Lack of Snow in UT

[mbaydala]

So I finally made it back out to Park City and I have to say I’m saddened by the lack of snow around. So on Saturday I decided to hike up to the Peak to see for myself what all this recent warm weather has done to the snow pack. What I discovered was what snow pack, there’s nothing up there. I took a couple pictures so you can see for yourself just how bad things are. Then today when it didn’t even flurry in Park City I decided to drive up and over Guardsman to see what things looked like over in BCC and things looked better, but by no stretch good. I’d say if the base of Brighton had maybe 2 inches of snow that would be a lot. Well lets start doing our snow dances because we sure need it bad.

 

[tirolerpeter]

The "Snow Gods" must have discovered that I moved to UT this past year. I'm sorry everybody.

 

[Pajarito-Bred]

Thanx for the update--
I'm heading over to Utah on Friday, a couple of weeks ago I was planning on (dreaming on...) spending that day skiing in awesome fresh powder at Alta, but now....stopping off for a desert trail run or mtn bike ride near Moab on they way over, looks tempting instead.
I'm not desperate enough (not yet) to ski one crowded intermediate run on pneumatically-spewed artificial snow all day. That's ok for covering early-season rocks, but not for actually skiing on. Five years ago, 2nd week of November, opening day at Vail, back bowl chairs 5 and 17 running, fantastic powder conditions (punched thru to the grassy summer meadow base layer just a couple of times) that's what I've come to expect EVERY year to start the season.
Tirol, it must've been your carbon-belching moving van that did us all in finally. it was looking so great a few weeks ago.

 

[Admin]

It's now official: Alta is postponing their opening day, now TBD.

 

[tirolerpeter]

Hey, Pajarito-Bred, how did your stuff get to Colorado? Did Scotty and his crew "beam" you there with his transporter? I agree, it was looking good a couple of weeks ago. Maybe the CA wildfires did it!

 

[Pajarito-Bred]

Ummm,
I didn't have much of anything when I moved to CO, my final unbroken pair of Volants and some beat-up college furniture. But yes, I did have one of those giant yellow Ryders --took the long way around, over Lizard Head Pass. I've since had all my techno-goodies imported on carbon-spewing freighters from China! I still need to figure out if my new carbon-black Volkl's were actually made in Germany, or it they're from China, too.
What if Al Gore is right, and it really is incredibly stupid for all of humanity to blaze off hundreds of millions of years of carbon-sequestered dinosaurs in slightly more than a single century? How long will it take for that climate pendulum to slam back to winter? umm, is this getting off topic just a bit, all from having to start the ski season a couple of weeks late?
I can't post any ski reports yet, might as well rant about the heat.
Am I really going to have to try again to learn to water-ski? NOoooooooooo.....

Oh well, I'm doing my best to make up for it by drinking lots of cold Colorado-brewed beer and recycling the bottles.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Can't say I have much sympathy listening to moaning in early November from the most reliable ski region on earth.

And trying to generalize it to world weather? Please. Just today somebody posted the Alps getting the biggest dump this early in 50 years. Whistler also got 43 inches in the past 2 days.

I can only imagine Al Gore & company having a field day if we ever have another 1976-77 or 1980-81.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Can't say I have much sympathy listening to moaning in early November from the most reliable ski region on earth.

Agreed. I only have anecdotal evidence, but hasn't the Wasatch been completely snow-free until Thanksgiving once or twice in the past decade, followed by a huge market correction?

 

[Admin]

Agreed. I only have anecdotal evidence, but hasn't the Wasatch been completely snow-free until Thanksgiving once or twice in the past decade, followed by a huge market correction?

Pretty much every season since I got here, which is why I'm not paying much attention to our newest arrivals. I'm not concerned at all.

 

[Graz]

We can only snow dance for the snowgods! Let's show them that we know how! Be patient, the snow will fall. It's the Wasatch!

 

[ChrisC]

Isn't any anomalous weather pattern or those even outside a standard deviation blamed on global warming? Whether it's drought, storms or temperatures. I blame the Media/News Journalists (a lack of knowledge/cash/deadlines) than Al Gore.

Maybe people are just cranky since Thanksgiving is so early this year and snowy expectations. And we just came off of Daylight Savings Time...

