Utah's biggest storm of the season?

Thought about going over to the "Bird" today, but found too much good stuff to ski at Alta to bother. Did a lot of tree runs off Collins and the High T and kept finding soft untracked powder pillows. I also made progressively farther forays out the T and finally ended going out around the end for some tracked out, but still soft drops down to Collins. While the sun peaked out a couple of times, it mostly stayed behind the clouds and had little impact on the snow surface. Tomorrow should still be sweet, especially if we get some fresh tonight. An east coast skier buddy who used to make trips out to UT with me before I moved here called me yesterday morning to ask for an airport pick-up. He couldn't stand reading the snow reports anymore and is flying in today. I told him a pick-up was no problem, as long as it was after dark ;-)
 
A mention regarding Snowbasin.....
Spring storms are when the elevation advantage of AltaBird really changes the game. From this afternoon's avi advisory:
Storm totals since Tuesday are over 3 feet of dense snow in the upper elevations of the Cottonwood Canyons and Park City with 3-4 inches of water weight. The storm was quite warm, so new snow amounts were very elevation dependent. For instance, places like Snowbasin, which is 2000 feet lower than the Cottonwood Canyon resorts, had the same water amounts but only 10 inches of snow.
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I like "best of both worlds". I tend to sneak over with BobbyD on a weekly basis at least for a few runs. Each resort has its own "feel", and of course its signature runs.

Its all good. to each their own.

M
 
A mention regarding Snowbasin.....
Spring storms are when the elevation advantage of AltaBird really changes the game.
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Absolutely. I was surprised how sticky the snow surface was by midday at Snowbasin March 16. Needless to say, no sign of that the next day at Alta.

Therefore I was also somewhat surprised from BobbyD's report that Snowbasin served up one more round of great powder from the March 28-29 storm.
 
Tony Crocker":19szd6li said:
Therefore I was also somewhat surprised from BobbyD's report that Snowbasin served up one more round of great powder from the March 28-29 storm.
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you will have to learn in BobbyD's book there is no such thing as a "bad" day....

M
 
Skidog":3ew2dn6d said:
you will have to learn in BobbyD's book there is no such thing as a "bad" day....
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That's true, but even he might have said some unkind words about today. Thanks to massive amounts of UV radiation slamming around in random vectors, 30-whatever inches of spring snow turned into manky sludge on all aspects at all elevations, save for one or two tiny protected areas. While not entirely terrible and even kinda creamy here and there, for the most part it was thick and chunky. Although we sampled some, we basically stuck to the groomers today. Next week's corn cycle can't arrive soon enough at this point.
 
Next week's corn cycle can't arrive soon enough at this point.
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I don't know if this is on the way to Utah, but here's what's happening in the Sierra:

Friday, April 17, 2009 9:14:13 AM
"BIG WARM UP UNDERWAY IN THE HIGH COUNTRY TODAY WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MONDAY/TUESDAY.......TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES APPROACHING +15F ABOVE NORMAL EARLY NEXT WEEK.....
 
Tony Crocker":2l2gan50 said:
Next week's corn cycle can't arrive soon enough at this point.
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I don't know if this is on the way to Utah, but here's what's happening in the Sierra:

Friday, April 17, 2009 9:14:13 AM
"BIG WARM UP UNDERWAY IN THE HIGH COUNTRY TODAY WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MONDAY/TUESDAY.......TEMPERATURE ANOMALIES APPROACHING +15F ABOVE NORMAL EARLY NEXT WEEK.....
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The valley is predicted to be well into the 70's next week, which easily equates to the 50's in LCC. Southern UT (Zion, St, George, et al) will be pushing 90.
 
Thanks to massive amounts of UV radiation slamming around in random vectors, 30-whatever inches of spring snow turned into manky sludge on all aspects at all elevations, save for one or two tiny protected areas.
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i've had a couple of May powder days (Baldy 1998, Mammoth 2005). With the sun rising north of east, east-facing gets baked immediately. So I stick to north and west facing and get 2-3 hours of decent pow. Much past noon it can be tough everywhere if it's a warm day.

Thus I was pleased there was no sun at Mammoth last Friday. With sun Saturday the pow was still OK in the morning, but set up quite a bit after lunch.
 
Pounding Colo right now. Been a mix of rain & snow in Denver until about 1pm. Since then very heavy (and wet) snow and roads are real bad. Heard that they just closed I-70 from Morrison (Denver) all the way to Vail.

Too bad Eldora is closed. They would have had the biggest storm of the year to ski Sat. Suposed to be snowing Sat am so might be some good snow for one day till the sun comes out on Sun... We'll see.

Tony, This storm is a prefect example of a big 'upslope' event. More so than the late March storm. That one only had 'wrap around' moisture. This one is sucking new moisture from the gulf of mexico as well.
 
no bad days only more honest ones some days you just have to be real. one doesn't always have pow not even here . i know that's hard to beleive. so we'll have to make do with 230+" this month. only means may snow will be cream on the pie. the storm cycle has really been running since the fourth week of march. with intermitten short brakes that haven't amounted to any real damage as far as heat . but it's about too ! :stir: the upper cirque is a bowl the chutes really have no seperation even ow god has no air just a steep shot . between jaws and great scott. jaws is so full it's become plain old gums.
 
Tony, This storm is a perfect example of a big 'upslope' event.
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Yes, 30-34 inches at A-Basin/Loveland/Winter Park vs. 16 at Vail/Copper, and the storm is past at the latter areas but not yet at the former.

Until now the past 2 seasons have had relatively few of these upslope events. The easy way to tell is to compare Vail and Winter Park, which have similar long-term snowfall averages. As of last week 2008-09 totals were: Vail 427, Winter Park 348. Last year: Vail 429, Winter Park 382.

jaws is so full it's become plain old gums.
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I recall my day in May 2005 when the drop-in from the top of Great Scott with admin was wide open. I've never seen that during my March trips. Hard to believe I took a pass on Jaws just 6 weeks ago.

Will we be posting comparative July 4th reports like 4 years ago?
 
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