We love this week between Christmas and the New Year. Time is irrelevant, nobody knows what day it is and cookies are completely acceptable for breakfast. It’s also one of the best weeks to stack ski days back to back when the office doors are closed and work takes a guilt-free backseat. It’s been a relatively uneventful month for the majority of the Mountain West, but weather forecasters are changing their tune this week.
Starting today, Thursday, December 26, a series of storm systems are set to hit the western side of the United States and Canada, dropping anywhere from multiple inches to multiple feet by Monday. Based on the projections from Powder Buoy and OpenSnow, it seems like we all made the nice list this year.
According to OpenSnow, Timberline in Oregon has already received 16 inches in the last 24 hours with another 46 inches projected by Monday. Mt. Baker in Washington received 18 inches yesterday and another 36 inches is expected by the new year. Palisades Tahoe won’t miss out on this epic holiday storm with 19 inches by Monday but Mammoth Mountain is only projected to get six inches.
As this holiday storm cycle moves west, Big Sky and Sun Valley are looking at nearly two feet of new snow while Grand Targhee and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort are both in the path of 40+ inches. Utah and Colorado won’t miss out on the action either, Alta and Snowbird are each looking at 28 inches by Monday and from Northern to Southern Colorado, there’s no bad place to be. Steamboat is expecting 34 inches, 17 inches at Vail, 14 inches at Crested Butte and Aspen Snowmass and 13 inches at Silverton.
While we’re pumped for this cycle of holiday storms to drop base-building numbers, this also sets up our backcountry terrain to be extremely dangerous. Extended periods of high pressure creates a weak, faceted snowpack and when high amounts of new snow load that weakened snowpack, slides are not only likely, they are expected. Take note from the Utah Avy Center—this is not the cycle to go out in avalanche terrain. For a guaranteed good powder day, we suggest sticking to the resorts during these holiday storms and allow the backcountry time to settle.
