Recap of DEEP powder on Friday and the past week

We’ll start with a picture from Friday morning at Purgatory, just north of Durango, in the southwestern part of Colorado. Purgatory reported 24 inches of snow on Friday morning with another 15 inches falling through the first half of the day.

When I see pictures like this, I look really hard to see if the skier is milking the turn to make it look deeper for the camera. In this case, there was no need to work extra hard to make it look deep because it was just that deep.

The skier is Sven Brunso, and here is what he said about Friday morning, February 22:

“Been here 26 years and this was the deepest I have ever seen the snow at Purgatory. Low density and refills all day long. All these shots were taken in the middle of frontside runs between 10:15 and 11:00. Snowing so hard you didn’t even need to go into the trees to find epic powder.”

You can work all season, or for many years, to find powder that’s this deep and this light. Awesome to see it here in Colorado this week!

And as if we needed more proof of how good it was in the far south, here is yet another deep powder picture from Wolf Creek on Friday, February 22.

Below are the snow totals for the last 24 hours, the last 48 hours, and the last 7 days, ending on Saturday morning, February 23rd. They are ordered by total snow over 7 days (the last number). The deepest amounts were 4-7 FEET in 7 days in the far southern mountains. And the snow was low density, light, blower powder. It just does not get any better than this.

* Wolf Creek: 11” / 30” / 84”
* Purgatory: 15” / 39” / 64”
* Hesperus: 21” / 36” / 48”
* Silverton: 20” / 26” / 42”
* Powderhorn: 12” / 25” / 38”
* Cooper: 8” / 9” / 23”
* Crested Butte: 5” / 6” / 21”
* Telluride: 9” / 11” / 21”

All-Access subscribers can compare 10-day historical snowfall totals for any state, region, or list of favorite mountains, in a summary, graphical, or table view. Below is the link to for this comparison in Colorado:

https://opensnow.com/state/co#history

Elsewhere around the state, what we saw on Friday and Friday evening were snow totals generally in the 3-6 inch range with Aspen Mountain at 7” and a few other deeper totals mentioned above. Telluride finally saw the more intense band of snow on Friday and received 3-4 inches of fluff on Friday night as the winds switched to the northwest. And Powderhorn was DEEP on Friday as the intense band of snow hung over them and the Grand Mesa.

Because some of this snow fell later in the day Friday or after lifts closed Friday night, conditions should be soft on Saturday morning and it’ll be a beautiful time to be outside with the clouds clearing and the sun coming out.

Normally, overnight totals of 3-6+ inches with Saturday morning softness would be the headline of my Colorado Daily Snow, but today this just gets overshadowed by the super-deep powder in the far south and west.

Saturday/Sunday

On Saturday morning, the recent storm is moving away from Colorado to the east.

Expect generally dry weather on Saturday and Sunday with a few hours of light snow over the northern mountains possible on Saturday night as weak energy grazes the northern part of the state.

Temperatures will be cold on Saturday with highs in the low teens, and Sunday will warm to the upper teens to low 20s.

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday

The weather should be dry during these three days with a lot of snow well to the north of Colorado. Our temperatures will warm through the week with Monday highs in the 20s and Tuesday and Wednesday highs in the 30s.

Thursday/Friday

We have a chance for light snow at the end of the week as the snow to our north sags south toward Colorado. Right now I am expecting only light accumulations, favoring the northern mountains.

Get ready for the storm train to return.

The way I am thinking of the next 1-2 weeks, the time to get my work done will be early next week when the skies are dry. Then it’s (hopefully) back to skiing powder multiple days in a row sometime in the March 3-10 timeframe.

The first chance for new snow should be around Sunday, March 3, and the snow could be thicker due to warmer temperatures. Then additional colder snow is possible after that, so Monday or even Tuesday (March 4-5) could be fun. This is still 7-9 days away, and I’m already talking more details than I should for a storm that far out, so let’s leave it at that.

The longer-range models do show the likelihood for additional storms during the rest of next week and through the weekend of March 9-10 and maybe beyond. That’s all good news.

The multi-model forecast for central Colorado (Aspen) is still showing about what it did yesterday with snow returning next week.

Thanks for reading, and please see two new announcements below.

My next update will be on Sunday morning.

JOEL GRATZ

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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