if not here, where would you spend this winter?

warming trend in the pacific + opportunity for adventure = me getting out of the NW for a winter.
My question to you: Wyoming, Utah or Alaska?

Typically El Nino years means little snow in the Cascades -- because the storm tracks are shifted to the south and the Sierra's get hammered with all the snow that would normally blanket the PNW.

2005 was the most recent El Nino event -- the PNW snow pack was sketchy -- California had lots.

You can look at historical snow pack data here:

www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/snotel/

Squaw or Telluride

Well... 2005 I headed to the sunny-blue skies of Park City and Deer Valley.  Awesome!   Went out for a horse-slay ride at night for a dinner at the mid-mountain restaurant.  Just about froze to death!  So cold at night.   I ran into a ski patrol guy from Washington!   Turns out that plenty of Washington ski workers also migrated to Utah that year!

We better stock up on the p-tex for the upcoming rock skiing.

What I like about Utah is the fairly short plane ride and that ski areas are within 40 minutes of the airport.    ...and consistently good snow!

While mostly everyone went south I went north and I must say I was not dissapointed
I love Kicking Horse

I know everyone here is still suffering from memories of the bad ski season in 2005 but is an el nino really a guaranteed bad ski year in this part of country?