Area Sum of Days Sum of Vertical Sum of Powder
Mt. Baldy 6 82.2 5
Mt. Waterman 1 1.2 0
Mountain High (West) 1 19.9 0
Mt. High East (Holiday Hill) 2 33.8 1
Mammoth 9 238.9 0
Snow Summit 1.5 32.4 1
Bear Mt. 0.5 13 0
Snowbird 4 57.4 3
Alta 2 40.3 4
Arapahoe Basin 1 12.5 0
Brighton 0.5 8 0
Solitude 0.5 18.5 0
Fernie 2 42.9 0
Castle Mt. 2 44.9 0
Sunshine Village 1 24.7 0
Kicking Horse 1 17.9 0
Mt. Rose 1 24.1 1
Revelstoke 1 20.3 0
Mustang Powder Snowcat 3 58.7 55
*China Peak 1 16.5 10
Grand Total 41 808.1 80
* = 1 new area, a record low since 1998
revised June 3
Getting in
7 days since the March 14-15 general ski area shutdown was an unexpected upside surprise,
and I incorrectly guessed I was done after May 1.
As mentioned above the season was by far a low point by most measures since 2004. Days "lost" vs. a normal season were up to 10 in the second half of January (we were planning on Utah and Jackson) after Liz' injury and at least 15 to the COVID-19 shutdown, most of that from the cancelled trip to the Alps. I managed 20 days on base Ikon.
This was also an unlucky season in terms of powder and snow conditions in general. Over 2/3 of the powder I skied was during the 3 days at Mustang. Lift served powder percentage of 3.3% was the lowest since 1995. Average is 9.0% lifetime and 10.8% since 2004.
So Mustang stands out conspicuously as the highlight with an above average trip even by its high standards. It's hard to think of other areas where conditions were clearly above average by the standards of my prior visits. Sunshine Village is the only one that comes to mind. This is definitely bad timing on my part because by snow stats this season was close to average over most of North America.
Tony Crocker:105xzy9t said:
jamesdeluxe:105xzy9t said:
Look at all the days Tony is getting in locally -- going back to his roots!
Yes it's reminiscent of my formative seasons in 1978 and 1979 and when Adam was a baby in 1985. Those were much better seasons than this one so far though.
The 7 local days this season are the most since I skied 9 in 2000-01. But I may be done with SoCal for this season unless the weather turns cooperative. Starting Feb. 9 I will be at Mammoth, then in Canada, then at Iron Blosam for most of the next 5 weeks.
A prescient observation by James and a bad prediction on my part for the rest of the season. The final number of local days was 12, exceeded only by the 16 in my formative 1978-79 season. That's more than the record El Ninos of 1982-83 (11 days) and 1997-98 (9 days).
During some of the March downtime I modified my records to split Mt. High East and West. I skied the former Holiday Hill 3x before the 1981 takeover by Mt. High, same situation as Snow Summit taking over Bear Mt. 21 years later. The original notes post-1981 always mentioned whether I skied one or both sides of Mt. High with enough comments about runs skied to make a ballpark estimate in splitting the vertical.
While this was far below the standards of my prior retirement seasons, the glass is still half full. The worst day skiing is still better than being stuck at home, so getting
41 of them this season is worth something. I never exceeded 32 days during the 21 years of my first marriage.
The saga of Patrick should be interesting the next few months.