| State of the Mountains, Saturday Apr 5th 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Great, The Good, and the Ugly. That's how March shaped up depending on what region of western Canada you are in. For the most part March was a pretty decent snow month overall. But the rocky mountain parks and foothills west of Calgary continued their run of pathetic snowfall. In this region only Sunshine made a decent showing and this was not up to their usually standards of snowfall. Nakiska, Norquay, and Marmot had scary low numbers (less than 50cm for the month?). Thank goodness for snowmaking! Just west of Banff/Yoho in the Columbia Valley there was more snow but nothing compared to last season. Kicking Horse was down about 100cm from last year. Thank goodness for the Elk Valley / South Rockies or Calgary skiers would be a bitter bunch this year. After a slow start to March the snow gods poured it on. Fernie received an epic 197cm (double last years amount) and Castle was also very awesome with more than 100cm (that includes a 50cm day in the last week of the month). Big Mountain also extended their memorable season with 137cm in March. In the BC interior, Red, Whitewater, Big White and Sun Peaks all broke the 100cm mark. Whitewater and Red were particularly good with snowfall in the 150cm range. Can't complain about that. In the far west, Whistler / Blackcomb also cracked the 150cm mark. Respectible but I'd say that's a bit low for them. Whistler had over 200cm in March last season. And the stats.
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| State of the Mountains, Saturday Mar 1st 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Great start - horrible finish. That pretty much sums up the month of February 2008. January was a great snow month and it finished up with a real flourish, esppecially in the southern rockies. February continued adding to the amazing snow conditions with dump after dump. People in Fernie and Whitefish Montana were talking about conditions not being so good in 15 years. Castle was stellar for weeks. The Columbia Valley, Northern Rockies, BC interior and Whistler on the west coast were not as spectacular but they were getting good regular snowfall. Things were shaping up to be a very good snow year but then around mid February Mother Nature turned off the taps. Now it's hard to call sunny skies and temperatures hovering around the zero mark bad. But the resorts need a steady supply of snow to keep runs from icing up and rocks from getting exposed in the steeps and bowls. What we saw was fantastic spring skiing several weeks too early. Let's hope March does a flip flop and provides us with mid winter conditions in the spring. But even with the snow drying up in the second half of February accumulations were well above average for the month in the southern rockies. The Columbia Valley had a great February last season so their numbers were down, Kimberley in particular. Louise had a poor February for the second year in a row. It seems to me that Marmot doesn't get as much snow as I would expect them to and this contagion seems to be spreading south to Lake Louise. Could this have something to do with the shrinking of the Columbia Glacier. I'm no scientist but it seems like a troubling trend. Sunshine's snowfall is also down 24% this February compared to last season. Similarly, Whistler was down nearly 20% this February. Mind you the 2 week drought accounts for much of the decrease in snowfall numbers. If the snow had continued at a decent pace then it would have shaped up to be a better than average month. And the stats.
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| State of the Mountains, Thursday Feb 7th 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| January has been an outstanding month in the region I like to call the Southern Rockies. This includes Castle, Fernie, and I've adopted Big Mountain in Montana. But the real fun didn't begin until the last week of January. The powder was huge!! This carried into the first week of February with snowfall over the two week period shattering the 200cm mark throughout the region. That's about as much snow as the best powder resorts get in a month. The powder Kings this month were the usual suspects. Fernie was number one in January with 285cm (an honour usually hogged by Whistler). Note that Fernie had an additional 137cm in the first week of February! Big Mountain, Castle, Whitewater, and Whistler were all at or above the 200cm mark for January snowfall. I have to mention that Castle had a huge 165cm in the first week of Feb. Half of Whistler's January snowfall came in the second week of the month. In some areas January has been a disappointment. The Banff Park resorts are having a below average season. The numbers for Marmot, Nakiska, and Norquay were dismal. Thank goodness for snowmaking equipment. And the number in the Columbia Valley are way down from last season. But you can be the judge... On y va.
