ICYMI for April 2023
The days are longer and warmer, which means more sunlight to enjoy spring skiing and riding, and fewer layers. Some resorts have extended operating hours and even days, while others are closing despite an abundance of snow.
Here’s our monthly ICYMI (in case you missed it) collection of this and that.
The fun and games at season’s end includes pond skimming contests. Here’s where to watch and cheer, since we do not encourage senior skiers or riders to participate without the approval of their cardiologist and/or psychiatrist.
Slush Cup at Whistler
Pond Skimming at Park City
April 6-8 – End of Season party featuring a competition style pond skim. With prizes for the biggest splash, best costume and best overall skim, with tons of raffles and giveaways.
Telluride Closing Weekend Events Including Pond Skimming
Sat., April 1st – Telluride Brewing Company hosts its annual Goose Chase Scavenger Hunt on the mountain, 11am to 3 pm. To participate, groups of 1-4 must register and pay a $20 fee. After the Goose Chase, there’s a happy hour and raffle until 5pm. Also the Terrain Park crew will be hosting their annual Hannorama Jama Rail Jam in honor of the life and memory of Hannah Smith. This event is at the base of Lift 4 in Mountain Village at 3:30 pm, and no registration is needed. before the event.
On closing day, Sun., April 2nd, celebrate the great season with the annual Closing Day Party at Gorrono Ranch and the annual pond skim, Noon to 2pm. DJ Wombat will be performing throughout the afternoon to keep the celebration going on.
More information here about Telluride’s closing weekend events.
https://tellurideskiresort.com/daylight-savings-end-of-season-events/?A360=60302323
Pond Skimming at Solitude
Sat., April 8 – Bust out your best costume, slather on the sunscreen and show off your skimming skills at the annual Pond Skim Beach Party. Registration required.
https://www.solitudemountain.com/things-to-do/events-and-activities/pond-skim-beach-party
Or simply show up and watch the show. New this year, after the completion of the Pond Skim Beach Party, the party continues with live music from The Sweet Lillies.
Pond Skim Solitude
World Pond Skimming Championships at Vail
April 7-10 – Who knew there was a championship event for pond skimming?
According to Local Freshies
https://localfreshies.com/most-unique-pond-skimming-events-in-north-america-2/
it started as a spoof on the World Alpine Championship in 1999. Now as part of the “Spring Back to Vail” Festival, it is a rowdy event filled attended by thousands of spectators, plus music and other events to close out the season. But if you do want to try for the Golden Skimmer, the top male and female finishers will receive a 2022/23 Epic Pass.
All participants get a special Helly Hansen backpack, and other prizes are awarded for the best crash, best costume, and more.
Slush Cup at Whistler/Blackcomb
April 16 – Prizes for the Best Costume, Best Trick, Best Wipe-Out and more.
The pond skimming contest is just one of a collection of closing week events. There’s also traditional on-slope races, a contest to produce the best 3-5 minute film about Whistler, live music, and more, all part of the week-long Whistler World Ski & Snowboard Festival.
https://www.whistler.com/events/world-ski-snowboard-festival
Music on Weekends at Big Sky
Every Fri.-Sun. through April 16, enjoy DJs and apres ski events in the MountainVillage Plaza.
Big Sky’s closing date is April 23.
Remember that closing dates have nothing to do with how much snow is on the ground, or even still falling. Closing dates are determined by other forces, including leasing arrangements and spring elk and moose migration.
Closing Dates in Colorado
These are the projected closing dates at publication. Be sure to check with the resort website in case closing dates change, or to confirm “TBD”, shorthand for “to be determined”.
- Aspen Highlands – April 16
- Aspen Mountain – April 23
- Beaver Creek – April 9
- Breckenridge – May TBD
- Buttermilk – April 2
- Ski Cooper – April 16
- Crested Butte – TBD
- Keystone – TBD
- Loveland – May 8
- Purgatory – April 23
- Steamboat – April 9
- Snowmass – April 16
- Telluride – April 2
- Vail – TBD
- Winter Park – Mid-May TBD
Closing Dates in Utah
- Alta – April 23
- Brighton – April 30
- Deer Valley – TBD
- Nordic Valley – April 9
- Park City Mountain – April 23
- Powder Mountain – TBD
- Snowbasin – TBD
- Snowbird – TBD
- Solitude – TBD
- Sundance – April 2
- Woodward Park City – TBD
- Palisades and Mammoth, California
- Arapahoe Basin, Colorado
- Killington in Vermont
How and where are you celebrating the end of a great ski/snowboard season? And who are you celebrating with?
The Skiing Weatherman March 24, 2023
First of all, please accept my apologies for missing the last edition. After attending a hectic three day trade show near my home here in Rhode Island, I rushed home and packed my bags for a flight to the Netherlands, where my wife and I met our first grandchild…a memorable event that I will never forget. I simply had a brain cramp and forgot to submit an article. Hopefully you didn’t miss it because you were out enjoying the fresh snow that FINALLY made its way to the Northeast early this month!
