if not here, where would you spend this winter?

is an el nino really a guaranteed bad ski year in this part of country?

For the sake my tax dollars (now and in the future) invested in the 2010 Olympics, I certainly hope not! (But I remember "skiing" W/B in Feb/05 and it wasn't pretty :'()

I feel like this has been posted before, but Amar has a good analysis of the ENSO (El Niño/La Niña condition) and its correlation with snowfall on his website.  Basically, El Niño is not correlated with disastrous ski years in the PNW.  That has to do with drought, which looks to be independent of ENSO.  So have faith my brothers and sisters.  It may not be so bad.

That being said, even though this summer has provided some splitter weather for climbing and backpacking, I've (literally) been dreaming about skiing lately and all the glaciers are down to blue ice, so it's feeling pretty grim.  C'mon winter!

If the snowpack is like it was in 2005, I'll do what I did in 2005 -- go 1000' higher.

for example ...

Tim is right.

Low altitude will be bad, high altitude could get pounded.

I remember multiple powder days in the 32-35 degree range durring the last El Nino.

Fatter more rockered skis will make a huge difference if this happens again. Snowboards will dominate.

Snoqualmie Pass is going to have a tough season.

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?

The problem in '05 was that the jet stream split, part going North of the PNW and part passing to the South.   This left us high and dry... no snow.  And that split jet stream hung around for weeks.... Arrrrrggggg!  I believe that there was a high pressure system that sat on us and wouldn't go away.  I don't know if the fork-tail jet stream had anything to do with El Niño. 

I seem to remember that the only bonus that year was the A6-Intruder Jet that came flying up over the south ridge at Crystal and dipped down into the valley... giving us a close up flyby show.