Brighton is getting ready to fire up the lifts this Wednesday. Don’t miss out on what is sure to be an epic opener. It’s snowing in the mountains AGAIN today. So get ready. I’ll update when I find out what lifts they are planning top open. Also, Solitude opens on Friday.
In other news, Pika’s of the world watch out. Ride Utah’s Josh Scheurman wants to be your friend.
Just got back from Snowbasin, where we spent the morning riding in a driving snow storm. The snow was falling about as heavy as I’d ever seen it snow. I think the Lake Effect snow gun was pointed directly at Snowbasin this morning. We’d take a run, circle back to the same area 20 minutes later and our tracks were totally gone. It was unreal. Afterwards I treated myself to a burger at Earl’s Lodge which has some of the best resort food anywhere. The drive back to SLC was especially gnarly, the usual 45 minute trip ended up taking two hours, it was puking snow so hard that we were driving blind through a blizzard. There was about 17 inches of snow when we got to Snowbasin in the morning and it probably snowed another 8 inches while we were there.
If you’re getting out and about, keep in mind that the avalanche danger is high right now. Anytime you get snow like this it is going to add significant weight to the snow pack and increase the avalanche danger.
According to the National Weather Service, it doesn’t look like this storm pattern we’ve been in for the last month is going to let up. I know that everyone here in our offices hope that it never does. See you on the slopes.
5 days in L.A. at the Ski Dazzle show at the L.A. Convention Center was not where I had hoped to be when it’s snowing in Utah. But, if me heading out of town is what it takes to make it dump two feet, then, I’m glad to take one for the team. The show was fine and I was able to visit some friends in the area. I was hoping to squeeze in a little surfing on one of my mornings off, but, the ocean was flatter than the Great Salt Lake while I was there. So, par for the course I guess.
Here are some shots that I got from the resorts of that last round of snow.
Thanks to this latest round of snow and continued cold temperatures the resorts have been opening new lifts and more terrain. Most resorts also have some park features up and running. Ride Utah’s fearless reporter Josh Scheuerman has been making the rounds of these resorts and posting the latest. When the real parks get going we’ll be posting full updates in the terrain parks section.
The really good news is that there is more snow on the way. Here is the latest forecast from our man Bruce Tremper at the Utah Avalanche Center:
But the big news is that we should get a big, wet, closed low pressure system, which looks like it will give us 1-2 feet of snow by the end of the weekend. The action should begin on Friday and last through Sunday. The center of the low pressure should come right over us, which makes the storm tricky because if we remain in the eye of the storm, there isn’t enough wind to push the moist air up the mountains and the mountains end up with the same amount of precipitation as the valleys. Hopefully, the center of the low will wander a bit and give us a much-need shot of snow.
The extended forecast calls for a steady series of storms next week, which will be more of the classic, northwest-flow storms that we know and love.
Anyway, let’s hope this dump pans out and we can all get ours. I’ll be out with a camera in hand to document the action. Stay tuned and keep praying for snow.