Better weather with hardpack snow conditions on the slopes this weekend

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The X-Games are underway and snow is on the way - for some - this weekend on the slopes.

The games have been held in Aspen since 2002 and feature 5 skiing and snowboarding competitions.

Nine Coloradans will be among the competitors. Among the changes this year, the games are debuting an AI judge for the first time. That'll be on the snowboard superpipe event. Judges will still have the final say.

KOAA

Weather-wise, skies will remain cloudy Friday at Buttermilk resort within the Aspen-Snowmass group with highs right around freezing. Similar temperatures will follow on the final day of the games Saturday. A storm system will bring a couple inches of snow during the day…nothing of note. A few remnant flurries will fall Sunday morning.

Now maybe you're not planning on any 360s this weekend, but if the X-Games have you in the mood to hit the slopes, let's talk about snowpack. It's been dry for a couple of weeks, so base depths are down slightly. Copper Mountain still leads the state at 56 inches. Monarch has 46 inches on the slopes. With the lack of new snow, expect rougher snowpack conditions than usual for late January. I wouldn’t call it dust on crust, but you’ll definitely encounter a stale base. Nonetheless – wind chills won’t be in the negatives so it’ll be much better than last weekend!

Some snow is on the way this weekend for peaks in northern Colorado. Light snow will develop Friday afternoon with a system tracking generally to the north of the state. Light snow continues Saturday… again favoring the northern tier. Expect winter driving conditions but only in the extreme northern tier (e.g. places like Steamboat).

It will snow most of the day north of I-70. Saturday afternoon to early Sunday morning, snow will briefly expand to cover the I-70 resorts and Aspen. That’s when we could get a couple inches at the majority of the resorts. By afternoon, those showers end and skies will clear back out.

The notable totals will be places like Winter Park and Steamboat – the latter could get 8-12” out of this system. So, those are the spots that look like the biggest winners this weekend to me for new snow.

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