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| State of the Mountains, Thursday Jan 3rd 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In the 06/07 season we had mid winter conditions in November but December was a mediocre snow month in the rockies. This year the rockies were off to a very slow start (with the exception of Kicking Horse) but things have turned around nicely in December. On the west coast, Whistler was once again racking up big powder numbers - same as last year. Starting this season we've started covering some of the resorts in the B.C. Interior. The snow zone around Red Mountain and Whitewater did not disappoint with numbers just short of Whistler's. Only Fernie and Big Mountain in the rockies were able to keep pace. Mind you KHR still pulled down a respectible 164cm for the month. The biggest disappointment so far this year is Lake Louise with only 70cm for the month. Mind you that was actually more than they got last season. Sunshine wasn't stellar but did manage a respectable 135cm. Likewise Castle posted decent numbers - double the snowfall they received in December last season. All in all there has been very good skiing in Western Canada this December, with Fernie being just outstanding during the Christmas break. Let's talk about rain for a moment. Whistler and Fernie did get rained on in early December and this put a damper on the powder day that preceded the rain. But rain is to be expected from time to time in these warmer regions. This year the rain has been relatively minimal and cannot be considered damaging. This is great news and hopefully the temperatures will remain slightly cooler this year. Environment Canada has been predicting a colder winter with lots of snow. In December they've been on the money. And now for the numbers... On y va.
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| State of the Mountains, Monday Dec 10th 2007 |
| This season we are off to a decidedly dry start. But have faith, environment Canada is predicting an unusually cold and snowy winter for western Canada. But so far the snowy part of that prediction has not been delivered. November was a month that only die hard skiers and boarders could love. Louise's best runs were covered in artificial snow and you had to take your skis off to get into the back bowls. Sunshine couldn't even open the Divide for lack of snow and the top of Standish was nick named "Rocky VIII". Kicking Horse was the envy of all in early November when they were hit with over 100cm in a week. But down low there still wasn't enough snow to open. In the interior Sun Peaks opened with less than a quarter of their runs available and Big White put off openeing day for a week. Whistler had one major dump in November but rain spoiled the party. Fortunately things improved immensely when a wicked storm roared in and dumped snow from Whister to Castle Mountain. Everyone picked up snow while places like Big Mountain, Fernie, Panorama, and KHR received 50cm or more. Sunshine didn't have the big one day numbers but over the week the total was 72cm. Needless to say this storm saved the day for many resorts even though Fernie and Whistler received some rain following the big snowfall. Overall the assement is fair to good. We are at just about at average conditions for this early in the season. One more big storm would really put us back on track! |
| State of the Mountains, Monday Apr 2nd 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Fernie had nearly 130cm over the last 3 weeks of February and this great run continued into the first 2 weeks of March with another 73cm piling up. With over 100cm for the month, Fernie had another great March. But here's something to note. Fernie was above zero for over 20 days in March. You can get into the 5C to 10C range and still have snow in the upper bowls but if temperatures warm up a few more degrees... well you do the math. Fernie is known for its rain. Castle is typically warmer than Fernie and they only managed a little over 30cm in March. Castle was badly affected by rain and ended up shutting down early for the second time in 3 years. But enough gloom and doom. Let's talk about mega powda! Kicking Horse had over 200cm of snow in March this year. That's twice what they had last March and three times what they had in March 2005. Kicking Horse had a year that people will remember for a long time. Amazing! Meanwhile it was business as usual at Whistler. Just another 220cm for the month of March. Looking back I was surprised to see that Whistler had more than 200cm in March last year as well. Next time I go to Whistler I'm planning the trip for March. Well... January has been pretty stellar there too. Here are the numbers for March.
