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Vail breaks its single-season snow record

Lauren Glendenning
lglendenning@vaildaily.com
Vail, CO Colorado

VAIL, Colorado – Maybe it was luck, or maybe it was La Nina, but something happened this season that caused Vail Mountain to break its all-time snow record.

Vail Mountain reported another 9 inches of new snowfall on Good Friday, bringing the season total to 511 inches.

The last time Vail Mountain recorded even close to that much snow was during the 1977-78 season, when the resort had 505 inches.



With a winter storm warning in effect today through Monday morning, Vail could add another 10 to 20 inches of snow by Sunday night, according to the National Weather Service, which calls for significant accumulations above 9,000 feet.

Derek Reijmer, a skier who moved to Vail for the season in December, feels like the luckiest guy in the world because of this season’s snow.

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“I think timing was on my side,” Reijmer said. “The season I’m fortunate enough to come out here is the season that this mountain sees more snow than it ever has in its entire history. … I just can’t even put it into words.”

Reijmer quickly realized that the 15-year-old Volkl racing skis he brought with him from the Midwest weren’t going to cut it at Vail this year. He bought some fat skis in mid-January and skied the majority of his 1 million-plus vertical feet on them in “conditions like I’ve never seen before.”

And while many Vail locals can remember bigger storms in seasons like 2007-08 and 2008-09, this season the snow was just consistent from before Vail Mountain opened to throughout the day it closes.

This is one of Vail’s latest closing days in history, too, which caused resort officials to wonder early in the season if the snow would last.

But it more than lasted, and this will now be the season that people talk about for years.

“It was a great year,” Vail Mountain Chief Operating Officer Chris Jarnot said. “It’s just been a remarkable year.”

Community Editor Lauren Glendenning can be reached at 970-748-2983 or lglendenning@vaildaily.com.


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