Skiers hit the web for conditions, deals
BASALT, Colo. — Winter was still in charge when we spotted them, raggedy brown patches staining the snow at Snowmass Ski Resort, in central Colorado’s Pritkin County. In any other year we might have been greeted by mounds of powder on the Cirque, with a generous swath under Sheer Bliss, our favorite chairlift. The basics, indeed, for a last-of-the-season caper.
But as the sun glared down, the growing puddles of water and dripping icicles confirmed the worst: Spring had invaded overnight.
Then shortly before midnight I heard muffled whooping outside and opened the door to find the skiers from the adjacent condo celebrating the unexpected: an icy wind whirling a cloud of snowflakes over the mountain.
And what a difference a day makes. By 6 a.m. we were up and dressed, and by 6:30 I was online, blogging the news on The Huffington Post, to wit:
“The blizzard that began late Tuesday night, on March 23, was sheer bliss for skiers at Snowmass and Aspen ski resorts who awoke to the best of all possible worlds: featherysoft powder snow blanketing mountain peaks, valley trails, forest glades and ski lifts.”
So much for blogging. If you lived in Connecticut or Florida, you could read it and weep. I, however, was lucky enough to catch a brief reprieve in a succession of fickle years at some of my favorite ski mountains.
Weather extremes are the new norm. But they don’t have to torpedo your ski vacations. Instead of booking lodging and lift tickets months in advance and hoping you’ve guessed right, you can find everything you want, updated daily, weekly and monthly, on ski resort and snow report websites.
Once resort managers realized they could engage skiers in the moment and on the internet, pricing and advertising changed overnight. No longer are lift ticket prices, multiresort lift passes and preseason promotions set in stone. Once posted, they’re easy to change or to modify as needed, or to include in discounts and ski-and-stay packages.
If skier numbers are down, resort managers can offer new promotions or discounts and add kidsskiprograms. If skier numbers are trending up, the resorts can stay ahead of the rush by hiring additional staff, booking more ski-related events and planning a longer season.
Skiers, too have benefitted. Resort websites post far more detail than we used to get. Skip around and you’ll find trail maps, daily snow levels, numbers of lifts and runs, peak elevations, incredible videos of high-risk skiers flying off the summit and actual views of the slopes via web-cams. You can shop around, compare one resort with another or look for the best combination of prices, lodging options and airfares.
Curiously, what few anticipated was that instant internet access would inspire some bigger ski resorts to expand their mission to offer a bounty of non-ski entertainment: Valentine’s Day weekends and beer festivals led to rock concerts, hot-air ballooning, professional and amateur downhill races, first-class dining at better restaurants, and a virtual cornucopia of other winter sports. In a word, a theme park.
As for snow forecasts, some resort websites provide limited details, mostly offering past snowfalls as a guide to the future. For current, informed snow forecasts, it’s best to go elsewhere.
“Take a look at www. opensnow.com,” suggested former Olympic snowboarder Erica Mueller, at Crested Butte ski resort, 26 miles north of Gunnison, in Colorado. “Joel Gratz, a meteorologist and a skier created it a couple of years ago. That’s where we go to look ahead. I think most resorts use it.”
According to Gratz, a Boulder resident, his search for the best powder snow began as a hobby, then evolved into a website, and eventually took off. “After testing it for a year, we went online in November 2011; so far it’s a success,” he says.
Gratz’s team of four fulltime and three part-time meteorologists crunch all kinds of publicly available data, including some from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in Boulder. But they create their own graphics, maps and reports.
“What separates us from other sites is that we know what powder skiers like,” he says. “We don’t report on regional storms, but instead focus on which resorts are likely to get the next powder storm.”
Open Snow is available for anyone to use (and I do), but it reserves some detailed reports for members who sign up and pay a modest fee. See it at open snow.com. I also like On the Snow, a general information website, one which provides not just data like historic snow reports but a range of ski topics. See it at onthesnow.com.
When a day makes a difference, it’s usually fate deciding. But give yourself a month, and you’ll be in charge.