Colorado 2018-19 Colorado Weather and Stoke

[nay]

I'm staying in Frisco now and have skied CO 2 days/yr for the past 6 yrs, so i've skied them all.
I like bumps and steeper stuff. Today I skied Copper with my son-in-law, getting there as a skier, but wasn't able to ski the whole mtn like I like to.
The bumps were in decent shape, decent meaning they hadn't really totally thawed out all wet and refroze. But of course they could use some snow.
I'd like to do Breck and hate to pony up the $180, but would if I thought it was worth it. It's been at least 4 yrs since i was there, so it would feel new.
Does a lot of Breck face north?
I never rode the Copper cat and could do that if I wen to Copper, but Copper has just a bit too much groomers for my taste, considering the whole hill, and that Copper bowl faces South (the lift face anyway), so that might not be too much fun.
Then there is Loveland. They report 5" confirmed by lift buddy who said it was snowing like crazy around noon when he went by.
And when i was at Loveland, the tippy top had limited opening and not too good coverage, i assume it's all wonderful now with no rocks etc.
Where should I go tomorrow?

Breck faces east (The Tenmile Range runs north/south). Wouldn’t think much about rocks anywhere.

Luv looked pretty good today based on stuff posted.



I’d probably either do Breck for the high alpine or Loveland for the same. Loveland has the ridge cat, so that’s some extra not just lapping the lift potential.

I’d also check the stakes in the morning. There a trailing bit of storm energy coming through tonight. If it is anything like last night (I got almost 4” of unforecast at my place east of the mountains and Loveland was favored for I-70), it will again favor the Front Range and likely Loveland in particular. That’s typical for spring where the Continental Divide micro-climate kicks in.

To that point, shouldnt be anything bad for A-Basin if you want steep north facing bumps, but I’d want intel as to the rest of the mountain still being reef. The Pali bumps were firm chalky on Thu with some snow since then, so I wouldn’t think they’d be thawed and refrozen.

Hope that helps a bit.

 

[tball]

Sun is out for a bit this morning, but not for long. Possible lightning today. These spring days I like to look at NOAA's time series graph, particularly for the sky cover timing. Good news is tomorrow looks fantastic:



That's for Copper. Find the graph for your hill down on the right side of its page like this one:
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapCli...=BOU&textField1=39.492&textField2=-106.15&e=0

Wanna ski some firm bumps with 7-year-olds? The kiddos and I will be skiing the easy bumps on Little Burn, Copperfield, Tempo, I-Dropper, and under the Flyer as much as they can stand it through Tuesday. We are easy to spot, dad with a boy and girl, very bright colors and everybody is skiing without poles. Say hello, or come get some free bump tips worth every penny. PM or text if you want to try to meet up.

 

[mikel]

I will ping you on Tue. Not clicking in today.

 

[RikkiBobbi]

Yep was at beaver this morning...an hour or two of sun followed by very poor visibility. Called it early as skiing in reef nearly blind is no fun.

 

[Noodler]

Skied LL today with Heluva. Found some nice snow off the ridge and would've enjoyed some Ridge Cat turns, but forgot to get the additional waiver for the day pass folks.

Got a little bit of everything with the weather today, but in general pretty warm and little wind at the Luv. Was hit by a major graupel storm in G-town on the way home.

 

[Freaq]

We had dynamic weather again today. Was hoping for a bit more accumulation up top but what there was offered big fun.

 

[Noodler]

We had dynamic weather again today. Was hoping for a bit more accumulation up top but what there was offered big fun.

I nominate you for the coolest quiver award. Your skis are always very "interesting"; kinda like pieces of art.

 

[Freaq]

I nominate you for the coolest quiver award. Your skis are always very "interesting"; kinda like pieces of art.

Both you and @Philpug influenced me on the Black Majic I've been skiing lately

 

[tball]

Tomorrow will be pretty nice. It snowed hard a couple of inches this afternoon sending everyone home and wasn't crowded to begin with. It stopped snowing and surface conditions were really nice. After the lifts closed another squall rolled through and dumped another couple inches. It's stopped and sunny now. Keep 'em coming! It's supposed to be sunny and full-on spring tomorrow.

 

[Snowflake2420]

CB this weekend. The refresh snow didn't arrive, but still a lovely weekend. Not busy, easy drive (albeit a little scary dodging deer near Gunny and CB). Stuck to mostly groomers as anything else was scratchy and firm. Can't wait to go back. Oh and yes I believe CB is at 150% of normal snowfall. Town was buried.

 

[SnowbirdDevotee]

We had dynamic weather again today.

Yeah, that was Breck yesterday, dynamic!. Doug Briggs answered my lonely hearts plea and I got a Pugski tinder hook-up for the day. Wowser. We had it all, blue skies with not a bit of wind, grappel, snow, very wet snow and 80mph blizzard riding up the T-bar to total whiteout Everest conditions at top.

There are lots of good skiers on these mtns, but Doug is a cut above the crowd. He's a past (a couple years ago...) US Ski Team member and current downhiller. Best skier I was ever with. It was a privilege chasing and trying to keep him in site in at times very challenging weather.

The snow was good but quite variable! It would be nice to have a glossary to define all of the dozens of different conditions we have to deal with. I wouldn't use reef to describe the worst of the mtn yesterday, it was a couple of shades below that, not hard to turn on, but certainly not chalky. And there were definitely pitches of goodness left that Doug knew to find.

