North American Year Round Sking

spk27alumni

Several months back, a discussion took place regarding the need for the Valemount B.C Glacier Skiing development, for year round skiing in North America.  Someone gave their opinion that given Mount Hoods’ greater vertical, another resort would not be necessary. At the time, I did not agree with that assessment given the latitude and Southern exposure of the Mount Hood operation, but did not feel the need to weigh in on the subject. Months later, I feel it is time to re-open the discussion.  I have been keeping up with the progress of the Valemount project, and find it interesting how much support the Community and Native people are showing for it.  It seems that the opportunity to provide a sightseeing, and summer skiing experience, much like that found in Europe exists there. There is an interesting video of the presentation to the community, which is over an hour long, on the official website. In the meantime, the summer skiing/training season on Mount Hoods Palmer Glacier (Snowfield) was cut short this year. Check out the Timberline Lodge webcams…there is barely anything left up there at this time!  It may not be such a bad idea to move Summer Skiing on our continent further North, and on Northern exposures, as proposed on the Valemount developement

sugarloaf

This year was much warmer than normal for the Northern Hemisphere in general with the summer skiing season being cut short in Europe as well. I doubt the glacier’s in BC faired very well this summer/fall. What happened on Mt Hood/Palmer is quite unusual and normally Mt Hood offers reliable summer skiing.

DrJeff

Mt Hood this summer was by far and away an outlyer of a season, not just in recent years, but in the entire weather data recording era they have for it spanning over 50 years.

My daughter has gone out to Hood for race camp the last 2 summers, skiing up on the Palmer Snowfield roughly the 1st 10 days of July each of the last 2 years.  2 years ago, which was a “normal” year snowfall and temp wise, she was able to ski all roughly 2000 vertical feet from the top of the Palmer lift all the way down to Timberline Lodge at the end of each days training instead of having to download as there was still FEET of base all the way down to Timberline Lodge.  She was also having to wear her training shorts and at least a light shell over her GS suit for warmth up on the hill for most of the 7AM until noontime session she was on the hill each day.

This year, the annual snowfall resulted in a base that come April was about 100″ below the historical average (come April the base on the snowfields is typically about 200″ whereas this year it was about ½ that, and then from April on, historically they’d get about another 8 to 10 feet of snow falling on top of that base.  This year, only about 2 feet fell after April.  Additionally temp wise, while my daughter was out there, she didn’t need any training shorts or shells for warmth, and some racers were even just strapping their shin/arm guards right over their bare legs/arms because it was so warm, even at elevation up on the snowfields (temps by mid morning were often pushing 70 degrees with lows in the mid/upper 50’s overnight so the snow, even with salting, never REALLY set up.

As one of my daughters coaches told me when I went out to pick her up at the end of the session,  the weather was so warm during that session, that in the previous 25 summers he’d been coaching/skiing Hood, he couldn’t recall a 10 day stretch where they’d lost as much base as they had the previous 10 days - by his estimates about 8 feet of base melted during that session.

If the weather is more “normal”  Hood is just a phenomenal spot for summer North American skiing/riding and training, as the over love of skiing/snowboarding/racing/park out there in the summer among such a sizable number of athletes all in close proximity is just incredible to experience!

sugarloaf

The other factor to keep in mind is that Mt Hood/Palmer is easy to get too and close to Portland There is a ton of activities to do after skiing in the morning..

spk27alumni

OK…so this was an outlier of a season on Mt. Hood…we hope. And Mt. Hood is a mecca for Summer race training. Since my Son is a former racer, as well, I am well aware of the vibe out of Government Camp. However, I still don’t see how what is offered at Mt.Hood is comparable to what is being proposed at Valemount. Check out the website. And to be clear, I have no connection to the development whatsoever. I just find the opportunity for a true glacier experience in N.A., like my Son had the chance to experience this past Spring in Austria, a tantalizing idea.Does anyone agree with me, or am I just a lone Nutcase?

sugarloaf

I would be curious to see what the Twilight and McLennan Glaciers look like right now after this summers heat and drought. It’s not possible to ski on bare glacial ice and if both glaciers lost last years snow cover, summer/fall skiing would not be possible.The vertical drop on these glaciers is only 984′, less than what is typically offered on Palmer. If the lifts are to be on the glacier, then they would probably be surface lifts, with much less capacity than the Palmer HSQ

spk27alumni

I agree with you, sugarloaf, that it would be interesting to see what those glaciers look like now. I don’t know if I agree that areas don’t operate on the glacial ice for two reasons. One…what was the Palmer operating on, as the Summer wore on?  Two…the areas in Europe operate after the prior winters snow has melted. I spent this summer checking out the webcam at Hintertux Austria, among others. They had groomers on the their two glacier pods all summer, and they are still open.As for vertical, again using Hintertux where the WVBBTS Academy racers train in the Summer as an example, the respective vertical drops of the two year round T-Bar served pods are 794 and 728 feet.

sugarloaf

There is a difference between Palmer and a glacier. Palmer is a permanent snowfield and not a glacier, so the snow does not compact into glacial ice which is very hard and difficult to ski on. Hintertux is currently the only ski area in Austria to operate 365. Stubai, Kitzsteinhorn, Tignes/Val D" Isere, Val Senales, Kaprun, Pitzdal,   and many others can no longer offer 365 skiing as the glaciers are down to bare ice by mid-summer.Hintertux, Zermatt and Les Deux Alpes are the only glacier resorts left in Europe that offer skiing 365 Days a year.A glacier needs 65% or more of snow cover from previous seasons to have a neutral mass balance and none of the glaciers that I saw in Europe had that by the end of this year’s melt season.