California stole all the snow

[kingslug]

Kirkwood: 90 to 114 inches storm total, 600 inches for the season so far. I know it's impossible to predict the future but it seems when the west gets clobbered, we dry up. I've been trying to make some sense of the predictions and explanations on Best ski weather but I can't figure out why we are having such extreme variations year to year. The difference between West and East is so huge.

 

[loafer89]

My brother left for a vacation to Hawaii on tuesday and he was taking his ski's with him. The Mauna Loa web cam looks fairly snowy, I hope to hear from him if he did get the chance to ski there, it's really high up at 13,681'.

Hawaii is getting drenched with rain, so maybe the skiing will be good.

 

[kingslug]

I went there for my B day last year. Told my wife I wanted to ski. Got smacked in the head for it.

 

[Bumpsis]

Mmmmm, Kirkwood with 600 inches. I'm really envious of the people who have easy access to that place. I had a chance to sample it early back in January and it really is one of best places I've ever been to.

As to the weather swings, a good El Ninio year will bring us back more normal precipitation. I'm more worried about global warming. This stuff is no joke. If the Arctic keeps warming up at the current rate, NE skiing maybe just a nice memory in 15 - 20 years.

 

[kickstand]

Alpine Meadows got a foot a day for 11 days. It pretty much started snowing a day or two after we left Tahoe and hasn't stopped since. Needless to say, I'm a little bitter.

 

[loafer89]

Mmmmm, Kirkwood with 600 inches. I'm really envious of the people who have easy access to that place. I had a chance to sample it early back in January and it really is one of best places I've ever been to.

As to the weather swings, a good El Ninio year will bring us back more normal precipitation. I'm more worried about global warming. This stuff is no joke. If the Arctic keeps warming up at the current rate, NE skiing maybe just a nice memory in 15 - 20 years.

Arctic sea ice is actually in a really bad state at the present time and after a record low extent of sea ice in September 2005, the ice did not reform to its normal winter expanse. The NSDIC data indicates that the warming in the arctic is irreversable (not sure I buy that) but this summer may have a record amount of open water in the Arctic Ocean, not good news.

 

[kingslug]

Alpine Meadows got a foot a day for 11 days. It pretty much started snowing a day or two after we left Tahoe and hasn't stopped since. Needless to say, I'm a little bitter.

Happened to me at Jackson 3 years ago, but we had blue bird the whole time we where there. The locals said this was very rare. Some powder would have been nice, talk about moguls!

 

[kickstand]

Happened to me at Jackson 3 years ago, but we had blue bird the whole time we where there. The locals said this was very rare. Some powder would have been nice, talk about moguls!

we did have 45-50 degree temps and blue bird skies 2 of the 3 days I skied, so I can't really complain - although 2 feet of fresh would've been pretty freakin sweet, too....

 

[skibum1321]

Mmmmm, Kirkwood with 600 inches. I'm really envious of the people who have easy access to that place. I had a chance to sample it early back in January and it really is one of best places I've ever been to.

As to the weather swings, a good El Ninio year will bring us back more normal precipitation. I'm more worried about global warming. This stuff is no joke. If the Arctic keeps warming up at the current rate, NE skiing maybe just a nice memory in 15 - 20 years.

Unfortunatley, the one time I went to Kirkwood, it was eastern boilerplate. It had warmed up earlier in the week and then froze solid. I wasn't overly impressed with the mountain but I'm sure a huge part of that had to do with conditions. My favorite mtn that I went to out there was Squawlywood.

 

[subdude]

Squaw Valley USA has only received 15 feet of snow this month and it's the 16th.

 

[tekweezle]

only? talk about an embarassment of riches......

 

[Bumpsis]

Unfortunatley, the one time I went to Kirkwood, it was eastern boilerplate. It had warmed up earlier in the week and then froze solid. I wasn't overly impressed with the mountain but I'm sure a huge part of that had to do with conditions. My favorite mtn that I went to out there was Squawlywood.

I'm sure that bad snow conditions can put a huge damper on any ethusiasm over the actuall terrain. What I fell in love with at Kirkwood was the incredible mix of terrain all packed into a fairly small (by western standards) and easily accessable package.

There are cornices to be jumped, steeps to drop into, chutes of various diameters, from the "hey, this is fun" to "oh man, I better not fall", trees, wide cruising (blue) boulevards, open bowls and mogul runs bumped up from top to bottom. Lot's of "nooks and cranies" where a powder stashes can be had even after the locals had a go at the place.

The huge wall that comprises the ski area rises high from the valley floor and is viusally stunning, especially the rocky outcroppings that crown the ridges like medival towers.

What really made it for me (besides the primo conditions that I was lucky to find), was that there are 3 major lifts that take you from the very bottom to the very top, so the entire 2000 ft vertical drop is at your disposal.

Often, at many areas I'll just end up riding a chair that serves only the top 1/3 of the mountain or maybe 1/2 from from the bottom.
At Kirkwood, a lot of your runs can be top to bottom without doing the lift "commute" just to get the whole mountain run.

I just feel so lucky I manged to sort of stumble onto the place.

Oh, Squaw is awesome in its own way but it does get really busy and it just doesn't have that "special corner of the world" feel. It's just big.

Oh, man, I just put put myself into a serious funk thinking about all this...