Hopefully you have a car for any time off to commute to BCC or LCC. Forecasters are unanimous there will be zero new snow in CA, UT or CO before then. It could be worse. Early next week it's going to rain in Washington and B.C. to over 6,000 feet.
Western North America Conditions 2025/26
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
jimk
Well-known member
My last three ski days at Snowbird, Jan 8/9/11 have been excellent. Soft, powdery conditions prevail from the nearly 60 inches of new snow since Jan 1. Of the 14 ski days I have in Utah since Dec 5, these three were by far the best. The vast majority of the resort's terrain is now open. Yesterday Mineral opened and today it was Road to Provo and the rest of Little Cloud Bowl. All 14 lifts operational.
Notwithstanding Tony's findings indicating a lengthy dry spell ahead, right now is a special combination of good snow and low crowds at Snowbird. I can only guess that out of town visitation is way down because of the publicity of the poor early start. There is also the theory that local Ikon Pass holders are saving their LCC days for later in the season? I'm trying to enjoy the nice situation while it lasts.
More pics from Jan 9, 2026:
Good skiing off the Little Cloud chair.
Cirque Traverse leading to fluffy snow in Middle and Lower Cirque areas to right.
Jan 11 was a gorgeous, full sun day with moderate crowds, even Mineral Basin chair was light traffic. Snow surfaces excellent all over the mtn.
Good off-piste lines beside the Mineral Basin chair line:
Baldy chair ego boosting terrain
Photographed a young man hitting The Wave in Little Cloud Bowl.
Today might have been my favorite day of the season so far. Nice temps, bright sun, low crowds (I drove up at 1030am and found close, free parking on Bypass Rd), and excellent snow surfaces. It's a very nice reward after a lot of hardpack in the month of Dec. Life is good!
Notwithstanding Tony's findings indicating a lengthy dry spell ahead, right now is a special combination of good snow and low crowds at Snowbird. I can only guess that out of town visitation is way down because of the publicity of the poor early start. There is also the theory that local Ikon Pass holders are saving their LCC days for later in the season? I'm trying to enjoy the nice situation while it lasts.
More pics from Jan 9, 2026:
Good skiing off the Little Cloud chair.
Cirque Traverse leading to fluffy snow in Middle and Lower Cirque areas to right.
Jan 11 was a gorgeous, full sun day with moderate crowds, even Mineral Basin chair was light traffic. Snow surfaces excellent all over the mtn.
Good off-piste lines beside the Mineral Basin chair line:
Baldy chair ego boosting terrain
Photographed a young man hitting The Wave in Little Cloud Bowl.
Today might have been my favorite day of the season so far. Nice temps, bright sun, low crowds (I drove up at 1030am and found close, free parking on Bypass Rd), and excellent snow surfaces. It's a very nice reward after a lot of hardpack in the month of Dec. Life is good!
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It’s a business thing, doesn’t really work that way! At least some good food and I can break in the new boots on groomers.
Snowbird has very similar altitude/exposure parameters as Mammoth, and it's January with low sun angle. I have no doubt that LCC skiing over the next 10 or more days with no new snow will be just fine. However that forecast is a recipe for a nasty inversion down in SLC. That will make Jimk appreciate Snowbird even more.
tseeb
Well-known member
While snowfall may have only been 80% of normal last week and is now lower,
"Current drought maps are showing California is drought-free for the first time in 25 years."
California precipitation is far above average. However, snowfall is above average only above 9,000 feet.
To add to the challenge, I was supposed to drive to Lake Louise tonight and ski there for 2 days, however the Rogers pass is currently under extended closure for avalanche risk/mitigation with an anticipated reopening at 12:15 am. Hopefully it will reopen overnight allowing for a very early morning drive over.
Good call. This storm is so warm it is forecast even to rain halfway up Panorama and Kicking Horse. Those areas got lots of December snow when it was raining more west of Rogers Pass.
