Rocky Mountains

Snow in the Rocky Mountains

The Rockies stretch about 4,800 km from New Mexico to northern British Columbia. The ski resorts cluster in a few places: the high Colorado Rockies, where Vail, Breckenridge, Aspen Snowmass, Beaver Creek, Steamboat and Telluride sit at some of the highest elevations of any resorts in the world; the Wasatch Range above Salt Lake City, with Alta, Snowbird, Park City and Deer Valley; the northern Rockies of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho with Jackson Hole, Big Sky and Sun Valley; Taos in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico; and the Canadian Rockies of Banff National Park with Lake Louise and Sunshine Village, and Fernie further south.

Rocky Mountain snow is dry and light because the storms have crossed the whole width of the continent’s western ranges before they arrive, and because the air is cold and the resorts high. In our record the Rockies resorts average 11 to 12 snowy days at mid-mountain from December to March, and the Tetons and Big Sky’s Madison Range run to 13 to 15 in late winter.

When it snows

Colorado and Utah resorts open in mid to late November and close in April; the Canadian Rockies run from November into May thanks to their northern latitude and the Banff resorts’ high bases. Colorado’s snow builds steadily through the season and often peaks in March; the Wasatch can get very large falls when storms cross the Great Salt Lake.