 Poster: A snowHead
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| stuarth wrote: |
Not a lot of it has reached Kicking Horse unfortunately 
But pretty happy California is getting some this year as drought there has significant impact on things far more important than skiing. |
Jet stream continues to trend a bit farther South the past few weeks. That trend looks to continue at least for another week.
More under forecasting of accumulation and over performing at several Western ski areas the past few days.
Did a quick morning tour and the winds really did a number on East/NE facing slopes as the winds have been coming up from the storm in Northern California.
Another 5+ inches reported at Oregon ski areas where the forecast was only calling for trace amounts overnight. Washington ski areas are currently seeing light snow and should see about 3" throughout the day.
Sun Valley is also seeing snow this morning with a dust up and refresh in the 2"-3" range with more on tap for Monday.
Jackson Hole will see snow Monday/Tuesday but will also experience a warm up above 32F/0C on Tuesday.
Colorado resorts will see a refresh Tuesday/Wednesday of 3"6".
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Woke up to snow in the driveway and about 4" on the local hill. The warmer air didn't materialize and some of the storm energy out of Northern Calif. got sucked up North from a cold low pressure spinning off the coast of British Columbia. So, some bonus snow for the PNW. All that is to say that sometimes the models still have a hard time keeping up with the weather!
The warming trend for Tuesday time frame has been slightly downgraded but will still see a slight warm up and slightly higher snow levels than previous day's forecast models.
Northern Utah now looks now to be in line for a foot or more snow today and possibly another foot on Tuesday as well. Northern Colorado might see a slight upgrade in accumulations as well.
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More light snow on the driveway this morning and a few inches in the Central Cascades. UDOT is reporting that Hwy210 in the Cottonwoods is closed for avalanche control after receiving 18" of snow overnight.
The big winner from the past storm that hit the Sierra's and Central California is actually Mammoth with 74" over a 3 day period.
The next storm will be a bit tricky as it will have higher snow levels, and rain at many of the base areas along the West Coast. Not many will avoid getting the dreaded "R" word up to elevations of 7,000' around Thursday into Friday.
Temps will drop as the storm passes, and a following low pressure trough coming in on the tails of the departing storm will have some colder air in place and lowering snow levels. Still watching the models but the Tahoe ski resorts are in for another round and the Cascades of Oregon and Washington as well. The storm will make its way East of interior Washington/Oregon into Northern Idaho and Montana. The Tetons and Northern Colorado look to be in the mix. But still too far out to make any predictions about snow totals.
As far as forecasters predicting the storm snow totals, they have not been able to do a good job. Including myself! These storms have a lot of very intricate activity going on and are clearly being affected by the Gulf of AK weather and some of that cold arctic high pressure over NW Canada. Having said that, the good thing is that the snow totals have consistently out performed the predictions. 
So, go out and enjoy the snow, and be careful. Several avalanche related deaths in Colorado reported the past few weeks. And a few close calls in the Wasatch range in Utah.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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anybody in Banff that can tell us how it is up there?
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| Gaz_H wrote: |
| anybody in Banff that can tell us how it is up there? |
Coverage is good, but not a lot of recent snow fall. Next week looks like some potential for snow. Still a bit too far out to be sure.
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Warm air is entering the picture for the next 24 hours. Again there's no large agreement between the Euro and the GFS but the one thing that they do agree on is that California is going to get hit again with another AR event over the weekend. They are truly struggling with all the precipitation coming. SL will go up above 8k feet in the Sierras. South Cascades about 7,500'ish. North Cascaded might eek by at 6500' give or take. Then a cooling trend will follow going into Sunday and next week.
The AR will split as it comes on shore and a portion of low pressure energy and moisture will work it's way up into Northern Washington and Southern BC. Heavy wet snow and then transition to lighter snow as the storm passes. Won't guess at accumulation amounts but there will be a refresh and some new snow on top of heavier wet snow. Avalanche danger will increase.
