Ideally, we’d all be able to ski/snowboard all day, but there are many days when we can only spend a few hours on the hill. So what’s the best time to be on the mountain?
It’s common knowledge that the best time to be on the hill is in the morning right? Not always! It’s definitely true on powder days or days with fresh snow, but that’s not every day.
Up until 2 days after a powder day, the snow stays really nice, so you’ll want to get there in the early morning, but what about on days when there hasn’t been recent fresh snow?
That depends on temperature and weather
The temperature and sun change how hard or soft the snow is. This means that you’ll want to time your few hours on the mountain to be when the snow isn’t too hard or too soft.
Here’s a very simplified guide to how the snow behaves:
Cold temperatures
When the weather is cold and there’s no fresh snow in the last 2 days, the ground turns really hard. If you turn up really early in the morning, you may end up with really hard snow that’s harder to grip your edge into, as well as hard icy snow that’s unforgiving on crashes and slams.
Your best bet here is the afternoon. The temperature typically warms up a little at noon and hopefully there’s some sun which will help to soften the snow.
Warm temperatures
So, you’d assume that warm temperatures mean turning up early is good right? Not necessarily.
Usually, turning up in the early morning is a good idea on warm days, as you can get the snow before it becomes too soft, but there’s one huge exception to this rule.
The exception:
If the temperature is warm during the day, but drops below 0 degrees celsius at night, don’t turn up to the hill at 9 am.
Why not? Because the ground melts to slush during the day and freezes overnight. This means at 9 am the snow is solid hard ice. This is especially common during Spring.
I recommend turning up at about 10:30-11am ish on these days. You typically have about 2-3 hours from this time onward where the snow stays at a nice middle ground between slush and ice.
Happy riding! I hope you get lots of fresh snow so you never have to use this advice 😉
– Jed