The Official 17-18 "Bitch about the Weather" thread

[StuckonI70]

I would bail. No way they will get the 100-120" required to get good by then.

The odds are low of that, but stranger things have happened.
The way the seasons going, they might be calling us to say "Sorry, we're closed, maybe next year?"

 

[Jeff N]

I would bail. No way they will get the 100-120" required to get good by then.

I second on bail. Telluride needs about 4' of snow to get cleared groomers open (on natural snow). With no substantial snow through Mid January, you are asking for a massive dump in late January to get any more terrain open than now. It is certainly possible for that to happen, but I wouldn't bank a trip on it. I think it an outside chance that Telluride gets 100% open this year at all.

The only reason I am slightly more bullish on Purgatory getting to 100% this year is that it requires much, much less snow. If the forecast doesn't show good snow for end of January, I think Purgatory, Telluride, and Wolf will see February closings when the days start to get longer and temps come up a bit. Not that they are low.

 

[Don in Morrison]

Granby Ranch still has only two runs open on the Quick Draw lift, one blue, one green. The beginner lift is also open; it's about a football field long. The lift serving the steeper terrain is still closed. I haven't been out yet. Maybe this Saturday.

 

[Skistaff]

This season’s conditions should be blessing for most Colorado (and west coast) skiers. It’s now or never to learn advanced ski techniques and to revisit their ski gear choices.

 

[Blue Streak]

This season’s conditions should be blessing for most Colorado (and west coast) skiers. It’s now or never to learn advanced ski techniques and to revisit their ski gear choices.

Agreed.
Sharpen your edges and have fun!

 

[Lady_Salina]

Whistler's doing well, not our usual snow, but lots open and quite a few tree runs skiable but you do need to watch for rocks. Accommodation is insanely priced so far this year at least if you try to book anything not last minute, and full with Epic holders heading this way to get a little more terrain open. We do not have all the usual terrain open yet and our unmarked trails and off piste is sketchy in places though this weeks 22 inches put that in much better shape. My brother was able to get in to Couloir Extreme this week and he tried Garnet on Spanky's, Garnet was very scarce and he said a few patrollers that saw him enter actually hung around the bottom to see how he did and how the snow was, the Couloir was skiable he said, not bad snow after a sketch entrance. We have a 4 day inversion going on with a ridge right now though and that is what left our off piste sketchy after some great dumps in December. We'll be above freezing much of this week and possibly some rain. A week of rain pre Christmas and 40 F temps took a lot of the great snow we had early season. Hoping this weeks current warm up doesn't wipe out what we gained with the recent snow. We still have some thin areas on our runs too. How is the rest of the Pacific Northwest fairing? Washington resorts?

 

[AmyPJ]

This season’s conditions should be blessing for most Colorado (and west coast) skiers. It’s now or never to learn advanced ski techniques and to revisit their ski gear choices.

I wouldn't call it a blessing, because we kind of rely on a good snowpack for our water, but I absolutely ski in whatever, knowing it's good for working on skills. It is NOT good for my skis, however. Been touching up the edges as needed (brand new Black Pearls!) and will give them a full tune if and when we get adequate coverage. I have a brand new pair of Blizzard Sheeva 10s just sitting there waiting to be skied.

 

[Rio]

This season’s conditions should be blessing for most Colorado (and west coast) skiers. It’s now or never to learn advanced ski techniques and to revisit their ski gear choices.

Try to hold onto that thought when fire season comes around.

 

[Jeff N]

Try to hold onto that thought when fire season comes around.

Fire danger for my area (at 8400 feet in the San Juans) is HIGH. In January.

 

[James]

Y'all can come east and freeze to death... It's been cold for a good two weeks. Sat before Christmas nature forgot how to make snow and delivered it immature. Since then there's been dry snow. So untracked areas have a crust sandwich somewhere in there.

The advantage of the drysnow is it is lasting pretty well without going to ice. (Don't worry, there's still manmade concrete below that gets exposed by wind or other methods.) The disadvantage is it didn't cover rocks well.
The cold has kept people in the lodge. New Years day was a ghost town.

 

[Philpug]

I will say though...when skiing is good, people come to Pugski and talk about skiing..when skiing is bad, people come to Pugski and talk about not skiing. Either way...site traffic is way up, yesterday was the busiest day ever on the site.

 

[David Chaus]

Whistler's doing well, not our usual snow, but lots open and quite a few tree runs skiable but you do need to watch for rocks.

How is the rest of the Pacific Northwest fairing? Washington resorts?

Washington resorts are doing pretty well. You may have noticed I haven’t posted in this thread in a while.

