Monday, January 16, 2017

Can We Have Too Much Snow ?

A lot of people have been asking, "Can we have too much snow?" The answer is yes and no, it all depends on your perspective.

If your time horizon is longer and you are looking at the entire season, I think the answer is, NO you can't have too much. There could be some worries of Spring flooding or avalanche cycles. Overall, however, more snow creates better conditions and the season lasts longer.

Now if your time horizon is much shorter, like the next hour or the next day, we can have too much snow. Big snowfalls can slow things down. Transportation on the hill goes slower. Snow removal takes longer. Avalanche work takes longer. There could be delays that take hours or days to get terrain open. On top of that, big snow storms complicates highway travel. 

So I say, the more snow the better.  It does creates a lot of work and getting to and getting up the mountain may take longer than you like. In the end, big snowfall means lots of great skiing. This last storm has shown the wait Tuesday and Wednesday was definitely worth the tremendous conditions that followed.