How windy is too windy?

[Serafina]

Forecast for Sat involves more normal temps (yay!) but winds 20-25mph. I know lifts shut down if it's too windy, and I don't know what "too" windy is there.

I notice people here advising people to be careful of winds, and such, but I'm not sure if it's wind, per se, or wind chills. Is 20mph wind "extreme" for skiing?

Also, I just wanted to say - thanks to all of you who have been answering my 1,000,000 questions that come from having no useful experience of my own in this sport. You're making this a better experience that it might have been otherwise, and your input is helping to make it a safer experience, too. Thanks!!

 

[geargrrl]

1. when you can't traverse any more due to the wind pushing you backwards

2. when they shut down the lifts.

Otherwise, if you aren't a fairweather skier, why the heck not?

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Hailing from a very windy mountain (as several divas can now attest, post-"diva summit!"), 20 mph isn't bad (kinda norm at summit for us here). Definitely consider the wind chill factor and go prepared with appropriate face covering, etc., even if you don't think you'll need it. You might.

The big factors in lift ops are not only speed but direction, and gusting. Again, 20 shouldn't be an issue.

I even felt like I could get blown backwards last Sunday near the summit: a good sail and I'd be GONE.

 

[altagirl]

No such thing to me until the lifts close. Wind smooths out the snow, so we like it - if there's not going to be fresh snow, at least let there be wind...

20mph sounds normal to me too. It does get crazy sometimes. I've been out in 50-70mph gusts that blow you backwards or even uphill. We weren't sure we were going to make it down the hill a few weeks ago and were laughing our butts off at the comedy of pointing your skis downhill and going nowhere.

And then we switched to another lift where the skiing is less exposed, but from the lift you could hear the wind going through the trees over on the ridge across from us and it sounded like the ocean in a storm. Eerie and very cool.

Obviously you need to take wind chill into consideration and minimize/eliminate exposed skin if it's cold with the wind.

 

[bluebird]

I would get stoked way back in the day when i would hear a wind forecast like that...Windersurfers are wind hounds..if we even see a leaf twitch we get all excited..oh yes back to skiing..I am at northstar which is one of the most wind protected resorts ever..while other resorts are closing due to high wind, the star is open but the real secret (I found today)was that high wind just made skiing the glades better. The Star is a mass glade mountain and the tracks kept filling in..and visibility was great.

 

[Slidergirl]

On windy days, the mechanics sit at the top terminal, monitoring the wind. Some of the newer lifts have the wind gauge built-in, older ones are dependent on manual intervention. Some of it involves sustained winds and gusts. If either gets to a pre-determined point, the lifts will slow or shut down. Line riders (usually a liftie, a ski patroller, or another mechanic) will also go from the bottom to determine the amount of swing on a chair. If it gets to be too much (like 1-2 ft of swing), things will either slow or shut down.
Of course, it's all safety-driven. But, still some guests don't get it. PCMR had huge winds yesterday afternoon, causing some lift closures. Sure enough, there were guests complaining. Sorry. Just because you want to ride a chair in 50+mph winds does not mean that we will risk other guests' or employees' safety to accommodate you...(my personal opinion)

 

[abc]

On "normal" temperature, wind chill isn't too much of a problem. As long as you have windproof gears, that is.

Wind hold is rarely an issue at below 25. But check wind gust, which isn't always mentioned on non-ski related forecasts. When it's 35+, watch out for potential of windhold on some lifts.

 

[Blue Diamond]

Serafina,
I think 20-25mph is still ok. They might slow down the lifts, but I don't think they would close them. Still, there can be stronger wind gusts, and skiing through them is not too much fun for me. However, you probably can look for the side of the mountain that is the least exposed to wind and stay in that area if the wind is too uncomfortable for you. That is what I normally do.

 

[Magnatude]

In NZ, high winds are quite common; you learn to love them (wind-blown dumps of powdery snow etc, albeit interspersed with scoured icy ridges). No need to pay for facial exfoliation in winter -- it gets done for free (well an add-on bonus really) while on the T-bar. It's not completely unheard of to be blown off the T-bar. Sometimes the lifts, then the mountain close. The scary thing then is driving down the exposed, precipitous, hairpin-riddled narrow icy/snowy/muddy goat track that usually passes for a road here (I'm talking NZ ski field roads generally -- a select few are more civilised).

We were skiing at one of the bigger commercial fields here recently -- one with chairlifts! -- and wind gusts caused the chair to stop. We were nowhere near the getting-off point, so were sitting for about 10 minutes about a hundred feet (possibly an exaggeration) up, swinging madly from side to side, hoping the thing was going to stay on its cable, until the wind dropped and it got going again. I think that was our last run for the day, I wasn't keen to repeat the experience. But they didn't close the mountain.

 

[mahgnillig]

The last few days have been super windy in Tahoe. Northstar yesterday wasn't too bad, though it was really windy at the summit. At Heavenly today they had some wind closures, but not as much as in the last few days. I heard they had gusts up to 145mph (!!) at Squaw a couple of days ago... I can't even begin to imagine what it feels like to be hit by a gust like that, but I'm assuming the mountain was closed.

For me, too windy is when the lifts start closing (or slowing down), or when the wind chill gets to me... whichever comes sooner.

 

[litterbug]

I once had frostnipped eyebrows in a 25-ish degree storm when my goggles got soaked in a yardsale at the end of the day. I had to ski down without them, periodically prying my frozen-together eyelashes apart. The eyebrows peeled a few days later just like a sunburn.

I'm not sure what too much wind is, so long as there's snow and the wind isn't blowing the lift chairs sideways. I don't know what the numbers were, but the 'breeze' was really bangin' away at Alta today; I saw at least one small child getting blown uphill away from her dad while he tried to coax her into a bowl (she got to him eventually but was a bit upset). After a while I got pretty good at predicting which side of a run was more likely to have received soft floury deposits of the snow that'd been scoured off of the other side. But having to pole upwind to get off the lift chair was new for me.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

But having to pole upwind to get off the lift chair was new for me.

Pretty typical stuff at the venerable and windy Sugarloaf, Maine. I've nearly been blown backward trying to exit the t-bar (one of the few lifts, being surface, that can run in wind).

On day 3 of the Diva East summit here, 1/24/11, wind chill at the summit (base air temp was around -20F) was -70F. Lifts did not spin. :( DH similarly got frost nip with peeling.

 

[nopoleskier]

Since this thread started I've been thinkiing about you MSL also last night and today our winds our howling, MSL you KNOW Windy!

 

[Serafina]

My question has been answered by the resort, which is 90% closed this morning.

Glad I decided to ski yesterday - the morning snow report says that there will be NO summit access today and that only some of the lower mountain lifts will be running. A lot of that is wind, and some is because they've closed any trail that hasn't been intensively groomed (thanks to the sudden resurgence of winter).

Thank heavens, they're going to start blowing snow tonight, too. Bunch of the steeper runs had bare patches yesterday. Fortunately, those were under the lift where one could get a very good look at conditions before committing to the run...

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Since this thread started I've been thinkiing about you MSL also last night and today our winds our howling, MSL you KNOW Windy!

Hey, nopole! Sugarloaf is on FULL wind hold today! And one of the most singular busy days of the holiday week!
Can't change the weather....
I'm on pass black-out (pity :D), and DH is working the holiday.
Can't wait for MARCH!

 

[frenchgirl]

We had 40 mph winds today and whiteout conditions at the hill today, but nothing closed. The brigade were still going strong and people were skiing. It was snowing heavily too so we had a powder day too! Very different from the 55F temps from yesterday for sure!