Colorado Weather Discussion Thread

**Wildman** · 01-27-2012, 10:34 PM

Vail was DEEP today. Full on dumping all day...trees on the frontside were bottomless trees in BSB were even better. Got some good hucks. Forever opened right as we got off 5...Lapped it 4 times in a row...best day of the year hands down...no stop skiing at its finest. Winter arrived at least for a day!

**Wildman** · 01-28-2012, 12:23 AM

There had to be at Least 16 in some places by 3pm. Plenty of leftovers if you know where to go...

**linvillegorge** · 01-28-2012, 03:22 AM

Hope the wind isn't blowing in the mountains like it is here in Evergreen right now. One of the windiest nights in a winter full of ridiculous wind.

**montanaskier** · 01-28-2012, 11:18 AM

Beaver Creek skied nice this morning....some soft chop and some wind blown but when I left at 9:50 all lots were full, highway 6 was full, the sides of the road up to the east gate were full and they were making people park at the rodeo grounds. Hopefully people get it out of their system today and tomorrow won't be as bad.

**gratzo** · 01-28-2012, 11:27 AM

What a great "surprise" yesterday. Vail, Breck, Copper, CB ... all came in higher than forecast. Pretty awesome. This is what can happen when the atmosphere is loaded with moisture. Hope you enjoyed yesterday, because that was probably the best day of powder through Feb 7th, maybe Feb 10th. A few weak storms will skirt northern Colorado next Tue/Wed, but they will have at best 1/2 of the moisture that Thursday night's storm had, and they'll be further north than Thursday night's storm. After that, a big old ridge sets up through early Feb. Maybe the second week of Feb gets better, but it looks high and dry for a while.

By the way, we've just added Tahoe forecasts for OpenSnow with a local guy out there. If it ever starts snowing again in that direction, it'll be a great resource.

JOEL

**TransplantedFromRMNP** · 01-28-2012, 11:56 AM

the Luv was good yesterday. Knee deep in some spots!

**smmokan** · 01-28-2012, 01:12 PM

Loveland was good this morning too- they opened 8 and it was about 8-10" deep in most spots with a soft wind crust on top. Everyone was over there all morning so I headed to South Chutes- I had the whole area to myself and there was plenty of good snow left.

Apparently everyone in Denver got a late start this morning... I left LL around 11:00 and it was bumper-to-bumper heading west from Hwy 6 to Silver Plume.

**roark** · 01-28-2012, 02:50 PM

got a late start, sounds like we made the right choice when we turned around when traffic stopped right at the first info sign.

will be up tomorrow (earlier, dammit!). Stoked to have some new options.

**Rideski** · 01-28-2012, 07:41 PM

Challenging conditions gave way to bottomless champagne Friday. 28,000 vertical with most every type of variable condition imaginable.

Genghis Khan was one of the tougher runs with a foot or more of wet creamy thick windbuff perched on top of a breakable suncrust on top of sugar. Plenty of black powder marks all along the cornice, but I did not create any large sluff.

This contrasted by fluffy bottomless cold smoke in Champagne Glade. Earls was closed, so it was a long push out; and by the time we got back to the top they had shut it down. Not sure if it opened again or not.

Lover's leap and Siberia also did not open from what we saw.

Large release on Dragon's Teeth, did not see any black powder, not sure if it was natural or not.
Missed it with a cell phone snap, looking at it all the way from 21, the release is to looker's left.
Shows the coverage though:

**Lindahl** · 01-28-2012, 09:34 PM

Partner had to bail on tomorrow, got called in for work last minute. I'll be out at Vail if anyone is looking to ride.

LL was awesome today. We had a rippin crew out there and had a ton of fun. Might be a sweet POV edit of retarded shenanigans goin up later. Didnt spot you Steve. South chutes were def really good. Thats where'd I go first tomorrow if I was skiing there.

**Crampedon** · 01-28-2012, 11:13 PM

Originally Posted by gratzo

Hope you enjoyed yesterday, because that was probably the best day of powder through Feb 7th, maybe Feb 10th. A few weak storms will skirt northern Colorado next Tue/Wed, but they will have at best 1/2 of the moisture that Thursday night's storm had, and they'll be further north than Thursday night's storm. After that, a big old ridge sets up through early Feb. Maybe the second week of Feb gets better, but it looks high and dry for a while.
JOEL

Well fuck me. Pass the Xanax.

I just get in and gotta punch out on the 9th.

