Western North America Conditions 2025/26

berkshireskier said:
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.
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Northstar also looks bad. Following photo was posted with comment "I don't see how Northstar even makes past this weekend, let alone to this weekend." This is at top of Big Springs gondola which is about 500 higher than their 6330' base. They claim 50" base on 250" of snow for season.
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Weather station near our S. Tahoe cabin hit 65 today. I saw very little snow last Wed. AM in S. Tahoe, only in shade where plows had piled it up.

This morning's prediction on local TV for San Jose was low 90s Tues-Fri. My house is in a warm area and got to 93 today at 3:15 PM.
 
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Happy St. Paddy's Day 2026 from Snowbird, UT. Spring has sprung ... a little too early o_O
jim 17 mar 2026 clear.jpeg


Today was gorgeous, but it's going to be hot and sunny this week (80+ degs next four days in Salt Lake Valley). This will put a pretty good hit on the snowpack here. We have good coverage now, but it looks better than it really is. The snowpack overall is low for this time of year and we'll suffer if temps don't return to seasonably cool soon. I'm driving to Banff in a couple days for a two week trip, hope to outrun the heat and find frozen precip, not liquid. May not post here for a while.
Will there be some decent skiing when I return to UT? Usually I have two more months of skiing at the Ides of March and April is in many ways my favorite month, but not sure about this season?
 
tseeb said:
Email from Homewood, CA, located on the West shore of Lake Tahoe and has a low base elevation, includes closing date of 3/22:
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Homewood closed on St. Patrick's Day. Sfgate says they were open less than 3 months. They may have not been open 80 days.

Palisades sounds like they will not make it to Memorial Day and may not make it into May. I have yet to ski there this season.
From https://blog.palisadestahoe.com/operations/march-17-operations-update/

"Palisades Updates
  • Granite Chief is now closed for the season, with snow being farmed from that zone to help preserve coverage and access around Shirley Lake Express.
  • Resort Chair is expected to close after Sunday (3/22) due to diminishing snowpack.
    • Red Dog remains on the schedule but will operate day-to-day based on conditions.
  • Exhibition is now closed for the season as crews shift snow resources to maintain Mountain Run.
  • Headwall Express will run through this weekend (March 21 – 22), with a goal to continue operations into next weekend (March 29), conditions permitting. Operations will be evaluated day by day, so please check the daily lift status for the latest updates.
    • Terrain will still be accessible via Siberia and the Reverse Traverse, as conditions allow.
  • KT-22 will continue operating as long as ski-up access to the base terminal is possible and is now operating as Experts Only terrain.
    • Once that is no longer feasible, KT terrain will remain accessible via the Base to Base Gondola, with continued access dependent on conditions.
Alpine Updates
  • Sherwood, Lakeview, Scott, and Subway are now closed for the season.
  • Crews are actively farming snow to maintain load ramps and operations for:
    • Summit
    • Roundhouse
    • Treeline Cirque
  • The current Alpine footprint, including Yellow, Meadow, and the Big Carpet, is expected to remain consistent through the weekend.
Looking Ahead

With continued snow farming and the incredible work of our grooming team, we are hopeful to maintain Mountain Run into early April (targeting around April 5), though this remains condition-dependent.
  • Palisades operations are currently planned through April
  • Alpine is expected to operate into early April (first or second weekend)
    • This timeline may adjust depending on snowpack and base area access"
 
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From Mammoth Snowman today:
As of Monday afternoon, all runs from Top to bottom have converted over with a full spring thaw. Looking back over the years, that is the earliest I can find a thaw on NE aspects this early in the boreal spring.

The groomers should, for the most part, be wet and soft from the first chair at 8:30 AM. If the mountain has started its salting, that might not be the case. With the very warm June-like days this week, the best time for the groomers will be before 11 AM. The best snow will be from Canyon over to the Outpost.

Little Eagle is now very low tide and should be used for access only. On Monday, the Cat crew was pushing snow down towards the base to keep one side of the bottom runout open for as long as possible.

Up Top, the snowpack finally thawed yesterday afternoon. Dave’s, Climax, Sign Line, Cornice, Scotties, and the Lower Drop Out Apron were all amazing spring snow. Should be more of the same all this week into Saturday.

The Base at Main Lodge is currently at 5 feet with 8+ feet of base over the upper mountain. A few lifts are expected to run through at least Memorial Day.
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With local population base and K-12 spring breaks the SoCal areas would usually shoot for the weekend after Easter. Median closing date for Baldy is April 15. Baldy also closed March 15 this year, but like all the natural snow terrain here was only worth considering the weekend of Feb. 21-22.
It snowed 3+ feet Feb. 18-20, opening much more terrain for the weekend of Feb. 21-22. However the ensuing week's heat wave (68F at Big Bear) melted most of that snow, and open terrain fell back to less than half before the next weekend.

2013-14 to date had the earliest closures: Baldy never open, Mt. High end of February, Snow Summit and Snow Valley March 17, and finally Bear Mt. March 30. That was the second driest season in my records, estimate 29 inches snowfall vs. 51 this season.

L.A. Basin is in the 90's this week but will still be in the 80's next week. Despite Easter being April 5, I will be very surprised if anyone in SoCal is open after March 29.

