As you know, we’ve been watching the forecast closely and crossing our fingers for LOW SNOW LEVELS. As the first wave of this three-day storm system moved through, our clenched teeth gave way to smiles.

It was pouring in McCall this morning, but as I drove up to the mountain, the situation looked brighter (actually…WHITER) with every turn.

By the time I hit the entrance gate, it was all snow.

BUT, it was clear from the soggy snowpack that it had rained quite a bit at the base area overnight.

9:00 am Friday, November 30.

It was hard to tell how much snow we’d lost. I took this photo just before 9 am. You can see the snow falling pretty hard.

And despite a forecast calling for a 7,200 foot snow level, we got DUMPED ON in the 6,000 foot base area for four hours straight. By 1 pm, this is what that same picnic table looked like.

1:00 pm Friday, November 30

It’s not uncommon for Brundage to be colder than the forecast, but it’s still no fun to see the chance of rain in there.

The forecast for the rest of the weekend inspires a little more hope. Here’s the excerpt I’m focused on:

DISTURBANCES EMBEDDED IN THIS FLOW WILL CONTINUE TO BRING MODERATE TO HEAVY PRECIPITATION TO THE MOUNTAINS…WITH SNOW ABOVE 7000 FEET TODAY AND ABOVE 6000 FEET TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. ADDITIONAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS UP TO 2 FEET ARE POSSIBLE IN THE HIGHER MOUNTAINS THROUGH SATURDAY. A STRONGER WEATHER SYSTEM WILL CROSS OUR AREA LATE SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY BRINGING UP TO 2 MORE FEET IN THE MOUNTAINS…

(The base of the Blue Bird quad is right at 6,000 feet.)

And while we may have lost a little snowpack/coverage overnight in the base area, we easily gained it back with the snow surge this morning.

As you can see, we have a good start on a base. (And naturally, there’s more snow accumulating and less rain impact as you head up toward our 7,640 foot summit.)

So as we head into the weekend with our eyes on this storm and our thoughts on opening day, we ask that you join us in doing a ‘cold dance’, and have faith that we will bring you a detailed update just as soon as we possibly can.

Think SNOW!

– April