What's the Best Weather for Skiing? We Polled Skiers to Find Out

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means—we’re back with the results of another POWDER Weekly Poll, thanks to the Department of Polls and Skier Opinion.

The subject of this week's debate is the weather. Not just any weather, though; we’re talking about ski weather. Our goal? Find the best atmospheric conditions for skiing. There’s an obvious-seeming answer to this question, but our results show some variability. Those bluebird powder days, it turns out, have some competition.

Keep reading to see the results of our very scientific (not really) query. Plus, some thoughts on the results.

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POWDER Weekly Poll Results

Poll Highlights

• Total Votes: 868
• Most Popular Choice: Bluebird powder day (349 votes, 40% of voters)
• Least Popular Choice: Sunny and warm temps, corn snow (48 votes, 6% of voters)

Poll Observations

• It should surprise no one that bluebird powder days came out on top. These are, without a doubt, the holy grail of skiing. They inspire essays, poetry, movies, and photography. All of us, as skiers, live for the moment that the sky opens after a massive storm. Bluebird days aren’t without their drawbacks, though. Usually, when it’s good, everyone else knows, too, jamming up the parking lots and lift lines with crowds of other skiers.
• That brings us to our runner-up: the less elusive storm day. Yes, the visibility might suck, and your schnoz could turn into an icicle, but when the weather’s rough, the masses don’t last as long. That means more powder to go around, which, we think, was the reasoning behind those who voted for this category.
• Third but first in our hearts was the “who cares” crowd. Yes, the weather plays a big role in skiing, but there’ssomething to be said for casting all this meteorology business to the wind. We don’t have to be chained to our phones, frantically refreshing the National Weather Service web page. Instead, we can ignore the forecast, get in our cars, drive to the mountain, and go skiing, just like we were planning on doing anyway. Lowered expectations make those sneaky little pockets in the trees that much better. Or, at least, that’s how this zen-like thinking goes. If you need us, we’ll be trying to figure out what “orographic lift” means.
• The spring day category got shafted! We have a hypothesis as to why, though. This week, as all you skiers know, much of the West has been baking under a dastardly heat dome—the kind that brings May conditions at a time when, by our estimations, we should be skiing bottomless powder. Our thinking goes that despite the joy of spring days, slush and sun are the last things any skier wants to think about right now. Corn is the perfect way to send off winter. It’s less encouraging when it arrives in March.

What We Could’ve Done Better 

• This was a smooth poll, yes, but not a high turnout one. Interest in skiing tends to wane around this time, so maybe that’s part of it. The aforementioned heat dome might be too. To that, we say: the ski season is far from over! For all we know, April will bring a parade of multi-foot storms, so leave those golf clubs alone. 

About the POWDER Weekly Poll 

We launch our weekly polls at 3 p.m. Eastern Time every Monday. They remain open until 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time the following Friday, with the results dropping on Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern Time. You can participate and see the results right here on our website or by visiting our Instagram page.

While you’re at it, drop us a line or leave an Instagram comment if there’s a poll you’d like to see next. Skiers have plenty of opinions and preferences, and we want to know which ones might land on top of the heap.