We’ve gotten a few storms, with dry periods in between, plenty of cool weather to preserve the snow. Pretty much like Whistler I guess. Settled base depth at the base at Stevens is 50” (125cm) and mid-mountain is 70” (180cm) and this is all natural snow, so we’re actually at about normal for the season. This past weekend I was at Stevens Pass on Saturday and again New Year’s Day. On piste the skiing is excellent and all trails are pretty well covered. Off piste is good, however there was a rain/snow day last week and still some crusty spots left over. I would prefer another foot or two of snow to venture into some of the trees and bowls that have large rocks and boulders; that said most of the place is open and skiing well.

A week ago the high temperatures were in the mid-teens F at the mountains, currently it’s pretty typical, 25-30F as a high. We’ve been spared the really cold weather much of the continent has been experiencing.

Ski schools start their 6-week classes this coming weekend, so it will be crowded on weekends at least through Presidents‘ Day. I guess that’s my bitching for this thread.

 

[StuckonI70]

I second on bail. Telluride needs about 4' of snow to get cleared groomers open (on natural snow). With no substantial snow through Mid January, you are asking for a massive dump in late January to get any more terrain open than now. It is certainly possible for that to happen, but I wouldn't bank a trip on it. I think it an outside chance that Telluride gets 100% open this year at all.
.

Easy to bail on our resort days at Telluride, but not Silverton. We're kind of stuck with 'em, for better or worse.
I'll pack the hiking boots.

 

[Jeff N]

Easy to bail on our resort days at Telluride, but not Silverton. We're kind of stuck with 'em, for better or worse.
I'll pack the hiking boots.

If you are still 30 days out, you can get 40% back. It may be worth it, or you are crossing your fingers that they cancel.

Silverton city webcam today. Note the dry peaks in the background- those are a few peak over from Silverton Mountain.

Linked below picture from December 22- The Peak on the far right is Storm Peak (inside Silverton's terrain). The couloir just to the left of Storm is The Grande, which is routinely skiable in October. It is usually the first bagged line in the San Juans each year. Welcome to January

 

[StuckonI70]

If you are still 30 days out, you can get 40% back. It may be worth it, or you are crossing your fingers that they cancel.

Silverton city webcam today. Note the dry peaks in the background- those are a few peak over from Silverton Mountain.

Linked below picture from December 22- The Peak on the far right is Storm Peak (inside Silverton's terrain). The couloir just to the left of Storm is The Grande, which is routinely skiable in October. It is usually the first bagged line in the San Juans each year. Welcome to January

I think I'll take my chances, for better or worse.
I've seen the webcams, and we all know that usually their snowpack is quite reliable.
We've had somewhat crappy conditions, wind polished crust and chunder, our last 2 years, and those were pretty good snow years! Our crew is due.
It has to snow eventually, right? 17" for Red Mtn Pass on the year....

 

[Jeff N]

I wouldn't necessarily call San Juan snow reliable. It is pretty typical that the San Juans get lots of early snow- the Summer weather patterns bring lots of moisture from storms that make landfall in Baja California and march up into our mountains. In the fall, temps come down in the high country where those storms bring snow, which is why in so many years Wolf Creek is skiing deep in October when A-Basin is on WROD.

The volatility happens when that storm corridor gets shut off, which has happened this year. If the storms track North, the San Juan's are screwed. La Nina can influence this, but usually not to this degree. However, historically that does happen. No snow at Christmas happens maybe once in 15 years.

As for Silverton specifically, they love to project an image that they always get snow. One big reason that they are silent as a tomb right now is they don't want to actually do anything to inform people that they aren't buried in powder. They have a history of "massaging" their snow totals and reporting. There are several reasons for this, and not all nefarious, but there is a lot more latitude happening with what they officially report than pretty much any traditional ski area.

The concern is that no end is in sight and we are starting in January literally with zero base. For Silverton to be super sketchy but skiable, they need 4 feet of snow. Right now for 2 weeks out, they are looking at 18" on the high end of that forecast. Still need 3 feet to have pretty much anything skiable. The storm forecast for Jan 6 and 7 is a pretty warm storm that can be expected to drop a lot less at the base elevation. Maybe they get 12" at the top and 3-4" at the base. Not gonna move the needle. Best you can hope for is that it is a start.

