To be honest, when you get such massive snowfalls at resorts like Whistler Blackcomb, it’s no surprise you can’t find videos getting uploaded on the day of the epic snowfall. Why? Because people have better things to do!
So unfortunately today, we are yet to receive our daily fix of any type of decent edit on what Whistler looks like. However… Whistler weren’t the only resort to score snow in this storm. Let’s kick things off with a nice little edit from Sunday River, who scored a foot of fresh and decided to share it with us.
So it looks like the season is shaping up nicely up there in the Northwest. Many resorts continue to get good snow from this storm. Beware however with the “official” snowfall reports. Our eyes on the ground tell us at several locations that although some deep snow fell over the past few days, they awoke this morning to the dreaded “R” word down in some of the valleys at base resort levels. Now to be honest, not enough rain has fallen to wipe away the gains from the snowfall, though just don’t expect to get blower powder all the way to village level with this latest development.
Well, here are some of the official numbers from Canadian resorts. Keep in mind that these are usually taken from mid mountain or higher on resorts.
"You know it's a good day when..." Powder evidence from Sunshine Village. Photo: twitter @ssvsnowsafety
Whistler Blackcomb: 17cm above previous falls. 90cm in 48 hrs!
Fernie: Happy 50th birthday present – 38cm 24 hrs – 67cm 48 hrs. Note that the temperature today reached 8 degrees above freezing.
Lake Louise: 21cm overnight – 30cm in 24hrs. Remember the ski racing this weekend!
Sunshine: 20cm past 24 hrs
Panorama: 28cm in 24 hrs
Kicking Horse: 70cm in 48 hrs – 28cm fell in a 5 hr period! They have also brought their opening forward to the 2nd to 4th Dec for a weekend preview then 7 days a week from Dec 9
Revelstoke: 17cm overnight – Can you believe their year to date total is already 260cm!!! Damn!
Thanksgiving traditionally marks the start of the ski season with resorts scrambling to open lifts and trails in time for the holiday season. It’s one of the busiest times of year for travel and what better excuse to get out and test your early season legs. Here is the latest offering of resort openings and terrain expansions.
Squaw is open with blue skies and warm temperatures
Northstar now offers top to bottom riding
Heavenly expands with Big Dipper now open
Mammoth‘s 22’ pipe is first to open in Nth America and only Olympic sized pipe open in the world at the moment!
Kirkwood opens chair #5 Friday
Breckenridge now has Peak 9 open
Beaver Creek opened today with a bluebird day – 235 acres, 5 lifts, terrain park
Ajax opens tomorrow – 165 acres on 15 runs
Jackson Hole also has an impressive year to date snowfall figure already under their belt with 78 inches already having fallen. The 30 inch storm last weekend that blanketed the resort, as we reported in yesterdays snow report, has had a significant impact with the resort now suggesting that opening will consist of more than 3000 feet vertical on Saturday. We can expect to see the Bridger Gondola, Thunder Chairlift, the New Marmot Lift and Casper, Après Vous and Teewinot all in action when things kick off.
California can expect maybe a dusting of snow for turkey day, though all in all, some warm weather will dominate the forecast at least until next week.
In Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, snow should continue tomorrow to lowish levels with accumulations of up to 20cm expected closer to the coast, whilst inland and toward the Rockies, lower totals are generally expected there. On Friday, the snow will return after a brief respite, although leading into Saturday, another large band of moisture is set to hit the area. The bad news is that temperatures will be significantly higher and some resorts may see as much as 3 inches of rain. Ouch. If it stays cold enough at higher elevations, this could equate to up to a meter of snow, though it will most likely fall very wet and heavy at best. Sunday should see the return of cooler weather and more snow.
In Utah and Colorado, not much is expected in the coming days with warmer temperatures, although as some of the moisture moves inland from the storms pounding the Northwest, some resorts may score a few inches on Friday just in time for the weekend. All in all, sunny days and warm temperatures should dominate well into next week.
The Pacific Northwest and Whistler Blackcomb continue to get smashed by moisture and although freezing levels are sneaking up, there has been plenty of snow falling to make all your powder dreams come true.
Pete Kvist began skiing in Australia over 20 years ago and has been addicted to skiing and all things snow ever since. He has worked several seasons on the mountain as a lift operator and has also spent some time in ski resort media departments (so yes, he knows the tricks of the trade).
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