World Snow Wrap Up Vol. 12 – Tending to Snow

January 17th, 2011


Gordon Bronson in Aspen on January 13. Image:: Jeremy Swanson/Aspen-Snowmass

Stormwatch:

The snowfall heros
This week the trophy goes to… Lake Louise. While everywhere else is just a little too warm to be making the lovely dry pow we all crave, Lake Louise’s temperatures are staying resolutely sub zero.

  • Lake Louise, Canada – with 49cm of sweet dry pow
  • Hakuba, Japan145cm and counting
  • Fernie, Canada61cm

The snow forecast heros:
Again, Lake Louise must be acknowledged – keeping it cold and dry for the 22cm that’s on the forecast.

  • 118cm for Niseko, Japan
  • Steamboat, Colorado with 31cm
  • Whistler, Canada, with 56cm

Last week’s event highlights:

Event highlights this week:

  • 15 – 20 January 2011 L Clusaz Radikal Mountain in La Clusaz France – Ski + Snowboard. Freeride World Tour Qualifier 4Star
  • 16 January 2011 FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – skier X. Les Contamines, France
  • 18 – 21 January 2011 ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, Kitzbuhel, Austria – The Hahnenkamm. Men’s slalom, super G, super combined and downhill
  • 20 – 23 January 2011 WINTER DEW TOUR Stop 2, Killington, Vermont. Featuring a 22 ft Superpipe for the first time.
  • 20 – 23 January 2011 ALPINE SKIING WORLD CUP, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Women’s downhill and super G
  • 21 January 2011 FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – ski halfpipe. Kreischberg, Austria
  • 21 – 23 January 2011 FREESTYLE WORLD CUP – moguls and aerials. Lake Placid, USA
  • 22 January 2011 FREERIDE WORLD TOUR Nissan Freeride de Chamonix-Mont-Blanc 2011 by Swatch.


If we could pick anywhere this week, we’d be: Lake Louise, where it’s cold, then Kitzbuhel for the Hahnenkamm; the Austrians sure know how to put on a ski event.


Chris Tatsuno in Highland’s Olympic Bowl January 13. Image:: Jeremy Swanson/Aspen-Snowmass

Colorado

Aspen Mountain

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 25.4cm at Aspen Mountain in the last 7 days and 27.90cm at Snowmass
7 Day forecast: 22cm forecast in the next 7 days for Aspen Mountain
Current snow depth: 101.60cm at Aspen Mountain, 162.56 at Highlands
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
By all accounts Aspen Mountain’s bumps are spectacular at present. The mountain is famous (infamous?) for its mogul collection and all the recent snow has really helped them develop. Meanwhile Buttermilk is getting its glam on in preparation for Winter X 15 – landing in just 10 days on 27 January.

Breckenridge

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 38.1cm in the past 7 days
7 Day forecast: about 20cm for the coming week
Current snow depth: 152.4cm
Current Conditions: powder and packed powder
Storm warning for Breckenridge through to Tuesday – always good to hear. In other news it’s safety week at Breck, so make sure you’re thinking safety first as you hit the pow.


Shovels needed in Steamboat, January 11. Image:: Steamboat

Steamboat

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 7.62cm in the last 48 hours
7 Day forecast: about 31cm forecast in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 149.86cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
That Colorado storm warning is holding true for Steamboat as well, nice start to the week with a handy 20cm of fresh, just as the weekenders are heading home…

Vail

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 35.56cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 28cm
Current snow depth: 114.3cm
Current conditions: packed powder and powder
There’ll be dancing on the streets of Vail this Thursday when the Bud Light Steet Beat concerts return to the city. There’ll be dancing on the slopes too, Monday and Tuesday will be the big pow days, followed by a sunshine break, sounds pretty nice to us.


Gordon Bronson at Aspen Highlands 13 January. Image:: Jeremy Swanson/Aspen-Snowmass

And Colorado generally…

Last week’s bitter cold has passed, leaving around 15cm to 30cm of really, really, really dry snow and some frost-bitten noses. Beaver Creek and Winter Park had 10cm over the weekend and Loveland also had a nice Friday top up. The temperatures are now back to a respectable level, though we can’t really say things are balmy in Colorado this week; snow is forecast for every day except Thursday, which is looking set to be a glorious clear sky day.

