Beautiful groomed trails at sunset on the Methow Trails in Winthrop, Washington
Some skiers are ardent followers of ski area snow reports. Some call it a “communication concoction” and many skiers plan their day by it. Information in the reports is posted daily and hopefully early in the day with reliable regularity. The snow report often includes info such as trail surface conditions, weather forecast, amount of snow received, number and distance of open trails, offtrack locations, trail grooming data, and a bit of marketing with hopefully some entertainment.
This information helps skiers prepare for the day – what type of clothing to wear, which skis to bring, wax preparation (slow snow could be defeated with an application of glide wax), and deciding how far you want to drive for to visit a ski area for a specific experience.
These snow and trail reports are produced by different people such as a ski area owner, a ski patroller, a marketer, the snow grooming machine operator, etc. Each might use techniques that involve going for a ski, checking the weather forecast, hearing from skiers back from an early morning outing, or the getting the story from the groomer.
There are a few ways to produce these reports including providing just the facts (trail list, amount of snow from recent days, mileage tracked or groomed, etc.) or adding some spice to motivate skiers to visit or plan to visit soon. The trail conditions and weather can be a range of possibilities and some can be pretty negative (icy, melted, windy, rainy, etc.) if the reporter is being completely transparent. Providing an answer to the question about why a skier might decide to visit is paramount in a conditions report. Enticements in the report might include new and great snow conditions, miles of open trails, special offers, events, or programs and so on. Highlights or recommendations can point out where to ski and where the best photo opportunities are available.
Many ski areas use the Nordic Pulse system with a live report that is GPS-based right from the trail grooming machine in real time. Skiers can see a map, photo, and specific trail grooming info
Snow reports can be found on a ski area website and their apps or social media outlets. Other options include the Nordic Pulse (app based GPS live ski trail grooming report by time stamped grooming machine tracker), or daily updates on a snow phone. Website outlets such as XCSki.org (Cross Country Ski Areas Association), SnoCountry.com, and SkinnySki.com provide an amalgamated list of ski areas with information reported by the respective ski area operators.
Methow Trails is a nonprofit trail system in Winthrop, WA with 220 kilometers of trails. Methow’s Outreach & Access Manager, Erika Kercher Halm commented, “Our skiers use our Methow Trails app to check weather and trail conditions, trail maps, grooming notes, and driving directions and we have a daily trail update and a photo of the day for recommendations about what was groomed, the weather, and where to ski on the Methow Trails app and on the website, too. The Nordic Pulse provides skiers with our up-to-date trail information.”
Nick Mahood of Woodstock Nordic Center in Vermont uses the Nordic Pulse system and he adds information such as trail recommendations, if lunch is available, or special events such as live music, a sale, or whether the ski lessons are quickly getting booked.
Nordic Nate is the trail report virtuoso from Great Glen Trails in Gorham, NH
Nordic Nate Harvey of Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center in Gorham, NH is famous for daily reporting and he stated “About a quarter of our report is trail conditions and the rest of it is live links, and fun.” The Great Glen reports are sent to seasonpass holders, media, and others who opt-in and Nate commented, “It is important to be consistent and deliver the report at the time that it is expected but we also regularly deliver the Friday Funny and Sunday Sermon versions.”
Personally, I bookmark the ski conditions reports at about a half dozen ski area websites and a few have me on their email lists so I get their reports via email. I know the time that the reports are usually updated daily and I look for the info about the snow and weather at the different ski areas to make a decision about where to ski and all of the information makes it easy to decide where to go on a given day.
Banner photo from Methow Trails