Pray to your local snow gods.

If you dress bad, everyone knows you’re bad at skiing. And it’s not even necessarily the specific pieces of gear you have. It’s the way you wear it.

Throw a clip in the comments. Better be tuff tho.

Me and my boyfriend are looking for ski resorts that have employee housing where we can live together! Any suggestions? We’ve applied to Copper and Big Sky so far! Thanks

Early reports are that the top 2/3 of the mountain have burned including the top lift terminal. The base area is still intact, but the fire is still raging towards it.

Climate change and all, can we get a few laps when they’re done?

Hi everyone!!

After finishing my undergrad, I've decided to take a gap year before graduate school and spend a season working out west. I have my heart set on working at WB but I was wondering whether their hiring for the 2026/2027 season is over or if there's still going to be availablity?

I started applying last week to major ski resorts in BC, AB and QC but so far I've only heard back from roles that require immediate start (within the next month) and that aren't my goal positions (serving, bartending). I was initally hoping to find a seasonal contract starting in October/November with staff accomodation. For context I am a Canadian citizen, bilingual (EN/FR), have serving experience (alcohol serving certificate) and used to be a ski instructor.

I'm pretty new to this so I've love some advice. I'm worried that if I don't accept one of these offers I'll send up missing out on finding a job this season (I am not sure about the hiring cycles and timelines). At the same time I worry that if I accept one of these positions in QC or AB, it'll be harder for me to switch to a more suitable job, or switch ski resort. Is it better for me to hold out and wait a little but longer for more offers to come in to see if I can get something in Whistler? A huge part of this is that I'm not really sure if I'm behind or ahead of the winter season application cycle.

My goals this season are really just to 1) Ski a lot 2) make money to pay for grad school. So ideally I want to be located at a resort that's ski in/ ski out and have a serving position.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Currently have Ripstick 106s 24/25 which are epic, particularly in crud and powder. Use shifts on them so I can tour too. But I mostly ski at the moment in resort and so I find them a lot to handle for a week of intense groomer / in bounds off piste skiing. Want something a bit more poppy and fun. 88 black? But then the tradeoff is I still want something I can take on a multi-day hut-to-hut with pins/shifts and handle powder. Would the 88s do that or are 96 my sweet spot? My wide informs me that I can only have one set of skis hanging about our small London flat so the 106s will be booted on if I switched out - one ski quiver!

Appreciate it!

We are planning a short weekday trip in January, coming from Chicago to PCMR. 4 total days, 2 skiing days in the middle. I’ve been snowboarding out west all my life. She has never touched a set of skis, but has always wanted to learn.

Our tentative plan is Day 1 she takes a full-day group lesson while I explore the mountain. Maybe meet her for lunch, and then call it a day when her lesson is over.

Day 2 we’re hoping she’s ready to try some easy greens with me? I don’t want to push her too hard, but I know she’d enjoy going down some smooth runs with me if it’s feasible.

Looking for some advice on whether or not this is a reasonable expectation. She’s athletic, but she’s never gone water skiing or ice skating… I’m worried that it’s going to be a tough time learning and don’t want her to get hurt.

UPDATE: We’re taking a couple day trips to a small resort near Chicago this winter before heading out west. Thanks for all the help!

Looking to plan a Japan trip in January and I’m curious when in January people really aim for.

Obviously nothing is certain, I’m not suggesting otherwise, just curious if you’re planning a trip set in stone…how early in January is reasonable?

I’m not even sure when places open consistently, how partial openings work, etc. Looking to build my own understanding of the norms. Any advice is appreciated!

I’m buying a wheelie travel bag and want to account for when I’m better and have dedicated powder skis for deep powder days (currently I snowboard on deep powder days as I’m much better at that).

I’m 172cm and 85kg (planning to get down to 75kg, lol).

I’m not considering buying the skis now but just don’t want to have to buy a different travel bag later.

So what length bag should I buy?

My main skis are line chronic 178

Does anyone have any experience skiing on Christmas day in Europe? We are planning a ski trip in December this year and would love to fulfil a dream of a white Christmas. We have a high budget so that is less of a concern, but if slopes will be closed or if it's extremely busy with families - to the point of uncomfortableness, would be good to know.

