumping of fresh powder, they might want to call Vail to get the phone number for Box.
A snow dance sure couldn’t hurt.
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Maybe Tahoe resorts should start to consider this. A little more snow on the slopes should be good for business.
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