Is Colorado's snowpack always this shitty?

rememberscott

rememberscott

Active member
Everyone talks about the "epic" season two years ago where many places saw 600"

Last year was shitty and now this season is even worse. Most resorts have around 50" base (which is generous) and Breck - whose probably had the best snow in summit county has a total of 220" so far this season.

So what's the deal? Will the snow come back to Colorado, or will it always suck?
 
It really doesnt suck that bad. Everyone just complains and complains but it could be so much worse. Also breck has had shit for snow they lie constantly about their snowpack. I'd say Beaver creek or Vail have had the best season and it hasn't been too bad.
 
I'm pretty sure that last year was worse for summit county, and if you really wanted a ton of powder I wouldn't come to Colorado for that. I'm pretty sure that steamboat has had a decent year and I've had plenty of fresh snow and coverage at vail.
 
haha very true! and it's awesome weather to work in, but when the main groomers have rocks show and there is grass coming up in the maze you kind of shake your head..
 
Vail- 220" Beaver - 197" season totals on both of their websites. Breck generally does well with the storms along I-70?

You're right though it could be alot worse, and I'm not trying to complain. End of February into March we got our share. most of the terrain at resorts are open but the snowpack is still super low, and it's been 50 degrees the last two days! I'm just curious as to how common these last two seasons are... is it usually like this?

 
Unfortunately, I've only been in CO the past two years, so I didn't get to experience that epic winter... But this season has definitely turned out to be better than last. We still have a month of snow to look forward to. And the brilliant sunshine is a pretty solid alternative. As far as it normally being like this, no just look at the average snowfalls, we haven't even been close to average the last two seasons so I would tend to say they are a bit of an anomaly. All in all, fun place to ski and live, but if you're looking for deep pow all season, head north and/or west for your best chances.
 
too far south? you can't compare Summit County with Telluride or Wolf Creek, usually they have way mroe consistently deep winters and they are farther south. But yeah Steamboat does good when other don't and Winter Park can catch plains effect storms that Vail wont.

This season started out shitty but has ended fairly good, if it started good, and then we had the same february and early march we had now, everyone would be stoked.
 
I'm from wisconsin where you usually get like 50" of snow a year, so living in colorado, even with these few shitty winters we've had, is not that bad
 
Yeah bro I'm from Michigan, and I dream of living out there, even if they get below average winters like the past two.
 
I mean this comparing CO to WY, MT, BC, basically Northern Rockies. And UT is same latitude, but still gets more intense sun than more north, which effs with snowpack stability if it's not grey and dumping everyday.
 
Wolf creek got 400 in last year in a bad year.they Have more snow than everywhere outside a couple pnw resorts after a record dry november.
 
I didn't create this thread to complain about the amount of snow CO is getting, I just want to hear everyone else's opinion about Colorado's snowpack.
 
I ski summit a couple times a year. MLK weekend and a week at the end of March. Its normally terrible, icy and full of Texans. Hell, we only have like a 10 ft base here in oregon and thats low for us after a really mild winter. 40 inches is a joke. Summit is only good for park. Id love to ski steamboat or wolf creek on a pow day though.
 
and even 50 is generous. i can remember maybe 2 times this year we got 6+ inches in a single storm. and then it rains the next day and its all gone
 
Completely different climate and terrain. Sure it's not that bad when all you do is ski park, u could be doing that back at Wisco (who's actually had a great season for snow). Keystone is lucky enough to waste water and build a park in November, regardless of mother nature.

In reality, this season has been below average. Did anyone notice the wildfire's last summer? This season started shitty, got better and was good for a bit but we still need more water!
 
You cant compare base depth with an area that gets wet snow all the time to an area that gets blower all the time. summit's snow is bad but its not that bad.
 
Blower snow all the time? Have you ever been to summit? I guarantee you next friday im going to be scraping rocks and losing an edge on icy bullshit. Its terrible skiing. Awesome parks but thats where it ends.
 
I meant when it does snow. Wet snow=better bases, dry snow= better powder skiing.

I am a little biased because the only time i go to summit is when the skiing in Southern Colorado/ northern NM sucks like 2010-2011, when it was great in summit, but i think some of summit's terrain is very underrated like pali.I hope you can get a powder day there and maybe it will change your mind.

