Overview

Utah and Colorado have a healthy rivalry when it comes to skiing. Utah skiers like to thumb their noses at Colorado when it comes to snow. Colorado skiers like to retort back that they have more ski areas and a better nightlife.

The reality is that Alta is snowier than any observing site or ski area in Colorado, but how much snowier? Are there months when Colorado might get more snow?

After completing this learning activity, you should be able to summarize snowfall statistics for the snowiest locations in Utah and Colorado and describe for your friends in that mountainous state to the east why Alta is King.

Instructions

Utilize the information located in the Scenario and Key Concepts to answer the questions located in this activity. You may refer to your textbook and notes to help you work through the assigned questions if desired. You will have two attempts to complete this activity. The highest grade will automatically be recorded. Once you have submitted your activity for a second time, you will be able to see the correct answers. Discuss with your instructor if you have questions about your answers or feedback.

Activity is due Sunday, by 11:59 p.m. MT

Submission and Assessment Guidelines

You will complete the quiz associated with this scenario within Canvas. For help on how to take a quiz in Canvas, review How do I take a quiz.
This learning activity is worth 5 points toward your final grade.

Scenario

You're in a bar in Aspen, Colorado for après ski. A couple dressed in expensive fur is arguing that Colorado must get more snow than Utah because Colorado has more ski areas and skier visits per year.

Not to take this lightly, you respond, "Then why is Alta the birthplace of deep powder skiing?"

They continue to disagree, so you place a modest wager with the couple and decide to turn to the data. Fortunately, you've taken ATMOS 1000: Secrets of the Greatest Snow on Earth and remember a learning activity in which your professor provided a table of snowfall data for sites in Utah and Colorado that summarizes exactly what you need.

Key Concepts

Long-term snowfall observations are hard to come by, but there are some mountain sites in Utah and Colorado that have collected them over a long enough period for comparison. Ideally, these data records would have the same periods (e.g., 1981–2010), but they don't, but the small adjustments this might require aren't all that important for your argument because the differences between sites are fairly large.

This table summarizes the monthly, annual (July–June), and seasonal (November–April) snowfall at Alta, the snowiest observing site in Utah, and Wolf Creek Pass, Gothic, and Berthoud Pass, geographically diverse sites that rate as the snowiest long-term observing sites in Colorado.

Table of monthly, annual (July-June), and seasonal (November-April) snowfall at Alta, Wolf Creek Pass, Gothic, and Berthoud Pass. Alta is in Utah, whereas the other sites are in Colorado.

As illustrated in Figure 1, Wolf Creek Pass is in the San Juan Mountains, Gothic in the Elk Mountains northwest of Crested Butte, and Berthoud Pass just south of Winter Park in the I-70 mountains.

Locations of Wolf Creek Pass, Gothic, and Berthoud Pass overlaid on a map of average annual snowfall Figure 1. Average annual snowfall in Colorado. From Steenburgh (2014).

Citations

Images:

Key Concepts

- Mean Monthly, Annual (July–June), and Seasonal (November–April) Snowfall (Inches)
  - Citation: Steenburgh, J. Mean Monthly, Annual (July–June), and Seasonal (November–April) Snowfall (Inches)
- Figure 1. Average annual snowfall in Colorado.
  - Citation: Steenburgh, J. (2014). Secrets of the greatest snow on earth: Weather, climate change, and finding deep powder in Utah’s Wasatch mountains and around the world. Utah State University Press.