More snow in forecast for Vail, Beaver Creek as southern mountains hammered

If you’re one of those lucky snow-riding souls who can just drop everything and road trip to the pow, then you’re likely already down in southern Colorado this week, where they’ve been measuring the snow in feet not inches. For those of us with lives, we’ve been living on the edge (of the storm cycle) and hoping for just a few more inches up here in the northern mountains.

Looks like that just might happen starting Thursday night into Saturday, with 4 to 10 inches in the forecast for Vail and Beaver Creek. We’ll take it on top of the foot or so of new snow we’ve received in the last week and the very cold temperatures that are keeping things light and fluffy.

Beaver Creek this past week went over the 200-inch mark for the season, and Vail surpassed 230 seasonal inches. Opensnow.com is forecasting some more freshies for the weekend and beyond.

“Look forward to deep powder days and 20-40 inches of total snowfall in the far southern mountains on Thursday and Friday,” Opensnow.com meteorologist Joel Gratz wrote Thursday morning. “Elsewhere, the best chances for snow will be Thursday night and again later Friday and Friday night with 4-10 inches. Then we’ll see dry weather from Saturday through about Monday with snow showers over the northern mountains during the middle and end of next week.”

It’s been an exceptional season so far, with snowpack just above average but snow conditions consistently good as storm after storm has tracked through the Vail Valley and, even if they don’t dump big snow totals, kept temperatures cold and conditions soft.

Avalanche deaths have been in the news a lot lately, with skiers killed recently near Crested Butte and Telluride.

While the avalanche danger in the Vail, Summit County area is listed as moderate by the Colorado Avalanche Information Center, extreme caution should be exercised when heading out in the back- and side-country.

The farther south you travel, the greater the risk, with the avalanche danger in southern Colorado listed as considerable.