Informative Ski Reports and Other Ski Links
2009-10 Season Progress Report as of November 15, 2009
Past Season Summaries
In November 2007 I expanded my analysis of El Nino/La Nina:
El Nino Defined and Ski Areas Favored by El Nino
Ski Areas Favored by La Nina
Ski Areas Indifferent to El Nino/La Nina
Season summaries for every season since 1968-69 are available in my
Detail Package.
Since 1996 I have accumulated an extensive list of links. Those
I consider unusually informative are in italics. While I
recheck most of them each fall, I welcome any feedback on broken links, obsolete
sites, etc.
General Internet Ski Links
Skier-Submitted Eyewitness Reports
Current and Predicted Weather
Direct Links to Area and Region Ski
Reports
The Westwide Avalanche
Network was run by Knox Williams through 1995. The October 1995 Powder article and this website would not have been possible without
Knox's cooperation in providing about half of my data. Westwide
administration changed in the summer of 1995 and their data is
unfortunately no longer timely nor publicly available. Knox
Williams continued to operate the Colorado Avalanche Information
Center through 2005 but CAIC has no resources to gather data outside
Colorado.
For General Internet Ski Links, I
recommend the following:
- Ski Central has a web
search engine within the topic of skiing. For general web
browsing, I've favored Google
since 1998.
- As of 1999, On The Snow
is the most popular general purpose ski site, more selective in its
links and edits than some of the others.
- SkiNet is the site of SKI
and SKIING Magazines. They have a search engine which retrieves
back articles they have published on the browser submitted topic.
This is also a good source for recent news in the ski industry.
SkiNet's archive contains
my historical analysis of early season snow conditions.
- TechSupportForSkiers.Com
contains Peter Keelty's informative equipment reviews, which formerly
appeared in Inside
Tracks
- SnowLink offers tips and
information on skiing, snowboarding, cross country skiing and
snowshoeing, plus hundreds of links to other Web sites for
equipment, clothing, accessories, resorts, and more.
- Resortspace is the
website of Charlie Leocha's Ski America and
Ski Europe books. It contains a wealth of information
evaluating North American ski resorts, including a slew of Top 10
lists by various criteria. For Europe, Resortspace only contains
the Top 10 lists as of fall 2002.
- First Tracks
Online Ski Magazine, has a labor-intensive daily compilation of snowsports-related news articles,
extensive features on a wide range of topics and interactive forums.
Skier-Submitted Eyewitness Reports
- The Southland Ski
Server pioneered this concept for southern California and
Mammoth / June and had an extensive library of reports since
1994-95. Activity on this site declined after its El Nino 1998 peak and
particularly since 2001. The original administrator closed the site in late 2007, but a
new one has stepped in so it is now active again, including the archives.
I have posted
49 of my own reports from January 1996 through February 2003.
- There is a less structured report format for Northwest Ski Report
First-Hand Reports. These reports provided a great insight into
the day to day variability of Northwest skiing. NWSR was joined to
Ski Washington in
1998-99, removed for 1999-2000 and returned as an independent site
in December 2000. Less active now than before, except for regular
reports from Crystal Mt. Still more Northwest reports can be found on Snowboard
Seattle.
- First Tracks
Online Ski Magazine No-Bull Ski Reports accepts skier submitted
reports from anywhere, many with pictures. Historically about 90%
of their reports were from the East, but since 2004-05 reports are 60%
East and 40% West. Since about 2001 First Tracks has been far more active than
any of the above sites. My own reports with pictures have been posted here
since 2003.
- In January 2004 I discovered two sites for the Canadian
Rockies. Powder Watch
stil survives with skier-submitted reports and also a narrative monthly recap of
conditions.
- EpicSki.com has
an active Resorts and Travel Forum that includes skier submitted
reports.
- Teton Gravity Research
has lively forums that include trip reports.
Epic and TGR are the most active general purpose ski forums, with TGR being a
younger and "edgier" crowd.
I would encourage skiers to submit reports to these sites, as
they become more informative as their databases grow. I would also
be interested in being notified by e-mail of any other skier-submitted
report sites, so I can include their links here. For some
inspiration, check out the Powder Archive of
Online Skier Submitted Reports.
