Premature Puking
Cold Front
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Sierra Nevada, California:
Eighty-two inches before the kids went trick-or-treating. Six more by Election Day. From Mammoth (which fired up lifts on October 21, their earliest opening day in a decade) to Sugar Bowl to Alpine Meadows, the Sierra got pummeled. Then, on November 28 – bang! – a low-pressure system dropped another 14 inches.
Wasatch Mountains, Utah:
Wet weather from the Pacific Northwest buried Big and Little Cottonwood canyons under 70 inches by November 1. (Snowbird opened November 5, a record.) The weekend after Thanksgiving, Little Cottonwood got hit with more than two feet in 24 hours, and by December 10, more than 200 total inches had fallen.
Rocky Mountains, Colorado: Loveland opened on October 15, beating A-Basin by a week. Then all that Sierra and Wasatch moisture came east, leaving 37 inches at Crested Butte, 24 at Copper, and 20 at Silverton – which a lucky six people got to enjoy.