Mammoth looks like the big winner from this storm cycle. Chris Christensen, at home. Photo: Andrew Miller
Talk about a weird start to winter on the West Coast. Yes, we’re stoked for our East Coast brethren who have had an incredible start to the snow-riding season, as most resorts in the Northeast are fully open for business. But things have been warm on the Left Coast, to say the least. Still, forecasters are calling for a big-time uptick for the Sierra Nevada in the next few days. Temperatures will still be relatively tropical (unfortunately), but most models are calling for up to 70 inches of snow in California’s premier mountain range, thanks to this atmospheric river of a storm.
“The West will continue to see snowfall this week as a strong atmospheric river aims at California, soaking the state with up to 6-10 inches of liquid, with the Sierra potentially scoring up to five feet of snow,” wrote our friends at PowderChasers. “However, the storm will be warm for all ski areas, and rain is expected at base areas. The system arrives Tuesday night and will start with heavy rain below 8,500 feet, with only the ski area summits in Tahoe seeing snow. Tahoe won’t see snow at mid- or lower-elevations until Wednesday evening.”
There is one resort that will certainly be worthy of storm chasing over the holidays: Mammoth Mountain. With a base elevation over 8,000 feet, the Eastern Sierra resort stands to get absolutely pounded from this system, with rideable snow all the way to its main lodge, which will be an anomaly in the next few days for most California resorts. Forecasts call for Mammoth to get four to five feet of the white stuff, making for fun holiday conditions (hopefully).
The Pacific Northwest will be a secondary winner from this storm, according to PowderChasers, with resorts like Mt. Baker receiving up to 20 inches. Other areas in the Northern Rockies in places like Montana, Utah, Wyoming, and even more central locales in the range like Colorado, will pick up scraps with up to a foot of new snow likely in certain areas.
To sum it up for this storm: summit areas in the Sierra Nevada range (and resorts with high base elevations) should be set up for the season after this cycle. The rest of the West will have to hope and pray for storm totals above a foot.