My day yesterday just confirmed again how Pugski (and EpicSki before that) has enriched my skiing life over the past few decades.

 

[Jeffdag]

Flying out to Denver 4/3 for a 5 day trip with the kids. Debating final destination (we are not IKON or Epic pass holders). I know there will be plenty of snow, just trying to figure out who will have better conditions and best deal at that point.....Aspen is in consideration right now due to there $60 ticket with lodging special. Was thinking Crested Butte (love that place) but they close Sunday 4/7. leaving us with a drive to ski Monday then another drive to catch late flight.
Would like to stay at an area so we don't need to drive each day to get to mountain, don't mind driving a couple of the days, but want the walk to lift option. Was considering Breck or Copper, they have plenty of higher terrain that shouldn't turn mush too early, but undecided.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Green08]

Flying out to Denver 4/3 for a 5 day trip with the kids. Debating final destination (we are not IKON or Epic pass holders). I know there will be plenty of snow, just trying to figure out who will have better conditions and best deal at that point.....Aspen is in consideration right now due to there $60 ticket with lodging special. Was thinking Crested Butte (love that place) but they close Sunday 4/7. leaving us with a drive to ski Monday then another drive to catch late flight.
Would like to stay at an area so we don't need to drive each day to get to mountain, don't mind driving a couple of the days, but want the walk to lift option. Was considering Breck or Copper, they have plenty of higher terrain that shouldn't turn mush too early, but undecided.
Any thoughts or suggestions?

That is a pretty nice deal at Aspen. If you ca wait, my advice would be to repost the question again this weekend. There is going to be a widespread thaw this week, possibly followed by some snow this coming weekend. Waiting might let you hear about the impact the warm weather and a possible refresh had—plus give you a better sense of where things might head in an updated 10 day forecast.

 

[Jeffdag]

Thanks. Don't think I wait, the Aspen Deal has to booked 7 days prior to arrival....

 

[Green08]

Thanks. Don't think I wait, the Aspen Deal has to booked 7 days prior to arrival....

Keys to consider: If things get slushy and warm, or crusty and refrozen what type of terrain are you going to ski? Lower runs at Breck vs Alpine are very different.
Current forecasts are favoring mountains north and east in the storm this coming weekend.
Heat wave this week is going to impact things up to 12,000ft and even above it seems. High elevation and north facing will limit the damage, and benefit the most from new snow.

I would again say wait until after lifts close on Tuesday and ask around again. Storm forecast will be better, your trip will be in some long term models, and you can get reports after two days of freeze/thaw.

 

[princo]

View attachment 69428

View attachment 69427

Tomorrow will be pretty nice. It snowed hard a couple of inches this afternoon sending everyone home and wasn't crowded to begin with. It stopped snowing and surface conditions were really nice. After the lifts closed another squall rolled through and dumped another couple inches. It's stopped and sunny now. Keep 'em coming! It's supposed to be sunny and full-on spring tomorrow.

That looks nicer that what I got yesterday. I was at Keystone yesterday afternoon and as I saw the snow approaching I started to grin. Well, that didn't last long as it was more like graupel what was coming down, rather than snow and it was pelting good. So I called it a day around 3pm.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Yeah, that was Breck yesterday, dynamic!. Doug Briggs answered my lonely hearts plea and I got a Pugski tinder hook-up for the day. Wowser. We had it all, blue skies with not a bit of wind, grappel, snow, very wet snow and 80mph blizzard riding up the T-bar to total whiteout Everest conditions at top.

There are lots of good skiers on these mtns, but Doug is a cut above the crowd. He's a past (a couple years ago...) US Ski Team member and current downhiller. Best skier I was ever with. It was a privilege chasing and trying to keep him in site in at times very challenging weather.

The snow was good but quite variable! It would be nice to have a glossary to define all of the dozens of different conditions we have to deal with. I wouldn't use reef to describe the worst of the mtn yesterday, it was a couple of shades below that, not hard to turn on, but certainly not chalky. And there were definitely pitches of goodness left that Doug knew to find.

My day yesterday just confirmed again how Pugski (and EpicSki before that) has enriched my skiing life over the past few decades.

I enjoyed my day of bell to bell skiing as well, @SnowbirdDevotee . We had beautiful groomers, sunbaked covered by a few inches of dust, styrofoam verging on glazed, fresh 4 to 6 inch deep and just about everything in between except for blue ice. A great day charging on the hill. Don't let SD deceive you. He had no problems keeping up. He even beat me down to the bottom one run.

Here is our day in Relive!

We covered a lot of territory and a respectable amount of vertical given we were off piste most of the day. I quite literally had problems getting out of my seat last night, if the truth be told. Yesterday was my third day of bell to bell skiing (2 days off piste and one on) with a total of over 75K vertical.


We didn't go edge to edge, but we got all the good there was to be had without hiking.

Powder 8s, CJs, George's and Wonderland were wonder-full.

 

[Doug Briggs]

Here is a photo from Saturday that I neglected to post. I really like this poster.



I think it is a poster but it could be a photo. It is in the Eagle's Nest building.

 

[Monique]

Edit: NOT. That was in North Bowl. There were small pockets of fresh but everything was edgeable and grippy. Nothing was heavily sunbacked above treeline on 7 or 6.

Tarzan/Jane at the bottom of ******?

 

[nay]

This may have been a good start, somewhere around 10:00 am.