Powder bender

I'm here for a very tardy report on last weeks "Snowpocalypse". The weather peeps had been predicting a massive storm for a full week. I was in the camp that thoroughly believed they would only maybe get a 1/4 of the total right. But as it turned out many mountain locations received 4 feet +. The picture to the left was taken by a U of M student and volunteer patroller at Snowbowl, great pics! If you are interested in seeing more, check them out on the FB Snowbowl Ski Patrol page.

The snow in town started to fall on Tuesday and didn't let up until Thursday. Even the often snow blessed Bozangles area watched closely as they still sat with a sad sad base of 24". A friend salivated on my snow report Tuesday night and white knuckled it over from Bozeman. He timed the storm perfect and saw Snowbowl in prime conditions for 2 days. NWS Missoula reported 15.7 inches (Jan. 17-19), which marks the seventh deepest dump since records were first kept in 1893 (The record, 41.1 inches of snow over Christmas in 1996). Snowbowl totaled over 40" for the week. Bringing the base to 80" up top and 36" below.

A couple friends and I joked how it felt like we had come off a bender, a powder bender (urban dictionary defines bender as: The status of being bent for more than a day. Usually results in loss of memory, money, strange tattoos, and other things you'll have a hell of a time explaining.) I was fortunate enough to be scheduled off work and have a very understanding mother-in-law that watched the two rugrats while I choked on powder. We shrugged some responsibilities and ended up with sore legs. No sympathy wanted or needed. Just reporting the facts ma'am.
 

Huge berm after the big dump

Below is a vid I found from the week of snow, some good POV of what the conditions were like. Cheers and thanks for reading.

Most anticipated storm of the year

Montana Snowbowl isn't doing to bad on their snowpack compared to many places around the nation. We're sitting at 58" inch base up top and 24" down at the base. But then if you compare that to Tahoe areas at 12 -18", most Colorado resorts at 30" and the big winner....Mt. Baker at 120". British Columbia seems to be holding in the second spot to Western Montana at a little over 70".

Over the last week we've listened to weather people spew forth their ominous snow forecasts for this week. Last week, they started projecting 4 to 8 feet to fall starting today - Thursday. The valley as usual (except for last year) has been very slow to pick up any snow. Really the only snow to speak of was a few weeks ago when we received a few inches. When last year at this time we had huge snowbanks in town. (see below)

Our rather large posse slayed the slopes of Snowbowl today during the impending storm. We sampled 4" that fell throughout the day. Snow was coming in sideways at times and we reveled at the possibilities of the storm. As my mother-in-law says to my daughters...You get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

$hit skiers say

Winter so far

This was supposed to be the repeat of last year's La Nina winter. 

However, this seems to be what most skiers are having nightmares of in the winter of 2011/2012. Leave it to Backcountry.com for capturing some of the best captions ever on this photo (unsure photog).

Skiing will get better, and for now Snowbowl has 56" summit (7600') and 23" at the base (5000'), which is more than many ski areas in the west have. For now there is not a lick of snow the Missoula valley and I'm thinking maybe I should mow my lawn? What are you doing? you know you guys can comment in here, right?

Look at the snow cover from last year vs. this year, wow.

Skier claims Snowbowl denied him season pass after safety complaint

This is not going to help them.

Read more: http://missoulian.com/news/local/skier-claims-snowbowl-denied-him-season-pass-after-safety-complaint/article_4caed772-3683-11e1-ba0a-0019bb2963f4.html?mode=comments#ixzz1iYWuqXKb


They are getting dragged through the mud after a chair lift falls off at Snowbowl and in Red Lodge. 

And sorry I had to repost this, found on the TGR forums.