Our latest round of winter storms have offered up the best skiing and riding conditions of the season. On Tuesday and Wednesday a storm that was in the Southwest United States phased with a colder system coming out of the Pacific Northwest. This storm was wet and windy and most resorts around the state saw close to a foot of snow, at or above 8,000 feet. These two systems met right on top of the Beehive State and the results were wonderful. Beautiful base building snow! Just what the doctor ordered.
While the Wednesday system delivered the largest accumulations, the trailing system delivered a surprise round of graupel which totally set the table for amazing groomer skiing over the holiday weekend. Honestly, the skiing was fantastic. For those of you who don’t know what graupel is, it’s essentially a little snowball with a lot of moisture in it. When they fall on the slopes they look like little ball bearings or dip and dots ice cream. Creamy, smooth turns are the result. It’s like your skiing on frosting! It’s awesome!
Here are the Snow Totals from the last week:
Alta 22”
Beaver 8”
Brian Head 15”
Brighton 21”
Cherry Peak 3”
Eagle Point 19”
Powder Mountain 18”
Snowbasin 7”
Snowbird 23”
Solitude 17”
Sundance 4”
A couple of these official snow reports look really light to me. I’ve heard first-hand accounts that Beaver, Snowbasin and Park City all received a bit more than reported. Check out these instagram videos and photos from around the State last week and see for yourself.
Alta
Beaver
Brian Head
Brighton
Deer Valley
Snowbasin
Now for more exciting news. As January rolls on it looks like we will finally see a flip in the weather pattern. As Evan from Open Snow has been telling us over the past couple weeks, the storm door will officially open up this weekend. How long it will stay open is yet to be determined. The major take aways from the pattern that is forecasted to set up is quite simple. Finally, we will have storms making a run at us from the North West. Storms coming from the Gulf of Alaska are cold and moist. These are the types of systems that bring snow to valley floor. You can rest assured if it’s snowing in the valley than it sure as heck will be snowing in the mountains.
Here is what the Climate Prediction Center is forecasting for the next 6-10 days