So we had no shortage of snow this March. Panorama, Louise and Sunshine were respectable with snowfall in the 100cm range. Nakiska and Kimberley were also in this range. Marmot wasn't far behind but as previously mentioned Castle was very unlucky this March. The month was a little too warm in that area of the southern Rockies. |
| State of the Mountains, Thursday Mar 8th 2007 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| After a stellar December and January this season the snowfall returned to a more average level in February. A prolonged drought for the last 2 weeks of January and the first week of February had me worrying but the snow finally began to fall again. The last three weeks of February were actually quite good. I’m not sure why I didn’t have a bunch of powder days in February but I guess timing is everything. The third week of February was outstanding for the Columbia valley. Snow fell in the amount of 75cm at Kicking Horse, 76 cm at Panorama, and a stunning 86cm at Kimberley. Kimberley received 155cm over the month of February and that was better than Fernie, Whistler, and Roger’s Pass. Kimberley is having one heck of a season. The real dogs in the month of February were Marmot and Norquay receiving 43cm and 58cm respectively. Lake Louise was the only other resort to receive under 100cm for the month. They had 87cm. You’ve got to feel for the marketers at RCR. Record snowfall early in the season is obviously something they want to advertise. But after posting “RECORD SNOWFALL” on their billboard along the highway to Banff they’ve pretty much had below average snow ever since. Never tempt the snow gods because they have a wicked sense of humour. Here’s the statistical round up for the month of February.
What becomes apparent with a quick scan of the stats is that we had a pretty decent February in terms of snowfall. The year 2005 was abysmal. In the last two seasons Kimberley has had way better snow than I give them credit for and Lake Louise has been a real under achiever for the past two Februaries. I’m amazed to see that for the past two seasons Kimberley has had more snow that Fernie in February. The other thing to note is that Roger’s Pass typically has significantly more snow than everyone else in February but this season they haven’t been as lucky. March is looking good for snow so far. The temperatures in the west have been dangerously warm, +5C to +10C on average, but so far we’ve still been getting snow on the mountain tops. Mind you it is mainly heavy snow of the BC variety and warmer resorts such as Fernie, Castle and Nakiska have been affected by rain. We shall see how things pan out for the remaining weeks of the spring skiing month. |
| State of the Mountains, Friday Feb 2nd 2007 |
| The record snowfall in December continued unabated into mid January. Kicking Horse had an epic powder day on the second Sunday in January with reports of waist deep powder. This was extended for several days thanks to the Gondola being shut down due to high winds. The locals were treated to unbelievable powder with very few Calgarians getting in on the party. Fernie also had an amazing string of powder days culminating with 50cm on the third weekend of the month. Castle, Sunshine, Louise, Panorama, and Kimberley also had their share of the fun. Not a word of complaint could be heard about the snow conditions in early January. Ah, but I’m neglecting to mention the powder king in January. Whistler had over 150cms in the first 2 weeks of January with a whopping 72cm falling on Jan 2nd. That’s serious dumpage. But then it just stopped. For the last 2 weeks of January it has been dry. The weather was fantastic with tons of sun and unusually warm temperatures for January. For the first week this was quite enjoyable. The resorts were in great shape and there was plenty of powder to consume. But once you start getting over a week without major snowfall the skier (and snowboarder) traffic starts to take its toll. A friend of mind aptly stated that, “you have to keep feeding the beast”. By the last week of January the reports started to turn sour as people had become used to having fresh powder on every ski trip. With all the snow early this season conditions were not bad but everyone had become accustomed to a much higher standard of quality. Reality bites. Once again it’s time to summarize the numbers for January. Note that most of the snowfall came in the first 2 weeks with the exception of Fernie that surprised us with an unexpected 50cms on the third weekend of the month. Whistler over 200cms, Fernie close to 200cms, Kicking Horse over 200cms, Kimberley over 200cms (that is incredible for them), Louise nearly 100cm, Marmot nearly 100cm, Panorama nearly 150cm, Sunshine nearly 150cm, and finally Castle with nearly 150cm. Make no mistake that was a great January. Snowfall records have been set across the board but powder havens like Fernie and Castle are now only slightly ahead of last season’s accumulations thanks to a lack of snow for the past 2 weeks. But the Columbia valley is having an exceptional year. Kimberley, Panorama, and Kicking Horse are miles ahead of last year’s snowfall and well above average. Louise and Sunshine are up over last season and Marmot is well above what was a great season last year. Whistler actually had a better January last year but that year could be tough to beat for many years to come. |
