The situation is pretty much the same from New Mexico, to Colorado to Utah: not much snow, not much open. Vail has nothing open on the backside and has a 21 inch base. Park City has 66 of 348 trails open.  Taos has 12 open trails and not one of 'em is black. Even perenial   snow champ Wolf Creek is hurting

Summit County is holding up better than most courtesy the altitude, but Breck has limitied trail availability from the top. Peak 6 is still closed as is Imperial Express (at least the T-Bar is open).  Keystone seems to  have more expert terrain open than anyone.

The seven day forecast doesn't give much hope with Eagle County temps in the 30's to low 40's and only one chance for a small snow. I guess it is time for a bad snow year in the Rockies with the east coast and the west coast having recently had their share.

Steamboat seems to be the place to be in CO right now: 149/165 trails open, albeit with a 28" base.  

I'll be on the slopes in Vail in 24 days; hoping that leaves time for a few storms and to get more terrain open.  Their last storm was on Christmas, and they only have 38 out of 195 trails open.  Talk about grim.  I wasn't thinking booking the last week in January was risky from an open terrain perspective...  

Maybe we'll head to A Basin if nothing improves.  They are only 50% open, but at least have a 34" base (and the immediate forecast stays in the teens).  

Reisen wrote:

I'll be on the slopes in Vail in 24 days;

our group is arriving to the Vail area in 28 days ..... I wish us all the best

The Sierra is hurting too.  I am retired and can wait it out, but I feel bad for young families with working parents and kids in school.  They are pretty much limited to dec. 24 - Jan. 2, and the 2 three day holidays.  MLK is only a couple weeks away.  Even if it snows every few days until then it is still going to be sub normal.  That leaves presidents weekend plus spring break.  Of course the ski areas are hurting too.  It may be time for them to do some out of the box thinking, as suggested on another thread.

I'm hoping things get better by the time our planned trip to Utah comes around Feb 8. Although I don't need any chutes or extreme to be open, I'll be staying away from them, I would like to be comfortable that there is adequate coverage.

I'm heading out the last week in January and I'm getting nervous.  I'd be ok zooming cruisers, but I'd prefer some of the advanced faces to be open.

As of now Snowbird is looking grim.  Alta slightly better.

They need another 2-4ft to get things open.  Mineral Basin is mostly rock at this point.

eggraid wrote:

I'm hoping things get better by the time our planned trip to Utah comes around Feb 8. Although I don't need any chutes or extreme to be open, I'll be staying away from them, I would like to be comfortable that there is adequate coverage.

I wouldn't panic yet.  One or two big snowstorms can change the tune out west pretty quickly.  If your trip was next week, I'd be a little concerned, but by late January things could look very different.

You re right about that Scott. I can remember being out in Summit County in mid December about a decade ago. It was another bad snow year. Vail had   two trails open. Then there was a three foot dump. Vail wnt from 2 open trails to 102 open trails ovenight (literally over night).

It doesn't look like that will happen at Vail  anytime soon this year.     The 10 day  (weather.com) forecast calls for only one chance for a 3-5 inch snow before January 20  and there are several days where the high temps are forecast for 48 or 49 degrees with the highs almost every day above freezing. If that happens, Vail will likely be losing base instead of adding to it.

The hook of a possible powder Day was dangled in front of me and I bit.  Mistake.  It’s not ready yet.  Yesterday at Kirkwood, 7” of new very wet snow with rain on top.  It was the first snow in a month.  Temperatures have not dipped below 30 degrees at night for a month.  If the polar vortex over the east and Midwest would just break down we’d have a chance.  As long as the PV remains it has an associated high pressure ridge off the California coast that deflects the jet stream to the north and keeps the Sierra under unseasonable warmth and drought.  This prevailed all season in 2015-16.  The snow line in yesterday’s storm began at 9800’ and dropped to 7800 by the end.  That fully spans kirkwood’s vertical.  I’m going again today with a grandson for company so we’ll have a good time.

meanwhile another hook is dangling for the middle of next week.  They’re saying it’s for real this time.  ???

a lot of precipitation came down in this storm, but the high snow line kept most of. It as rain.  Kirkwood is doing far better than the other Tahoe areas due to their high base elevation.  They’re 70% open but the backside remains closed.  The chorus of bombs over there lasted until noontime, but they did not open.