The truth about long-range forecasts
I hate long range forecasts. They DO NOT reliably predict the details of each storm, and the details of each storm is what decides powder day vs. no powder day. However, long range forecasts are DECENT at predicting the overall storm track 6-8 days into the future. For best results, don't jump up and down for powder until the storm is 2-3 days away. Also, by reading this long-range forecast, you agree to not hold us responsible for your massive mood swings as powder is often forecasted and then un-forecasted for your favorite mountain. We'll do our best to keep you sane, but we can't reimburse your Xanax bill.

- Joel Gratz, Meteorologist & Servant to the Clouds

**funkendrenchman** · 01-28-2012, 11:22 PM

Just as it was getting good.....

**Puffin** · 01-29-2012, 09:29 AM

Considering it should snow the 1st and 2nd if the ridge only sticks around as predicted until the 7th that isn't so bad. Hopefully it does break down quickly and we can get back to some semblance of winter

For me the bigger bummer is the shit snowpack. I skied some sneaky unskied inbounds tight aspens yesterday on a N aspect between 10000ft and to the base of Vail and there were whoompfs and shooting cracks every turn I made. I saw SO many people going back to EV yesterday....yikes.

**MakersTeleMark** · 01-29-2012, 06:57 PM

Snapped this one today. I thought it was misleading and over-the-top, but otherwise seemed to be incredibly effective. I didn't see a single track in terrain that this access point leads to.

**montanaskier** · 01-29-2012, 07:42 PM

sorry we didn't hook up Makers. I saw cracks in lots of odd places today. Saw some BIG cracks and had several shoot on me in a tree run in the back. Wasn't steep enough for anything to run but didn't expect to see big shooting cracks either.

**Tortuga Run** · 01-29-2012, 08:04 PM

Heard an incredibly loud whoompf and felt the snowpack settle in Sundown after coming in through Windows. Very spooky out there.

**MakersTeleMark** · 01-29-2012, 11:21 PM

All in good time folks, all in good time.

Got there at 7, had a really good bloody; Skied from 8:45 till 3. Dusted off and waxed the explosivs! and slayed every single groomer from bwana to pete's. Grilled twice, frenchie cheeseburgers at BSB and slaw angus dogs at Henry's. Was a great day to get a sunburn and ski some really good chalk.

A little light on the poon except for those 2 marvelous Killington girls, OK, really fully developed and exuberant hot women, at the picnic table.

The brunette with the pigtails was especially scrumptious, and I hope they remember the little holy cross treat of a memory I snapped for them.

The rest will come, in the future. Enjoy the great stability in the many aspects of skiing that we are privileged to be a part of that are not snow pack dependent.

Bummed I missed you too, Matt. Was having a beer at Bart's at 3:30. Thighs roasted. Went home and showered and shaved after a really good little run of skiing.

Here's to the future! I know there's an Italian or Russian toast that captures it better.

Namaste mutherfuckers, con gusto.

**JoeStrummer** · 01-29-2012, 11:32 PM

Spent about 6 hours in RMNP today, everything I got near (Terrain Park, Dream Chute, various tree shots) all were stable, if Colorado variable. Nice day to be out.

**Crampedon** · 01-30-2012, 01:09 AM

Originally Posted by MakersTeleMark

Snapped this one today. I thought it was misleading and over-the-top, but otherwise seemed to be incredibly effective. I didn't see a single track in terrain that this access point leads to.

Good, I know some kids that does laps there with no gear. Won't listen to me.

Not really misleading, eh? There are a few spots that will rip

**gratzo** · 01-30-2012, 09:25 AM

Thursday could actually be interesting, at least more so than I thought a few days ago. Let's do this, cut-off low!

**linvillegorge** · 01-30-2012, 10:45 AM

opensnow.com still down for me

**mfkracing** · 01-30-2012, 10:55 AM

Thursday is looking better. The models I'm looking at show a big purple blob over central Colorado, with a dark purple sliver butting up against the divide. Highly un-scientific theory but it looks like something will happen.

**bamboocoreONLY** · 01-30-2012, 11:29 AM

Originally Posted by mfkracing

Thursday is looking better. The models I'm looking at show a big purple blob over central Colorado, with a dark purple sliver butting up against the divide. Highly un-scientific theory but it looks like something will happen.

quoting for greatness right here.. hahaha. blobs and slivers sound good to me!

**FiveLarge** · 01-31-2012, 01:11 AM

Can somebody get a picture of that slide on SE face of Trelease? X-post from the Loveland thread.

**gratzo** · 01-31-2012, 09:55 AM

Thursday is a big old cut-off low. It'll snow some in the mountains, but unless the storm goes right over your particular mountain, I'd expect 3-6" for most areas. Deeper totals along and east of the divide and out over the plains of CO and KS.