That low pressure energy will move East over Northern Idaho and Montana and models show a chance for it to drift into the SE corner of BC and NW corner of Alberta.
The main energy of the AR into Calif. will move East toward Northern Utah and into Colorado towards the middle of next week. UT and CO could see some decent snow fall from this event with some colder air already in place.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Alta reporting 23" over 24 hour period. They have received 395" this season.
Mammoth reporting 30" over 24 hour period. They have received 367" this season.
Snow should be falling in Colorado Northern (Crested Butte, Steamboat and Aspen) and SW area Sunday night. (Telluride)
Another low pressure arrives into California around Wednesday for more snow for the Tahoe resorts.
Models also show snow for the PNW around Wednesday as well.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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This thread must be making a lot of people in Europe jealous. Sorry:)
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| skithesteelstealtheski wrote: |
| This thread must be making a lot of people in Europe jealous. Sorry:) |
The one thing going for a few areas of North America right now is consistency. Tahoe and Mammoth in California with wave upon waves of storms coming in every week. Usually twice a week. Those storms have also been tracking and in some cases splitting and have a North split and that provides Oregon/Washington and into the interior mountain West of Idaho and Montana as well as Wyoming with snow as well. The Southerly split has benefited Utah tremendously as well as Colorado this winter.
Colorado, in particular the Southern resorts of Telluride and Durango as well as Wolf Creek with some decent totals this week (possibly up to 2 feet).
BC and Alberta up in Canada have been the outliers as the Jet Stream has remained farther South the past 3 weeks. But the temps have remained cold to preserve the snow. Models suggesting that the Jet Stream will start to shift up a bit farther North into next week and help bring some low pressure troughs into the Coast Range but weaken as it moves East. Still a ways out and the models have struggled with the Southern AR's and with low pressures and high pressures that have been developing in the Gulf of Alaska and further out in the Aleutian Islands.
In any event the Triple Nina winter in North America has been good for large areas of Western USA and not so great for New England states and the North East USA. A bit better for Eastern Canada however.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Alastair Pink - Almost no one in USA puts the safety bar down unless kids are present. At least not the so called hard care skier types. Once a year family skiers on their once a year ski trip will put the bars down. It's not a macho thing. Maybe more of a clueless thing. But it was a topic that came up yesterday while riding the lift and we had a conversation about a chair that fell off at Breckenridge, CO, about 13 feet up in the air right before it reached the unload station. Another couple of feet, and it would have fallen off on the base of the unload area. In any event, the kid on the lift had the bar down and it probably saved him from serious injury.
There was a 2nd incident at Park City Mountain Resort, where a patroller did not have the bar down and as unluck would have it, a tree collapsed and hit the haul rope directly behind him, which caused the chairs to violently bounce up vertically and he was ejected at a height of 25 feet and sadly died from his injuries. All that is to say, it's best to lower the bar when you ride a chair lift.
https://townlift.com/2023/01/park-city-mountain-resort-employee-dies-after-tree-falls-on-chairlift-cable/
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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I pull down the footrest. But then, I'm a 71 year old curmugeon. I guess in spite of skiing for over 50 years, over 1800 days, I'm not "hard core". It's more important to me to rest my legs, change the blood flow to my feet, than worry if I'm hard core.
I believe it's a law in VT and Canada that the bar gets pulled down. Those folks don't even bother to issue a warning. I issue a warning, WAIT until folks are ready, then the bar comes down. Because I can ski a longer day and my toes stay warmer when the boots aren't dangling.
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Poster: A snowHead
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| sibhusky wrote: |
I pull down the footrest. But then, I'm a 71 year old curmugeon. I guess in spite of skiing for over 50 years, over 1800 days, I'm not "hard core". It's more important to me to rest my legs, change the blood flow to my feet, than worry if I'm hard core.
I believe it's a law in VT and Canada that the bar gets pulled down. Those folks don't even bother to issue a warning. I issue a warning, WAIT until folks are ready, then the bar comes down. Because I can ski a longer day and my toes stay warmer when the boots aren't dangling.
