Most mountains received their presents a day early as double-digit snow totals piled up this morning. Who cares if the temperatures are cold (it’s winter, after all) – get out there and enjoy the new snow and blue skies dancing with the clouds. Here’s some nice powder footage from Keystone (yes, I said Keystone).
Blue skies dancing with clouds over Keystone Mountain (Thursday @ 11am).
And thanks to everyone who has supported the Colorado Powder Forecast along the way, as the Boulder Daily Camera featured the site in today’s print edition and Tuesday’s online edition.
Forecast
- Thursday: Mostly sunny and glorious, but chilly.
- Friday: Light snow and mostly cloudy for areas north and east of Aspen (along I-70). Just a few inches at most. Otherwise, mostly sunny and dry.
- Saturday: Same as Friday, a bit less cloudy and snowy north and east of Aspen. Again for other areas, mostly sunny and dry.
- Sunday: Mostly sunny and warmer for the entire state. A few more clouds in the northern areas, but overall a great end to a great weekend.
- Monday: Partly cloudy and dry.
- Tuesday: Partly cloudy and generally dry. More clouds and the chance of very light snow in the southern part of the state.
- Wednesday: More clouds and a chance of snow in central and northern Colorado, likely later in the day.
- Thursday: The next potentially decent storm for the central and northern mountains, just in time for New Years. Stay tuned!
Snow Totals
The first part of the storm from the southwest was a little weaker than I expected, and snowfall in the San Juans didn’t quite live up to expectations. HOWEVER, the second and colder part of the storm – dropping down from the north – produced more light, fluffy snow than I expected for many areas from Aspen on north and east. Powderhorn won this round with 17″…some good luck never hurts! A full list of totals is at the bottom of this page, including the “0.1 inches” reported by Winter Park on Wednesday morning. Really? “0.1 inches”? Just saying “Trace” or “less than an inch” would be good enough:-)
Why did my forecast end up being incorrect for many places? The first part of the storm moving to the south of Colorado was weaker than expected, which meant that Wolf Creek and Silverton “only” received a half-foot of snow. Still, skiers reported some nice snow in the trees of Wolf Creek. The second part of the storm on Wednesday night came in from the north, and this part was a little stronger than expected – which is why we see some delicious double-digit totals from Aspen up through Beaver Creek, Steamboat, and Eldora.
| RESORT | TOTAL |
| Powderhorn | 17.0 |
| Aspen Mountain | 11.0 |
| Steamboat | 10.0 |
| Beaver Creek | 10.0 |
| Eldora | 10.0 |
| Echo | 9.0 |
| Snowmass | 9.0 |
| Winter Park | 8.6 |
| Keystone | 7.0 |
| Monarch | 7.0 |
| Silverton | 7.0 |
| Aspen Highlands | 6.0 |
| Breckenridge | 6.0 |
| Vail | 6.0 |
| Buttermilk | 6.0 |
| Copper | 6.0 |
| Durango | 6.0 |
| Wolf Creek | 6.0 |
| Telluride | 4.0 |
| Cooper | 4.0 |
| Crested Butte | 4.0 |
| Sunlight | 3.0 |
| Loveland | 3.0 |
| Abasin | 2.0 |
!UPDATE! A few more inches fell on Thursday night and Friday. I show the TOTAL storm accumulations from Tuesday PM through Friday PM below.
| RESORT | TOTAL |
| Powderhorn | 17.0 |
| Steamboat | 17.0 |
| Eldora | 13.0 |
| Aspen Mountain | 12.0 |
| Beaver Creek | 12.0 |
| Echo | 11.0 |
| Winter Park | 9.6 |
| Copper | 9.0 |
| Snowmass | 9.0 |
| Vail | 9.0 |
| Breckenridge | 8.0 |
| Keystone | 7.0 |
| Monarch | 7.0 |
| Silverton | 7.0 |
| Aspen Highlands | 6.0 |
| Buttermilk | 6.0 |
| Durango | 6.0 |
| Wolf Creek | 6.0 |
| Loveland | 5.5 |
| Abasin | 5.0 |
| Cooper | 5.0 |
| Crested Butte | 4.0 |
| Telluride | 4.0 |
| Sunlight | 3.0 |
Pretty good on Aspen mtn. today.
ted(from the gondola)
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Santa’s having a blast in Crested Butte, and locals are gearing up to hit 100″ of snow (so far), powder lovers!
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Hey Joel,
Where was that powder skiing at Keystone? I was there aswell and wish I need where to go to. The outback part that was open was pretty nice but nothing like the video!
Thanks
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nick – I don’t know where the video was shot at Keystone. If I had to bet, I would imagine it was in a closed area and the video was just shot for PR with a few “special” skiers. Somewhat false advertising, but it does look like some nice skiing.
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Telluride had some nice snow, but 4″ was a bit generous in their report, more like 2″. Really cold, 8 degrees at around 2:30 pm at top of Chair 14.
Hope everyone has a wonderful X-Mas and for those you in Steamboat & Aspen, tear it up!
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Assspen got it good. Riding was great. Heard Snowmass was delicious. We still need more snow. Manky out there.
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Great job again Joel,
Estes Park and RMNP got about 10″
We’ve had a very favorable pattern, with a lot of those San Juan/Front Range specials. But we also keep dodging the BIG ONE. It seems the storms have been falling apart before they can really crank and throw it upslope at us.
Ive heard things about the weakening El Nino will help bring these storms in a little more organized.
Any truth to it?
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Drove from Cheyenne home to Steamboat via Cameron today (80 was closed due to horrendous winds). At 3 there was probably 4 inches in the Diamond parking lot and snowing heavily. Just a little less on Rabbit Ears and snowing moderately. The poudre canyon is very icy and slow going for anyone headed up for some pow on saturday. Merry xmas.
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Thomas – thanks for the report! The Joe Wright SNOTEL up near the top of Cameron Pass showed a few tenths of liquid today today, so a few inches of snow sounds reasonable.
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We got decent snow up at Breck, Wed-Friday out of that storm. Considering how thin the cover has been, there was actually some decent lines due to some wind loading.
However, in the 17 seasons I have been skiing, I think Friday was the most brutal cold/wind I have ever felt.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEoHz56jWGY
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I was at SIlverton Mountain hoping that the 7″ was on top of some relatively light-skier pressure, but it was all ’setup’. The cold temps turned old tracks and previous skier pressure into concrete. The new terrain patrol opened for us was better in the aprons, but most of the runs were grabby from high winds compacting the top layer of the snowpack. Obviously, the overall experience was incredibly better than skiing groomers, but I brought the wrong skis down south this trip. The heli truns looked better on the west facing aspects, but I never had a chance to talk with anyone who was heli skiing yesterday. No carry-over into the next day for me, I drove back…I considered touring today, but based on the snowpack and depth hoar at Silverton, I’ll wait till spring to bag my backcountry lines. (What an incredible Mountain at Silverton, though, and my props and support to the team that is making this place remarkable)
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Prodigal Sun – many thanks (again) for your Silverton report. Very helpful for folks looking to see real-time condition with more detail than a webcam or 5am snow report!
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