snoWYmonkey
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I am often the first one to be tempted by perfect photos of skiers from the various resorts, but my experience tells me I have to read the reports for a slightly clearer picture of actual conditions. This is especially true early season and late season, and I am sure all season in certain regions.
Please contribute your own approaches to this thread as it is only one take on the report reading skill.
Snow: I seldom look at total snow fall as this can be so misleading, and instead look at the actual snow depth. Is the depth at the top, the middle of the base? This can make a huge difference. This is especially true when it stayed cold up high, but early season snow fall melted away rapidly at the base. Another critical snow depth issue relates to each ski area. Some places have perfect low grass underneath the runs and 20 inches could be a great base for a given ski run or all runs. Other resorts, are mostly 2 to 5 foot boulders under the snow and I would not venture out on such runs without at least a 50 inch base depth.
Lifts open: This can often be an indication of conditions, especially if closures seem to apply to a certain elevation or aspect (north, south, etc). However, some resorts have lifts that almost never open even on good years, and yet other resorts have almost daily closures due to high winds. Closed lifts are not always an indication of porr snow conditions, but if the report does not indicate that multiple lifts are supposed to spin the next day, I would look into the reason why and assume inadequate snow.
Runs open: This is really the key piece of most snow reports. If only a few are open, then I assume that the conditions are less than ideal. I definitely pay attention once again to the part of the mountain that has closures. Is it up high, or down low? Is it on runs that are never groomed and don't have snowmaking? It is still fun to get out and ski, but a little bit of local knowledge may save me the bases of my skis if I know one area has tons of man made and another one will be hopping from patch to patch on the way back down the hill by the end of the season.
Grooming report: This is a good one to look at early and late in the season. Typically, only runs with enough snow will have the big heavy cats on them. If few runs seem to be open, then the groomed ones are likely to be the ones with the most snow and best conditions.
Weather: On the day of, it is always worthwhile to look at the current data, especially wind and wind direction as this can affect so many things, from lift closures, to deep powder deposits, to areas more prone to avalanches. This also impacts what I will wear layer wise. Some resorts have inversions on sunny days where it is significantly warmer up high. Though of course high winds can quickly negate the extra degrees of warmth. For weather data, I often try to go to the source, which in many places comes from the avalanche forecasting website's weather stations directly. I love getting my info from the source. It also helps to know where on the hill the stations actually are. Some resorts may call it the base temp, but in fact it could be a few hundred feet above a cold sink.
My routine is to check the avalanche forecast, the weather station 24 hr summaries and current conditions from the avalanche center weather stations before I leave home, then I check the resort report during the commute and then I look at the lift status throughout the day if applicable.
Please contribute your own approaches to this thread as it is only one take on the report reading skill.
Snow: I seldom look at total snow fall as this can be so misleading, and instead look at the actual snow depth. Is the depth at the top, the middle of the base? This can make a huge difference. This is especially true when it stayed cold up high, but early season snow fall melted away rapidly at the base. Another critical snow depth issue relates to each ski area. Some places have perfect low grass underneath the runs and 20 inches could be a great base for a given ski run or all runs. Other resorts, are mostly 2 to 5 foot boulders under the snow and I would not venture out on such runs without at least a 50 inch base depth.
Lifts open: This can often be an indication of conditions, especially if closures seem to apply to a certain elevation or aspect (north, south, etc). However, some resorts have lifts that almost never open even on good years, and yet other resorts have almost daily closures due to high winds. Closed lifts are not always an indication of porr snow conditions, but if the report does not indicate that multiple lifts are supposed to spin the next day, I would look into the reason why and assume inadequate snow.
Runs open: This is really the key piece of most snow reports. If only a few are open, then I assume that the conditions are less than ideal. I definitely pay attention once again to the part of the mountain that has closures. Is it up high, or down low? Is it on runs that are never groomed and don't have snowmaking? It is still fun to get out and ski, but a little bit of local knowledge may save me the bases of my skis if I know one area has tons of man made and another one will be hopping from patch to patch on the way back down the hill by the end of the season.
Grooming report: This is a good one to look at early and late in the season. Typically, only runs with enough snow will have the big heavy cats on them. If few runs seem to be open, then the groomed ones are likely to be the ones with the most snow and best conditions.
Weather: On the day of, it is always worthwhile to look at the current data, especially wind and wind direction as this can affect so many things, from lift closures, to deep powder deposits, to areas more prone to avalanches. This also impacts what I will wear layer wise. Some resorts have inversions on sunny days where it is significantly warmer up high. Though of course high winds can quickly negate the extra degrees of warmth. For weather data, I often try to go to the source, which in many places comes from the avalanche forecasting website's weather stations directly. I love getting my info from the source. It also helps to know where on the hill the stations actually are. Some resorts may call it the base temp, but in fact it could be a few hundred feet above a cold sink.
My routine is to check the avalanche forecast, the weather station 24 hr summaries and current conditions from the avalanche center weather stations before I leave home, then I check the resort report during the commute and then I look at the lift status throughout the day if applicable.