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I wish more people would be considerate and issue a warning of, "bar coming down!". Sadly, last year while skiing at Jackson Hole, some young Brit gals just pulled the bar down and slammed it on my head quite hard. Luckily I had a helmet on but it still hurt like heck. The missus gave the two young ladies quite the scolding!
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I went up to Palisades Tahoe for the long weekend, leaving the Bay Area about 6pm on Friday night. I80 was closed by the time we got near the pass, and everyone was turned around at Emigrant Gap - for us this was about 11pm? or later. After debating whether to just go home, we tried US50 which was reportedly closed at that time with a lorry off the road but heavy duty tow truck was in the process of fixing it. By the time we got to US50, it was reopened, and we rolled in to South Lake Tahoe about 3am before driving around the lake and getting to the hotel at 430am.
Saturday wasn't much chop for skiing - upper mountain closed, and snow on the lower mountain was pretty cement-like, but Sunday and Monday were fantastic. We finished up about 4pm on Monday and waited out the traffic with a hot chocolate and dinner - left about 745pm, home by 1130pm with I80 now mostly clear and a very easy drive.
Looks like mostly sunshine for the next 10 days with a small storm on Wednesday. It'll be nice to see the sun again!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Southern Colorado and Southern Utah along with Northern New Mexico are doing quite well with the storm that passed through the Sierras this past weekend. Some cold air in the area has helped keep things snowy, albeit not huge amounts, but still a good top up and refresh of the slopes. Possible a foot for Telluride and Wolf Creek over the next 48 hours. Front Range resorts could see 6" or so. Possible more if the storm stalls as it passed over the Front Range.
There's a weak low pressure trough coming off the Pacific that isn't very strong. Models show it breaking up before it makes landfall and will divide energy to the PNW and some to the Tahoe region. It will most likely not amount to much as it moves East and becomes more disorganized and scattered. Should still give some crumbs to Utah and Colorado and maybe to interior Northern Idaho and Montana.
The Jet Stream is way South in Southern California, which is why Southern Utah and Colorado along with Northern AZ and New Mexico are seeing snow.
Models continue to show the Jet Stream moving farther North as the week progresses.
The low pressure spinning out in the Aleutians is still too far out to get a sense for what it will do. It could stay farther North and come onshore in British Columbia with some weather impacts for Northern Cascades. Or it could slide a bit farther South and impact Northern Oregon. Need another day or so to watch the models and the progress. But could be promising for this weekend mainly for BC and Northern Washington and interior.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Weather pattern change going into effect after this current storm pushes through the Tahoe ski area. Models still show a high pressure building up off the Coast of California. That will move things North for any potential storms spinning out in the Pacific. Current radar map shows the storm in progress for the Sierra's and as I look out my office window, the Central Cascades are shrouded in clouds with flurries present. This storm will pass through out the day and break up as it heads East. Down in Calif. the storm will move East through Northern Utah and Colorado and deliver a few more inches of snow on Thursday.
Possibly another weak storm for the PNW and BC region on Saturday before things go dry next week but remaining cold as cold arctic air moves down into Washington/Idaho/Wyoming and Montana.
You can see the low pressure to the left of the image that will most probably break up based on Euro and GFS models as it moves West toward BC. But should still provide for a slight refresh for BC ski areas and possibly Mt. Baker and North Cascades.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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High pressure is set up off the Pacific West Coast for the next 5 days or so. Still a chance for some activity to squeeze in through Northern BC and slide in from Southern California and work it's way up toward Colorado around late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
Models are starting to show signs of a return to a wintery storm pattern next weekend. Still too early to say but possibly a return to snow as January exits and February enters the picture.
Stay tuned. But for now, colder than average temperatures in the PNW, Northern California, Northern Idaho and Colorado will help preserve snow quality.
