Best snow of the week:  All of Colorado and NM got snow this week so the conditions continue to be good. Look for another sizable storm this weekend and temps bouncing up and down as they normally do in March.

Spring Skiing tips:  Sunny warm days and cold nights mean the snow ‘freezes’ overnight and melts and softens during the day.  Many times you’ll experience hard pack conditions (‘crunch’) early in the day and wet snow (‘mush’) late in the day. Early in the day it’s best to look for trails that are in the sunshine which will soften up first. Later in the day those trails in the sun early will get too soft and wet, so midday and later look for trails with other sun exposures which soften up later but don’t get as ‘mushy’ in the afternoon. Another option is trails that are out of the sun all day long don’t melt much and the conditions can stay more consistent all day long.   Basically look at the sun exposure of a ski area’s trails. Many areas have trails that face different directions and the trick is to figure out where to go during different parts of the day to get the best conditions. With spring skiing it’s also best to have either sunny warm days or at least 4-6” of new snow.  Cloudy cold days don’t allow the snow to soften up so they tend to provide the worst snow conditions.

Leader Tip:    Not much of a rush to get skiing on those ‘crunchy’ spring skiing mornings (unless there is 4 6” new snow).  When the snow is hard early in the day more injuries will occur when people fall.  Starting a little later and skiing until late in the day tends to be a good plan for spring skiing.

The Pattern: over the years I’ve noticed during some seasons the same day of the week gets the new snow. The past 6 weeks almost every Friday and Saturday have been ‘powder’ days and this again looks to be happening this week. Let’s see if that hold true the next couple of weeks!

Deals of the Week:   Excellent deals exist for late season skiing after the mid March spring break weeks. With the big snows of February and more storms coming the bases are still increasing which should make for excellent late season skiing into mid April. Let us know if you need a quote for any family or group trips.