A nice surprise with a few inches of fresh snow overnight at Vail.

Around dinner time last night, heavy snow showers swept across the Vail valley and surrounding areas delivering a few inches of light fluffy snow to top up the cover.

This morning, we read that Beaver Creek reported 8 inches of snow, though considering just up the road, Vail scored around half that, we are guessing a male made the measurement at Beaver Creek.

Unfortunately, this was not enough snow in the back bowls as the light fluff readily skied down to the crust underneath. The back bowls have been punished with the freeze and thaw conditions and they will need snow on top of snow to set up the base again for “bottomless” skiing.

Blue Sky Basin, anything north facing and the shaded areas were the place to be today as the base is not so crusty underneath allowing the fresh snow on top to ski much better. Our pick was the trees at Blue Sky today with untouched turns all day (if you know where to go).

The forecast is for snow to come ripping down the west coast, before making a turn and delivering the goods in Tahoe, Utah and Colorado over the coming days. Here in Colorado, we are expecting delivery from Saturday into Monday, though Sunday looks like it is setting up as the best of the pick.

As with all storms, you can never tell the exact nature of snowfall, though conditions look like they will be favorable for at least 6 inches from this storm, though I am leaning towards a foot of snow total with a little luck.

The sunshine should return tomorrow with a warm day before the clouds roll in once again on the weekend, accompanied by dipping temperatures.

If you are a fan of what we produce, we’d “love” some facebook “like” and “share” with your friends. Be sure to do your snow dance and we’ll see you on the mountain.