Utah

Park City

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 7.62cm in the past 3 days
7 Day forecast: 16cm on the forecast
Current snow depth: 195.58cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
PC is sporting a crowd pleasing mix of pow and parks at the moment. 13 jumps and 31 jibs across two parks, plus the superpipe, and too much pow to ride to even think about spending the day in the park.

Snowbird

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 10cm in the past two days
7 Day forecast: about 10cm, unfortunately about 9mm of rain also
Current snow depth: 246cm at mid mountain
Current conditions: packed powder
No one likes to see the little rain icon, unfortunately Snowbird has two days of drizzle to kick off the week before the temperatures drop again and bring the freezing levels down.

And Utah generally…
Wolf Creek topped the weekend snow count for Utah, with 12cm, though the other resorts clocked between 2cm and 10cm of fresh. Coming up the week won’t be one to get excited about, with rain in some parts and gray skies all round. But if this season holds true, the snow will be back in force very soon.

California

Heavenly

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 2.5cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: nothing forecast for the week
Current snow depth: 248cm at the summit
Current conditions: powder, packed powder, man made and machine groomed
Well, this is something different. An uninterrupted run of blue skies coming up this week in Heavenly. Accommodating temperatures between minus 6 and 2 degrees each day and perhaps a little breeze. Lovely.

Mammoth

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 15.24cm last Tuesday
7 Day forecast: nothing really
Current snow depth: 533cm at the summit
Current conditions: packed powder and machine groomed
Another week of blue skies at Mammoth, but the big news is the pop-up-terrain-park phenomenon, yup, the movement born in the fashion world and first seen on the streets of New York in the middle of the decade is now being embraced by the yo-bro community.


Jeremy Page knows what to do when the sun shines in Mammoth – find the pipe. Image:: Mammoth

And California/Tahoe generally…
We’ve failed to find the snow in California this week, it’s been goggle tan weather across the state and the clouds are not rushing back and time soon. This is what we like to call terrain park weather, so get you jib on if you’re in California this week. The Tahoe resorts still have just that much snow cover, a little sunshine can’t do any harm.

And the rest of the USA…
It was an East Coast affair last week, with Vermont and Maine stealing most of the snow and only Colorado managing to claim anything worth mentioning in the way of freshies on the west side. Good ole’ Jay Peak, Vermont had a tidy 115cm of snow for the weekend and the nicely named Crotched Mountain, New Hampshire had 81cm. The forecast is a mixed bag too, with snow clouds coming and going.


Tess Weaver, Aspen January 13. Image:: Jeremy Swanson/Aspen-Snowmass

Japan

Niseko

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: about 160cm this past week
7 day forecast: 118cm
Current snow depth: 320cm at the Grand Hirafu summit
Current conditions: Japan powder!
It took its time coming, but winter has arrived with a bang in Niseko and now it’s looking to challenge the snowiest place in the world title. With the air being a little warm, some of that snow quality it a little questionable and there’s been some strong winds to make things a little unpleasant but hey, snow is always a good thing right?

Hakuba

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: about 145cm this week
7 Day forecast: about 30cm for the week
Current snow depth: 300cm at the summit
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
Apparently the slopes are awash with people bogged in all the pow – you really need some speed and a steep angle to keep moving through all the snow that keeps falling, especially as it’s not the lightest. Add some strong winds and poor vis to that an Hakuba riding leaves a little to be desired at the moment.

And Japan generally…
It’s just puking down right across Japan at the moment and has been all last week. It’s a slightly soggy and very wind blown kind of puking, not the fat, sparking flakes we all like to see landing on the tip of our noses, but there’s another big weather system hovering out over the Pacific ready to send in round two (or is it round three) and if the temperature drops a little it’ll be winter paradise in Japan.