| State of the Mountains, Friday Dec 29th 2006 |
| STATE OF THE MOUNTAINS, DEC 29th 2006 First of all, I must apologize for missing my November report this year. To recap: conditions were awesome dude! I was in Hawaii for a couple of weeks at the end of November and when I got back I was deep into Christmas season. Luckily I had a few friends visit me in December and we got in a number of ski days before Christmas including a couple great powder days. The next thing I knew Christmas was over and my State of the Mountains was still not done. So I have some catching up to do. I’ve learned over the years that when conditions are unusually excellent I should not make too big a deal of it. I should never get excited and say things like, “this is going to be the best season ever.” Mother Nature can turn on you too quickly so one must keep a level head. That said… we have had the most incredible freekin weather so far and I’ve had better skiing in the last month than I had all season last year. It is amazing! Several resorts in the Rockies are setting snowfall records and on the Wet Coast, Whistler is getting huge early season dumps. This is unblievable !! Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Now for some telling numbers…. Kicking Horse has been reporting record snowfall this season. So far the total is 530cm mid mountain. Last season between November and April the total snowfall was just over 450cm. Already they’ve surpassed the winter snowfall from last year. Lest we forget, I must also point out that in the 04/05 season Kicking Horse’s winter snowfall was under 250cm. I’m using Kicking Horse as a shining example of what has been happening in the Rockies this year but it is not confined to one resort. The numbers are way up along the Columbia valley. Kimberley has 317cm total snowfall to date and Panorama is somewhere in between Kimberley’s and KHMR’s numbers. Way down south Castle and Fernie have been dodging the rain and racking up big accumulations. Castle is at 320cm while Fernie is at 370cm. Louise and Sunshine are also above average for the end of December with 257cm and 295cm of snowfall respectively. Marmot is coming off an excellent season last year and they are back in action with 225cm to date. Even Nakiska and Norquay have been reporting early season powder days. We’re now just coming off the busy Christmas break in the Rockies and most of the skiers and riders will have big grins because it snowed heavily while they were out there. If you’ve been following our reports or if you’ve heard fellow skiers raving about the early season conditions this year then you probably know that things are looking great. I hope you’ve had a chance to experience it. I admit a definite bias for the Rocky Mountains because Calgary is home and my interest certainly lies were I can get out and enjoy the snow on a regular basis. I track Whistler because I’ve been there several times and I grudgingly admit that it is the biggest and best ski resort in Canada. They also get a ton of snow and I jealously watch it from afar while my friend in North Van sends me gloating e-mails after huge powder days. Whistler is also off to a stellar season. We’ve all heard about the nasty weather on the B.C. coast this year - record shattering rain and destructively high winds. All this turmoil has resulted in a snowfall total of 684cm for Whistler Blackcomb. That’s big!! Last year Whistler had unprecedented snowfall in January and finished the season with 859cm snowfall from November through April. A good chunk of that (nearly 500cm) came in the month of January. If they were to have another January like last year they would shatter all records and set the high water mark for years to come. But as I said earlier it is best not to set expectations too high. It’s better to appreciate that we’ve already had an excellent ski season so far and any further snow dumpage is just icing on the cake. However, I do like my cakes with lots of icing. More please!! :o)) |
| State of the Mountains, Sunday Apr 2nd 2006 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The month of March has not been very good for powder. It started out well with some great snowfall around Fernie, Castle, and Whistler but in the rockies it has been relatively dry ever since. All month I've been waiting for that one snow dump to book a day off work and hit the knee deep powder. But it never happened. That means I played hookey once in January and once in February. Good news for my employer but not such good news for those of us who crave deep and fluffy turns. Now the resorts are starting to shut down so I will present my prognosis on the season that was.
