Back in Purgatory

The good news is that it snowed.  The bad news is that it didn't snow enough to make decent skiing feasible.

The current snow depth at the Alta-Collins stake are about 16 inches.  Storm total from the storm on Friday night and Saturday looks to be about 9 inches.

The mountains north of the Cottonwoods may have done a bit better during that storm, but probably had no base to start.

Undoubtably there will be some out there giving their skis a beating or perhaps tempting fate on the white ribbon of death where Alta has been blowing snow, but otherwise we're stuck in ski purgatory with not enough snow to ski and no major storms in sight over the next few days.  Other than a weak system passing through tonight and tomorrow, the medium range forecasts keep a ridge over us through at least Thursday.  After that, we'll need to see.  The latest GFS gives us some hope for next weekend.

0600 UTC 6 Nov 2011 GFS forecast valid 1200 UTC (0500
MST) 12 Nov 2011. 

Let's hope this thin snowpack doesn't rot much this week as it could lead to avalanche problems once the white stuff starts to fly.