 
Id love to ski some pow there. i see these videos of dudes in tits deep pow at steamboat and i drool over it. And yea, storm for storm their snow is better. We just happen to get 10 times as many storms
 
Colorado, Wyoming = Continental SnowpackUtah = Inter-continental Snowpack

California and areas above it along the coast = Maritime Snowpack

Continental Snowpack- least amount of snow, lots of sun, high alpine dry, cold climate, low density snow

Inter-continental Snowpack - more snow, low density snow, warmer climate

Maritime Snowpack- most snow, high in density, warmest climate

Colorado as state claims the highest amount of Avalanche deaths and doubles the state , Utah, that is second to Colorado in avi deaths.

Colorado = great place to live, however, lowest amount of snow out of all the western rocky mtn states to ski. Very long season to ski though

You are ignorant if you think park skiing is the only thing in summit county. You just love the park that much. Believe or not there are locals here who actually ski outside the park all the time. They have been living here longer than most of the park kids have been alive and contribute the community. Breckenridge averages only 280 a year, it just gets skied so much that the runs are torn up. You can still have fun on them though.

Yes I understand the parks are awesome I ski them too, however, go freeski around once in awhile and you will have fun.
 
A quality response, I appreciate it.. Park is fun and all and I've been skiing a lot more of it the last two seasons but I want some real lines and some drops into that chest deep powdaa! I know that it can happen in Colo but you have to catch the right pow day and this season, there weren't many. So fuck it, I'm going to B.C. for a winter or two or three :)
 
I can't complain at all living in Colorado. Like someone said earlier, we have a really long season (mid October to mid May average) which is 7 months.

And yes there are usually very few big pow days ( 10 inches or more) but we get consistent storms that bring fresh snow frequently from December through March. Personally, I love skiing cliffs so those 4 months the past 3 years (yes including last season with the exception of December and late March) have been ideal for that, just because there's nice landings most of the time.

Summit and Eagle County are very crowded for most of the season though. Sometimes on a powday you will ski a run, wait in line for the chair, and then find the run completely skied out. But the great thing about Colorado is the park. When the snow conditions are "bad" and the crowds are big there is always the park. Even though Breck's park can get very crowded along with Keystone on occasion (those are 2 of the best parks in the world though), there is a large variety of features at most parks and the runs are pretty lengthy. Plus there a lot of blue bird days too.

So while Colorado may not have the snow numbers that Baker or somewhere has, it still has a lot of other positives that many places don't have.
 
Seriously shut up. Whining about 50 inches? My mountain probably has around 5 inches. There's mud patches everywhere. Be greatful for what you have.
 
Steamboat had a pretty nice year I got 3 days of over 20 inches of powder, although i'm not sure how it compares to the rest of colorado
 
Here are plots comparing this year to last year, 2011, and average:

South Platte River Basin (Loveland/Eldora):

621190.gif

ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/snow/watershed/daily/basinplotco13.gif

Colorado River Basin (Summit/Vail/Aspen/Winter Park):

621191.gif

ftp://ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/CO/Snow/snow/watershed/daily/basinplotsp13.gif

Othere Colorado basins:

http://www.co.nrcs.usda.gov/snow/snow/watershed/current/daily/maps_graphs/swe_time.html

Definitely way below average and even less snow than last year, but I honestly think its skied pretty well all things considered. The real issue is how fucked everyone is going to be when it comes to water this summer.
 
Bingo. This snowpack is the water supply for everyone east of the rockies. Eldora has had three 10" to 14" storms this winter with a couple 6" days but most of it just blows away. I was fortunate to get some turns in tho

 
ive lived in co my whole life and ill say this is the worst season we've had scince a while i had a couple of good pow days at breck and vail lets hope next seasons better
 
Iv lived in colorado my whole life and seen some gnarly winters, itll come back its just natural trends but skiing this past weekend at crested butte it was fifty degrees and raining so all we can hope is that next yr is better
 
In Pennsylvania my ski season was mid December to mid march.. In colorado it's mid October to mid may.. That's perfectly fine with me
 
Front range is doing worse than last year though... The entire eastern half of the state might just explode in september, just one massive fireball of burning pine trees. shit.
 
I definitely agree about the natural variability thing brother. But gotta wonder if we are beginning to see the effects of climate change - not necessarily dryer, but more more variability - ie really wet years followed by a really dry years. I think that something like the 10 warmest years on record have occurred in the last 50 years.
 
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