If you’ve had any doubt that Utah is having an epic winter this season, then all the proof you need is on the ground at Snowbird, where the Little Cottonwood Canyon ski and snowboard resort set their all-time single season snowfall record.
On Tuesday, April 26th, Snowbird recorded their 690th inch of snowfall, which eclipses the previous record set in the 1983/84 season.
If you were lucky enough to be on the mountain (despite being interlodged) then you’re now a part of history as it’s officially the day that Snowbird got the most snow in 40 years. You’ll be telling your grandkids tales about how you choked on the 690th inch that day, and they’ll roll their eyes and float away on their hoverboards. But you’ll still glow from the moment that you skied at Snowbird when the snowfall record fell. Glory.
At the time of this writing, Snowbird’s mid-mountain base is a whopping 190 inches, and even more snow s on the way, which means the snowfall record isn’t just broken, but it will be shattered in the coming weeks.
In a press release, Snowbird officials gloated and gleamed.
“This has been a remarkable season for Snowbird,” said resort president Bob Bonar. “We’ll be celebrating with skiing til Memorial Day and most likely beyond, with conditions that are anything but typical spring skiing.”
“Having skied at Snowbird for 16 years, I can honestly say this is by far the best year of powder skiing I’ve ever experienced,” said local pro athlete Ben Wheeler. “The mountain is incredibly filled in, with areas that used to be 30-foot cliffs completely buried under all this snow.”
Snowbird put their record-breaking 690 inches into perspective. It’s 57.5 feet, which measures nearly the height of each sculpture face at the Mount Rushmore National Monument, more than a third of the height of the Statue of Liberty, and easily tops Utah’s Delicate Arch in Arches National Park.
This is the fourth consecutive season Snowbird has topped 600 inches mid-mountain, with water content in this year’s snowfall well exceeding record levels. The latest closing date in the history of the Little Cottonwood Canyon resort is July 4 (in 1995 and 2005).
With all the snow that’s been falling this spring, Lord knows when Snowbird’s closing date will be this year. I say they aim for a year-round season…
For more, visit http://www.snowbird.com/