Wasatch Update: November 2025

[BenedictGomez]

Took this during our town's Turkey Trot this morning. This is the backside of Brighton. There's a ski trail along that ridgeline at the top there & during winter you see a white line at night from the night skiing, but this gives a decent idea of how dire it is.

 

[snoseek]

Wow! I had a couple winters in Tahoe like that. Actually the first one not a flake until the end of January. Heavenly was hauling snow up the sky quad in buckets to be be able to make the connection from cal to.nevada side. It eventually came but early there was zero on the ground.

 

[4aprice]

Colorado is not much better

Weather report has improvement maybe starting tomorrow.

Began my 59th seasons on skis today. The swings of life seem to be taking shape and the winds of change maybe starting blow. May start the Jim Kenney life this spring and go spend time at my sons place here in Colorado for the months of March and April

 

[jimk]

You don't strike me as someone who pool crashes places, do you have family that work there?

We splurged for day passes and spent about 3-4 hours there. My son is a part time instructor at Snowbird and treated the family. He got a small discount.

One time in Jan 2017 he and I drove up LCC at 530AM to beat a canyon closure during a storm. A friend joined us and we spent 90 mins at daybreak in this same pool/hot tub area on the roof of the ten story Cliff Lodge, then skied in storm conditions all day. I thought the aquatics would turn me into a noodle on the slopes, but it was actually quite nice and my muscles were looser than usual
photo of my son from that week:

 

[thetrailboss]

Took this during our town's Turkey Trot this morning. This is the backside of Brighton. There's a ski trail along that ridgeline at the top there & during winter you see a white line at night from the night skiing, but this gives a decent idea of how dire it is.
View attachment 66915

So how far along the ridgeline is Brighton and the very top of Sunshine/Pioneer?

 

[BenedictGomez]

So how far along the ridgeline is Brighton and the very top of Sunshine/Pioneer?

This is from memory, but roughly much of the left half of the picture, or 1/3 of the total photo. That's where the lights are strung anyway, I've never skied there, so I'm not sure of specifics, but that's where the lights are all winter long. It's pretty cool as I can see them from my backyard.

Should be stated, this is also the "dry side" of the mountain, so I'm sure there's probably SOME snow up there right now on the other side, but it's still obviously dire.

 

[4aprice]

For a little perspective of the west so far

November 2024

November 2025

 

[machski]

Yeah, flew in and out of HCR yesterday. Wow, just not much on that side for sure yet. This leaves a lot of ??? about the logic of DV's Expanded Excellence being so low elevation. Oh well, looks nice flying by close up I guess.

 

[thetrailboss]

For a little perspective of the west so far
View attachment 66927
November 2024
View attachment 66928
November 2025

Which ski area is this?

 

[BenedictGomez]

Yeah, flew in and out of HCR yesterday.

Why did you have to land there, private client? That's like the busiest tiny airport I've ever seen, it's especially nuts during Sundance. Takeoffs and landings seemingly all the time, and when you're in the Walmart parking lot it sometimes seems the planes are landing there, lol. But I especially like watching the Apaches.

 

[ss20]

Had to log back in for a UT bitch session

Yeah... it's been not good. Really not good. Went down to Vegas and biked 3 days ago not good.

Alta increased their snowmaking tremendously this season, so there's that going for us. More water storage and more pumping capacity. As of this morning there were tracks from the snowcats going up the mountain and they were pushing out some snowmaking whales. Snowbird looks really depressing... they finally were able to get the snowguns really cranking on the bottom 1/3rd of the mountain. The snow will come to the resorts in the canyons... eventually. Park City and DV heading towards a disastrous Christmas but it won't take much to get them turned around.

Definitely thought of early season Killington laps of seasons past a lot this fall!

 

[ss20]

This leaves a lot of ??? about the logic of DV's Expanded Excellence being so low elevation. Oh well, looks nice flying by close up I guess.

