Cancel Ski Trip?

We're (wife and I) are supposed to head out from Idaho (by road) for a week on Feb 11 and hit 49*N, Red Mtn and Whitewater. It's not looking good with the recent stretch of very warm temps, rain and lackluster bases'. Looks to get colder over the next week, but not a lot of new snow. That usually means icy. Long Range forecasts (from opensnow- which tends to almost always be too high for my area) show 9" over the next 10 days for 49*, 13" for Whitewater and 11" for Redwater. Not sure that is enough for me to think it's going to drastically change conditions. With the wife in tow (lower intermediate), we would mostly stick to groomers.

Thankfully, we didn't buy lift tickets ahead of time, and we can cancel up to 2 days before the trip, so there is still some hope. However, if it doesn't pan out, We will probably decide to do a non-skiing trip instead since we have a petsitter lined up. Don't want to pay full price for any Utah resorts, etc... where conditions are better, or hop on a plane somewhere.

Also, we can do this trip next year if conditions are better.

What would you do?

Certainly a tough call. I find roughly a foot of new where underlying ice/refrozen can become OK or even decent.

Might even see if you can redirect to an audible long weekend when conditions finally do line up. Hard to do with the pets though.

I might be screwed for my cat trip to Canada that week too... Been above freezing even up in BC and base depths are quite low for this time of year.

snowave said:

With the wife in tow (lower intermediate),

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Red Mt. is highly inappropriate. This season it did not open until Dec. 22 and is likely low tide with reported 43 inch base on its mostly steep and treed terrain. Whitewater is reliable but it’s also skewed advanced. For a broad range of ability in the interior NW I’d recommend 49 North, Schweitzer. Silver and Lookout.

But overall yes I’d think about pulling the plug in such an overall subpar season. As for non ski trips, I should remind all that the upcoming April 8, 2024 total solar eclipse will be the last in the continental US for 20 years. I forgot whether snowave saw the 2017 TSE as the path was very close: between his home and Boise.

We are also concerned about the late February Canadian cat trip. The cat operations are not canceling or rain checking during the current difficult period.

For me any skiing is better than not skiing. Therefore, if it was me, I would still go. Since you are driving, you can easily change your itinerary as needed.

Skieric said:

For me any skiing is better than not skiing. Therefore, if it was me, I would still go. Since you are driving, you can easily change your itinerary as needed.

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I have the same opinion. If there’s no skiing go hiking. Just enjoy being in the mountains.

Sbooker said:

I have the same opinion. If there’s no skiing go hiking. Just enjoy being in the mountains.

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I get that for some, (but for those that don't know) I live in the mountains near McCall ID, and have 2 nice ski areas within 45 min drive that I can go to anytime I want. So, for me/especially the wife.... it's not really about any skiing any is better than no skiing. She can't afford to get hurt and I don't want her to be miserable in crappy conditions (nor do I).

Hope you guys get lucky, and things pick up for your Cat trips. Long range outlooks not looking good this month for precip or temps, however that could always change.

TonyC. I know Red is not a good choice for the wife, but we wanted to visit Rossland for a night, and I have a hookup at Red, so thought we might spend a few hours on the hill there if the snow was anywhere near decent. Was/am looking fwd to 49*N, but have been to all of Schweitzer, Silver and Lookout... want to go somewhere we haven't been.

As for the eclipse', I did not see the last two in totality... mainly because of the shit-show of traffic full/hotels that occurred along the path, and also the locations I've been (Pagosa CO for 2017, New Meadows, ID '23) have been more cloudy than sunny. I'm not willing to take the chance of traveling/spending money/chancing clouds for a few minutes of awe. However, that being said, I do have family in St. Louis where I'm orginally from, so there's a slight chance we might go visit them in April and be able to drive an hour or so south to the totality line.

