Stunning Before and After Video Shows How Little Snow Fell In Utah This Winter
By now, skiers are well aware that, for much of the West, this season fell far short of expectations. Ski resorts are closing early, the weather’s been too warm, and corn snow—not powder—is the main course on offer.
But how does this winter, really, compare to previous seasons? Were we skiing powder this time of year in the past?
Professional skier and former U.S. Senate candidate, Caroline Gleich, just provided some context. The short answer, as proved in her video, is yes, we most likely were skiing powder this time in previous years.
See it below.
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First off, a caveat: Gleich chose to use footage from 2023.
That winter, Utah saw record snowfall. Deer Valley, where her videos were filmed, hit 606 inches of snow on April 20, 2023 (this year, the resort received 144 inches).
In Little Cottonwood Canyon—Utah’s powder hotspot—Alta Ski Area saw a staggering 903 inches.
You don’t need to be a scientist to know that 900-plus inches isn’t normal. Even if this season were average, it wouldn’t have compared to the absurd powder bonanza of the 2022-23 winter.
Gleich also pointed out in the caption to her post that “One bad year doesn’t prove anything.”
Still, she continued, “the records keep falling: highest ever, lowest ever, warmest winter in 150 years, and they keep falling faster. That’s not a coincidence.”
To her point, look at the heat wave that baked mountain snowpacks across the West in March, expediting the end of the 2025-26 season at some resorts.
World Weather Attribution, an organization that studies the role climate change plays in extreme weather patterns, said those record-shattering temperatures would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change.
The Scientific American also recently reported that while snowiest winters remain as snowy as they were in the past, “the lean [snow] years are both more frequent and more lean than they used to be.”
None of that’s particularly great news for skiers.
But this month, there are still some opportunities to hit the slopes. In Utah, Alta Ski Area, Snowbird, Brian Head, Brighton, and Solitude remain open. Our advice? Go find some sun and slush. The summer could be long and hot.
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