Big White’s Ski for Queensland. Image:: Big White

British Columbia

Big White

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 48cm this week
7 Day forecast: 24cm in the next 7 days
Current snow depth: 178cm
Current conditions: powder, packed powder and machine groomed
Big White is holding a Ski for Queensland night skiing session on January 22 and Karma must be working in their favour because they’ve had some delicious snow and there’s plenty more on the way. Monday and Tuesday will be a little too warm for comfort and some of that precipitation may fall as rain but the freezing level is going to plummet on Wednesday. Good things come to those who think of others…

Fernie

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 61cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 21cm for the week
Current snow depth: 230cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
The snow seems to have moved north and now Canada is the one on the receiving end of La Nina’s bountiful blessings – it just keeps topping Fernie up with layer after layer of freshies. Again though, Sunday and Monday will be slightly too warm, but Wednesday is going for a top of minus 7, so the cold is coming back!

Silver Star

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 87cm last week
7 Day forecast: perhaps 10cm this week, some rain also though
Current snow depth: 178cm
Current conditions: packed powder and machine groomed
Ugh, a little rain on the way for Silver Star too… limited viability and a bit of wind mean Monday is a day for sitting at Bugaboos bakery eating soup in a bun and conserving energy for Wednesday, when things will look up – in that the temps will go down and down will come the snow.

Sun Peaks

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 55cm last week
7 Day forecast: 15cm for the week
Current snow depth: 134.7cm
Current conditions: packed powder
Sun Peaks enjoyed a couple of epic powder days last week. Unfortunately rain is going to sweep through on Monday and turn some of that snow to slush, but more snow will follow.

Whistler

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 77cm in the last week
7 Day forecast: 63cm coming up
Current snow depth: 240cm
Current conditions: Powder and packed powder
The usual Whistler story, raining in the village, dumping at the summit. This weekend wasn’t the best on record and that damp weather is here for a few more days yet. get ready to crack out the fat skis next Saturday though…

And BC Generally…
A wet weekend and into a snow-filled week for BC. There were high precipitation levels across the state, but with a good portion of that falling as rain we would have exchanged that for some clear skies if Mother Nature had bothered to ask. Revelstoke, Kicking Horse and Kimberly all had good snowfalls – it’s just advisable to stay on the upper slopes.


Steep and deep at Lake Louise this week. Image:: Lake Louise

Alberta

Lake Louise

OPEN
Recent Snowfalls: 49cm in the last 7 days
7 Day forecast: 22cm for the coming week
Current snow depth: 125cm
Current conditions: powder and packed powder
The warm air seems to have bypassed Lake Louise and there’s no raining on their parade this week, just snow and more snow.

Going Global

France
Recent snowfalls: It was a snow-free weekend for France, the Alps haven’t seen a snow cloud for a while now and it’s starting to take its toll
Forecast snowfalls: There’s a bit of snow on the forecast for Val d’Isere and the surrounds, perhaps 7cm by next weekend, but all in all a low-snow week ahead
Current conditions: Things are getting a little sketchy in many of the French resorts, La Nina is going to need to send a top up soon.
Top pick: Alpe d’Huez, it has one of the best snow-bases around

Switzerland
Recent snowfalls: Not much snow in Switzerland this week, despite the foggy weather
Forecast snowfalls: Everywhere is expecting a dusting on Tuesday and Wednesday, but nothing to get you running to the fat skis
Snow conditions: The snow base is holding up ok, but like France, Switzerland needs some new snow, soon.
Top pick: Verbier, because it’s awesome, even without snow

Austria
Recent snowfalls: The Alberg received in the vicinity of 10cm to 15cm before the weekend, the Tyrol stayed dry though unfortunately
Forecast snowfalls: Faring a little better than its westerly neighbours, a nice 10cm-ish in the Tyrol and the Alberg in the middle of the week
Snow conditions: packed powder
Top pick: Kitzbuhel – for the Hahnenkamm!

Italy
Recent snowfalls: It’s been a relatively clear week in Italy, finally Arabba has given the snow a rest
Forecast snowfalls: A light dusting in Livingo and Bormio in the middle of the week and something similar for the Dolomiates
Snow conditions: powder packed powder
Top pick: Cortina, to get our glam on

Hakuba forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Lake Louise forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Heavenly forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Big White forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Whistler forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Vail forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Steamboat forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Fernie forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Snowbird forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Niseko forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Aspen Mountain forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Sun Peaks forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Park City forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Breckenridge forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Silver Star forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.

Mammoth forecasts,
snow reports and
live snow cams.