Thanks for the opinions. Will probably make final a decision late this coming week. Alternate plan: We are looking at either a warm sunny location, but if that's not cost effective with last minute air tickets, we may drive to the Vancouver area and futz around that region for a week.

October 2023 was an annular, not worth long distance travel. I wasn’t sure if you were in Idaho yet in 2017. Despite the iffy weather prospects I strongly encourage you to contact family on St. Louis if only to give them the heads up for their own benefit. With a car and 24-48 hour weather forecast you should have a decent chance of finding clear skies somewhere on the path between Arkansas and Indiana.

Did your family see 2017? The southern half of St. Louis was in totality, though Missouri was the worst weather location that day.

Red Mountain installed the Topping Creak lift near the bottom that has some nice blue runs. If snow is good, your wife will likely enjoy them. They are longer than they appear on the map and powder may last for days on them.

Sounds like you're leaning toward cancelling.

This article from two days ago underscores the goofy weather this season, including BC's snowpack at 56% of normal (!). It also points out the bi-polar season in the Alps, where I enjoyed the tail-end of a very snowy stretch in late/November/December followed by my high-and-dry week in Val d'Isere -- to say nothing of Tony/Liz getting blanked across more than three weeks there!

jamesdeluxe said:

Tony/Liz getting blanked across more than three weeks there!

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I don't believe that is accurate. The storm of Jan. 17-18 was quite substantial above 2,400 meters. We chose to ski Lauchernalp on the 19th with mixed results. But ChrisC got a fairly typical 3 days of guided powder at Val d'Isere from that storm, and probably a little more from the smaller storm Jan. 22-23. We decided to keep our Wengen reservation to ski Jan. 20-22, because the predicted clear weather for scenery was more important for us there.

As for canceling trips, I will be working on cutting back the length of our Canada trip. It seems pointless to ski a week and a half up there in lean conditions when Mammoth is getting 5 feet out of the current storm and even SoCal is getting in on the action this time.

Tony Crocker said:

As for canceling trips, I will be working on cutting back the length of our Canada trip. It seems pointless to ski a week and a half up there in lean conditions when Mammoth is getting 5 feet out of the current storm and even SoCal is getting in on the action this time.

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The flexibility of retirement and no kids at home...

I'm very close on the first count, but have multiple years to go on the 2nd.

Finally below freezing at Mustang, but a whopping 1" of new on a 187cm base. Yikes!!!!! Can't imagine what current guests have been skiing.

Forecast for the moment up there doesn't warm back up too much, but not a lot of snowfall predicted in the next 5+ days either...

EMSC said:

Can't imagine what current guests have been skiing.

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Island Lake's guests have been skiing groomers the past few days. Today's report:

New snow is starting to buffer the firm surfaces, allowing us to ski a mix of groomed and off-piste surfaces.

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That's 4 inches of new snow.

We are now coming home Feb. 22, the day after we get out of Island Lake, but the former good deal of 25K miles pp is now 30K miles.

WIth some decent snow the past week (24" at 49* N, 16" at Whitewater, and 10" at Red) we decided to pull the trigger. We're in Chewelah, WA tonight and plan to hit 49 tomorrow, (and maybe Tuesday.) If i remember, I'll try to post a report when i get back home next weekend.

snowave said:

If i remember, I'll try to post a report when i get back home next weekend.

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Trip reports are like bread, best when fresh. Post 'em within 24 hours -- per the FTO terms of use that you signed!

It's been 11 years since our 49 Degrees visit and I'd love to go back at some point. With full cover, you could spend two days there.

jamesdeluxe said:

Trip reports are like bread, best when fresh. Post 'em within 24 hours -- per the FTO terms of use that you signed!

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Post 'em within 2-4 years.


I use them more for future travel, than pivot my current ski plans.

ChrisC said:

I use them more for future travel, than pivot my current ski plans.

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For the Euro reports that makes some sense. For North America reports I see more urgency as some readers want to know about current conditions, like the recent Baldy inquiry.