The Powder Chaser's Ratio

This is a silly stat for the east. In bounds acres is a joke for most areas that claim "boundary to boundary" and this stat does not include out of bound acres, where the snow stays untracked much longer. Instead of "uphill capacity", I would suggest a better metric would be "time lifts are at capacity". The best lift on a powder day is the lift without a line, regardless of its capacity.
 
Using the ratio too specifically seems crazy, but you can certainly learn from it.

Like in the comparison between Gore and Stratton, the ratio may be off, but there is some truth there too.

You obviously have to factor in that Stratton probably averages 80-100 inches more snow than Gore.

Like I said, the ratio is not for predicting powder. It helps you guess at your your odds of getting some extended untracked, if you are there on the right day.
 
For Smuggs, it has 1000 acres but I didn't find a number for uphill capacity. Snowmaking coverage is 62%, which is a good stat if fresh powder is of interest.

Like Smuggs, no number readily available for uphill capacity for Saddleback. I keep hearing that icy conditions are rare there.

Sugarloaf snowmaking coverage is 85%. Sunday River is around 60%. But my sense is that Sugarloaf and Saddleback get more powder storms, while SR gets icy more often.

Sugarloaf, ME: 1230 acres, 21810 -> 0.056
Sunday River, ME: 870 acres, 30000 -> 0.029
 
Harvey said:
Like I said, the ratio is not for predicting powder. It helps you guess at your your odds of getting some extended untracked, if you are there on the right day.
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Which is all we can hope for most of the time... of course it’s also a rough predictor of how crowded the trails are gonna be too.
 
Ripitz said:
Do you look for the highest density if you are searching for boilerplate?
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Haha! My impression is that you don't have to wait long for northeast weather to deliver boilerplate. Does it really require lots of skiers/boarders? :)

There was a day several years ago I went out first thing in the morning for "washboard" in April at Alta. That's when it was warm the afternoon before, as in 45+ degrees at the base, then groomed out before a hard freeze overnight. But it was worth it. I got first tracks on Rock 'N Roll with 4-5 inches of fresh powder on top of the groomed. It had been closed the day before for ski patrol to work on the Castle areas. Got there just as ski patrol was taking down the rope.

I had company that morning for the first run on Rock 'N Roll. Naomi Wain was over 90 that season. She had been at Collins at 9:00am in order to get as close to first chair as possible per usual. I came across her on my first run down from the top of Sugarloaf. Riding up Sugarloaf she pointed at Devil's Castle and said she remembered a day when she hiked and skied it 5 times. I had to ask how old she was then. She didn't learn to ski until her 40s. She said 50's at first, but then said maybe 60s. Then said "but that's where the good snow was."

That day was when you had to take the cut-off trail to get to the Supreme triple. We went the next run. I had to leave after one run to meet up with friends but I'm sure Naomi stayed over there for the rest of the morning.
 
^^That's one of the great things about skiing. You have certain memories that will never leave you.
 
I don't like "golden" I removed it.

Maybe's it's just Powder Ratio. Uphill Capacity / Acres right?

It's not a Powder Quotient or Powder Potential, which would somehow have to account for total snowfall.

(UC/AC x Annual Snowfall) / 100

?
 
If the whole region got the same amount of snow from a particular storm, it would help decide which resort was likely to get tracked out less quickly. Since we ski the east where skier-density can reach such crazy levels, it is still a helpful metric
 
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