Due to lack of snowfall, NAU cancelled their annual snowboarding and skiing classes, held at the Arizona Snowbowl, for the semester.
Phone calls to the resort have been alerting callers of limited slope availability.
David Smith, director of sales and marketing, said the cancellations will be detrimental to those who work at the resort.
“It will have an impact [because] we do receive some revenue from the class,” Smith said. “It also impacts those that want to take the class [and] the instructors with possible lost wages.”
As well as the fiscal impact Snowbowl will endure, students and faculty will also see effects on a historical level.
“[Holding snowboarding classes] is a long-standing tradition,” Smith said. “Our classes have been around for a long time. I took them when I went to NAU; I taught them when I was teaching up here. It’s history.”
Winter sport opportunities that offer class credit are unique to NAU.
“[There are] not many places you can say you can go and you took skiing and snowboarding for a class,” Smith said.
The decision to cancel classes may also re-fuel the debate regarding the use of artificial snow at the resort. Critics of artificial snow argue ingesting snow made through the treatment of wastewater is dangerous and puts visitor’s health in jeopardy.
However, Smith said the class cancellations will likely provide new support for the use of artificial snow in order to lengthen the snow season.
“People [would] know each year that they will be able to take their class,” Smith said. “If you look across the entire west, those resorts are open on snow making.”
Currently, there have been no announcements as to when classes will be reintroduced — if at all — this semester.
Nonetheless, Smith said Snowbowl will always have open doors to NAU students.
“We love hosting this class. Like most places around we just haven’t received the snowfall we need,” Smith said. “It’s a bummer.”
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