Best Ski State (Based on Vert)

I made a little map ranking states and their skiing.  It is based on the ski area of each state with the most vertical feet.  Each state is labeled with its name, its largest ski area (by vertical feet), and the vertical feet of that ski area.

The West is the best.  Though the Northeast has impressive numbers too.  Colorado and Wyoming have ski areas with over 4000 foot of vertical!  Places like Michigan and Wisconsin looked like good places to ski when looking at their total number of ski areas, but now they don't seem like such an ideal place for skiing.

Tribute to John Wesley Powell

John Wesley Powell was an explorer and a scientist.  A true adventurer of the American West.  He was the first white man to go down through the Colorado River.. checking out the grand canyon and everything.  More importantly, he was one of the first to realize the American West was an arid region and that water was a scarce yet important resource.  He worked hard to ensure that settlement of the American West went smooth.  Unfortunately, settlers believed that God was on their side and rain would come as long as they plowed their fields.  Of course, God did not change the Climate of North America and so the American West has encountered several problems as more and more people start to live in the arid regions.

One of Powell's ideas was for territories/states to have their borders based on major watersheds watersheds.  This would keep things simple when dealing with State Water Rights.  This of course never happened, and most states were designed in a geometric fashion.  Had his idea been implemented though, a map of the western states may have looked like this.

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There are many variations of this map.  This is what I came up with and I think it looks pretty sweet.  All borders of the western states run along watershed boundaries.  The result is a lot different than what our borders are today

Rain

Its the middle of January and I had no idea a ski area could get so much rain.  Don't come ski in the cascades right now.  Its pretty awful.  The Rockies are getting snow right now, while the northwest is getting rain.

Snow in Northeast

Weather.com has some good news for some.  Take a look at current precipitation conditions below.

The northeast is getting dumped on!!!  Montana and Idaho are getting snow too!  However, I am sitting at the laundry mat trying to decide if its worth going up to Mt Bachelor since it is raining here in Oregon.  Rain sucks since it is so close to what I want yet it actually creates the most awful conditions.  I bet that Baker, Schwietzer, and Whitefish resort are getting snow, as well as every ski area in the northeast.  Hopefully that snow will come to Oregon soon because this last week or two has been the worst of the year.

Snowiest Place on Earth

USA has some of the best Skiing in the world.

Chile and Argentina have huge mountains way bigger than our Rockies, but their ski areas are a little too close to the equator to produce cold winter months, and depend too much on elevation than on legitimate snow fall.  Valle Nevado, and Portillo (both in Chile) are the snowiest resorts in South America averaging a modest 300 inches per year.

The Alps are where mountaineering and skiing historically developed, so it is easy to associate these rigid European peaks with amazing skiing.  However, because of their West-East Orientation, weather flows through the mountains smoother and does not get slammed by storms the way America's North-South Orientated mountains do.  Chamonix, France, is one of the world's most extreme ski resorts, but it only averages a respectable 375 inches per year (about the same as Mt Bachelor, Oregon).

Central Asia has the world's biggest mountains, and at higher latitudes some amazing snow..  So I assume.  However, I don't really know since the region is not developed enough to have any real ski hills.  I would encourage hard core back country skiers to explore the mountains of China, Mongolia, Takikistan, Kyrgystan, Kazahkstan...  I bet there are many unskied faces that are among the most extreme in the world.

Japan is the only place in the world with Skiing comparable to that of Western USA and Canada.  Rasutsu, and Nagano are among a handful of Japanese ski hills averaging over 400 inches per year.

North America's Rocky Mountains receive some of the world's lightest snow.  This is because the desert regions in between the Cascades and the Rockies (Nevada, Eastern Oregon) suck up much of the moisture, and when the storms reach the Rockies the snow comes down as moisture free powder.  Skiing in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado are defined by the fact that you are skiing the "cold smoke."  A term used to describe snow so light it will feel like you're flying (also a term used to name a delicious scottish ale brewed in Missoula, Montana).  Alta, Snowbird, Jackson Hole, Grand Targhee, and Solitude receive around 500 inches per year!!

North America's Coastal ranges don't get snow as light as the Rockies do, but damn do they get a lot of snow.  The Sierras, Cascades, and Alaskan ranges get slammed consistently by pacific storms.  Sugar Bowl and Squaw Valley average around 450 inches per year, while Alyeska, Alaska receives about 600 inches per year!!!

The Ultimate winner of Snowiest place on Earth goes to Mt Baker.  A ski area about 1 hour east of Bellingham, Washington.  It Averages 650 inches per year!  The 1998-1999 ski season at Baker reported 1,140 inches of total snowfall!!!  A world record!  The ski area is not even on Mt Baker itself, but on an arm of Bakers neighbouring peak, Mt Shuksan.  The max elevation of the resort is only 5,000 feet.  The picture below is from a ski trip a made out to Baker in April 2010.

