Comments on: Rocks & snow, falling from the sky

By: skibum

skibum — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:15:28 +0000

Dear Joel, upon further thought, I bet that so much snow (guess 7%) fell in a short amount of time (guess a couple of hours). That it smashed itself down to only 11″ @ 11%. Hard to tell without an hour by hour snow study. Although the end result still was something amazing.

By: skibum

skibum — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 13:49:37 +0000

Yes, 11% of superfat stellar dendrites. Thats still about 89% air. It skied like a wet dream. I believe spring has arrived. Let the giant spring storms begin!! Just watch out for lightning out there!

By: alek

alek — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:22:20 +0000

Thanks for the response Joel – BTW, I forgot to say earlier that your website ROCKS!

Due to work constraints, we ended up at Winter Park today. Despite prediction of snow during the day, we never say any from the 9:30-3:00 that we were there – partly cloudy skies the entire time. Weather was much worse in Denver as we drove in at 4:30.

About 6″ of pow-pow in the trees (especially above Eagle Wind), so nothing epic, but some nice soft stuff (and no crowds) so certainly a decent day of skiing.

alek

P.S. We met at Boulder Ignite VII – loved your presentation, and awesome you were “dressed” for it in your ski gear.

I was the speaker who did the Antarctica talk – http://www.komar.org/faq/travel/vacation/antarctica/ignite/

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 21:05:29 +0000

This is a rogue little storm that is breaking off the main west-to-east flow and heading southeast from the Pac NW down into SW Texas. It will clip western and southern Colorado from Sat PM through Monday AM, though snow amounts are tough to forecast. At this point, I’d guess that Wolf Creek could get a nice sprinkling of new snow, but think that amounts will stay below double digits. I’ll update the forecast on Thursday…thanks for checking in!

By: F.d.V.

F.d.V. — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:57:23 +0000

Hey Joel,
NOAA is calling for a storm system for late Saturday into Sunday for the Southern San Juan(WC)…any ideas on the intensity and timing of this system

By: Sterling Spike

Sterling Spike — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:45:35 +0000

@ alek- I agree w/ Joel, based on his forecast WP will ski well on Thursday. WP has been skiing really well since the end of Jan. Knee deep snow is there if you look in the right spots!

@ Lucas- think about which slopes face directly North at Copper. Ski accordingly and enjoy the softer, deeper faces. It skied great yesterday.

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:00:03 +0000

Will do! And for everyone else…I’m happy to talk with any school or other groups, not just first grade;-)

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:59:34 +0000

I’m not an expert at Copper, but all the back areas and Union Peak were fun. Midweek crowds (or lack of them) make it pretty easy and stress free to find some stashes.

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:58:45 +0000

Thursday. Could snow Wed and Wed night into Thurs. Like my reply above, not looking at huge totals (3-6″ by Thurs AM) but the best snow will likely be on Thurs allowing for another 24hrs of accumulation.

By: Joel Gratz

Joel Gratz — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:57:37 +0000

Eh…I’m not overly optimistic about big snow Wed/Thurs. I think the best day to ski will be Thurs, letting more snow pile up Wed and Wed night into Thursday. I think WP will get more than Copper out of this storm, but the totals will be 2-4″ or 3-6″? It could go higher, but I am just not confident in a big storm, so don’t want to get you overly excited. My pick? Thurs @ Winter Park.