Whisler, Fernie, Kimberley, and Castle had great years this year. January was particularly epic. Kicking Horse and Panorama got off to really slow starts but all in all it was a decent year for them. Sunshine had an OK year but they've had better. Louise, Marmot, Norquay, Nakiska, and Fortress had rotten years (in my humble opinion). Let's take a look at the numbers. (Sorry this is our first year covering Whistler so I don't have any historical data. But they had an incredible year this year.) The resorts in the following table are what I'm going to call the BIG 6 because I believe that of the resorts we currently cover these are the top six for finding powder year after year. The following summary illustrates that Fernie and Castle had exceptionally good seasons this year and exceptionally bad seasons last year. Note that Castle was forced to close in March 2005 due to lack of snow. The table shows total snowfall in cm for the months of January, February, and March (typically the best snow months) and the 3 month total. The numbers for 2006 and 2005 are provided to show how things compared to last year (2005 was overall one of the worst winters for lack of powder that I've experienced to date). BIG 6 STATISTICAL ROUND UP
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| State of the Mountains, Monday Feb 20th 2006 |
| This is the column where I provide a monthly (and sometimes bi-weekly) report on what the conditions are like in general at the various resorts covered by Powderwatch. I'm sure those of you that have been visiting this page couldn't help but notice that it hasn't been updated for over a month. Sorry about that but this is my first weekend in a month that I haven't been out of town skiing. I'll try to do better from now on.
As of my last State of the Mountains report we had just suffered through 6 weeks of virtually no snow and things were just starting to turn around. Well it turned around with a vengeance. January was a record setting month for snowfall. Lets summarize the snow accumulation in the month of January in order from most to least: Whistler - 471cm Fernie - 370cm Castle - 307cm Rogers Pass - 297cm Kimberley - 258cm Kicking Horse - 227cm Sunshine - 194cm Panorama - 157cm Lake Louise - 110cm Nakiska - 76cm Marmot - 54cm Norquay - 33cm Whistler was amazing this year with almost 5 metres of snow dumping in the month of January. That's enough to bury a one story house. Fernie, Castle, Rogers Pass, Kimberley, Kicking Horse and Sunshine all provided some incredible powder skiing last month. Panorama and Louise also had some spectacular pow days. Only Nakiska, Marmot and Norquay were relatively shut out on all the fun. These resorts had to rely on snow making and although they had a few days of good powder it was not even comparable to the conditions enjoyed in the Crowsnest and Columbia valleys. Now it is mid February and after a promising start to the month we have witnessed another prolonged dry spell that is entering its third week. It has been feast or famine this season. We've had two straight weeks of that horrible sunny weather. OK. I guess it is hard to complain about beautiful sunny weather after being treated to such an epic month of snow. But fear not! Snow is back in the forecast this week. Let's hope we return to more serious dumpage. |
| State of the Mountains, Sunday Jan 8th 2006 |
| I'm sensing a turning point here. Let's just take a quick look at the numbers. Fernie has reported 102cm of new snow in the last week, Whistler... ditto, Castle has 60cm over the weekend, while Kimberley and KHR have picked up a decent 50cm in 7 days. Sadly, the weather systems don't seem to be making it into Banff/Jasper national parks. K-country and Jasper are dry, dry, dry. Sunshine and Louise have received less than 30cm in the past week. Oddly, the Shine are bragging that they have the best conditions in the rockies. Have they been watching the snow data from their southern competitors at all? But enough about resort marketing. The great news is that there is a good deal of snow in the forecast this week and it should be shared equitably amongst all the resorts. Nice!
