Resort hopes Native Americans bring snow

PARK CITY — Some have danced for rain.

In Utah and other parts of the West, it's all about the white stuff.

It's why officials at Park City Mountain Resort brought in members of the Northern Ute Tribe to perform a snow blessing.

On Saturday, they prayed, danced and chanted as hundreds of helmet-clad skiers and boarders watched and hoped the ritual would elicit more cooperation from Mother Nature.

A similar gathering in California was planned for Sunday at Lake Tahoe with dancers from the Paiute, Shoshone and Washoe tribes.

If ever there was a year it is needed, this is it.

December was among the driest on record in Northern California. The California Department of Water Resources reported the snowpack water content throughout the Sierra Nevada at 19 percent of the average for early January.

In Utah, snow levels are less than 50 percent of average.

Park City has been forced to make 40 percent more snow than at this time last year.

"Our snowmakers have been working around the clock, so we said it is time to put in a call to Mother Nature," said Krista Parry, marketing director at Park City Mountain Resort.

She also called on a friend, Frank Arrowchis, who led a similar ceremony at Arches National Park to bless the Olympic Flame during the torch relay in 2002.

Arrowchis led the prayer Saturday in English, followed by one in Ute by Spiritual Leader Albert Lance Manning.

"We hope our prayers are answered because it's for everybody," Arrowchis said. "Prayer has a lot of power if it's done right. We hope we do get some snow. If we don't, we tried."

Forecasters say good news may be on the way as a new storm pattern is emerging that could start dumping snow in Utah and the rest of the West next week.

Brian McInerney, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake city, said the high pressure ridge that has dominated since mid-November is disappearing.

That will allow storms to track in from the West again.

He said the jet stream, as it is currently tracking, may push much of the moisture about 100 miles north of Salt Lake City.