Out for a powder examination at Vail on a bluebird Monday morning.
I hope you played in the snow over the last week! Almost the entire state of Colorado was covered in a thick, white blanket of fluff. I was one of the last cars over Red Mountain Pass on Thursday evening, and arrived in Silverton just in time to see 22″ of snow fall in 11 hours. They have a great Avalanche school in Silverton – well worth the drive if you can take a long weekend. I learned a ton and realized that taking multiple Level I avy classes, from different teachers, if very helpful. Food for thought if you play in the backcountry.
Dumping snow (2-3" per hour) on Silverton's main street. Thursday night, January 21st.
Continue on to see the forecast, a recap of the last storm, and a teaser about this week’s Adventure Film School.
Forecast
I am about to be offline through Friday afternoon at the Adventure Film School (more below), but here are my snowy thoughts for this week and upcoming weekend.
- Tuesday: Mostly cloudy, with light snow mainly north of Crested Butte. Totals should be light (just a few inches).
- Wednesday: After a morning break from the snow, the flakes fly once more. Decent snows should fall in the central and southern mountains by Thursday morning.
- Thursday: Likely 5-10″ for Crested Butte, Monarch, Telluride, Silverton, Durango, and Wolf Creek by midday. Totals should be 2-5″ for Aspen, Sunlight, Vail, Beaver Creek, Cooper, and Copper. Other areas might see only an inch or two. Snow comes to an end by afternoon.
- Friday: Partly to mostly sunny and generally dry. Can’t rule out a bit of light snow across the higher peaks, though.
- Saturday: Partly to mostly sunny and generally dry. Can’t rule out a bit of light snow across the higher peaks, though. (yes, this is a carbon copy of Friday’s forecast)
- Sunday: Clouds increase through the day, with light snow starting around evening for the Steamboat area, and heading toward the I-70 resorts later in the night.
- Mon>Wed (Feb 1-3): Looks like a chance for more snow, favoring the northern and central mountains. Stay tuned!
Storms #3 & #4
For the most part, my forecast for Storms #1, #2, #3, and #4 was right on. The San Juans (Durango, Wolf Creek, Silverton) of course saw the most snow – 50-75″. In just this one storm, snowfall amounts totaled more than 10% of the YEARLY average snow. Amazing, but typical for big southwest Colorado snowstorms.
Not so typical was the 141 mph wind gust at around 3am on Friday (Jan 22) morning at Eagle weather station (~13,000ft) just west of Red Mountain Pass in the San Juans. This extremely high wind speed was definitely an outlier as other nearby weather stations didn’t record winds this high. But a cold front did move through at around 3am, so it’s very possible this 141 mph wind gust is legitimate.
Areas in the central mountains SURPRISED ME and saw up to twice as much snow as I expected. Crested Butte received 21″ from Storms #3 and #4, and the powder helped them to open their fantastic steep terrain. Just over the mountains from CB, the skies dumped 26″ on Monarch and 14″ in the bowl at Aspen Highlands.
As promised, Sunday morning was also a good time to get first chair at Vail and Steamboat. About 15″ fell at Vail from Saturday night through Sunday, and “face shots” were plentiful at 8:45am on Sunday morning. Steamboat reported 12″, with some deeper and lighter powder hiding in pockets around the summit. As I said – I hope you played in the snow over the last few days!
Adventure Film School
We all have cameras that shoot video, but how do we use video to tell a compelling story that other people (aside from your mom or dad) want to watch? I’m not sure, but I’m looking forward to finding out over the next week.
Michael Brown and Serac Films will guide students through the steps to create a great adventure film, using the backcountry setting around Janet’s Cabin near Copper Mountain. I’ll be out with the Adventure Film School – talking weather, of course – during the week, so stay tuned for some great footage and inside info on filmmaking. Look for another email on Saturday with an update on next week’s storm. Have a great week!
Bonus!
I leave you with the amazing totals from the combined force of Storms #1, #2, #3, and #4.
| RESORT | TOTAL |
| Wolf Creek | 67.0 |
| Silverton | 56.0 |
| Durango | 55.0 |
| Telluride | 36.5 |
| Powderhorn | 33.5 |
| Monarch | 30.5 |
| Vail | 30.0 |
| Crested Butte | 28.0 |
| Sunlight | 22.0 |
| Snowmass | 21.0 |
| Aspen Highlands | 16.0 |
| Breckenridge | 15.0 |
| Steamboat | 14.5 |
| Beaver Creek | 13.0 |
| Aspen Mountain | 12.0 |
| Copper | 12.0 |
| Loveland | 11.8 |
| Buttermilk | 11.0 |
| Winter Park | 9.5 |
| Cooper | 9.0 |
| Keystone | 9.0 |
| Abasin | 7.3 |
| Eldora | 1.5 |
| Echo | 0.0 |
Haha, Echo.
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Looks like I need to gas-up the truck again, and drive for double digits. Thanks again, Gratzo….Silverton was indeed rowdy: dynamite, helicopters and fat skis. I can’t think of a better mix. Great to see you down there!
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I was in South Fork for the storm skiing at WC. DEEP!
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You’re killing me. There’s no (real) snow in Miami but everytime we read the CPF my wife wants me to book flights and a hotel. Where’s the best places to go for my wife to ski and me to eat?
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Nice call on the last storm Joel. It was interesting to see #3 and #4 work north. We need to get out to ski soon.
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Ullr hath forsaken the front range
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Joel,
Is this typical storm activity for Colorado? It seems that the southern parts of Colorado is getting most of the snow.
I was just out in Utah last weekend and envy the amount of snow they’re getting compared to the central parts of Colorado.
Nick
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Silverton SAS course: Anyone heading to Silverton this weekend for the lvl 1 course?
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sunlight was awesome!!!
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Hey Joel! It was fun running into you in Silverton. Sunday was EPIC, and we were able to get our Heli drop in on the last run after it cleared a little and visibility improved. Hope you don’t get yourself into any more bar fights, and you keep your teeth in!!
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Thanks for the great call on the storms, Joel.
I though I’d provide some input on my experiences this weekend. We stayed a long weekend in Breckenridge. Saturday we were at Vail, it snowed on and off, heavy at times, and while they had snow, it was pretty wind-whipped, especially on the backside, unless you were in the trees. Sunday we were at Breck and it was cold, windy, and blowing snow. Unless you were in the trees it was wind-whipped, chunky, and very sticky. We also felt Breck consistently over-reported (both from what we got at the condo, and from on the Mt.); more like 4″ rather than 6″. Monday at Vail the snow was great, but it was packed with people (more than Saturday)!
Glad winter is finally here! Keep up the good work, Joel!
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Gratzo, bar fight? You should’ve chucked your beer that the band. that music was pushing 120 db. stupid loud, I couldn’t even have a yelling conversation with you.
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Gratzo, bar fight? You should’ve chucked your beer at the band. that music was pushing 120 db. stupid loud, I couldn’t even have a yelling conversation with you.
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Any thoughts on whether this El Nino is weakening?
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Nick – the snow pattern this winter looks typical for Colorado in an El Nino year. More snow in the south…
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Lisa – glad you got a heli drop in Silverton! That’s awesome…I need to see pictures. Thankfully the drunk guy in the bar stayed in his room after you left. I’m a skier – not a fighter!
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Scratch – many thanks for the detailed report! Breck does seem to get some higher snow totals in their reports, but perhaps it’s the location of the measuring stake and a bit of extra wind.
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Tony Clapp – I posted a note about El Nino in the latest post on Feb 1st. In general it is weakening, but should be around through spring and will continue to have an effect on our snow pattern through the remainder of our winter.
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