TGR trip planning thread

[BFD]

What is great about this forum is you can communicate in real time with skiers all over the world. There are a bunch of regional threads. So I am trying to plan a trip. Basically I want to go to where I think I can find the best conditions. In my opinion the best conditions are in places that are having above average snowfalls. I look at say Wolfcreek and see 60" base. I have no idea if that is above or below average. I am pretty sure many people here follow conditons fairly closely in their area. I was thinking we could have a thread where people can post how their snowpack is doing compared to their yearly average. Like I am thinking PNW maybe at 110% this year Tahoe maybe 80 but that is a guess. I'm sure locals know the real numbers.
To start if off.
Turnagain Pass, Alyeska 37%
Cordova around 45%
Valdez not sure but probably around 35%

anyway that's my idea hopefully others will jump in. Have no idea about Revelstoke and other Canadian areas or Europe would be nice to have a baseline. Maybe their is already a site that does this in one place, If anyone knows how about the link.

[bfree]

I'm not sure what's out there for AK or CA, but here's a good resource for the western US.



from: http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/snotelanom/basinswen.html

[GoNads]

Whistler has been continually "above average" the last 5 years. Our snowfall "average", or Baker's snowfall is probably 5x that of some resort which may be currently "above average" so you can't use averages to really justify conditions.

[BFD]

Thank's that chart is good. I was just going to each snotel individually.

[TahoeJ]

When it comes to trip planning I don't think the percentage numbers are always accurate nor a good way to make a judgement call. For example, right now Tahoe is pretty damn good and by the time this current storm passes through we'll be above average for this time of year, but if it doesn't snow for the first 2 weeks of January (which is possible based on what I'm seeing) that data becomes kind of irrelevant. Unless a huge base with a bunch of boilerplate on top is what does it for you.

Likewise, last year Tahoe had a shitty, shitty year, but if you came out any time during March you were probably pretty stoked.

You're better off having a thread like this be more like, "hey, thinking of going to XXXX the week of XXXX - can any locals give me some intel?"

[Blizzard_of_Oz]

Thank's that chart is good. I was just going to each snotel individually.

I was in the same situation, hence I made: http://cires.colorado.edu/~aslater/SNOW/
14, 24 and 48 hr new snow for every SNOTEL - it's not an official product so if my desktop workstation goes down, so do the images (or they don't update)
Anyway, hover your mouse on any station dot and get the actual value.
Click on the individual station and get this year relative to all prior years, for example:




For the lower-48 US West, updated daily, click on the link in the light blue sidebar that says Seasonal Rank Status. It looks like this:

[Slaag Master]

a common subject of snow riding, both inside and out of our mountain community, begins by asking the question - what is the heart and soul of these activities? imho, this thread offers a glimpse into this question. in the end, when all has been said and done, we are left with the bonds that define "us" as a community. the soul of riding is the tribe. the heart of riding is the posse. to that end, the turquoise house extends the love and bonds of posse and tribe to all!!! we leave the light on!!!

[hutash]

Good idea in concept, but not sure it will work. Like TJ and Nads said the absolute numbers don't tell you much. Beyond that it will get into home mountain dick waving... "My hill is best because xyz." People will boost their hill, but in marginal conditions just not say much.

That being said, Mammoth is have an exceptional start to their season. We have a huge base, and the storm window is wide open for much more. What we need now are a lot of small freshening up storms rather then multi-foot dumps. Nothing worse then a 10 foot base and weeks and weeks of boiler plate on top. At least until the spring corn cycle starts.

[BFD]

Wow BOZ that is exactly what I was thinking about. Thank you. I have no idea what Slaag was talking about. But great to have you as part of this community.
Now if we had that for Canada and Europe.

[Hugh Conway]

I believe there's a better one, but I can't find it at the moment(% of 10 year average on this date in CH):
http://www.slf.ch/schneeinfo/schneekarten/hsm/index_EN
there's also this for more recent
http://www.snow-forecast.com/maps/dy...snow.last7days
or the helpful people from here at:
http://www.powderguide.com
other info on the SLF website as well for more granualized data.

dunno, I think the average is kinda useful. If you are interested in going to XYZ and XYZ is all time right now, go there, or I guess you could be a broheim and chill at Whistler with all the hordes because it's always awesome and you've got 5,000 skittle children to demolish the pow in a nanosecond flat.

[tripice351]

I think averages are useful, when combined with recent snowfall (like the 24/48/72hr data on TGR Snow Lab). A 3 foot dump on top of a 90% average snowpack is worth chasing, maybe not so much on top of a 30% snowpack.

[BFD]

bumping my own thread. was checked out a link by El Hefe and came up with this for Canada
http://bcrfc.env.gov.bc.ca/data/asp/realtime/index.htm
good stuff