Comments on: Presents a day early

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 19:59:28 +0000

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!

By: Prodigal Sun

Prodigal Sun — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:51:08 +0000

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)

By: DuBois

DuBois — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 15:56:14 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEoHz56jWGY

By: Forney

Forney — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 21:53:54 +0000

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.

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 05:46:42 +0000

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.

By: Thomas Scilacci

Thomas Scilacci — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 02:23:02 +0000

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.

By: DuBois

DuBois — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 15:19:50 +0000

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?

By: Carbondude

Carbondude — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 14:36:53 +0000

Assspen got it good. Riding was great. Heard Snowmass was delicious. We still need more snow. Manky out there.

By: BoulderGuy

BoulderGuy — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 06:00:38 +0000

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!

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 20:11:16 +0000

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.