The snow conditions in the mountains really vary depending on your geographical position at the moment. Whistler and Fernie hold the number one spots in terms of shear quantity of powder and rapidly growing snow bases. The crowsnest corridor has been great with Kimberley getting consistent snow although not the big numbers like Snow Valley. Castle was struggling badly up until they received 50cm this weekend. Let's hope those numbers can continue for them. They deserve it. In the Columbia valley Pano and KHR have also been suffering. Panorama's saving grace is their snowmaking and KHR has their alpine bowls. We won't talk about the non artificially enhanced runs at Pano or the bottom of Kicking Horse. It's just to ugly. Similarly, mother nature has been very unkind to Fortress, Nakiska, Norquay and Marmot. C'mon momma - give a dog a bone. These places deserve just a little more help than you have been giving them. And this brings us to the two big uns, Louise and Sunshine. They too have been struggling with a lack of snow. Although there is good snow to be found at high elevations the bases are still a little thin. Word on the street is that Sunshine has better coverage than Louise right now and this is probably why they have been getting massive crowds lately. But both Sunshine and weezy need more snow to get to normal coverage for this time of year. At least the ski and snowboard repair shops are happy about this. I'm hoping that will all change by the end of this week. There is plenty of snow in the forecast, a big system rolling in off the west coast, and we are certainly due for some big pow days. Keep your fingers crossed. |
| State of the Mountains, Thursday Dec 22nd 2005 |
| We have no control over the weather and as most farmers know the weather can sometimes be viscious and cruel. Some may be thinking, "What's he talking about? The weather has been sunny and not too cold. Now the foothills are getting a warm chinook for Christmas. What could be better?". I agree. We have been having decent weather. But it hasn't been snowing significantly in the mountains for over a month now!! That's killin me. But rather than continue to whine about it, I'm going to predict a big finish to the month of December. I'm not even going to tell you how things have been developing because they haven't been. Everyone's snowbase is about where it was a month ago. Louise has shown some magical increase in base even though there has not been enough snow to support this claim. Maybe they are accounting for snowmaking. Sorry, now I'm being grumpy again. Now for my prediction... There is a very large system dumping wetness on Whistler as we speak. In the alpine this likely will result in some serious pow. I'm predicting that this system will have enough steam to make it into the rockies in a few days. (Well hoping really.) Crowsnest pass is getting some snow lately but temperatures are dangerously warm. Golden has appeared to performed the proper rituals as they have a rogue weather system sitting over them and dropping a decent amount of snow. If it continues over the weekend conditions will be great in the upper bowls. So things are going to get a lot better over the next few weeks. I don't have any concrete science to base this on so let's call it a gut feeling. Now everyone sing, "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow" and have a very Merry Christmas and prosperous New Year, |
| State of the Mountains, Thursday Dec 8th 2005 |
| I'm sorry to report that mother nature has been sticking it too us for several weeks now. Snow accumulation has been poor and last week temperatures in the mountains were hitting the -20C range. That's not a nice way to treat all those skiers and riders that are itching to get out into the powder for the first time this season. With the world cup racing finished and the Christmas season in full bloom the crowds should be down at Lake Louise for the next couple of weeks. The reports on Louise are mixed but the general consensus is that the back side is pretty good while the front side is rocky and icy in places. Sunshine is also in pretty good shape on the divide and on the intermediate groomed runs. Ski the steeps and the bumps at your own risk. The big news is that Fernie is opening this weekend. Unfortunately, I won't be able to check it out this weekend so a report from anyone who does get down there would be really appreciated. Castle is toying with the idea of opening this weekend but I suspect they won't if they haven't announced it yet. If they do open, it could be a nice surprise for anyone lucky enough to get out there. The upcoming weekend Dec 10,11 is looking excellent in terms of weather. Sunny and warm. What more could you want after spending a week in the deep freeze? We may not have big pow yet this year but the turns will still be sweet with the sun on your face and soft snow at your feet. |
| State of the Mountains, Thursday Nov 24th 2005 |
| How quickly things change. No snow, lot's of sunshine and warm temperatures for the last 2 weeks have taken a lot of the excitement out of what was looking like an amazing early season. Opening weekend and the days that followed were undoubtedly excellent for this time of year but then weather and skier traffic began to take their toll. I'm not saying it wouldn't be fun to go skiing this weekend but conditions are now looking more like early December instead of mid January. A little snow would get us back on track but for now we'll have to enjoy what we get. Expect Lake Louise to be busy this weekend with the World Cup Event under way. If you want to avoid the crowds the Sunshine will be your best bet. However, I've been to the race and it is really cool to see world class athletes rippin down the hill. Worth checking out if you've never seen the race before. Kicking Horse are still reporting 150cm in their upper bowls but I imagine the bottom half of the mountain is being pnished by the warm weather. Same goes for Castle, Nakiska, and Fortress - Mother Nature isn't helping out right now. Lousie, Sunshine and Whistler Blackcomb are all open and loosing snow base to skiers, boarders, and spring like weather. Even Fernie has stopped building upon what was looking like a fantastic early season base. But have hope! Things can turn good just as quickly as they turn bad. Just one snow dump would put Fernie, KHR, Castle, and Fortress in great shape for their upcoming opening weekends. If we get some snow over the next 2 weeks hit some of the resorts on opening day and you won't be disappointed.
