LaGrangewx

I’m a younger guy and work remote and have a roommate. Rent isn’t terrible with a roommate and the community here is awesome. The fall was incredible since there was basically no tourists in town. Fished the alpine lakes almost everyday after work. Access to skiing and proximity to Denver area can’t be beat. The roaring fork valley area of Colorado is also awesome (Glenwood Springs to Aspen corridor). I think that’s one of the best places in the country for skiing in terms of terrain and lack of crowds with the 4 Aspen mountains. Highlands should be a bucket list place for everyone that loves to ski. Places like Telluride and Crested Butte are my favorite ski towns in the state but they are really isolated if you want that type of feel.

Been a pretty awesome winter living in Breckenridge and I still like throwing some observations in this chat. I am not nearly as accurate with my methods as Jspin but I’ve logged around 170” of snow this year in an average to maybe slightly above average winter. My guess is my location averages around 175” at 9200 feet. I still have a solid 2’+ snowpack but the Hoosier Pass Snotel about 25 minutes down the road but over 2k ft higher than me has a 5’ snowpack. The sun up at this elevation does some crazy things and south facing exposures already have grass where north facing has 2-3 feet of snow. Aspects are also very evident on ski surface conditions out here. Another thing I’ve noticed is that I keep track of the Breckenridge snow stake webcam frequently since I live nearby. With the latest spring storm they received about 2” before measuring at 5am and reporting but then it snowed 3” more after clearing the board. However, that 3” vanished when the sun came out and the next morning they reported 0” because the board was clear. Whatever the board has at 5am is what they report. So for ski purposes it is indicative of what you’ll find on the slopes but the season total is not accurate of actual snowfall. Food for thought. I’ve always been interested with snowfall and comparisons and have now skied almost every resort in Colorado. Most of these places have fairly wide ranges between base to summit snowfall and report mid mountain snowfall. There are some exceptions. Somewhere like Wolf Creek averages around 435” at the base and most of their snowfall falls in the heart of ski season November through April. Steamboat is like this as well with great January February snow. As opposed to somewhere like Loveland or Abasin where a lot of snow falls in September, October, May, June and the heart of ski season can be drier even tho the base areas average around 350” for the entire year. Somewhere like Telluride has massive variance between base and summit with 4400+ vertical. The town probably averages 175” but up at 12500+ I bet they average close to 500”. When I was there the town got 1-3” of snow one day and I skied 15” of powder off the top of Palmyra Peak. The resort reported maybe 4-6” and was good about showing an average for the overall resort. Telluride has a rep for low snow but if you’re skiing the higher alpine terrain there, that gets as much or more snow than any other Colorado area. Out here ski areas seem to be less about inflating or trying to count every single CM of snowfall at the summit to report as somewhere like Jay Peak seems to do. Jay peak has this reputation of getting more snow than some of these mountains out here but if these places tallied snow from near the summits and every dusting that falls basically all of them would report more snow than Jay.

Live in Summit County now and have skied every resort extensively so I'll throw in my 2 cents. I would say A-basin is my favorite in the area but it's for the reasons you mentioned. The hike to and expert alpine terrain is the best in this area by a decent margin. Breckenridge would be a fairly close 2nd with the six senses, lake chutes and peak 7 areas. E-chair is also fun. Copper is a very solid mountain and has a good consistent fall-line and variety of terrain. It now dominates the park scene around here as well. The East Wall is great but requires some effort. The steep gullies are fun and in my opinion slightly exaggerated in terms of danger and no more so than some of the upper east wall stuff. The gullies are very rocky though and you will hit them even with good coverage. #2 or #4 are probably the most consistent. The Pali terrain at A-basin is also great and has some of the most challenging tree skiing and narrow cut steep runs in this area. A-basin is generally my favorite on nice sunny days in April when coverage is the best. Vertigo can be a real issue there on bad visibility days since most lifts go above tree-line.

This was my first season living in Colorado and the West has definitely had an awesome year. However, the front range ski areas of Colorado have missed out on the historic snows that other areas have received. Most are hovering around average to maybe slightly above while the central and southern resorts and also Steamboat are well above average. A-Basin is skiing great right now but for example they’re at around 225” season total meanwhile Alta has a 250” base. Utah and California have been the bullseye for the record totals. The last season out west that compares was 2010-2011 and I think that year was actually even better for a wider portion of the west outside of just Utah and the Sierra

Interesting. It seems like the east side of Washington has done better this year. I’ve also seen some sweet shots of Landslide Gully on Webster tho.

Hermit lake and Carter Notch hut at 73” depth. Interested to see the Lake Colden ADK report tomorrow. Turning out to be the best winter in the Whites since at least 2019. Would love to try and come back east and ski Tuckerman later this spring. It seems like Wildcat might have had the best season of any eastern ski area relative to snowfall this year at around ~200 already.

Is there a better place for big storms? I feel like Woodford consistently gets more 3ft storms than any other place. Catskills can do really well and maybe Pinkham Notch/Randolph NH?

Uncle has a place off mountain road west side of number nine mountain at 1425’. He’s must’ve got around 2ft+ as well I would guess. Up around north river and gore was in better banding and probably has ~30”. That’s now 3 storms above 18” this year up there. Pretty solid.

Mitch just reported 35 but he had a dry slot for a few hours. That area near West Dover avoided it and probably has 40-45 right now.

Was just going to post this as well. They are still getting pounded. 4 feet within reach I think

Yea it’s a fun mountain with some great runs like Rumor and Lies and also some sweet trees. They do well with coastals but miss out on the upslope that Vermont and even Whiteface can get.

Back in Colorado now but here are a couple pics from the weekend near Gore Mountain. The Adirondacks are awesome and nothing beats being there with a big snowstorm. Gore reported 17” at the base. Skiing was great. Crowded on the hill but minimal lift lines. Kind of the opposite of what happens out here in CO.

Back on the east coast. Been an awesome winter out in Colorado so far but timed a yearly trip to Gore perfectly. Currently in Thurman near Gore and got absolutely dumped on over night. Eyeballing what looks like 15” out there right now. Should be a great ski day

Denver airport just dropped 37 degrees in 1 hour. Never seen anything like it

I had some incredible early season conditions in Aspen this weekend. Really rough to pick a favorite. Ajax has some awesome glades. And I got a delicious $35 hamburger at the outdoor bar. Highlands has some awesome steeps and powder skiing. Tons of vert. I didn’t hike the bowl this time around but definitely next time. Snowmass is just huge and I didn’t even get to explore it much. Skied about a half day. There is something for everyone here. They were blasting the cirque all day so it must be opening up soon. All in all my first weekend of skiing out here was fantastic. I didn’t have a single lift line on a Saturday with some deep powder conditions. It blew my mind.