Snow Reports
March 23rd, 2009Posted in Skiing Everywhere
Aren’t up to the minute morning snow reports great? (Well, maybe not for some employers…) There’s nothing like the report of deep fresh snow to make getting up on a Monday morning a lot more fun!
It is too bad that wasn’t the case this morning. I know some folks who had hopes for a decent excuse to skip work this morning, but Targhee’s report of 2″ of new snow didn’t meet their hopes, considering the way the sun had been melting the older snow recently. Ever the optimists, they waited until Targhee’s snow phone was updated after eight this morning, but that update just repeated the same 2″ story.
Once committed to getting to work, the phone call from friends who showed up at Targhee at 9 and found an unreported extra few inches could only fall on chagrinned hears. I wonder how many ticket sales resorts lose from people (obviously not locals who have a pass) who don’t show up when the snow report doesn’t do its job? With single day lift tickets being high profit sales, does it make sense to blow those sales?.
Maybe resorts are a bit gunshy about over-stating snow fall so they won’t have to deal with disappointed skiers who arrive and find less than advertised amounts of snow. In an age of high-tech everything, it just seems strange to me that accurate and timely snow reporting remains a problem. Sure wind and micro climates at a resort make for difficulties, but they can’t be that hard to surmount considering a resort has ski patrollers out early and grooming equipment drivers finishing up about the time the morning snow report needs to be finalized.
I still like Snowbird’s live snowcam of its snow stake that allows anyone to see how much new snow has fallen at that spot since the time the lifts closed the previous day and make their own judgment.
Ex Snow reporter commented:
It was actually snowing up at the ghee the morning of the 23rd—we showed up knowing it was going to be good (after taking our own personal initiative to look at the weather radar) so the additional snow was falling after the 8am snow report. Lighten up guy—and get over it. If you feel content to diss the presumably underpaid snow reporters up at the ghee—you should apply to do the job yourself. I’ve heard they get bitched at if they over report—so under reporting an inch or two is really not a big deal. Be happy—and get out and ski. Do you really need an excuse to ski???
snowman commented:
My foggy memory doesn’t recall ever criticizing a snow reporter. I was just musing about why resorts still have difficulty doing timely and accurate ski reports when procedural failures in this area can cost them lost business.
I was out of town that day, but my friend reports that it is highly unlikely that the extra few inches he found at 9 could have fallen in the less than an hour time span between the 8 o’clock update and the 9 o’clock lift opening, but I can’t verify that.