ChrisC
Well-known member
I am impressed with how BAD Deer Valley is performing with a multi-year expansion to get things 'just right'. To me, it's pretty much a fail. Only 100 out of 202 runs open, only 43 groomed, just 23 out of 31 lifts open. It's almost MLK Weekend, and Deer Valley's snowmaking system has not really accomplished much.
It is astoundingly bad that Deer Valley East has only a Gondola open (no terrain), the Keetley Express with only a few ways down, and a return chair. They cannot even operate its beginner lift.
Let's just review how many lifts, trails, and terrain pods are closed:
- 6 out of the new lifts 9 in Deer Valley East. Did they really install snowmaking? And increase capacity?
- On top of it, the Mayflower Lift is closed.
- A 'core' lift, Wasatch Express, has ZERO runs in its pod open. That's horrible and must be a record.
- Little Baldy is essentially zero percent open - a single catwalk. That's great for the $10-30M homes lining those runs.
- All Olympic runs out of Snow Park are closed. Backed out of hosting World Cup Freestyle on December 24th? So they know their snowmaking system sucked, not performing well pre-Christmas, and canceled 3 weeks before the event.
- Lady Morgan - lift and runs closed.
- Expert Terrain - almost all closed.
I was running out of Red Ink X-ing out everything that was not operational. I thought Deer Valley had better ops than Park City.....not really. Quite bad for $329/day.
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ChrisC
Well-known member
Did some lower altitude Cat operations and lower Heli-Ski terrain get impacted by this warm-up?
A 2700 rain/snowline in British Columbia in mid-January??!!
Revelstoke Snow Report from January 13th:
Attachments
EMSC
Well-known member
No snowmaking system in Utah or Colorado has accomplished all that much this particular year. But it was and is extremely forecastable that that section of new terrain was both 100% snowmaking dependant and that that area/altitude has warm temps in the early season on a regular basis. Not a good combination which is why that expansion has been so widely panned as stupid.
Made it to LL today and it was definitely the right choice. Woke up crazy early and made the not fun drive over Rogers pass. LL had 14 inches in the last 24 hrs of winter snow. I think west bowl was closed yesterday as it was skiing deep and didnt track out. I was finding untracked up until 1pm. Temps are certainly warm as the car said +2C in the parking lot at the end the day. Normally this time of year temps at LL are -20. Now I am concerned about my Mustang Trip on Friday. However I just spoke to them. Apparently at Mustang lodge level they had all snow, although, heavy wet snow. It supposed to cool off some later in the week. I am not sure if the snow will recrystalize or if it will form a crust. Lets hope I am not skiing a breakable crust for 3 days.
Overnight there was some frozen precip in Revelstoke at 600m. Top of Rogers pass at about 1200 m had slush on the road. I dont think rain snow line was this high.
ChrisC
Well-known member
Deer Valley has lots of "Snowmaking in Progress" icons all over its Live Map. However, webcams do not show much snowmaking, maybe still too warm.
It's interesting that there is not a single Deer Valley webcam showing Deer Valley East (it's likely ugly and uninspiring). Instead, the point is a single cam eastward from the top of Bald Mountain / Sultan Lift. Too brown, lower down.
www.deervalley.com
It's interesting that there is not a single Deer Valley webcam showing Deer Valley East (it's likely ugly and uninspiring). Instead, the point is a single cam eastward from the top of Bald Mountain / Sultan Lift. Too brown, lower down.
Deer Valley Mountain Webcam | Deer Valley Resort
See many different views and discover real-time conditions at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah.
www.deervalley.com
The lodge is at 5,700 and alpine terrain goes up to 8,000. You are in the situation that occurred during much of 2014-15. If the weather is clear enough to ski the alpine as I did in 2015, you will be OK. Many 2015 tours that were confined by weather/visibility below tree line sucked though.
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After skiing at Lake Louise a second day that included blue skies, I can confidently state that the coverage is the best that I have ever skied there. Back bowls are really remarkable. Someone I rode a lift with said he was skiing lines today that he hasn’t skied for 40 years purely due to the snow cover. I found lots of nice smooth windsift in the whitehorn chutes today.
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