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| State of the Mountains, Friday Nov 11th 2005 |
| What can I say? The mountains are in freaking fantastic shape. I'm not just gripped with early season euphoria either. OK, I haven't actually been out riding yet... but I've been greedily scanning the web cams and various photo galleries from the resorts and I'm not kiddin ya, conditions look really good out there. So why am I sitting here instead of driving my skinny butt up to the mountains? For some questions there are no answers. But my excuses are as follows: skis are getting tuned, haven't put bindings on my new board yet, and had too much work to do today. All poor. Getting back to the mountains... here are the numbers. Fernie, Louise and Kicking Horse have at least 100cm in the alpine. Sunshine is reporting a 75cm base and Castle has an 80cm base mid mountain. These are like late December / January accumulations. The Rockies have been doing us proud. Over on the west coast they're still only reporting a 50cm base so they've got some catching up to do. Not much else to report - it's still pretty early. But the outlook is positive. Normally at this time of the year we grudgingly get in a few turns on Louise's Wiwaxy or destroy our skies while dodging rocks and icebergs at Sunshine. Early season skiing is normally for the impatient. But this year it might actually be very gratifying to beat the crowds and enjoy some excellent turns. |
| State of the Mountains, Wednesday Mar 16th 2005 |
| The month of March has now come to a close and it has been as strange and unpredictable as any I've experienced over the last number of years. We entered the month crying the blues over a prolonged drought that saw bases becoming thin and crusted. By mid March, extremely warm temperatures were creating soft spring conditions and threatened to bring an early end to our season. In fact, Castle Mountain and Kimberley could not weather the punishment and ended up closing several weeks early this year. This must be extremely disappointing for those areas and I hope it doesn't put them in a serious financial bind for next year. I don't like to see any resorts struggling and I'm still in mourning over the closure of Fortress this year.
But just when you were thinking, "this season is totally shot", the snow began to fall at the end of March. Fernie had huge numbers last weekend with over 100cm in a four-day period over Easter. That combined with a 31cm dumping on St. Patrick's Day restored our faith in the "Griz". Fernie may have benefited most from the Easter bash but numbers were great across the board. Louise had 40cm over the weekend; Sunshine 34cm; KHR and Panorama picked up around 25cm; Nakiska and Norquay got around 15cm. Only Marmot was cruelly shut out. St Patrick was not as generous as the Easter Bunny. Only Fernie (31cm) and Sunshine (23cm) picked up a good amount of snow that day. There must have been some wee Leprechauns vacationing at those resorts. Although there was only one major storm in March we did receive a fair amount of snow in the last two weeks of the month. Fernie was the King with 174cm but Sunshine turned in a respectable 103cm of accumulation since March 15. Louise, KHR, and Pano were all around 60cm while Nakiska and Norquay posted respectable numbers in the 50cm range. Marmot was having a banner year earlier in the season but could only manage 40cm of snowfall over the last fifteen days of March. So where does that leave us heading into April? Sunshine and Louise are still in great shape. Both are reporting bases around 200cm and the word on the street is that conditions are pretty good there right now. Fernie has run up to a more typically base for them, 255cm. But the rain is coming again and they are planning to close next weekend (April 12). Similarly, Panorama and KHR have some great conditions right now but they are shutting the lifts down next weekend and this weekend, respectively. Nakiska and Norquay also have great spring conditions but they will be saying "adieu" next weekend as well. That just leaves Marmot to soldier on until May 1, Louise to close May 8, and Sunshine to do their usual late season parties until May 23. I can't believe the season is coming to an end. It seemed so short this year. |