Conditions Report
This report is from January 17 & 18, 2024
This week might’ve just saved Winter Park’s season. After a dry few weeks, 50” in the last five days (63” in the previous 10) has resurrected the Colorado resort’s snowpack, covered the dirt patches, and hidden the trees that had been poking through. The snowpack is currently at 112% of normal.
Add to that the fact that Berthoud Pass had been closed for four days before opening last night at 5:30, meaning the Front Rangers couldn’t get here (and for a brief while, US 40 was closed at Kremmling too, meaning there was no way in or out of Winter Park) the locals have had themselves quite a party. The last two days have been pretty special.
21” on Tuesday was heavy, wind-blown snow—hard work skiing but perfect for filling in the holes and solidifying the base. But yesterday and today were fantastic.
Mary Jane’s famous bump runs were no more… filled in as if they’d been groomed, with just the peaks showing creating hero bumps on every run.
The Panoramic opened yesterday after being closed for four days. Once past the choppy and wind-scoured face, the trees were all-time. Knee-high at a minimum, waist deep in places, face shots were plentiful. This is why we live here.
Snow was deep all over the mountain. With the holiday crowds gone, lift lines were non-existent, and fresh lines could be found throughout the day.
We lapped the Explorer Chair—hitting Outrigger, Retta’s, Bradley’s Bash, and Mulligan’s, destroying our quads while bouncing between powdery bumps.
Today was more of the same. A popular forecast site predicted 2” of fresh snow. We awoke to 15”. We were in line at 8:50 am and on the fourth chair up.
Again, there were no crowds, and we were getting fresh lines again. The slightly heavier snow made it obvious we’d need to hit the steeper pitches today. Knee-high again everywhere, the lesser pitches were too much like hard work.
First tracks down Engledive. The bumps filled in again, making it easy to float down, taking face shots every turn.
We headed to Vasquez Ridge and the fantastic new Wild Spur Chair. Following the lift line down, the snow was so deep it brought us to a standstill. Back up, and we hit Gambler, maybe the best run of the day, sooo deep, before diving into kid’s favorite Dilly Dally Alley. Sooo good.
Mary Jane side and C-Chair were epic. The chutes opened, and I don’t think we’ll ever ski them in better condition. Usually sketchy and challenging, they were deep and, dare I say, easy to ski. Back up to Trestle, even the face was fully covered. Drunken Frenchman, Needles Eye, Sluice Box, Riflesight Notch, and Riflesight trees had us hooting and hollering drowning out the exhaustion from our legs.
Sadly, Panoramic was closed today. But that means it’ll be the place to be if it opens tomorrow. And with the recent snow, it surely won’t be long before Eagle Wind, my favorite zone, will soon be open.
40” in the previous four weeks had hurt Winter Park’s good start to the season. 50” in the last five has put us back on track. And with the crowds kept away by closed mountain passes we had the perfect storm.
Current Conditions
Forecast
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