If you plan on skiing Baker there are a few things to keep in mind.  First off, it is a wet place.  It is not uncommon for it to be raining!  Secondly, you will have to hike (don't forget your beeper and shovel) to reach the fun stuff.

Cmon La Nina

I could have gone skiing today.  But mt Bachelor has not had a significant snowfall in over a week and I have zero money until Wednesday. Right now as I type this the Midwest and even the South is getting heaps of snow!  That's depressing.  Here is the current snow cover for USA as of Jan 9.  You can see that the Oregon Cascades seem to be struggling, though it has been a good year up until a week ago.

The Map is thanks to weather.com

 

Best State for Skiing

The map of the previous post would have one think that Wiscounsin is a better 'Ski State' than Colorado.  This cannot be true (because I say so).  My new criteria to determine the 'best state for skiing' could be total amount of inbounds verticle feet (all ski areas added together).  This will give states with few resorts but big mountains (like wyoming) a more accurate representation.  I could also do inbounds skiable acres per state.  However, this data will take forever to collect because I think I will have to find vertical feet for every single ski area in USA and add them together to determine the number for each state.  The result would certainly show the West as the place to be... I think Colorado or California would be #1.  Sometime I'll get around to making the map.

For now we will look at a map that shows each state's highest elevation.  This is inspired by coming across the map below that I came across on wikipedia.  It shows the highest elevation of each country in meters.  Asia is the only place with 8,000 meter peaks.  Only the America's and Asia have 6,000 Meter Peaks.

Now for my version.  It is the same idea only we will look at USA.  Sorry again for using "paint".  Pretty lame I know.

Now this is more like it.  The west clearly has the high mountains of USA.  Though the map from my previous post had places like Michigan and Wisconsin appear to be good places for skiing, this map shows that the bigger ski areas must be in the West, though the northeast has more ski areas.  Its strange that only Texas and Oregon have the highest peak between 7500 and 12500 feet. All other states lie below or above this range!  Alaska, California, Washington, and Colorado are the only states with 14,000 foot peaks.

Skiing Geography (USA)

The previous post demonstrated that 'climate/terrain' and 'economy' were the most influential in determining the popularity of skiing from country to country.  If we focus within the USA the 'economics' can be dropped as a factor since the range of wealth within USA is practically nothing compared to the range of a global scale.. right?  So, perhaps by looking at the dispersion of Ski areas in America we will see 'climate/terrain' emerge as the priciple influence.

This map surprises me.  At first I wonder if the data is correct, but after reviewing different websites it appears to be fairly accurate.  Someone let me know if the data is incorrect for certain states.  I come from the northwest and know that the figures for Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon are correct.  The biggest surprises for me come from the northeast/midwest.  I really would have thought that the West would have had many more ski areas.  New York, Michigan, and Wicounsin lead the nation!!! That is a surprise.  I guess that the number of ski areas is more dependant on demographics and economics than I thought.  Once again, 'climate/terrain' isn't as influential as I would have thought.

Apparently proximity to population centers is crucial.. and since population centers represent the wealth needed to make ski areas available, it can said that even within USA 'climate/terrain' does not play as important role as one would think, though its influence is probably stronger at a national level than at a global one.

Sorry about the map made on "paint."  If I had some GIS program (and knew how to use it well) I could have produced a better map.  I also apologize to alaska for not giving you credit for your 10 Ski areas.

Skiing Geography

Where is Skiing most Popular?  What factors determine where skiing develops?

The map below (found on wikipedia) shows us where the world's ski areas are concentrated.  Japan, North America, and Western Europe appear to boast 90% of the world's ski resorts.  USA is #1 in total ski areas, but the European Alps appear to have the most per capita.  Austria has around 8 million people and several hundred ski areas!!!  The map proves that there are three very important factors in determining where skiing can develop as a form of recreation.  First off, there must be the right climate (and to a lesser degree the right terrain).  Though the UK has a wealthy population base, it cannot compete with the poorer countries of Chile and Argentina as it simply does not have as many snowy slopes as the southern Andes.  Secondly, a region with a wealthy population base will have the demand to create ski areas.  For this reason, places like Tajikistan (which gets plenty of snow and even has several 20,000 foot peaks!) have very few ski areas.  In fact, Tajikistan has fewer ski areas than the UK (I really didn't think anywhere in the UK got enough snow for skiing).

Skiing is an interesting sport to look at, because its distribution has answers that can be instantly seen on a map.  Thats what makes thematic maps so interesting..  Simply by looking at the map above and having basic knowledge of world geography, one can determine not just where ski areas are concentrated, but also why they are there.


*The single ski area in Bolivia no longer exists because the glacier it used to be found on is nearly completed melted.