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Family reports snow in Lake Tahoe area is good in the mornings but in many areas getting a little slushy by late afternoon.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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| stuarth wrote: |
Not a lot of it has reached Kicking Horse unfortunately
But pretty happy California is getting some this year as drought there has significant impact on things far more important than skiing. |
Looks like the models are shaping up for some interior BC and Alberta (Lake Lousie and Sunshine) for a storm on Friday. Cold air will be in place with a NE flow. Current low pressure circulating out of the Gulf of AK is slowly moving East. Due to the high pressure sitting South and a few hundred miles out in the Pacific it should allow for the system to slide in and across Southern BC and into Alberta before possible slipping further South and across the upper Midwest.
The New England states should see some storm activity on Friday as well with cold air in place and a storm moving across the mid-West plain states and then up and through Pennsylvania, Southern NY and up and across Connecticut into Vermont and New Hampshire.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@sibhusky - You should be seeing some snow around the late Thursday into Friday time frame for Whitefish/Big Sky arena. Models continue to shape up for interior BC and into Alberta then dropping South into Wyoming, Northern Colorado and possibly a glancing blow for Northern Utah. Favoring Powder Mtn, Snow Basin and the Deer Valley Park City ski resorts. Cold temps will add to some high quality, low density snow, aka blower pow. Enjoy!
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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We could use it. Especially some super cold air to get rid of this fog.
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They don't call it "White" Fish for nothing!
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You know it makes sense.
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| schauspiele wrote: |
| Toadman wrote: |
| First day of the new year for me. Mt. Bachelor patrol and lift ops got the Summit chair spinning for the first time this season. It was well worth the wait to experience some fresh turns. |
Just wanted to say thank you for all the updates in this thread. Have a CO trip planned for late Jan/early Feb and it's great to see conditions are building up like this! |
schauspiele, There's some low level storm activity forecast for the Aspen/Snowmass area later this week into the weekend. Not a whole lot of snow currently showing in the most recent model runs, but maybe a few inches each day on Jan. 27th-Jan. 30th time frame. Possible that toward the beginning of February for more activity but that's too far out to be sure of anything. The positive is that it will be cold and should keep the snow in excellent condition.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Currently snowing in parts of Montana (Big Sky with 11"), N. Idaho and Tetons. North Utah (Powder Mtn.) and Northern Colorado (Steamboat).
You can see from the radar map that there is a blocking high pressure off the West Coast. That will push storms spinning out of the Gulf of AK down through BC and into Montana/Idaho early next week. Because these storms are dropping down from the North they will bring cold air with them as well.
Models show the high pressure slowly moving East over the next few days, and by February it could degrade and allow storms to push into the interior mountain West the first week of February. Stay tuned.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Montana ski areas did well on Friday night with 10+" at several ski areas. Colorado did well also, with Vail at 12" and Steamboat at 10". Several other ski resorts in the Front Range at 9" or so.
Cold air continues to circulate down from the Arctic. Sub Zero Fahrenheit temperatures will be on tap for Sunday. Bundle up out there. After Sunday, things get cold and dry for the next 4-5 days. GFS ensembles indicate that the high pressure will start to slowly move East as several low-pressure systems start to push in.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| Toadman wrote: |
| schauspiele wrote: |
| Toadman wrote: |
| First day of the new year for me. Mt. Bachelor patrol and lift ops got the Summit chair spinning for the first time this season. It was well worth the wait to experience some fresh turns. |
Just wanted to say thank you for all the updates in this thread. Have a CO trip planned for late Jan/early Feb and it's great to see conditions are building up like this! |
schauspiele, There's some low level storm activity forecast for the Aspen/Snowmass area later this week into the weekend. Not a whole lot of snow currently showing in the most recent model runs, but maybe a few inches each day on Jan. 27th-Jan. 30th time frame. Possible that toward the beginning of February for more activity but that's too far out to be sure of anything. The positive is that it will be cold and should keep the snow in excellent condition. |
Many thanks! We are out in Aspen and having a wonderful time. A couple of inches of snow most days is keeping everything nicely refreshed and, as you say, the cold conditions are keeping the quality good. Skied a couple of laps of the Highland Bowl on Thursday and were able to find fresh snow on most of both descents.
