Mammoth Mountain in California which saw record snowfall in January has finally seen its reported upper slope snow depth drop after staying static at 889cm for several months.
The mammoth Mammoth stat was reached in late January after the American resort broke its all time January, then it's all time any-month, snowfall stat only three weeks in to 2017.
As it continued to snow heavily through February and March with several more metres of snowfall reported, it seemed certain that Mammoth would pass through the 9 metres/30 feet snowfall total quite quickly but the number, which a resort spokesman confirmed was correct, remained static until this week, when it has dropped to 862cm (28.3 feet) after 8 days without snowfall.
The resort's lower slope depth is 470cm and Mammoth plans to stay open to at least July 4th.
Squaw Valley, also in California and also aiming to stay open to US Independence Day, has the second deepest base in the world at present at 342 – 635cm.
In Europe Gstaad currently has the deepest base on the continent at 4.3m.
Summer skiing in the US is also looking good at Timberline in Oregon this year with a 4.5m (15 foot) base.
It is several years since any leading ski resort in the world reported an 8m base and a 9m base would have been unprecedented in modern times. Some of the Norwegian glacier areas to build up deep snow bases (One reported a 10m base several years ago) before opening for summer skiing but such big numbers are rare at conventional ski areas.
