DEEP! (in the south)

I love to ski in deep powder.

When I saw that Wolf Creek received 10 inches on Sunday night into Monday, that there would be an additional 15-ish inches on Monday night, and that temperatures would be cold so that the new snow would be fluffy, the only option was to be at Wolf on Tuesday morning. So we made a late night drive, stayed in South Fork, arrived at Wolf Creek early, enjoyed a quick made-to-order breakfast at the Prospector Grill, and headed to the lift.

The official Tuesday morning snow report was 24 inches, with about 90% of that falling on Monday night. That’s a big number, so we first set out to verify the measurement. Verified!

The ridiculous awesomeness of being in two feet of snow is hard to describe. It was giggle-worry just being around that much powder. Sometimes it was almost too much snow, and there were times when we worked with other groups to lay a track through the powder to get into and out of the steeper pitches.

Here are a few photos of our group (myself, fellow OpenSnow forecaster Sam Collentine, the founder/owner of Powder7.com ski shop Jordan Jones, and one of my long-time skiing friends).

There was no need to work a turn to make it look good for the camera. Just point ‘em and enjoy!

Amazingly, another storm is heading to the far southern mountains with a LOT more snow from later Wednesday through Saturday morning. Let the good times roll!

Storm Wednesday to Saturday

The first thing to discuss is that other mountains outside the south received snow on Tuesday afternoon and evening, so we are waking up on Wednesday morning to a few fresh inches. I am writing this before the official snow reports are posted, and from snow stake cams I see generally under 3 inches with the exception of Snowmass where they may have received 4-8 inches on Tuesday.

Now let’s look ahead to the snowfall coming up from Wednesday through Saturday.

Far southern mountains: It will be DEEP again with 2-3+ FEET and the best powder on Thursday and even deeper on Friday. There will be more wind and slightly warmer temperatures on Thursday and Friday compared to Monday and Tuesday, so the new snow may be a bit thicker, but temperatures will still be chilly (15F near the summit) so the snow quality should still be pretty good.

Other mountains should see at least a few inches with the softest snow on Friday and/or Saturday morning.

Snow forecast for Wednesday: Light snow early around Steamboat and then showers increasing late in the day.

Snow forecast for Wednesday night. Ramping up in the far southern mountains.

Snow forecast for Thursday. The far southern mountains will see intense snow through the day with a few cells pushing further north toward other mountains.

Snow forecast for Thursday night. Perhaps the time of the most intense snow in the far southern mountains and again, some cells or lines of snow will push north through the rest of the state.

Snow forecast for Friday. Lighter amounts in the far south (though the morning should be very deep) and other mountains will likely see a few inches as the storm moves across the state and the wind direction slowly switches to blow from the west.

Below is the total snow forecast from Wednesday morning through Friday evening. The amounts in the far south look ridiculous (3+ feet) but this is in the realm of possibility since the wind direction is favorable (from the south), moisture will be plentiful, temperatures will be cold enough for snow ratios to be average or even somewhat fluffy (this means that any moisture will be converted to a lot of snow), and the duration of the snow could be 36-48 hours, which is plenty of time for these deep totals.

To finish up the storm, additional light snow could fall on Friday night, so Saturday morning could offer a few inches of freshies across the state.

Saturday into Sunday: Likely a break in the snow.

Sunday through Thursday: We should see one or more weaker storms bring light snow to the northern mountains and maybe the central mountains as well. I am NOT expecting deep totals, and I also have low confidence in the details of this snowfall. Stay tuned.

Early March: Most models show a break in the snow during the first few days of March, then there is some consensus that storminess will return to the west (including Colorado) starting sometime in the March 4-5 timeframe.

Thanks for reading!

My next update will be on Thursday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

Geography Key

Northern Mountains
Steamboat, Granby, Beaver Creek, Vail, Ski Cooper, Copper, Breckenridge, Keystone, Loveland, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass, Eldora, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Along the Divide
Loveland, Arapahoe Basin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

East of the Divide
Eldora, Echo, Rocky Mountain National Park, Cameron Pass

Central Mountains
Aspen, Sunlight, Monarch, Crested Butte, Irwin, Powderhorn

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton – north side of the southern mountains | Purgatory, Wolf Creek – south side of the southern mountains