• Women skiers, this is the place for you -- an online community without the male-orientation you'll find in conventional ski magazines and internet ski forums. At TheSkiDiva.com, you can connect with other women to talk about skiing in a way that you can relate to, about things that you find of interest. Be sure to join our community to participate (women only, please!). Registration is fast and simple. Just be sure to add [email protected] to your address book so your registration activation emails won't be routed as spam. And please give careful consideration to your user name -- it will not be changed once your registration is confirmed.

The awful impact of California's drought.

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
I know this is a bummer, but the drought in California has made for an awful ski year. We've all heard about the many ski resort closings; I found some photos online that are pretty depressing. Take a look, if you dare.

My heart goes out not only to the skiers and ski areas, but to everyone in the region. The bad snow pack has wide-ranging implications. I hate to think of the impact this will have on everything from fires to farming. Do a rain (or snow!) dance, everyone.
 
Last edited:

Perty

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Stepson ski instructing with girlfriend at Squaw has been given 2 weeks notice, so his season will be ending on easter weekend, 3 weeks early I think. It's a complete pain..under the terms of his working visa he has 10 days to leave the U.S. once his contract ends. He had already booked flights to NZ on 29th April, and now has to rethink, with less money in the bank and 2 or 3 fewer weeks to earn more. In theory the company is supposed to pay for flights home (and to the U.S. AND accommodation), but those obligations appear to be honoured in the breach rather than the observance. He as going to speak to management on Monday about it, not had an update since.
He thinks he may be able to get a tourist visa to cover the gap till the trip to NZ. At least he has accommodation until that date if he needs it. Ho hum...such is the life of a peripatetic ski instructor.
 

WaterGirl

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I realize its been another drought winter, and yes some resorts may be closed or in spring mode and closing parts of the mountain, and yes its been really hot in So Cal, and yes its bad for the mountain economy - and its going to be a really tough fire year.... but um, they just got snow yesterday - 2-8 inches according to the Tahoe Daily Snow Report. Same for the Mammoth cam showing snow even at town elevation yesterday. Things are changing in the weather pattern so you never know.....

Does it always have to be so negatively reported? why not "Skiers enjoy WROD despite drought- expecting storms in April" ....... resorts doing best they can with limited snow? Snow harvesting keeps resorts open etc where is all that positive news?
 

skibum4ever

Angel Diva
Mammoth is way better covered than that, at least from Main Lodge to the top.

But the reporting is negative because the situation is very negative, for skiers, for everyone. There is no way to put a good spin on ski conditions or drought conditions.

Conditions at Mammoth resemble Memorial Day in a decent year. There are some lifts and runs that have not been open at all this season.

I am a definite die-hard. Last season, which was below normal, I spent nearly 2 weeks at Mammoth in mid-May. But my coming Easter week trip will most likely be my last trip of the season, unless there is a major change.

No Mammoth skier wants to hear the term "WROD" in late March.
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
I know this is a bummer, but the drought in California has made for an awful ski year. We've all heard about the many ski resort closings; I found some photos online that are pretty depressing. Take a look, if you dare.

My heart goes out not only to the skiers and ski areas, but to everyone in the region. The bad snow pack has wide-ranging implications. I hate to think of the impact this will have on everything from fires to farming. Do a rain (or snow!) dance, everyone.
Okay, for those of us who ski Tahoe, this is a bummer. And, I did post earlier the demise of some Tahoe resorts. But, I clicked on the news article and the first photos is an area on Donner Summit called Soda Springs. It is near Boreal and Sugar Bowl and has one lift and two runs and NO snowmaking. Albeit, those Donner Summit areas always got so much snow that they didn't need it. Actually, Heavenly and Northstar still have quite a few runs open, are still making snow, and hoping to last a few more weeks. I have to say that @WaterGirl had a point about the negative reviews… I feel that I posted one and really, I love Tahoe and skiing, and it is a bad year and a concern for fires, etc, but BF says we should just make the best of it… Have fun and ski a few hours… So going up next week for the last hurrah.
 

mustski

Angel Diva
And ... this is not terribly unusual for California. I haven't found the data for 2014 added in yet but here is the data up to and including 2013.
2013_Snowfall_Snowpack_Chart.gif
 

Attachments

  • 2013_Snowfall_Snowpack_Chart.gif
    2013_Snowfall_Snowpack_Chart.gif
    41.2 KB · Views: 4
Last edited:

mustski

Angel Diva
Sorry for the image AND attached file above ... I couldn't get the graph to embed in a large enough image to read! Maybe one of the mods could delete the "attached file."
 

skibum4ever

Angel Diva
This is the plot of snow depth for Mammoth Pass, starting in 1900, as of 3/24.

Warning, it's not that easy to read, and you might need to play around with it.

https://cdec.water.ca.gov/histPlot/DataPlotter.jsp?staid=MAM&sensor_no=18&duration=M&start=03/14/1900 22:18&end=03/24/2015 22:19&geom=Large

I worked for a statistician many years ago, and he could make statistics tell any tale he wished. But these snow depths, combined with the above average temperatures in CA this winter, cannot be tallied into anything but a pessimistic view of the 2014-2015 CA ski season.
 
Last edited:

mustski

Angel Diva
For sure it has been a bad year and we have a hard summer/fall ahead of us. It is, unfortunately, part of living in SoCal. We have these cycles. Here's hoping we hit bottom this winter.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
26,237
Messages
497,638
Members
8,503
Latest member
MermaidKelly
Top