In the past 58 years I estimate the SoCal ski areas have had 5 seasons drier than this one. But the 7 days of all-rain storms over the holidays prevented the usual ramp up in snowmaking and the heat has degraded the past month. So compared to this chart, 2025-26 has exactly that ONE B weekend Feb. 21-22 that I classify as "worth skiing" vs. a minimum of 6 weekends rated C or higher in the other 4 worst seasons with red totals. 1985-86 was the only other season where the very bad overall result was more due to high elevation rain than to drought.
 
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The expected contraction of Vail's Back Bowls in this weather is well underway. Blue Sky and China Bowl are closed, and only half the runs to the High Noon chair are open. Do not be misled by Vail's 66% trail count, as it has to be less than half of acreage open.

Other declines in the past 6 days are modest, but would normally be unheard of in Colorado at this time of year.
A-Basin 73% - 66%
Aspen 85% - 80%
Crested Butte 83% - 62%
Beaver Creek 78% - 71%
Breck 85% - 80%
Copper 95% - 65% !!!
Keystone 80% - 77%
Purgatory 84% - 75%
Steamboat 77% March 1 - 65% March 15 and now

Here's a chart courtesy of OpenSnow's Alan Smith showing how widespread the record heat is. The predominant purple color show areas setting March monthly records.
March2026HighTempRecords.jpg
 
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Tony Crocker said:
A-Basin 73% - 66%
Copper 95% - 65% !!!
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Have friends from NC who booked a condo for a week in Frisco for next week after a week in SLC. Was planning on using Ikon at ABasin and Copper. They started at Winter Park. Didn't turn out to be the best winter to decide to drive out to the Rockies for a 3-week ski trip.
 
A-Basin and Copper are among the top 5 in North America in snow preservation due to altitude and primary north exposure. The marginal/closed sectors are in high wind exposed terrain when it's hard for snow to accumulate. When snowpack is super thin, sun exposed rocks will accelerate melting of nearby snow in this weather.

By long term stats it's hard to imagine a safer advanced booked plan than the one MarzNC's friends chose. Still, the current weather was forecast at the beginning of March, and Colorado's awful season was well known then. It's surely not necessary to book lodging far in advance in SLC or Frisco. I have to mention that only yesterday did I book our lodging in Zermatt starting next Monday.

Advance lodging commitments are a trap. Sure, there are certain time frames and/or premium locations (cat skiing lodges in my case) where they are necessary. But for the vast majority of ski scenarios, no. Recall I was just on the road for 5 weeks. The only other advance booked lodgings were my Snowbird timeshare plus 2 days in Big Sky at an Airbnb to avoid the exorbitant hotels there.

MarzNC's friends' situation is ironic because advance booked air travel is usually what locks in an itinerary. Without that constraint it should have been easy to go to the Alps or western Canada instead.

Back in 2017 jason laid down the gauntlet about refusing
to charge head first into a sh%t storm [of known bad conditions] hoping that it turns out ok..
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I saw this on Facebook but can't find it again there or on Heavenly's website. Post I saw said North Bowl and Olympic chairs are done for the season and that Stagecoach may not be skiable all day which would require downloading gondola then taking a 5-mile shuttle to return to parking. Boulder, Galaxy and Mott Canyon are closed for the season. Even though I may get some April days at Kirkwood, this will be the second year in a row that I get more days on my Ikon that on my under $500 Senior Tahoe Local Value pass.

Local paper says it was 69/28 in South Lake Tahoe and 77/29 in Truckee on Thursday. Prediction for Friday are 64/49 and 77/40, respectively.

Today, the first day of Spring, is supposed to be the last day of 90 or more in Bay Area. My weather station had 97 on Tuesday, 98 Thursday and went over 100 on Wed. I went to Capitola on Wed to help friend who lost a foot an infection on beach in Thailand. He's moving from downstairs to upstairs in his family's house on Soquel Creek 1/2 mile from ocean. It got into the 80s there but cooled off quickly in late afternoon. On Thursday we got out of heat going to Shark game. We have not had to run air as our house has stayed in the 70s during the day and cooled down to 70 upstairs overnight.
 
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Bogus Basin closes this season this weekend.

I've heard from several people, Tamarack is closing, too.. but I've yet to find any info on that.

This is a recent photo of Bogus' snow preserving "tarp" they're using again this summer.

IMG_0380.jpeg
 
Do those tarps really preserve that much snow over the long hot summers you can have out west? It seems sort of crazy to me. It must be expensive to buy those tarps and set them up and take them down. Plus, how much terrain can you cover?
 
berkshireskier said:
Do those tarps really preserve that much snow over the long hot summers you can have out west? It seems sort of crazy to me. It must be expensive to buy those tarps and set them up and take them down. Plus, how much terrain can you cover?
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Yes, they did it last summer, and preserved the snow remarkably well... It's more about piling up the snow about 10 ft deep into smaller areas, vs covering runs. Sure, it would take quite a bit of these systems to make a large impact on the resort, but it's something that could be considered in the future planning, kinda of along the lines snowmaking budgets, etc. No to mention, it's environmentally firendly.

bogusbasin.org

Snow Secure at Bogus Basin

Your Bogus Basin team does anything to extend your time on snow, even if it means storing it over the summer season! Last summer, we experimented with Snow Secure – a snow storage technology invented in Finland – and it worked! Keep reading to learn about this pilot program, and our big plans...
bogusbasin.org

unofficialnetworks.com

Bogus Basin Completes Successful Summer Experiment With Snow Storage Technology

Idaho's non-profit ski area, Bogus Basin, shared information related to an experiment with Snow Secure, a snow storage technology.
unofficialnetworks.com unofficialnetworks.com
 
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