The weather pattern has unfolded pretty much the way I anticipated, although the cold air that has supported some healthy March snow amounts did not reach as far south as I thought it might. Most of the substantial snow has fallen north of Interstate 80 and although the past few days have been mild and wet at times all the way up to the Canadian border, the pattern is about to cool down again and I believe that there will be at least a few more meaningful snowfalls across the Northeast before the curtain comes down on this season. This weekend a relatively weak storm will move across New England with only a marginal amount of cold air with which to work, so we are looking at another elevation event that will bring mixed precip types to the Adirondacks and the mountains of northern New England and southern Quebec. The resorts north of U.S. Route 4 have the best shot at picking up a moderate amount of snow…along with some other “stuff”…but this will not be a blockbuster storm.
Here’s why I believe that the weather pattern still has legs in terms of cold and snow. If you look at this jet stream forecast for April Fools Day…
You will see an orange area over Greenland. That is an upper level ridge, and it has hardly moved for about 3 weeks. That blocking ridge was a product of the sudden stratospheric warming episode that I wrote about last month. By remaining in essentially the same place, it has acted as a block against upper level troughs (the blue circulation off to its southwest) from zipping out to sea. Instead, the troughs have been forced underneath the ridge, and many of them have moved through the Northeast this month, supporting surface lows as they spun through the region. The troughs also break off a chunk of cold air from the high latitudes and deliver it to the lower 48. Here’s a look at the temperature anomalies at about 5,000 feet for the same time step of the jet stream map…
Temperatures about a mile above the surface are a very dependable proxy for forecasting surface temperatures, and the dark blue on this map suggests that air that is cold enough to limit melting and potentially support late season snow will be present as we head into next month. If we fast forward to April 5th, we see that it looks as though those deviations from normal will only deepen…
Now, the colder air that we can reasonably expect around April 5th will be offset to an extent by the rises in normal temps that will be occurring over the next few weeks…normal highs and lows are rising 2 to 3 degrees per week in the Northeast right now. That shot of cold will help sustain some very nice skiing and riding right through Easter weekend by the looks.
So, from where I am sitting, I remain very bullish on the prospects for winter sports for at least the next few weeks…if your timing is right, you could even sneak in a powder day or two…enjoy!!!
Val d’Isere: Totally Over the Top
Everything about Val d’Isere, is over the top; the excitement of skiing on so many World Cup pistes, the snow, the lift system, the extensive possibilities from Le Fornet to Tignes, the restaurants, the traffic to and from Geneva Airport, the prices, the number of skiers on the pistes with you, and the skiing atmosphere in the village.
The Village
In early in March 2023, we skied for a week in Val d’Isere, the home of Jean Claude Killy. The village is situated at 1,850 meters and the skiing goes up to 2,850 meters, and 3,456 meters on the Grand Motte glacier in Tignes. What makes skiing in Val d’Isere great is that many of the best pistes are easily accessible from the village center.
Take the Olympic Gondola from the village center to the top of Bellevarde, turn left and you are on the formidable Men’s Downhill World Cup, The Face. The top half is a joy to ski. Arriving a bit above the middle of the run it turns steep and straight-down until the finish line at the entrance to the gondola station. If you have the nerve and the legs, go back up for another breathtaking run.
Exit Olympic Gondola – lots of skiers!
Ski straight as you come out of the Olympic Gondola and you get to the OK piste which is the start of the former Men’s World Cup Downhill course before they opened The Face of the Bellevarde for the 1992 Olympic games. This course is a blast to ski.
From the top there is a series of short, moderately steep sections with some flats between them. This takes you down to the Folie Douce Restraunt, where there is a DJ every afternoon on the restaurant roof complete with scantily clad dancing girls, loud music, lots of beer and dancing on the tables.
Fly past the restaurant on your left, go into dog-leg turn right turn and come out cruising your way down to La Daille. Hop on the gondola at the bottom to get back to the DJ and the dancing girls, or ski across to the funicular which takes you back up to the top of Bellevarde.
La Folie Douce
You still have the legs for it? Get back to the village center and take the Solaise Gondola up to the start of the Woman’s World Cup Downhill course. Start out on a big open slope, mix it up with short turns on the side of the piste and big GS turns on the wide-open slope.
Somewhere near the mid-point prudence should send you to the left on a long enjoyable run back to the village center. Still have legs? Take the Solaise Gondola back up and head for the Manchet lift, which is, believe it or not my favorite run in Val D’Isere, 1,921 meters long with a 691-meter vertical, pure pleasure. If you can, ski it non-stop.
But it’s really not all pure pleasure. Saturdays at the Geneva Airport is chaos: people, suitcases, ski bags. You get your stuff, your rental car and you think you’re home free, think about bumper-to-bumper traffic from Annecy to Moutier. If you get to Val d’Isere in less than 4 ½ hours consider yourself lucky.
Oh, you didn’t stop along the way to eat something? Val d’Isere has many great restaurants; just make sure you have arranged off-street parking in advance. The skiing is great, it’s worth all the hassle, and seniors over 75 ski for free.
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