So Far So Very Good

Colorado is coming in hot. Already eleven resorts have started turning their lifts and four more–Telluride, Aspen, Beaver Creek, and Purgatory–are opening by the end of the month. All of this early season snow has us wondering: can the good things last?

Who Has Gotten the Goodest Goods?

Across the board, Colorado resorts have fared pretty well. In the front range, however, Eldora leads the pack with a 20″ base, but is closely followed by some of our go-to resorts like Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain, both of which are sitting at a cool 18″ base. Up north a little ways in Steamboat, folks are preparing for a winter storm warning that may give them another early season powder day. Then, looking at the week’s forecast, Steamboat may also be looking at 10″ over the next five days! Hm. This is a good time to be in Colorado isn’t it?

AccuWeather’s 2019/20 winter forecast

Are We Living Up to the Predictions?

Each year meteorologists put our winter forecasts in the hope that something will stick. While predicting the weather several months out is as fickle as guessing America’s next superfood, we can help to get a little excited when the predictions start showing some validity. So here we are, Colorado, looking at “Rain & Mountain Snow” and we have been all about that last part–mountain snow. But is it going to last? We are no longer in an El Niño cycle, which means we won’t get as many atmospheric rivers that dump big continuous dumps on the mountains, but we still have a chance for a few. At the end of the day, though, we stick to what the Montanans say–hard sayin’ not knowin’!

Want powder? These are the snowiest resorts in America.

How Does This Affect Your Future Ski Trip Planning?

Well, not much. I know it’s boring, but predicting future weather patterns, as previously mentioned, is hardly a science and your ski trip planning shouldn’t be based around it. That being said, that doesn’t mean you can’t get stoked about reading these kinds of weather reports. Just remember that just like your cat, the powder playground can leave whenever it wants to and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Now when it comes to actually using this information to make informed decisions about your travel, wait as long as you can. Of course waiting a five days before to pull the trigger on a flight equates to big money, so maybe it’s not so practical. In practice, the best suggestion we can give is to just enjoy what you get or head into the trees to find the secret stashes.

Or maybe Colorado will be nuke city for the whole winter. Wouldn’t that be swell?