It’s Snowing In Utah! (Finally)
Utah is known as having the “greatest snow on earth”. For skiers and boarders this means light, fluffy powder and LOTS OF IT. This winter we are feeling the effects of some kind of weather pattern and have not received the inches upon inches of the fresh stuff that we are used too.
But that all changed last week thanks to El Niño (or whatever you wish to call it) and the Wasatch Range near Salt Lake and Park City is now loaded with fresh new powder. On January 16th, I skied Alta which had about a 50” base and hadn’t really had fresh snow for weeks. In fact, the good snow was during Christmas week. Fast forward 9 days and Alta has had anywhere from 8 to 18” each night for 7 nights. Now the settled snow depth is 98” and we’re talking floating through knee-deep powder in and out of trees and bowls and forgetting that a week ago we were skiing on concrete. A glorious difference thanks to multiple storms off the Pacific.
What makes the Utah snow so light and fluffy? The water content — or lack of it as the case may be. By the time it comes off the Pacific, dumps heavy, wet snow on the Sierra (still fun skiing there, don’t get me wrong) and marches across the western part of the state, it has shed most of its moisture and presents itself in the form of wispy, soft, ice crystals that just love to hang in our 9000 – 12000’ mountains. And here’s the greatest news of all: for the 40+ inches of new snow that fell in the mountains last week, almost none fell in Salt Lake. I feel a little like Camelot. While the leaves don’t blow away completely at night time, the snow does, for the most part, fall in the mountains and in Salt Lake it’s clear and sunny.
So come skiing in Utah! The temperature is in the 20’s, the snow is perfect and you have 7 resorts no more than 30 miles from the Salt Lake airport. In short there’s simply not, a more congenial spot.
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