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The powder day only indirectly affects the price. The price is $329 same day, $313 for the next week and $295 one week out. But yes Vail is absolutely deterring some last minute decisions and that might be making powder days slightly less busy. OTOH a lot of people have Epic passes.

I have strongly suspected this. I have always cherry picked my days to ski Palisades, and to some extent Heavenly also. Thus Liz has a somewhat unrealistic rosy view of both areas. I know that the Palisades base has had a lot of rain this season.The March storms have really been the only good...

Friday at Copper worked out very efficiently so I was able to ski the places I missed Monday. The weather was still cold for March, likely no more than 15F up high and the car showed 18F when were we leaving 4:30PM. It was overcast more often than not but sunny breaks were more frequent than on...

Paul and his son Justin went with us to A-Basin. As we had never skied the new Beavers lift, we spent most of the morning there. There is a picnic deck off the Loafer groomer, where we took some pics. Profile of the Beavers lift: View down and across the road: There are two Gasex...

Vail reported 5 inches new snow overnight, but the day far overperformed that stat. 1) We had expert local guidance. Paul probably has more ski days at Vail than I have ski days lifetime. 2) The 14-16 inches that fell March 14-16 might not have consolidated everywhere. At the very least it...

Yes. The day I would count as 1/2 day Bonneville sur Arc and 1/2 day Val d'Isere because you skied at both areas, but in total it was one day of skiing. But looking at those pics, it was all about the quality no matter how you add it up!

We are staying with Paul (spinbackwards) as we did last year.

James certainly has it right about the lodging. In spring 2022 we had a one night stop with half board about 15 minutes down the road from Pitztal for less than half the price we had paid for on-site in Solden. Dinners were comparable. The obscure place did have an out of order steam room...

:rotfl::bs: More like 2-3 months in NJ, though I’m sure less in New England. And if you look up heat discomfort index, that 95F in the Arizona desert is the same as 85F at 65% humidity (routine on the East Coast) or 83F at 80% (not uncommon).

Yes the one run Edge of the World. I would call it high intermediate/advanced, not expert pitch. That's just as well because like most of Steamboat primary exposure is west. I did not try Fish Creek Canyon. I was suspicious of melt/frozen subsurfaces on steep terrain, and with another week...

That's what they would have had March 8-12. Then it snowed the 4 feet March 14-18. If they were there based upon the weather forecast, more power to them. If booked far in advance, they were insanely lucky. The same storm cycle snowed 13-16 inches at Steamboat, and that was not enough to bury...

Per the Euro weather sites, the southern Alps have had some recent significant storms, including the Dolomites. I saw Hohtalli open on Zermatt's website a few days ago. Has it been enough to make these places worthwhile?

The object lesson of altitude/exposure in March was demonstrated in the opposite extreme today. In my snow preservation formula (altitude/latitude and exposure distribution) for North American ski areas Steamboat ranks #89 and Copper Mt. #5. There was zero spring or melt/frozen snow anywhere...

On Saturday we left Iron Blosam as the next storm was moving in. Here's Al Solish getting ready to load his car while a substantial slab of snow from Friday remains on his left front fender. Liz and I decided to drive to Steamboat because, like Tseeb earlier this month, it was sort of on our...

The avalanche to which James alludes is this one. It was in Vallonet, which is between Grands Vallons and Col Pers.

I'm jealous. Col Pers was not suitable for off piste in late January 2024 because the lower half of it would have been melt/frozen, and it's possible upper parts would have been wind affected.

From what I've seen, there's little Northeast lift served skiing any steeper than Niseko. 60 inches would bring most everything to a standstill. In SoCal I say bring it on! Baldy is steeper than Niseko and in that Pacific Coast snow we aren't sinking more than a foot into it anyway.

No. I'm sure there was online info at the time of weather and snow coverage/terrain open. It was also December so little chance of the powder degrading over the course of the ski day. Recall that I set most of my multiday vertical foot records in SkiWelt/Kitzbuhel/Saalbach/Fieberbrunn in...

I know Jacque Peak is really high but the chair alignment looks like the terrain faces slightly south of east. Tucker is north facing and sadly we missed out on it because 80-90mph wind gusts closed it just before we got there at 12:15 yesterday. We may try again Friday. FYI if EMSC is...

Yes, 3 of the 4 times I did it. But I kept trying for awhile because the first Alaska trip yielded the best ski day of my life. Isn't that what you were doing in Val d'Isere in January 2024 the same time Liz, James and I were there? The largest group trip we have ever organized was for the...