If it was me, I'd get the 40% back. Maybe negotiate to get bumped to later in the year, but I don't even know how well that will work. What I am getting worried about is the February warming trend as the days get longer. If we don't have reasonable snow on the ground then (say, 6 feet), warmer temps, longer days and sun will turn the snowpack isothermic very quickly and it will disappear in days. Without enough of a pack to resist the warming, we could be looking at no snowpack in early March. That is still doom and gloom but a very real scenario. If we don't get a snowpack this year, the San Juans are going to BURN this Summer.

 

[StuckonI70]

BestSnow puts ~330" as the long term average at Silverton. That's solid and reliable, especially when you're farming powder between storms and not beating every run to a pulp. They catch storms well from different angles (unlike Telluride and Purg) and benefit from wind loading (although west side can get stripped). They've previously acknowledged that their 24 hour reports aren't always perfect, but the storm totals all add up accurately. San Juans do have more volatility, this is true, but they also get those big dumps that the other top performers in the state, like WP, Steamboat and Vail, rarely see (I'm talking 24"+ in 24 hours, which does happen at WC and Silverton a few times a year). This year might be the exception.

If they want to go the silent route on social media, that's their call. They've always done things differently in San Juan County, for better or worse.

 

[Tony]

California officially has a problem: "According to the Department of Water Resources, the first snow survey of 2018 was full of brown grass and a few patches of snow. Near Lake Tahoe, a measurement was taken that yielded an average snow depth of 1.3 inches, which is only 4% of average." I was planning to return early tomorrow to Kirkwood, but snow predicted a couple of days ago for this Wed/Thu has mostly disappeared or been replaced by the r--- word.

 

[djetok]

I haven't forgotten that I posted this. January WAS a long way away and it seemed perfectly reasonable that Purgatory would get the 4 feet of snow between Thanksgiving and New Years they needed to get their mountain open. Obviously that hasn't happened, and I hope people ignored me.

We are going to purg still next weekend. It's a father daughter trip and we will make the best of it. I wasn't planning on taking my 12 year old down any expert terrain. We will be good. She still has spring break.

 

[DanoT]

I am finding it difficult to find something to bitch about the skiing at Sun Peaks as conditions are close to normal, but here goes:

Last Saturday's Early Tracks Breakfast was ruined by high winds and lack of planning by the ski school who run the event and along with some SunHosts they guide the event.

I purchased my ticket Friday afternoon with a predicted overnight snowfall of 15-20cm (6-8in) but we only got 7cm.

We were told that the upper mountain Crystal Chair was on wind hold so instead we would ski the mid mountain Elevation chair which serves 1 green run, 1 intermediate race training run, and 2 black diamond runs. A group of 6 or 7 millennials started talking about demanding a refund.

We were supposed to be ready to load at 7:45am but didn't start loading until 8:05 (the chair opens to the public at 9) and while they normally get 10-30 Early Tracks Breakfast skiers, this day there were 46.

While we were standing around waiting to load they brought out free hot chocolate. It was -18*C/0*F so everyone was bundled up and no one felt like taking gloves off and or handling hot chocolate while wearing gloves. They had no takers.

When we finally all got off the lift we were told we would now divide up into groups. The millennials immediately said "Fine, we are going to ski Bluff, if one of you guides wants to join us get your ass in gear, we aren't waiting". I joined the millennials.

When we got to the bottom of the mid mountain Elevation Chair the liftie told us that he knew nothing about a Early Tracks Breakfast and that normally they aren't ready to open until 9am. It was now approaching 8:30 and the millennials left to go ski Mt Morrisey on the other side of the valley and which opens at 8:30.

We next get an announcement from the ski instructor who was running this fiasco that she has just got off the phone with her supervisor and we all have the option of getting a refund or a credit for another day. But then a ski patrol shows up, gets on the chair,and 6 or 7 minutes later the liftie gets the OK to start loading the chair. We load on the chair, then ski down Caribou, the other black diamond run and back to the Elevation chair. By now it is past 8:30 and skiers are arriving after having come off a chair that opens at 8:30. The liftie says, We don't open until 9, so only ski racer kids get to load." The Sun Host that I am with says, "We are Early Tracks skiers, so we are also loading", and we do. We get to the top of the lift and it is 8:58, I ski down Cruiser to the Village. The run was groomed prior to the overnight 7cm and I am the first one down it.

The cost of the First Tracks Breakfast is $37.50Cdn and it includes a voucher for $15 for food at a choice of a couple of day lodges and a $10 Happy Hour food voucher at a bar and grill, both expire after 7 days.

I go to the Activities Desk and get a full $37.50 refund AND they don't ask for the return of the food vouchers.

So, I got 3 early morning runs with a small amount of powder, $25 in food vouchers and I didn't pay a dime. I guess I posted this in the wrong thread.