Blanketing of Mt. Charleston lights up resort

As snow accumulated outside the Mount Charleston Hotel and the Mount Charleston Lodge early today, desk clerks braced for a busy weekend and fireplaces roared, adding a warm glow to the winter wonderland.

"It's snowing a lot and we are booked Saturday and Sunday," Hollye Compton, reservations clerk at the hotel, said. "It is really starting to accumulate. Every one of our fireplaces are up and running."

Judy Norris, working the reservations desk at the lodge at the top of the mountain, said all 23 cabins are booked for the weekend but some were available today.

"Last Friday we got 12 inches of snow and it was busy, but we can't say right now whether this storm will bring us that much snow," Norris said.

"We are predicting about 2 to 4 inches on Mount Charleston," Naeemah Cushmeer, senior forecaster at the weather service, said.

"Actually this precipitation is from the back edge of a disturbance ahead of the main system. It should let up this morning and the main system, which is quite cold, should move in late this afternoon."

Cushmeer said another system could bring in more mountain snow by late Saturday or early Sunday.

archive