Online snow reports over the past decade have enabled me to construct Snow Conditions Charts.
As of November 2008 the charts include an adjustment for powder incidence.
Weather Forecasts - U.S. and North America Maps
National Weather Service Regional and Local Radar
Weather Forecasts - Ski Area Predictions
- Snow Forecast
is based in England and utilizes computer generated data to produce snow and
temperature prediction maps for 9 ski regions in North America plus
other mountain ranges all over the world. For each region, there
are color coded maps of past 7 days, past 3 days and next 3 days predicted.
There are also prediction maps in 6 hour intervals with freezing
elevation lines displayed.
- Snow Forecast (without the hyphen)
has narrative day-by-day predictions for the next week for numerous ski areas across
North America.
- New as of fall 2002 is Dr.
Weathers' BestSkiWeather. Starting November 2007 I have been blogging
some of my snow analyses to this site.
- For overnight snowfall leaders see Ski Central's New Snow
Page
Ski Area and Region Web Pages are primarily
intended to be detailed marketing brochures, with online travel
booking likely to be common in the near future. However, many do
have daily snow and weather reports buried within their extensive
sites. Below are some which I have browsed and consider useful. In
the early season it is very desirable to see percentages of lifts
and terrain available. The links below go directly to the html
file with the ski report. I review these links each November,
and I would like to be informed by e-mail about any good ski report web
sites which I may have missed or lost.
There are numerous sites which provide within each state or
province the usual data of base depths and new snow. Historically I
have most often used Resort Sports Network -
Worldwide Snow Conditions, which also lists number of lifts and
trails open plus a short comment box. For many of the listed
resorts, you can click on a Resort Cam image for direct
observation. There is a snow report page with histograms of the
past two week's base depth and new snow. These charts have been
provided since January of 2001.
The original source data online for RSN and some other sites is
SnoCountry Reports. These
are also grouped by state or country, and some clicking through to
some resorts shows season-to-date snowfall.
California
Pacific Northwest
Canadian Rockies and Interior B. C.
U. S. Northern Rockies
Utah
Northern and Central Colorado
Southern and Western Colorado
Northeast
European Ski Information
- Ski Club of
Great Britain is likely the best source for snow conditions in
the Alps. It contains weekly base depth charts (late Nov.-mid-Apr.)
at upper and lower elevations for the past 7 seasons for many
resorts. By late December or January there will be many Ski Rep
reports coming from designated representatives living in various
resorts.
- Born-2-Ski.com took
over the former Ski Hotline report service. Reports are not as
detailed as Ski Hotline's were, but still worthwhile.
- Snow Zone is the web
site of the excellent British ski book, Where to Ski and
Snowboard. It contains more detail on the Alps than the
Rockies, and is the only travel book I have seen which analyzes
snow reliability in the Alps. The website is much less detailed
than the book.
- I would like to be informed by e-mail about any centralized source
of monthly snow history in the Alps. If I had such data, it would
be relatively simple to process it with my programs and produce the
same type of information as seen here for North America. Due to
language and phone costs, I am not willing to call individual ski
areas as I do here.
For the off season, don't forget the
Southern Hemisphere
- Australian Snow Info. Australian snow
conditions are very erratic, not unlike Southern California, though
the resorts are somewhat larger. This web site is very well done,
and features a graphic consolidation of skier submitted
reports.
- New Zealand Snow. New
Zealand has much more than Australia to offer in terms of both
terrain and snow conditions, including glacier and heliskiing. The
web site contains area descriptions, locations on a map of New
Zealand, snow reports and several trail maps.
- With the demise of Chris Lizza's South America Ski Guide, general
information is provided mainly by tour operators. Of these, I find the
most informative site is SouthAmericaSki.com
Lift serviced terrain is much more expansive than in the
South Pacific, and at many resorts Andes snow quality is better with the
Colorado-like altitude. Snow quantity is huge with El Nino (500+
inches at Portillo in 1997), but drought is severe in La Nina years
(Las Lenas, the most famous expert resort, never opened in 1998).
For reports of conditions during the season, check AndesWeb.
- During our summer months the On The Snow Report Index
Page
summarizes most Southern Hemisphere resorts plus a few Northern
Hemisphere areas which offer summer glacier skiing.
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