The Silverlode Express Lift, built in 1996, is known for having long lines, servicing many popular runs and being the closest lift to the Quicksilver Gondola. The new proposal aims to upgrade it from a six-chair to an express eight-chair lift, increasing uphill capacity from 3,000 to 3,600 skiers per hour.
A superpipe is a halfpipe that is about 64 feet wide and typically between 400 and 600 feet long, with walls approximately 22 feet high. The walls of the pipe are near vertical, with a smooth transition that allows riders to carry maximum speed.
Avalanches kill about 100 people in Europe each year, with vast masses of ice, snow and rock regularly crashing down on hikers and skiers who have been caught unawares. The structure of the snow, angle of the slope and variation of the weather can dictate whether a gentle disturbance like a gust of wind or the glide of a snowboard can trigger a deadly shift in the mountain.
From Sunday afternoon through Tuesday night, the guidance lines up on a prolonged South Island storm cycle. Timing confidence is good, with snow pushing in Sunday afternoon and ramping hard Sunday night.
The ongoing storm is expected to add 13-16 cm at Banff Sunshine and around 4-5 cm at Lake Louise by Friday morning, with the deepest moisture focused on Alberta.
Both avid and casual skiers know that winter requires preparation. If you want to ski as many days as possible, you must have a game plan. After all, skiing is an expensive sport, so budget is typically one of the top considerations. But before you book flights, hotels, and lift tickets, or decide if you want to invest in an Epic Pass or Ikon Pass, you'll need to identify which ski resorts you want to explore over the course of a few months.
The parking lot pulsed with bass-heavy playlists and breakfast cocktails. Ski boots clicked alongside trail runners; bikes leaned against tailgates next to rock skis. Spring in the Northwest is less about conditions and more about community-and the stoke was high.
Kirkwood has had a pretty solid past few days, seeing 42 inches of snow through the past 7 days, 31 of which fell in the past 48 hours. As of April 13th, Kirkwood has 5 lifts spinning with 45 of 84 trails open to skiers and snowboarders.
Both days delivered clear skies and cold temperatures, with hardly a cloud overhead and almost no wind. Despite the strong alpine sun, temperatures remained below freezing, keeping the snow in excellent shape across the mountain.
Les Deux Alpes keeps unfolding lap after lap, zone after zone, until you realize you've spent the entire day chasing terrain that never really ends.
The sport originated thousands of years ago in Europe by necessity when hunters used long skis to travel and explore over mountain passes, placing animal skins on the bottoms of their skis for traction when climbing. Military units used similar gear to patrol the Alps in the late 1800s, sometimes engaging in speed competitions, which were likely the prototypes for the format of the Olympic skimo debut this February.
Mt. Baker is the PNW's snow vacuum. It's close enough to the Pacific to get storm after storm, and the North Cascades do what they do best: force moist air straight up, wring it out, and bury everything in sight. Maritime storms roll in wet and heavy, then pile up fast when they hit terrain.
Snowfall in France this week has been huge, with some resorts seeing more than 2 meters (6.6 feet) in the last five days. A massive winter storm hammered the French Alps from February 10-13, unleashing monster snowfall that has buried resorts and reshaped the mountain landscape just days before Valentine's Day weekend. Across the Northern Alps - including iconic resorts in Haute-Savoie, Savoie, and Isère - weather stations reported extraordinary snow totals.
