Big and Little Cottonwood Tour May 18th 2011 video & picture

[Marc_C]

We could add 3000' to base and summit elevations and it still wouldn't have made a difference.

Gotta call BS. If you add 3K feet you drop at least 8-10F in temperature and that's being conservative since the standard lapse rate is much more than what I quoted. So slop snow at 32F or perhaps higher temp that you actually got would have not even been all that wet and perhaps even actual 'greatest snow on earth'.

Very Early and very Late season Utah has a distinct disadvantage in altitude...

Actually I agree with you about Utah and altitude (at least where the ski areas are located - there are higher mountains, even in the Wasatch), but this particular storm had periods of rain up to about 15K' yesterday (top of Snowbird is 11K').

 

[Tony Crocker]

Very Early and very Late season Utah has a distinct disadvantage in altitude..

Disagree on early, aside from the snowmaking WROD's at Loveland and A-Basin. With rare exceptions like this season, we're still waiting past Christmas for decent coverage on some expert terrain at most CO areas. Late October and November temps are cold enough in Utah for nearly all precipitation in BCC/LCC to be snow. It's a rare event if you're not skiing 80+% of Alta/Brighton and 50+% of Snowbird/Solitude before Dec. 15.

Late season EMSC is correct. I was impressed by Breck's snow preservation up at 12,000 feet, and A-Basin and Loveland were similar. I do think it's altitude because the superior snow surface was not only relative to Utah but also to Vail which has the same elevation range as LCC. FYI Pali is still open today, so it's nice to see A-Basin is making that call based upon weather rather than arbitrarily shutting it down mid-May.

Your 48 inches at Snowbird is meaningless since the area is closed today and it's all going to be elephant snot by the time you get to ski it. By this time of year LCC is basically lift accessed backcountry skiing. May/June natural snow skiing is very sensitive to day-to-day weather. The effort Mammoth puts into grooming and salting provides a reasonable skiing product when the weather is less than ideal and greatly extends the enjoyable skiable hours even on the average days.

 

[Marc_C]

The effort Mammoth puts into grooming and salting provides a reasonable skiing product when the weather is less than ideal and greatly extends the enjoyable skiable hours even on the average days.

While we conveniently ignore what salting does to the watershed.

 

[Admin]

Your 48 inches at Snowbird is meaningless since the area is closed today and it's all going to be elephant snot by the time you get to ski it.

It was elephant snot when it fell -- see mbaydala's comments.

The effort Mammoth puts into grooming and salting provides a reasonable skiing product when the weather is less than ideal and greatly extends the enjoyable skiable hours even on the average days.

I forgot, Mammoth is vastly superior to anything else. :-({|= I should've packed up the car and driven there...

 

[mbaydala]

Here is you're snot from 3 hours ago at Deer Valley elevations around 8,800 feet.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2094046350682.131203.1231002422&l=dae4ebe943

working on a video now.

 

[EMSC]

The effort Mammoth puts into grooming and salting provides a reasonable skiing product when the weather is less than ideal and greatly extends the enjoyable skiable hours even on the average days.

While we conveniently ignore what salting does to the watershed.

Any idea what they are using nowadays Tony? Most places had switched to ammonium nitrate fertilizer for a few years until that became verboten after the Oklahoma bombing and I know they switched to something else here in Colo for the summer race camps but not back to literal rock salt... (I forget what and haven't coached a race camp since 07)

I should've packed up the car and driven there...

Nah, Colorado is closer :lol:

 

[Marc_C]

Here is you're snot from 3 hours ago at Deer Valley elevations around 8,800 feet.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2094046350682.131203.1231002422&l=dae4ebe943

For 24+" of new to barely get above boot-top, yeah, that's some pretty dense snot! :stir:

 

[mbaydala]

tell me about it. full on pow surfing...

 

[Tony Crocker]

I know Mammoth was using ammonium nitrate. I'll try to find out next week if that's still the case.

I did not say it would be elephant snot today; I said that's what it would be tomorrow for lift service. Props to mbaydala for the earned turns. =D>

 

[Admin]

Hey Tony, where do you go to find the official snow totals at the Collins mid mountain plot? I'd be curious to see how close they are to 800"

According to Jim Steenburgh, "Pseudo science, but I guestimate that Alta-Collins has gone over 800" for the winter now. There's a post on the blog."

Here's the post he's referencing:

http://wasatchweatherweenies.blogspot.c ... a-800.html