When do resorts begin to count a seasons snowfall?

Feral - NZ

Feral - NZ

New member
I was wondering when resorts begin counting their snowfall accumulation?

I had a look the websites from the canyons, park city, snowbird, alta, snow basin and some Colorado resorts. Some show year to date snowfall as 10 inches and some show none. Snowbird and Alta show nothing but have already had at least 20 inches this season.

When do resorts begin counting?
 
Feral - NZ":gws8gxm8 said:
When do resorts begin counting?
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Tony is the authority on this, so anything he may say that contridicts me should be accepted, but there's no established protocol out there. IMHO the only scrupulous ones are the ones that only report snowfall during their open season. You could make an argument that snowfall in the weeks leading up to opening day is relevant, but only if that snowfall hasn't melted out again before opening. Any snowfall logged after closing day is just plain superfluous.
 
Feral - NZ":2k72di1x said:
When do resorts begin counting?
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We had a discussion about this last year with regard to Jay Peak:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... hp?p=13329

You'll probably find some useful comments there.

We had a pretty large October snowstorm last year around here, and there was some debate as to whether the snowfall should be counted in the season totals.

Most people have a method that they think is correct, and personally, mine would be for resorts to count all their snowfall, since I might go up there and hike/skin for turns on the snow that falls in the early and late season, even if the resort isn't running the lifts. However, when thinking about exclusively lift-serviced skiing, maybe only counting what falls when the lifts are running would be the preferred method.

Alta seems to go with the method of counting their pre-opening snowfall, but nothing after they close:

http://www.alta.com/pages/snowhistory.php

J.Spin
 
J.Spin":2zpsse98 said:
However, when thinking about exclusively lift-serviced skiing, maybe only counting what falls when the lifts are running would be the preferred method.

Alta seems to go with the method of counting their pre-opening snowfall, but nothing after they close
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Regarding only counting once the lift are spinning, if there is snow already accumulated on the ground, that would under-reporting in my opinion. The description that Alta does is probably the correct way, HOWEVER we all remember what happened to Jay (or potentially others) last year. All that snow was pretty much gone before they opened, but was counted at one point (not sure exactly what they did?). Even if they count when the lifts run, what if one ski area opens 30-40 days before a neighbouring hill. That would show up at the first hill receiving much more snow when it's not the case. That could have been the case with Wildcat opening in October 05 (although they were open when the actual 3ft of snow fell) versus neighbouring hills (although not as much, but not 0 inches).

My 2 cents is count it all. From August to June if possible, regardless of lifts. The problem is that no one counts the same thing. When and where on the mountain is the snow counted

Anyway, I prefer to differ to Mr. Snow himself, senor Crocker, when it comes to counting snowflakes.
 
Oh man, don't get me going on this topic. :lol: :lol:

I think snow falling prior to the lifts spinning should only be counted if it doesn't melt out. Once it melts out, the meter should be reset back to zero and counting should stop once the season is over.

This method does not accurately account for all snow fall at the mountain and is not a legit meteorological measurement. However, it would put all resorts on the same footing so we can compare apples to apples and make the measurement consistent across the board. Thus in our current system of every resort measures differently, we can not reasonably compare realistic ski season averages. Mountains measuring all snowfall even that which melts out are being compared to snowfall that only falls once the mountain is open which creates problems.

Then again, I guess.... who really cares right? Who believes ski area marketing departments any ways? ;)
 
riverc0il":17v0ax8r said:
However, it would put all resorts on the same footing so we can compare apples to apples and make the measurement consistent across the board. Thus in our current system of every resort measures differently, we can not reasonably compare realistic ski season averages.(...)Who believes ski area marketing departments any ways? ;)
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For the real non-BS numbers, I rely on Tony. :wink:

http://www.bestsnow.net
 
Areas on my website are "normalized" to a November 1 to April 30 basis. For the numerous areas that only have complete months December-to-March I index them to a nearby correlated area with November-to-April.

Subjectively November 1 is a reasonable date in the West, since November snow generally won't melt out, while October snow often will. I'll count October snow if it is enough to advance an area's opening date.

With regard to River's comments, eastern snow melts out a lot, and his criteria would result in some lower numbers. I still choose to use November 1 in the East for consistency even though November meltouts are common.

On the other end I count May only for a handful of areas that remain open for most of the month: Mammoth, A-Basin, Sunshine, Bachelor.
 
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