Telluride is tricky as the ski area is surrounded by big mountains on most sides. (This is the same wind that brings the smell of the stockyards and heavy snowfall to Denver.) Telluride ski area (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) Eldora MountainĮldora, west of Boulder, can also benefit from the wraparound moisture brought in on an easterly wind from a storm tracking from southern Colorado or New Mexico onto the plains of Texas and Kansas. The sun peers through the clouds on a cold morning fall of 2022 at Copper Mountain near Frisco. But, like its Summit County peers, its higher elevation can generate more snow than comes to Vail or Beaver Creek. It can get snow like Vail on northwest winds. Copper Mountain ski areaĬopper Mountain is an in-between case. The spinning storm draws moist air up from the Gulf of Mexico, wraps it across Wyoming’s high plains, then sends it south down into the Summit County mountains. Snow can pile up at Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland after a stormy low-pressure system has passed onto Colorado’s Eastern Plains and is strengthening there. They generally do best when the wind comes out of the north to northwest, but rarely get the really big snowfalls.
Summit County resorts and Loveland, on the Continental Divide, have big mountains in almost all directions. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) Breckenridge, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin and Loveland ski areas Skiers and snowboarders prepare to drop down the slopes of Breckenridge ski area during winter 2022. Winter Park also benefits from a north-northwest wind coming down the Fraser Valley. It just unloads on Vail,” Collentine said. “The air’s funneling right into the Vail Valley right along the Gore Mountains. “There’s a slight little sliver in the valley, and you’re running up to Crested Butte from the west-southwest. But a west-southwest wind “threads the needle” between high peaks, runs into Mount Crested Butte and snows big-time, Collentine said. “Not that they have the most surprises, but I’ve seen the biggest (surprises) out there.”Ĭrested Butte is surrounded by large mountains, the Elk Mountains to the northwest and to the southeast, in the direction of Monarch Pass. “At Steamboat, I have seen the biggest upside surprises,” said Gratz, CEO and co-founder of OpenSnow. When you get the right amount of moisture coming in on a west or west-northwest wind, and a temperature at the summit of about 5 degrees, you can get a “Steamboat surprise,” an unexpected, deep snowfall. Steamboat, in northwestern Colorado, enjoys similar flat landscape to its immediate west, making for strong lift and good snowfall if the mountains in Utah have not stolen all the moisture. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun) Steamboat ski area Skiers weave between the trees plastered by snow at Steamboat ski area during winter 2022. “A southwest wind will crush Wolf Creek,” said Collentine, OpenSnow’s chief operating officer. Loaded with moisture and rising sharply to Wolf Creek Pass, elevation 10,856 feet, these west-southwest and southwest winds make Wolf Creek, near Pagosa Springs, the snowiest resort in the state. Storms coming in from Southern California have no huge mountains to traverse before hitting Wolf Creek in southwestern Colorado. “But in big mountains here in Colorado, in my brain, two-thirds of the time, the wind direction is a really, really big deal.”īelow are conditions that will generate the most snowfall at various resorts in Colorado: When Colorado ski areas get their best snow: Wolf Creek ski area “Sometimes the storm energy itself, the jet stream overhead, or other factors will just overwhelm a bad wind direction and generate the snow,” Gratz said. Wind direction is an especially potent factor in the Colorado snow forecast, and Gratz’s Daily Snows reports are peppered with comments about wind directions driving snowfall at different resorts. RELATED: Meet the guy who always knows when it’s going to snow Search thousands of Ski Hotels in United States, including many in top ski resorts.How to tell how much snow your favorite Colorado ski resort will get Close Skiing in United StatesĮverything you need to know about skiing and snowboarding here, with guides to Ski Resorts in United States including Always check the local Avalanche Risk Level and ski with appropriate safety equipment. Turn your Snow Mail on or off at any time.īefore skiing or snowboarding off-piste in Wolf Creek, you must assess the local snow conditions. Join 45,000 Skiers and Boarders who get our Snow Mails! Get Powder Alarms and Snow Storm Warnings.
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