That's what we saw much of the week. But it's not good on overcast days like today or last Tuesday, or days that remain cold like Wednesday or what's predicted tomorrow.
Another early closure announcement, Bogus Basin March 22.
Western North America Conditions 2025/26
- Thread starter ChrisC
- Start date
Another early closure announcement, Bogus Basin March 22.
tseeb
Well-known member
I'm lucky that it's not until next weekend that I have a flight connection in Seattle on Sunday. When I called Alaska yesterday to try to see if flights that were booked separately for my wife and I using points are or can be connected so we both get a free bag, the estimated wait time to talk to an agent was almost 6 hrs. I tried using text but have not seen response.Washington State is getting the treatment this week that the Sierra got in February. Since Wednesday 40-85 inches snow, roads closed into ski areas Friday and Crystal today. Starting Sunday night rain is predicted to 8,000 feet for a few days next week.
Another rare sign of this season is the number of western areas with less terrain open March 15 than on Feb. 28. These include:
Big Sky
Jackson
Snowbasin
Park City
Steamboat
Aspen/Snowmass
Monarch
Purgatory
Taos
A week from now I suspect we will see an acceleration of this trend.
On a positive note the Banff areas have been refreshed with 2 feet during the first half of March, so all of you headed there soon should have excellent conditions.
Big Sky
Jackson
Snowbasin
Park City
Steamboat
Aspen/Snowmass
Monarch
Purgatory
Taos
A week from now I suspect we will see an acceleration of this trend.
On a positive note the Banff areas have been refreshed with 2 feet during the first half of March, so all of you headed there soon should have excellent conditions.
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EMSC
Well-known member
Like most of us I presume, I get plenty of marketing emails from ski places I have been to in the past 10-ish years or so. I typically feed them to a secondary folder then delete virtually all of them pretty quickly. But in this instance I saw a headline of closing for an Eagle Point, UT email. Today the 15th is their last day of the season. So I looked and even now the vast majority of their terrain including 100% of the steep stuff is already closed. The webcams look very sad to say the least.
snowave
Active member
Yes, we bought the 4-packs last spring. I doubt they'd give a rain check, but I guess I could ask. We have tentative plans yet again to go next week.
berkshireskier
Active member
I'm flying out to Banff this Sunday. The forecast for this week is mixed. Some sites, such as OpenSnow are showing some snow for the Banff ski areas and other sites, Accuweather, are showing some rain showers with warmer temps. So who knows what it will be like next week. But plenty of base. I spoke to a friend a few days ago who just got back from Colorado (he was at Keystone and he said it was lean, only a 27" base with very firm conditions). I also saw a video on social media from Park City showing someone "skiing" down a trail that was about 75% grass and dirt and the headline on the video was "You paid $315 to ski this".
I'd play it by ear and make a last minute call within the reliable weather forecasting window of 5 days or so. There is little margin for error in a season like this. You need a sunny week with Summit open, especially since Northwest is closed. But I would ask for the deferral first.
This season is anomalous for such a reliable area. In the first half of March it snowed 71 inches at Hood Meadows and only 20 at Bachelor.
Bachelor's current base depth of 44 inches is lower than the maximum base depth in any of the past 52 years including 1976-77. 88 of 1976-77's 146 inches snowfall came in March, max base 81 inches. The only other year in the conversation with this one is 2014-15, which had 201 inches snowfall and a max base of 53 inches. That base was attained in December because 126 inches of snow came before Dec. 31. Like this year, 2014-15 had several high altitude rain events. No other season has a max base depth less than 83 inches. Snowfall this season since Nov. 1 is 143 inches.
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Max rain/snow line this week at the Banff areas is 2000 meters, and it will be below the base of the ski areas starting Saturday. Is there any place you would rather ski in western North America the last week of March this season? I can't think of one.
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skiandgolfnut
Active member
I have Snowbird reservations the last weekend in March. Non-refundable 
Maybe I will stay in the valley and drive down valley for golf every day!
Maybe I will stay in the valley and drive down valley for golf every day!
