Ski Resort Opens For Season In Las Vegas (Mount Charelston)

Yes, you can go skiing in the Las Vegas area, up at Mount Charleston, which is about a 45 minute drive or less from the Las Vegas Valley and it opened for the season yesterday.
From the LVRJ: Jack Bean has waited 45 years to see the Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort grow into its name and the basin surrounding it.
For that reason, Friday wasn't just the season opener for him but also marked the beginning of potential realized - at last - for the little-known Mount Charleston resort within an hour of tourist mecca Sin City.
Friday welcomed the first changes in a $35 million expansion that will take a decade to complete. The expansion will double the skiable area to 700 acres, adding 20 trails and six lifts, Bean said Friday morning while sitting on the resort's deck at 6725 Lee Canyon Road.
"It's going to put us on the map. It's not going to be a hidden treasure anymore," said Bean, who started as a busboy at the resort in 1967 and worked his way up to director of mountain operations.
14 NEW RUNS
This year, skiers will have 14 new runs, but none had enough snow to open Friday. The only open run, The Strip, relied entirely on artificial snow produced by a snow-making system that now discharges 500 gallons of water per minute.
Snow output will be increased to 2,000 gallons per minute next year, which will allow four runs to open without much snowfall, according to Kevin Stickelman, president and general manager.
It's not that nature doesn't provide. An average of 240 inches of snow falls per ski season , he said. It just hasn't come yet this season.  http://www.lvrj.com/news/mount-charleston-resort-beginning-to-realize-potential-180657941.html
In Las Vegas, you can go skiing in the morning, then drive an hour and go fishing, boating or swimming at Lake Mead and then go out on the town at the Strip, Fremont St. or any other place in town.  How many other cities can offer that?
Here is the ski resort's web site: http://www.skilasvegas.com/winter/index.html