Deer Valley has a mind boggling amount of snowmaking terrain they'll need to cover before Christmas for a somewhat cohesive mountain that isn't just the connecting trails. I, too, think they are "biting off more than they can chew" with the expanded terrain but we'll see. They have a very capable snowmaking system that's been updated and will now throw out 15,000gpm of water but I still don't think that's enough. They cut a massive amount of terrain below 7,000 feet that will freeze/thaw all season and likely receive a few rain events.

 

[kingslug]

I'm ready to fly out to stowe...this..sux..

 

[Smellytele]

Glad I ain't going until March but feel bad for you guys.

 

[kingslug]

Worst in history...

 

[4aprice]

Which ski area is this?

It's Ski Granby Ranch in Grand County. Base elevation is 8200 ft, (almost no snow right now) Summit 9200 ft. (some snow up there). They opened the 26th. Basically one T2B run under and by the Quick Draw Lift (they had like 10 at this point last year). They do not have a large arsenal but at that elevation they try to start to make snow early and methodically and produce a pretty good opening product. I actually find their roll out better then Winter Park's which I hit Thanksgiving morning and stood in line for. Early season Granby has better vert and no lines. Of course as we left Granby the snow was starting to come down and forecasts were pointing towards things getting active.

But one of the nice things about ownership there is the facilities there so after a nice 10 runs we pulled another Jim K and went to the pool



The pool and hot tub with a bare West Mountain in the background

 

[thetrailboss]

Had to log back in for a UT bitch session

Yeah... it's been not good. Really not good. Went down to Vegas and biked 3 days ago not good.

Alta increased their snowmaking tremendously this season, so there's that going for us. More water storage and more pumping capacity. As of this morning there were tracks from the snowcats going up the mountain and they were pushing out some snowmaking whales. Snowbird looks really depressing... they finally were able to get the snowguns really cranking on the bottom 1/3rd of the mountain. The snow will come to the resorts in the canyons... eventually. Park City and DV heading towards a disastrous Christmas but it won't take much to get them turned around.

Definitely thought of early season Killington laps of seasons past a lot this fall!

Yeah it is bad. Nothing we can do with warm temperatures. Are you also hearing that after this week or so it looks like ridging returns?

 

[raisingarizona]

It's Ski Granby Ranch in Grand County. Base elevation is 8200 ft, (almost no snow right now) Summit 9200 ft. (some snow up there). They opened the 26th. Basically one T2B run under and by the Quick Draw Lift (they had like 10 at this point last year). They do not have a large arsenal but at that elevation they try to start to make snow early and methodically and produce a pretty good opening product. I actually find their roll out better then Winter Park's which I hit Thanksgiving morning and stood in line for. Early season Granby has better vert and no lines. Of course as we left Granby the snow was starting to come down and forecasts were pointing towards things getting active.

But one of the nice things about ownership there is the facilities there so after a nice 10 runs we pulled another Jim K and went to the pool

View attachment 66936

The pool and hot tub with a bare West Mountain in the background

Winter 95/96 in steamboat was completely dry and wrod skiing until New Years Eve. Then it turned on and didn’t really stop that whole January. That was the most snow recorded ever there for 1 month at 260 something inches.

 

[thetrailboss]

An interesting read. And yes, it is finally snowing here.

A behind-the-scenes look at how Snowbird Ski Resort readies its slopes

Operating a resort as big as Snowbird is a complicated dance. Here’s a look at the work that happens behind the scenes.

www.sltrib.com

 

[machski]

Why did you have to land there, private client? That's like the busiest tiny airport I've ever seen, it's especially nuts during Sundance. Takeoffs and landings seemingly all the time, and when you're in the Walmart parking lot it sometimes seems the planes are landing there, lol. But I especially like watching the Apaches.

Yup, I fly a citation Longitude. Very difficult airport, basically a useless instrument approach so need VFR weather to get it.