Snowbird has a good base. See the recent TRs. The bad scenario is cooler weather with no new snow, which was last Tuesday/Wednesday and this past weekend. The sunny days have good spring skiing, which unfortunately means starting around 11AM thanks to the time change and Utah's far west position in its time zone. You could pay golf in the early morning and ski in the afternoon!
jimk
Well-known member
As Tony says, you have to get a little lucky with weather/temps. The snowpack at Snowbird is sufficient for good skiing for many weeks ahead. But for your specific dates you need either a substantial new snowfall (entirely possible), or mild spring days for good soft snow conditions. In the last 5 or 6 days we've had cool temps and no new snow which makes for firm conditions much of the day except for maybe Mineral Basin.I have Snowbird reservations the last weekend in March. Non-refundable
skiandgolfnut
Active member
That is reassuring, Evans daily opensnow reports are pretty apocalyptic but suppose those are statewide. My main concern is just the upcoming 5 day bake and the base falling apart. Seems like 4/5 nights of temps in the high 40s and above 60 during the day.
I have done the golf/ski trip before! Mid/end of April. People looked at me sidewise walking through SLC with both a ski bag and a golf bag. Stayed at the Hyatt Place right below the canyon and played the Old Mill public course right across the street. Teed off at dawn and was skiing by 10:30.
I have done the golf/ski trip before! Mid/end of April. People looked at me sidewise walking through SLC with both a ski bag and a golf bag. Stayed at the Hyatt Place right below the canyon and played the Old Mill public course right across the street. Teed off at dawn and was skiing by 10:30.
That won't happen in LCC but will happen elsewhere in Utah.
Thursday/Friday were fairly typical spring skiing (high temps ~50F) that LCC probably experiences a fair amount between storms in April. In March the softening process is slower, aggravated by the time change. Snow softens by the sun not the clock. I'd advocate LCC areas run at least a couple of weeks after the time change from 10AM - 5:15PM.
Skiandgolfnut should definitely plan to indulge both of his hobbies in the upcoming trip.
I have belatedly realized that @takeahike46er has provided a steady stream of informative Whistler plus local backcountry reports this season. I have broken them out into a separate thread.
For what it is worth, Whitefish defied the forecast today and it snowed top to bottom all day today. Temps stayed cold enough to ward off rain all day (20F at the summit at 3:45, and 30F in the parking lot at 4:30) and and snow surfaces on all aspects were very good all day long.
Bighorn Chutes at noon, soft, deep, steep:
Friends of Langley, 2:15:
Visibility outside of the trees, however, was poor-to-horrendous on the upper mountain all day. The morning was extra weird with freezing fog, in addition to the snow, although the temps were in the teens. In 52 years of skiing, I've never had such an issue with goggle icing. The quality of the snow only improved as the day went on and the freezing fog was done by noon or so.
By midafternoon, there was some legit powder to be skied in moderately pitched trees on the upper 2/3rds of Big Mountain.
Langley Trees, 3:55:
Castle had excellent conditions on Saturday and Sunday also. (By the way, I think I may be in love.)
Now we're headed south to ski slush on our Indy Passes, but avoid the rain, for the next few days.
Whitefish is a bit more resistant to rain than Red/Schweitzer/Fernie, glad it worked that way this time. In 2003 I switched a day from Fernie to Whitefish in similar conditions.Is this the first time I've convinced you to go there? I was fortunate to learn about Castle in 1999 when the Red chair was installed, thanks to Garry Klassen's cousin in Calgary. Since then I've skied there 23 days and 469K vertical, my 11th most skied location, passing Vail and Palisades with the two days this season.
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berkshireskier
Active member
I just watched a video from a "ski influencer" that was shot on Sunday, March 15 at Heavenly. Looked very lean (lots of bare spots and rocks), especially down low on the mountain. I didn't realize it was that bad.
I've wanted to get there for years, but on prior road trips it either has not worked out in terms of the forecast, or the additional driving was just going to be too much. This time the stars finally lined up. It has almost everything I value most in a ski area. I try to stay mostly offline on vacation, but I'll try to post a TR and including my thoughts on the resort sometime after we get home.
We definitely want to see the TR's, fine if they are after you get home.