The ski season is well underway across the Rocky Mountains, and some places have seen more snow than others. Snowpack is hovering around the average for this time of year throughout the Mountain West.
At the I-70 resorts in central Colorado, like Vail and Beaver Creek, SNOTEL sites are showing snowpack between 95% and 123% of normal. At Independence Pass near Aspen, the snowpack is 95% of normal, and in Gunnison County, Schofield Pass near Crested Butte is at 86% of normal. In southwest Colorado, some areas have snowpack much closer to normal, like Red Mountain Pass near Telluride, showing 111% of normal, but other areas sit well below average, like the Mancos SNOTEL site, which is measuring 33% of normal.
Near Moab, Utah, the Lasal Mountain site measures 115%. In Near Jackson, Wyoming, the Phillips Bench SNOTEL site is showing 74% of normal snowpack and Granite Creek reads 95%.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains in California have already had lots of snow this winter, with some resorts near Lake Tahoe measuring up to 174% of normal snowpack.
There’s evidence that human-caused climate change is impacting the U.S. ski industry. A 2023 study shows that between 2000-2023, the ski season has shortened by between 5.5 and 7.1 days. Researchers say a changing climate makes it hard for the ski industry to plan for the season the way they once did.
Andrew Schwartz, director of the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, says warming temperatures cause greater variability — for example, 2015 was one of the warmest and driest on record, but 2023 was a record snow year for lots of western resorts.
That’s a problem, he says, when historically, ski resorts have relied on an “average” winter to set things like opening and closing dates and snowmaking operations.
“But when we have these rapid swings and these rapid transitions back and forth, it's much harder to determine that in advance,” he said. “And so it leaves a lot of people scrambling around. It can leave economies a little bit shaky because it's not allowing us to really plan and execute,” he said.
“When you talk about actual operations, you know, it can be hard,” he said. “You know, you're flying by the seat of your pants looking at what low temperature for snow making processes and things of that nature.”
In addition, Schwartz says poor winters transition into poor summers — especially looking at drought, soil moisture, and wildfire conditions.
“We're at a point where even if your resort isn't on fire, somebody else's is,” he said. “And then people are making decisions based on that wildfire smoke. On whether they might be coming to your town to recreate.”
Schwartz says these problems are too big for one resort or one economy to solve alone — and that collective action is needed by the industry to reduce emissions and slow warming. In addition, he says it’s a good idea for resorts and resort towns to have contingency plans in place well before these “off” years happen. That includes looking at other activities.
“When you have a small winter, it affects everybody,” he said. “But it can provide some opportunity to many of these places to have mountain bike trails that might be able to be used in the winter months if it is a really bad winter, and that can help out the local economy.”
Federal forecasters are predicting above average precipitation in January across the inner mountain west, but higher than average temperatures in southern Colorado and Utah.
Copyright 2024 Rocky Mountain Community Radio. This story was shared with KSUT via Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a network of public media stations in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, including KSUT.
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