{"id":29717,"date":"2024-01-15T06:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-skiers-in-colorado-a-snow-season-that-started-slow-and-rebounded-is-poised-for-a-deluge\/"},"modified":"2024-01-15T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T13:30:00","slug":"for-skiers-in-colorado-a-snow-season-that-started-slow-and-rebounded-is-poised-for-a-deluge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/for-skiers-in-colorado-a-snow-season-that-started-slow-and-rebounded-is-poised-for-a-deluge\/","title":{"rendered":"For skiers in Colorado, a snow season that started slow and rebounded is poised for a deluge"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Conditions
Conditions at Powderhorn Mountain Resort, outside of Grand Junction, had been hurting for snow, until a big storm delivered 2 feet in 24 hours earlier this week. (Stina Sieg, CPR News)<\/span>Jenny Brundin\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a good powder day, but earlier this week was legendary, bringing 2 feet of fresh snow. Elizabeth Greenfield was there for it and drove more than an hour to visit the Mesa resort.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, it was incredible!\u201d she said, with a giggle. \u201cIncredible snow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ian Wilson took off work and nabbed fresh tracks with a friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just came straight under the lift and we just couldn\u2019t see anything, because there was so much powder,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

The snow has kept falling, drawing in more visitors like Lexie Sanchez, who was still snowboarding despite her frozen hair and eyelashes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like a white Christmas morning!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Conditions at Powderhorn are so much better than they were on Christmas when the snow was icy and sparse.<\/p>\n

A snow roller coaster across the U.S.<\/div>\n

Chance Keso with OnTheSnow, an online platform that monitors ski conditions and travel, has watched a similar turnaround at many ski areas in the U.S. Part of Keso\u2019s job is watching mountain cameras in North America.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of the season, \u201cI saw rain, mud, dirt and rocks all over the slopes,\u201d he said, \u201cand with these last storms, I can\u2019t see some of the cameras now because they\u2019re covered in snow from blizzards.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it\u2019s actually starting to look like winter out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, it is a mixed bag across the state and country. Colorado\u2019s snowpack is falling well short of levels that are typical for this time of year. While Western and East Coast ski areas have mostly been able to open, some in the Midwest still haven\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Sunday River ski resort in Maine is in recovery mode after statewide rain storms last month washed away a lot of snow. Resort spokesperson Ellen Wainwright said that when new storms finally brought a wallop of powder, it was \u201cincredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us to be able to have snow-covered trails, smiling guests, especially from the aftermath, it\u2019s been awesome,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Washington, a new blanket of powder has finally arrived at the Mt. Baker Ski Area, but this season\u2019s snow is still lagging and is far behind the record-setting winter with nearly 100 feet of snow it had 25 years ago. Resort CEO Gwyn Howat, whose family has been managing the ski area since the 1960s, said snow is always on the minds of locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the talk of the town when there\u2019s a good pow day, and it\u2019s the talk of the town when we\u2019re running a little lean too,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

Mother Nature is a roller coaster, Howat added, with drastic swings in snow levels over the decades. Like everyone in this story, she worries about how climate change could affect winters \u2013 and her industry \u2013 in the future.<\/p>\n

Back at Powderhorn, Marian Brosig floated down the mountain, buoyed by that fantastic powder.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, you feel like you\u2019re in Heaven,\u201d she said, looking content in her bright jacket with a colorful cow on the front.<\/p>\n

She also knows this powder means more than just a fun day. Come spring, it will melt off the mountain and feed into the Colorado River: the primary water source for roughly 40 million people in the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful for skiing, but especially for this summer and the rivers,\u201d she said, adding with a smile: \u201cBut, of course, this is gravy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conditions at Powderhorn Mountain Resort, outside of Grand Junction, had been hurting for snow, until a big storm delivered 2 feet in 24 hours earlier this week. (Stina Sieg, CPR News)Jenny Brundin\/CPR News It\u2019s a good powder day, but earlier this week was legendary, bringing 2 feet of fresh snow. Elizabeth Greenfield was there for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,1164],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-29717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-snow"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29717"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=29717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}