Thanks to this week’s sponsor!

Taos Ski Valley has been blanketed with fresh snow and more is on the way! With half of the season left, there is still plenty of time to book your trip and enjoy all the fun and excitement that Taos has to offer: http://opsw.co/1QovXvj

 

Summary & Details

The northern divide mountains will see some clouds, snow showers, and wind on Sunday and Monday, though other mountains will be dry and sunny during this time. Then from Monday night through Saturday 2/13 all mountains will be dry and temperatures will warm up into the 40s for daytime highs around 10,000 feet. These temperatures will likely result in melt-freeze crusts forming, especially on southern aspects, so plan to ski these areas during the midday and afternoon hours once they have softened.

Our next chance for a storm will be sometime around Sunday 2/14 and/or Monday 2/15. At this point, I am only expecting a couple of inches as this looks like a weak storm.

It’s a long way out, but much of the following week looks dry as well, and then we’ll likely see a stronger storm somewhere in the western US around Friday 2/19.

There are hints that the pattern may become cooler and stormier by the last week in February and into early March, though of course that’s too far away for me to make a confident forecast.

I’ll leave you with a picture that was taken on Sunday night Tokyo time (Sunday morning in Colorado) that shows myself in the middle, Lauren (my wife), Sam Collentine in front (Sam forecasts Wyoming and I-70 and is the operations manager here at OpenSnow) and Sam’s friend Henry. The four of us met up for dinner in the Shibuya area of Tokyo as Lauren and I are here sightseeing on part two of our honeymoon (part one was skiing in Hokkaido during the last 12 days of January) and Sam and Henry just got to Japan and are heading north to Hokkaido soon to investigate the powder situation. The background of this photo is the well-known street crossing, and yes, it’s as busy as we thought it would be!

Photo: Sam Collentine

 

Lauren and I will be back to Colorado on Saturday, February 13th and look forward to skiing Colorado’s powder as the storms (hopefully) crank up later in February.

I hope you have a great Sunday, and Go Broncos! I grew up in Philly and so I generally root for the Philly sports teams, but I’m happy to root for my adult home-town team during the Super Bowl:-)

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, Abasin, Winter Park, Berthoud Pass

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

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

Southern Mountains
Telluride, Silverton, Durango, Wolf Creek (Telluride and Silverton are on the northern side of the southern mountains)