Got some cascade ice climbing in as well over the weekend which was a lot of fun.
Looks as if it will continue to top up over the first part of next week with clearer weather developing Tues/Weds (or that's what the resort forecast is saying...)
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Walked the dog last night in blizzard like conditions. Woke up to a few inches of blower 7F powder. On the hill it was -4f and wind chill of -39f. Power outages and just a few lower lifts spinning. Went for a short morning tour but my fingers and face were getting the frost bite nip and called it a day. Winds were sustained 40 mph with gusts over 60 mph. I could barely stand, and several times thought I might get knocked down. All the snow that fell has blown off the mountain and is somewhere dozens of miles SW of here...
High pressure settling in for a few days.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Most storm activity is up North in BC. Rest of the West Coast is in a high pressure dome, and models show that it will remain in place through at least Thursday. GFS has a storm spinning out in the Gulf of AK sliding down and into Southern BC Coast Range late on Thursday into Friday morning. That will scrape the interior BC resorts and Northern Idaho Panhandle. Some of that storm energy will also filter into Washington Cascades - Mt. Baker, and less so for Stevens Pass and Crystal. Oregon Cascades could see some snow flurries Saturday afternoon & Sunday. (Mt. Hood)
Colorado will be cold and sunny for the next 4 days. Maybe some low pressure from SW Pacific will funnel into SW corner of CO on the weekend. Taos and Northern AZ could see a few inches as well.
California also could see a weak low pressure slide under the HP and provide a dusting for the Tahoe resorts before going back to less activity into Feb. 6th-7th time frame.
Models still seeing the possibility of the Pacific WC high pressure degrading into the weekend and moving East, which should allow the return to more storm activity later part of week of Feb. 6th. Still a waiting game and in a watch and see mode.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
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Surprise powder today meant some aspects had 4-5 inches of super light fluff.
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Bluebird powder day today in Aspen. Highlands was (relatively) busy, had a full snowcat with 8 people kneeling in the aisle! Wonderful day, highlight of the trip so far.
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Currently in Whistler for the last week. Snow in the main has been decent enough without being great, IE no squeeky snow underfoot or lots of powder off piste. A bit surprising given the time of year. It needs a right good dump of snow for the pow junkies, with many routes closed off/non existent at the moment. Not much forecast for our remaining 6 days or so but must say I've enjoyed my time here so far (with the exception of the mountain restaurants, which to be quite frank are an embarrassment for a world class resort)
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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It's been an interesting season for North America to be sure. The Jet Stream started off where it normally does in the early season of November with it hovering around the Canada/USA border. Then it slowly started to sag South into December, and that's when California got hit with repeated storms of feet of measurable snow. Back, to back, to back storms in some cases. That has meant British Columbia has been left out in the cold. Same with Alberta, with slim pickings.
So, Utah, Northern Arizona, Wyoming and Colorado have been the beneficiaries of a lot of snow. (Well above the monthly seasonal averages.)
Hard to look out into the Crystal Snowball to see how February will play out. But it looks like the Jet Stream will meander around a bit South of the Canadian border. That might be part of the Triple Nina effect, and colder Arctic high pressure air moving down from the Alberta province into the plains of the USA.
schauspiele - Glad you had good conditions while you were out in Colorado. That cold smoke Colorado pow sure is fun to play in!
I will be out that way in 2 weeks. Fingers crossed that I get blessed with a storm or two. My luck has always been to have snow back home when I leave for a ski vacation. And then it snows my last day of vacation, and goes dry when I get back home.  We shall see how things go this time around. Fingers crossed!
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11 sleeps until our Colorado road trip .
Our itinerary includes Loveland (1.5 days), Sunlight Mountain (1 day), 6 days between Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge (most likely 2 days at Vail, 2 at Keystone, 1 at BC and 1 at Breck) and 3 days at Silverton.
We can't wait!
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FAQ
