Storm delivers 10 inches of fresh snow
The 2011-12 ski season thus far has not matched the past couple of years for snow conditions. Considering the current La Nina was supposed to steer snowfall away from the Southwest, Ski Santa Fe in New Mexico makes a surprising destination for the season's first “Powder Chase of the Week.” According the ski area’s Tuesday snow report, Ski Santa Fe picked up a total of 10 inches from the storm that moved on to create blizzard conditions in the Plains states. More snow is expected later in the week. While many U.S. resorts have much less than half of their terrain open, Ski Santa Fe was able to open 95 percent of its 660 skiable acres on Tuesday.
La Nina, lower water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, often can translate into huge snowfalls for the Pacific Northwest and drought for the Southwest. This early-season winter storm track, however, has panned out exactly the opposite of the conventional forecasting. Amid a bevy of disappointing starts, resorts in Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado have been among the few U.S. ski areas with solid early-season snow.
With an average annual snowfall of 225 inches, Ski Santa Fe generally receives much less snow than a place such as Utah’s Park City Mountain Resort that averages 370 inches a year. So far this season however, Ski Santa Fe has totaled 66 inches, compared to just 27 inches at Park City.
Ski Santa Fe is located 16 miles northeast of the city of Santa Fe, N.M. The resort benefits from a rather high altitude with the summit at an elevation of 12,075 feet.
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