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James is correct. The snowfall was below average in February but skiing was still good with cold weather. The rain and thaw events were frequent only starting in March. I have tracked Vermont conditions by weekend since 2000. There have been 5 good late Decembers before this year, the most...

I knew the Northeast season tailed off on the back end, but I didn't realize how much. I have all my Northeast data for 2025-26 now. The Northeast was 119% of normal at the end of December and 125% at the end of January but ended up at 97% for the entire season.

If you're analyzing total $$$ of investment, the big resorts are going to drive that comparison. Many large western resorts run lifts in summer too. The issue is what portion of revenue comes from non-skiers. I think Ober Gatlinburg is an outlier significant year round resort that happens to...

I commented before the season started that 70 was unrealistic unless the Sierra had an extended season like 2017, 2019 or 2023. Tseeb's record is 65 days in 2018-19. However, his 56 days is the only time he has exceeded my total since we met in 2011. :eusa-clap: AreaSum of DaysSum of...

The steepest terrain needs more coverage to be skiable. That's why it's typically the last terrain to open and why it's so problematic at places like modest snowfall but expert-oriented Taos, A-Basin and Crested Butte. Once coverage is adequate, exposure becomes the driving factor. North...

We chatted with Bryan, Paul and Ketty in the parking lot, packed up at our lodging, had a sandwich at Nik n Willie's with a top off charge, and so did not leave Mammoth until after 3PM. On the way over Tioga Pass we took pics of some of the backcountry ski sites. Ellery Bowl: We could see...

We parked at idle chair 2 and took the bus to Main Lodge Wednesday morning. We were pleased to see Stump groomed so we could ski back to the car at the end of the day. Liz and I unloaded chair 1 at 8:40, about 5 minutes earlier than our start on chair 2 Tuesday. If you skied towards Stump...

I agree with ChrisC's sell to Sbooker here. Surely Sbooker has read enough of my late season Mammoth reports (including this week!) to see the upside of late spring skiing in right places (meaning not Australia!). Recall that on one of those trips I forgot my ski boots and had to rent...

Amazingly Mammoth website says Chair 5 will run Memorial weekend even though Chair 2 will not. Presumably they think Solitude still has enough snow for grooming. The exit trail under the lift from the ungroomed runs was very thin yesterday and will burn off before the weekend. Maybe there will...

The overnight huts do not open until July 1 at the earliest. But you should be able to drive to the trailheads.

With the two days described above it was not surprising that there was a hard freeze overnight. The weather forecast was correct that the wind finally abated and it was clear with highs in low 40's though the day started below 30. We had heard that Stump Alley was on its last legs, but it...

There’s been nearly a month of that irony. There was was a 1-2 foot storm in the Front Range at the end of April. No one reopened and A-Basin never expanded upon the 9% that was open April 11.

Big Bear and Mt. High clientele is ~75% snowboarders. At least 2/3 of trail acreage at Bear Mt. has park features. Mammoth, drawing some of that same SoCal demographic, has about 40% snowboarders. It definitely has one of the top parks in North America and is used regularly for Olympic...

Part 3: US Northern Rockies: This is a difficult region to generalize because: 1) Only Jackson and Targhee have season 1976-77 data. For many places, extensive data exists only Dec.-Mar. 2) This is a region where more areas have independent weather patterns. 2025-26 snowfalls by area...

Not an exciting prospect, per my recent inquiry. The summer skiing will be 700 vertical at a very intermediate 4-1 lift ratio. My summer experience tells me those runs better be salted or they will ski like glue at that mellow intermediate pitch.

Per the Vanat report, the core alpine countries had 157.1 million skier visits and the US + Canada 78.4 million in 2023-24. So we might expect double the spending vs. the more than triple that occurred. I think a key and enduring point of that article is that in the Alps the original lift...

Part 2: California: 2025-26 snowfall ranged from less than 60% at low elevation to about 80% at high elevation due storms with high rain/snow lines. with some of these storms being in November/December. Mammoth was only slightly below average in open terrain for the season overall...

I started this exercise in preparation to sending Joel Gratz a lot of detail once I have all the 2025-26 data. Last summer they published a feature about the best overall western snow seasons and surprisingly did not get it right that 2010-11 was the outlier standout. I'm sure OpenSnow will be...

Not a great AI summary above. It was Front Range/I-70 that had its worst ever season. Southern and western Colorado were worse in 1976-77 and 1980-81. Arizona Snowbowl's 57 inches in November were the most of any ski area in the western US! It was not a good year overall with only 95...

Here's are the worst western seasons through January: Nov.-Jan. Percent Normal California Pacific Northwest Interior Canada U.S. Northern Rockies Utah Northern & Central Colorado Southern & Western Colorado Northeast US West West All 76-77 38% 19% 72% 61% 28% 52% 55% 154%...