Still Winter in many parts of the West

B

berkshireskier

Active member
Just looked at the webcams for Grand Targhee. Snowing moderately hard there today and still looks like mid-winter. They've closed for the season but are allowing uphill climbing. It's a shame that, in a snow year like this one, they close down so early but I guess they run out of paying customers and/or are located on national forest land with limitations on season length.
 
berkshireskier said:
national forest land with limitations on season length
Click to expand...
99% of the time that's complete :bs: . Mammoth, A-Basin, Bachelor are on national forest land.

At most places it's all about the paying customers. Targhee's April 16 closing was pretty reasonable by western resort standards. The places that deserve the :brick: are those like Telluride and Crested Butte that closed April 2. Taos has historically been in that group too but the last couple of years they are going to second weekend in April.
 
Yes, Telluride tried for Easter.....2nd weekend in April. It just does not make economic sense. Yes, there is a ton of snow on the mountain.

What I have observed. The locals are over it. They want to take off to Cabo. Or wherever. They are not really skiing diehards. A little lazy. But you have some of the best mountaineering men and women living there.
 
Tony Crocker said:
99% of the time that's complete :bs: .
Click to expand...
👍

Probably fewer western resorts than you can count on one hand that have spring time restrictions.

It's all about simple lack of customers for most; lack of resort personnel to keep enough open to attract customers affects some resorts.
 
Mt. Baldy plans to be open Friday-Monday through May 21. I wouldn’t guarantee that if May is hotter than normal but Patrick arrives in time for that last weekend if it happens.

Baldy lasted to first weekend of June in 1983 and 1998. Total snowfall this year is about 85% of those seasons.
 
Tony Crocker said:
Mt. Baldy plans to be open Friday-Monday through May 21. I wouldn’t guarantee that if May is hotter than normal but Patrick arrives in time for that last weekend if it happens.

Baldy lasted to first weekend of June in 1983 and 1998. Total snowfall this year is about 85% of those seasons.
Click to expand...
Do you know how the current base depth compares with late April in those years? Seems like this year's dumps were mostly in late winter, so there may be more left on the mountain than season snowfall would suggest?
 
1983 and 1998 had big late seasons too, and specifically more in April/May (2 feet in 1983 and 5 feet in 1998) than this season. The sun exposed terrain on chairs 1 and 4 gets taken out with sustained sun even starting with a big snowpack. Holcumac was already unskiable on April 7. Baldy's own report April 15 said you have to walk below the bottom of Bentley's. It will be interesting to see how long chair 4 lasts, but I suspect it will be done before I get home May 2.
 
This weekend is the end of the line for most SoCal skiing. Snow Summit is 59% open and will close 4/30. Mt. High West will close May 1 but is a very marginal 29% open. As I suspected skiing on chairs 1&4 at Baldy is closed as of this weekend leaving only Thunder. I suspect most of Thunder is still skiable but I’ll have to check with Garry on that when I get home.
 
As intense as the winter of 2022-23 was, this has not been a great spring.

Alta had 92 inches in April, but 66 of that fell by April 5. Snowbird had 5 inches mid-mountain during a very warm May vs. 66 inches in 2011 and 43 in 2019. Consequently Snowbird closed June 18 vs. July 4 in 1995, 2011 and 2019.

The Mammoth patrol site near Main Lodge had a base depth of 281.5 inches at the end of March 2023 vs. 187 at the end of March 2017, leading to speculation about a Labor Day close or even year round skiing. But it snowed 3 inches in April 2023 vs. 68.5 inches in April 2017. So May 7 base depths were 183.5 inches in 2023 vs. 159 in 2017. More patrol site base depth comparisons: 121.5 vs. 102 on May 31, 92 vs. 69 on June 12. But the first half of June 2017 had 1.5 inches snow and no rain while in 2023 there was no snow and 1.61 inches rain.

On my recent trip there was still more snow around 9,000 feet (base of chairs 1&2) than in 2017. But the top of the mountain has less snow in some places, notably the exit area from chair 23. Today's snow report:
The last day of operation for Stump Alley (2) will be this Sunday, July 9. We are open for skiing and riding daily through July.
Click to expand...
I found a SkiTalk post from June 18, 2017 that I knew about the August 6 closing date and there are other posts suggesting that on June 1. The closer we get with no such announcement this season, the more I think July 30 may be the end. Liz and I booked the Tuolumne River whitewater for 7/31-8/1 in 2017 knowing we would be skiing Mammoth on the same trip.

FYI 2016-17 and 2022-23 had exactly the same 87 inches of SWE at the Mammoth patrol site.
 
Last edited:
Shrugs shoulders; Despite no special snowpack to start with in central CO, been plenty cool enough to keep snow beyond normal thus far at least. At least a couple 14ers that have yet to become hike-able by the masses due to too much snow (for example Longs Peak).

Charging $25 for this:
Copperhike.JPG

Main Woodward park:
CopperWoodward.JPG
 
Copper has elite altitude/exposure for snow preservation. Is that second picture current, and at what elevation? Is it served by a lift? Is it open to the public or just for camps?
 
Tony Crocker said:
As intense as the winter of 2022-23 was, this has not been a great spring.

Alta had 92 inches in April, but 66 of that fell by April 5. Snowbird had 5 inches mid-mountain during a very warm May vs. 66 inches in 2011 and 43 in 2019. Consequently Snowbird closed June 18 vs. July 4 in 1995, 2011 and 2019.
Click to expand...

Agree. Alta's spring (April) was almost non-existent due to spring avalanche road closures.

Tony Crocker said:
I found a SkiTalk post from June 18, 2017 that I knew about the August 6 closing date and there are other posts suggesting that on June 1. The closer we get with no such announcement this season, the more I think July 30 may be the end. Liz and I booked the Tuolumne River whitewater for 7/31-8/1 in 2017 knowing we would be skiing Mammoth on the same trip.
Click to expand...
I hope Mammoth makes it to August just for the record books.

Too bad the melt out has been so rapid compared to other extended seasons.
 
First picture/ChrisC picture is the tiny one for the general public. It's made from all the snow from the superpipe at bottom of Eagle lift reconfigured sideways.

Tony Crocker said:
Is that second picture current, and at what elevation? Is it served by a lift? Is it open to the public or just for camps?
Click to expand...
Very current, and a few hundred feet up from the base area. It's only one trail of ~230' vertical overall with the top starting at ~10,600. That portion of trail faces NE. It has a super long magic carpet on the far side of all the snow piles. Start and end of the day are via truck/van rides on dirt roads up the hill. It is 'just for camps', but there are so many camps I'm sure it wouldn't be all that hard for a young person to figure out how to get access to it, or if you are good enough, coach for one of the camps.
 
ChrisC said:
Too bad the melt out has been so rapid compared to other extended seasons.
Click to expand...
In the Sierra it really comes down to that dry April. From May onwards it's been close to parallel to 2017. At the peak in early April I thought the top of Mammoth was similar to 2017 so no surprise it has less snow now. The Main Lodge/McCoy station areas had so much more snow in April so they were still deeper than 2017 a week ago. But they are lower and Main Lodge will likely be done in two weeks, which is probably a week later than it was done in 2017. The final close is dependent on keeping loading/unloading areas of chairs 3 and 23 covered. The loading areas will be easier to maintain this year but the unloading areas will be more difficult. MMSA management is very creative in moving snow around so it will be interesting to watch. You can follow the cams here. At this time of year substantial snow is lost each week.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top