 

[Tony Crocker]

Agreed. I only have anecdotal evidence, but hasn't the Wasatch been completely snow-free until Thanksgiving once or twice in the past decade, followed by a huge market correction?

In 1976-77 the entire Wasatch was extremely restricted until mid-February. At Christmas 1980-81 and 1986-87 (I was there for this one) only at Alta and Brighton (base depths ~40 inches) could you ski a day without trashing your skis.

Chart and comments on Utah snow conditions here: http://bestsnow.net/utahhist.htm .

 

[Pajarito-Bred]

Yeah, Chris C. is right-- I was just Cranky! And, I have a short attention span and selective memory that puts those semi-epic early season days front-and-center. But what I really really don't like is when there's an epic storm brewing, and the weatherman judges the upcoming weather to be "bad" when it's actually promising to be very, very, GOOD!

But mostly, I have to put all the blame on Admin, for this Oct 21 post:
http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... php?t=5834
getting my hopes up that surely the Storms of October would (might) roll on in to Nov, proving the the only thing more fickle than the snow gods are the skiers who depend on their generousity.

Fortunately, Salt lake is just as easy to get out of as it is to get into, the reason I'm going to SLC is to hop on a non-stop carbon-belching jet aircraft to Cancun. (this was planned as the main event in my trip to utah anyway, with Alta being the add-on bonus days at each end) Plus, I'd have the snorkel in the car, just in case......
Oh well, I'll be back, later in the season............

There've been plenty of Christmases, and Januaries in the central Rockies (sometimes very rocky) with no/marginal snow, yeah I remember what years they were too, but would rather not.....so we can't get too whipped up over no snow over thanksgiving once in a while.

 

[chris062]

I hope that we have a good season this year since my wife and I finally bought some season passes. I like the look of the current forecast much more than the weeks of high pressure and high temps that we've had. I hope the snow gods are smiling this year.

 

[Admin]

Welcome, Chris062. Never thought I'd see a skier from Evanston join these boards!

Where are those passes to?

 

[Tony Crocker]

Fortunately, Salt lake is just as easy to get out of as it is to get into, the reason I'm going to SLC is to hop on a non-stop carbon-belching jet aircraft to Cancun.

This is a smart idea. The past 3 years my son Andrew had the whole week off for Thanksgiving, and all 3 times we spent that week in the Caribbean. Save the ski $ for when there's decent snow.

 

[chris062]

Welcome, Chris062. Never thought I'd see a skier from Evanston join these boards!

Where are those passes to?

Thanks for the welcome. Actually, I'm from SoCal and just moved to Evanston for an internship. Most of the locals here are into cross country or snowmobiling. We have passes to the Canyons. Skiied there a few times last year and really enjoyed it.

 

[Marc_C]

Agreed. I only have anecdotal evidence, but hasn't the Wasatch been completely snow-free until Thanksgiving once or twice in the past decade, followed by a huge market correction?

Pretty much every season since I got here, which is why I'm not paying much attention to our newest arrivals. I'm not concerned at all.

What the new kids on the block apparently fail to realize is that skiing in Utah, especially in the Cottonwoods, pre-Thanksgiving is the exception and by no means a certainty.

In more than one season over the past 6, the snowpack the day before Thanksgiving wasn't the lean 20" we have right now....it was zero. And those were years where T-day fell a week later than this year.

 

[gwest]

Yeah, I was discussing this with my advisor today, who's been around the wasatch a few more years than I have (4), i think this is well within the range of 'normal'. My 1st year here the snow just turned on nov 1st. I think i mistook that as normal. Since then ive seen 1 year where the hose turned on oct 21st, and i think 2 yrs where snow started up at or just after thanksgiving. This year we had a lot of sept/october snowfall. But when it comes that early, it usually means we're being set up for a dry end of oct/1st half of nov.
anyway, for now im surprisingly not too anxious yet. As a grad student, i'll just not think about it too much, and put in more time at work now so i can get out when it decides to start.

 

[Botte]

I did read a preseason NOAA report stating it was a La Nina year and that could mean warmer drier weather in the Central and Southern Rockies. Allegedly the place to be/ski in a La Nina year is the Pacific Northwest, BC and the Northern Rockies eg. Montana. I guess we'll have to see.