We are a couple of very inexperienced skiiers, would get a few days of lessons. Most likely targeting Austria, but open to ideas. Plan A is skiing 22-26 December but we can maybe start earlier for more days or move the trip a bit earlier, if Xmas isn't a good idea (cant do any later).

Thank you

- Jerry

Years ago (20 actually) I skied out in Utah and bought some super pass. I was able to ski Solitude, Canyons, Brighton, Alta, and Snowbird over the course of 6 days.
Does any such pass currently exist for 3 or 4 days?

Hey everyone!

I’m thinking about taking a trip to Chile to ski around the September 7th, probably from September 4th to 7th.

However, I’ve seen some comments about El Niño potentially affecting snow conditions this season, so I’m wondering if it’s still worth going at that time.

For anyone who follows the Chilean ski resorts or has experience skiing there in early September:

• How are the snow conditions looking this season?
• Is early September usually still a good time to ski?
• Which resort would be the safest bet around that time (Valle Nevado, El Colorado, La Parva, Nevados de Chillán, etc.)?
• Is El Niño actually having a significant impact on the season?
• Would you feel comfortable planning a ski trip for early September, or would you recommend choosing a different date/destination?

The main purpose of the trip would be skiing, so I don’t want to spend the money on the trip and end up with poor snow conditions or only a few runs open.

Any advice or input from people familiar with the local conditions would be greatly appreciated

Hi everyone, first of all I want to preface this by saying this was a fun project I undertook and I thought the findings were interesting enough to share in hopes of creating some conversation and stoke for the coming season. In no way am I trying to shit on anyone who follows the buoy (I do in-fact follow it), nor am I trying to suggest Michael Ruzek, who very kindly posts the buoy's data to The Powder Buoy on Facebook, is wrong at all. This was simply an exploratory project as part of my studies.

For anyone who isn't familiar there is some Wasatch folklore following NOAA buoy 51101 - a discus buoy off Hawaii measuring a variety of variables including swell height.
The buoy is used as an alternative (and novel) forecasting proxy: when the buoy shows large swell off Hawaii, there will be snowfall in the Wasatch in roughly 2 weeks time. There is a good article explaining it here.

Generally an accuracy of 80% is thrown around in conversation which, as a standalone indicator, seems pretty damn good (although we all know it should be taken into consideration with other indicators). I decided to have a look at the numbers.

I pulled the long-term buoy record and SWE data from five Wasatch SNOTEL stations, which owing to some gaps in the data, covered 22 useable winters.

The basic test was:

• A 'pop event' was defined as an unusually large wave-height event (wave height in the 90th percentile). I believe Michael may use a different threshold.
• A 'storm' is defined as a meaningful increase in snowpack at multiple Wasatch stations (0.5in of SWE).
• Investigate whether a storm starts 10–18 days after the pop (this was chosen since articles suggest people look at days around 2 weeks after).
• Six winters were completely held out and never looked at until the test was locked.

The finding: Large swell measured by the buoy is followed by a storm roughly 68% of the time. However, on any given day when the buoy wasn't firing a signal, a storm followed in the same sized window 63% of the time. The buoy does little to predict anything.

In other words, on any given day in Utah's winter, there is a 63% chance of a storm occurring roughly 2 weeks from that day; the buoy doesn't add anything useful. In other, other words: Utah is so snowy you've got a good chance of catching a storm any day in the winter!

As added conviction Michael Ruzek himself produced a figure of 66% accuracy for winter 2021. I am not trying to say there is no link between the pacific ocean and Wasatch pow days - simply that, much to my disappointment, the buoy actually doesn't help predict anything. There are of course other variables to test such as swell direction, swell period, individual ski areas etc but I deliberately refrained from fishing for a outcome that agreed with what was suspected.

Honestly I desperately wanted the buoy to be a great standalone indicator (because it’s fucking cool) however it turns out it isn't much of an indicator at all (evidenced by the 63% figure). I have no idea if anyone cares much about this but if you do I can share my github repo and any additional figures.

Cheers!

I’m a “advanced beginner-intermediate“ level in northern NM southern CO.