Powder Chasing Tools.

If you are a powder hound ski bum, a 9 to 5 , Monday to Friday kind of guy sitting on 5 paid sick days or anything in between, you need to know when the snow is coming. Sure, if you have to ability to ski every day then you might have the luxury of reading your local mountains snow report before deciding to go skiing but some people out there need a little more foresight. There are three main web resources I like to use to pin point the best possible ski days and I can usually track a storm 5 days out fairly consistently.

www. Snow-forecast.com is probably the most common web resource used here in Canada. It has a forecast for every ski resort and most back country lodges across the whole world. The free version gives you a six day forecast including freezing levels, precipitation and wind at three different elevations. The page has other useful information like resort webcams, weather maps, freezing level maps and snow depth maps. All for free. The paid membership unlocks a few other features but honestly what more could you really want? The only downfall with Snow-forecast is that it has been unreliable for some areas, like the Canadian Rockies for example. It could show no precipitation on the forecast and we would receive a meter of snow over 4 days… not good.

The MM5 is a weather map that is generated out of Washington and it has been real good to me these last years. With snow-forecast being a bust for the Rockies I have used this to track storms up to five days out. It can be a bit confusing to use and you will need to figure out where your resort is based on the map but it has been really consistent over the years. You can select three different models, short range, medium range and long range. Big green blobs are good , clear maps bad.

http://www.atmos.washington.ed...../snow.html

www. Avalanche.ca/weather . Avalanche Canada is the go to for daily detailed avalanche forecasts and everyone and their dog knows this but last year they launched a new service. It's no secret that the people who are putting all the effort required of a world leading avalanche forecast might know a thing or two about weather. So everyday they put out a new detailed weather forecast with weather maps AND a breakdown of that information in plain English. In my opinion this has been the most accurate place to find out when to book your next “doctor appointment “ or call in sick.

So now that you have the tools to plan out your week for maximum powder pillaging I suggest you start making a list of all the good reasons you might tell your boss that “you won't be in on Thursday”. You're going to need that list.