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This season deserves close analysis vs. past bad seasons. I've started with the most notorious state, Colorado. First, the Front Range. For each area I show monthly snowfall and maximum base depth where available. The second table shows percent of terrain open, which I generally have only...

Discussions of the overall season, especially in other regions, are moved into that thread. Yes these reports have been illuminating. It will be interesting to see how the final Utah week compares to my next Mammoth trip at the same time.

Yes it is. I've just been grazing it over Spain, where the Aug. 12 eclipse is only 45 minutes before sunset.

Mammoth is configured to deliver optimal skiing in both April and May. I have no argument that the later you go the odds of a peak experience decline, but I've even had a couple of them in June. Even the July days offer a few hours of quality skiing without the excessive crowds other places...

I would agree in April it's usually very useful to have Mammoth's E and SE facing terrain on chairs 9 and 25 available in the mornings. Chair 16 was a weak substitute for those this season. By May I can almost take it for granted that the steep north facing will soften eventually during the...

We are taking the cue of the what the title should be from the horse's mouth. :smileyvault-stirthepot: That is our view as well. Most Euro ski areas have enough scale that we rarely repeat a run at a new place unless conditions are exceptional. That mostly means fresh powder. This is a...

From both James' interview and Roger's own website, it was clear to me that @Worldskitraveller's priority is collecting lifts not ski areas. Accordingly, I agree with James that Roger's priority is upfront and crystal clear but also with ChrisC that the title should be changed. On March 3 I...

Since I tend to be oblivious to these nuances, I checked with Liz before answering the first question. She didn't even mention Zermatt. Since our recent time in Portes du Soleil and Grand Massif was during Easter Week, any uptick in Americans would have been swamped by the British school...

I would guess that St. Anton/Arlberg is in that top tier of recognition by US skiers along with Zermatt, Chamonix, Courchevel/Val Thorens/Méribel, and Val d'Isere. Cortina is probably the most recognized Italian name, but in terms of actually skiing I'd guess more Americans ski Courmayeur and...

Brighton is now the only Utah area open midweek!

My opinion is that for late spring skiing Whistler would be better than Blackcomb due to higher proportion of north exposure. I realize it didn't work that way in the above TR, and my perspective from Mammoth at 13 degrees lower latitude may be different. North facing steeps tend to remain...

I'm the opposite, due to Iron Blosam plus the many years of former admin's pre-RV residence in Utah. Those ties resulted in my Tahoe and Colorado skier days plummeting. Being at Iron Blosam insulates us from the worst LCC issues. But we haven't skied there commuting from down the hill...

I can't think of one. I suspect the largest North American ski area without a lodging base is Mt. Bachelor, which I'm sure is on Forest Service land. That is the reason Powdr Corp extracted rather than spent $$$ on Bachelor for its first several years of ownership. They believe that Bachelor...

I've never heard of "Frank" festivities from former admin. That may be because he operated his own excellent tailgate in Alta's parking lot with his deep fryer for Alta closing. The SL Trib article says the first "Frank" was on Easter Sunday (April 24) 2011. That was not Alta's closing day...

The Vanat report being released this month will be analyzing the 2024-25 ski season. We will have to wait another year for 2025-26 numbers. Preliminary Kottke/NSAA comes out mid-May. Details are not publicly released; you have to depend on cursory third party summaries.

Past history says there will be some effect. Advance bookings definitely slow down after out of a bad season and increase after a good one. An Epic or Ikon is not exactly the same as an advance booking to a specific resort, but the Vail April 12 announcement supports my view.

An interesting point. Here's the history of the Mammoth MVP pre-Ikon: 2000-2001 375 2001-2002 399 2002-2003 399 2003-2004 399 2004-2005 425 2005-2006 450 2006-2007 485 2007-2008 549 2008-2009 576 2009-2010 556 2010-2011 639 2011-2012 659 2012-2013 609 2013-2014 679...

They are only unattractive if you can't control them or link them together. This was the chief age related annoyance to me this ski season. Making controlled turns on 40 degree terrain usually runs my heart rate up so fast I'm forced to take frequent breaks, which makes the skiing not very...

I'm glad we booked the August flights in and out of Spain in January. Return flights are on Delta and hopefully KLM won't mess with the incoming flights.

Each layer is limited to 10 points (A-J). There's an overall limit of 10 layers. In the course of these road trips, an occasional hotel will have a laundry room on site. In this case it was Fernie. I also did laundry at my hosts Bob and Pat's home in Reno after 5 ski days because I didn't...