February 23rd 2012 was a day that conspiracy theorists must have loved. On that morning's 5am snow report, Vail called 12". A powder day by any definition. But when I got on the first lift at 8:30am, it was pretty obvious that something happened to the snow, because those 12" were nowhere in sight. And by 10:30am that morning, Vail revised its snow report to 2", down a full 10" from the original 12" report. So, what happened? Was there a conspiracy to get people to the mountain? And how does Vail actually measure snow? Is someone from the marketing department fluffing up the snow totals? All of these questions are valid, so I spent some time looking for answers.

Before we get to the answers, here's a Facebook post from February 23rd that summarized what happened. This is good background reading with some entertaining comments. Also, here's a link to a forum thread that popped up to discuss the situation. Lastly, I know what you're probably thinking: "Hey Joel, you work for Vail and you're just trying to make them look good." Well, yes and no. Yes, Vail does pay me to write weekly weather updates on their site buzz.snow.com. No, I would not lie to make Vail look good. My success as a snow forecaster and trusted source for snow conditions would be destroyed if I pandered to resorts, so I tell it like it is and use my own eyes to see how things work.

How Vail actually measures snow

Step 1 - In a mountain operations building near the Lionshead side of the mountain, Steven Garbett is on duty from 7:30pm to 7:30am. At about 4:30-4:45am, he brings up a live video steam of the snow stake (ruler) that is located at mid mountain, closer to the Lionshead side of the hill. In a miraculous feat of marketing acumen, Steven looks at the screen and makes note of the amount of new snow. That's it. No conspiracy.

[caption id="attachment_5591" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Steven Garbett looks at a live video stream of the snow stick from his mountain operations office near Lionshead."][/caption]

There is a minor amount of calculation in this, however. Ski patrol physically goes up to the measuring stake at about 630-700am and clears it off. For Steven to report the 24 hour snow total from 445am to 445am, he needs to add the snow that's accumulated on the ruler from 700am-445am (which he reads from the streaming video of the webcam) to the snow that falls at the stake from 445am-700am the previous morning between when he reads it and when ski patrol clears it off. When I watched the process (on Wednesday, February 29, 2012), he read 4" on the webcam that fell from 700am the previous day to 445am on the current day, and ski patrol had reported that 2" fell from 445am the previous day to 700am the previous day between when Steven read the stake and when it was cleared off. So, 4" plus 2" equals 6", and that's what went on the snow report.

Of course, wind could be a big factor. On the day of the infamous 12" report, wind had drifted a LOT of snow onto the measuring stake. In reality, the wind had drifted a lot of snow away from many other places on the mountain leaving some spots almost bare. Vail is now putting a new procedure in place in case of wind. If there is wind, Steven will radio a few of the groomers who are on the mountain and ask them what they're seeing in terms of snow accumulation around mid mountain. If the groomer reports are significantly different than what is showing on the stake, Steven will either take an average or defer to what the groomers are seeing so the snow report is representative of the new snow accumulation around mid mountain. While the ruler is in a protected area with trees on all sides, strong winds can still move a lot of snow around.

Around 6:30am, ski patrol snowmobiles up to the actual site of the ruler, measures the snow once again, weighs the snow (to determine the water content, which is helpful when planning for avalanche control work), and then clears off the snow stake.

[caption id="attachment_5592" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Product placement! The OpenSnow custom skis from Wagner Custom Skis."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5593" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Ski patroller Jennifer Silva cleans off the snow stake after measuring the morning's snow."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5594" align="alignnone" width="384" caption="Jenn then weighs a sample of the snow to determine how much water is in the snowpack. This helps with planning avalanche control work."][/caption]

And just to double check the 6" report over the previous 24 hours, I brought my own ruler (which is a sticker on my ski pole). Sure enough, the report verified.

[caption id="attachment_5595" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="This highly sophisticated measurement verified the official 6" snow report."][/caption]

When this is completed, the patroller will then snowmobile up to the summit at Patrol Headquarters and take another snow measurement at a different snow stake. This summit measurement is not reported publicly but is used by Patrol to keep records and again help with avalanche mitigation work. On the day that I was there, the top measurement was almost exactly the same as the mid-mountain measurement reported to the public.

And that's it.

But one more thing...wind.

While the official snow report was for 6" on Wednesday, February 29th, we found anywhere from about 8" to absolutely nothing. Here's a picture of Sun Up bowl with 6-8" blown in, and it skied really well.

[caption id="attachment_5596" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="Sun Up bowl skied well with 6-8" in spots."][/caption]

And here's a picture of the ridge under the main chairlift at Blue Sky Basin on the same day. The wind gusted between 50-70mph the night before and stripped this area of all snow. However, all the snow blew into the Lover's Leap trail (to the left in the photo), and we found fantastic powder in there.



While the video below is not from the day I was out with patrol measuring snow, it does show the wind's effect on the snow from a few days earlier on Saturday, February 25th.



To recap, a person in mountain operations looks at a live webcam pointed at a ruler at 4:45am to report the snow. If it was very windy the previous day or night, this person will talk to some groomers that are on the hill and try to get a better measurement that is more representative of the amount of snow that's actually available to ski. The gaffe of snow reporting on February 23rd where a 12" report was downgraded to 2" was the first time I have EVER seen ANY ski area rescind a morning snow report. While it definitely left a bad taste in some people's mouths, I think it was actually a good thing because Vail learned from this and put another procedure in place to hopefully never let it happen again.

Overall, it does no good for a resort to inflate its snow report as the skiing public will be quick to call out their lie.

So the next time you're skiing around and notice more (or less) snow than the report promised, please realize that we're skiing on very big mountains. The distance from the base of Lionshead to the top of Pete's Express in Blue Sky Basin is over six miles:

[caption id="attachment_5598" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Snowfall can vary greatly over short distances, and this is especially true in the mountains. The distance across Vail mountain is over six miles."][/caption]

You know that snow measurements vary from neighborhood to neighborhood, and now think of this variance applied not just to neighborhoods but to large mountains. Using one number to report snow for a large series of mountain peaks is not very accurate, but it's the best we can do with the system that we have in place for snow reporting nationwide.

Hopefully this helps to shed some light on how Vail actually measures snow. Please leave any questions or thoughts in the comments below and I'll answer them or research the answer and get back to you.

PS - yes, I too would like the live webcam view of the snow stake to be publicly available. I have the ear of the right people and we'll see if this can get done for next season.

For even more about this topic, see the excellent article that Lauren Glendenning wrote in the Vail Daily on March 1st.