Podcast appearances and mentions of joel gratz

Montrose Regional Airport is more than just a gateway—it’s a major economic engine for the region. A new report from the Colorado Department of Aviation highlights its growing impact, from job creation to increased tourism and business activity. We’ll break down the numbers and explore how recent expansions are shaping the airport’s future. Then, we shift gears to the mountains with meteorologist and OpenSnow founder Joel Gratz. If you’ve ever chased the perfect powder day, chances are you’ve seen his forecasts. We’ll talk about how he built OpenSnow, the science behind precision ski predictions, and what changing weather patterns mean for the future of skiing.Support the show: https://www.montrosepress.com/site/forms/subscription_services/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

OpenSnow founder & meteorologist, Joel Gratz, is back to talk about advancements in weather forecasting and how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing weather models — particularly in mountain environments. We also discuss the challenges of making seasonal forecasts; Joel offers some tips for planning ski trips; tips for storm chasing and skiing in Japan; and more.RELATED LINKS:Blister Rec. Shop: Gear WestBLISTER+ Get Yourself CoveredBlister Summit 2025Get Our Winter Buyer's GuideBlister Pod ep 268: Joel GratzBlister Pod ep 237: Joel GratzTOPICS & TIMES:Skiing with Kids (5:00)AI & Weather Forecasting (8:45)Using Forecasting for Backcountry Skiing (18:33)Predictions for This Winter? (21:29)Planning Ski Trips: Tips and Strategies (25:39)Exploring Open Snow Features (28:33)Tips for Storm Chasing & Skiing in Japan (35:52)Future of Meteorology & Weather Forecasting (47:13)CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTSBlister CinematicCRAFTEDBikes & Big IdeasGEAR:30 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this bonus episode we hit on one of my favorite subjects – mountain weather.  Nothing worse than planning a trip, getting somewhere, and getting weathered out – either rain, too little snow or even too much snow can affect your day. Weather has a lot to do with my own decision-making process of where to ski. Our guest is Joel Gratz, Founder and CEO of OpenSnow.  Joel really (really) likes three things: Weather, snow, and skiing. I don't know about the skiing but he really knows weather and snow. Listen to this fun and informative conversation we had with Joel. Contact Joel www.opensnow.com --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/john--morgan/message

In this episode, we start the hour by chatting with Joel Gratz, head meteorologist and founder of OpenSnow. Joel tells us why he started OpenSnow and how it can help streamline your weather analysis process to help lead you to your deepest days in the resort or favorite backcountry location. I then sit down with William Sherman of Safeback. Will is originally from Colorado, but now lives in Norway where he works for Safeback. For the last 6 years, Safeback has been developing a product to help extend the avalanche survival curve for victims buried under the snow who have a patent airway. Will explains the thorough independent research that backs the efficacy of the Safeback SBX product, we discuss how it works and how it is integrated into backpacks and vests. He is transparent about the limitations of the system and recognizes that new technology simply can't take the place of conservative decision-making in an uncertain backcountry environment. We hope you enjoy the episode! Music by Ketsa https://www.safeback.no/articles/product-testing/eurac-research-conduct-independent-medical-trial-of-safeback-sbx Support for this episode is provided by: Wyssen Avalanche Control Gordini USA OpenSnow Use code: avalanchepodcast at www.opensnow.com to receive 30% off an all access year subscription to OpenSnow.

For those of you not in the know, Joel Gratz is the CEO and founder at OpenSnow, a company well-known in the mountains for their spot-on weather forecasting for both snow in the winter and hiking in the summer. He is the Prognosticator of Powder, if you will. Joel's forecasting is an integral part of our weekly planning, especially in the winter, when how much and where the powder is going to fall dictates the timing of everything else around it. Which is why we are in full superfan mode for this episode, as Joel talks all about his journey in the founding of his business and the integral elements that made it the success it is today. Are you in the Joel Gratz fan club? We've been members since 2007. Here's to an amazing 2023-24 winter season!

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Sept. 19. It dropped for free subscribers on Sept. 26. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoChris Sorensen, Vice President and General Manager of Keystone, ColoradoRecorded onSeptember 11, 2023About KeystoneClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Vail ResortsLocated in: Keystone, ColoradoYear founded: 1970Pass affiliations:* Epic Pass: unlimited access* Epic Local Pass: unlimited access* Summit Value Pass: unlimited access* Keystone Plus Pass: unlimited access with holiday blackouts* Tahoe Local: five days combined with Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Park City* Epic Day Pass: access with All Resorts and 32-resorts tiersClosest neighboring ski areas: Arapahoe Basin (:08), Frisco (:19), Loveland (22 minutes), Breckenridge (:25), Copper (:25), Vail (:44), Beaver Creek (:53), Ski Cooper (:56) – travel times vary considerably given traffic, weather, and time of year.Base elevation: 9,280 feetSummit elevation: 12,408 feet at the top of Keystone Peak; highest lift-served point is 12,282 feet at the top of Bergman Bowl ExpressVertical drop: 3,002 feet lift-served; 3,128 feet hike-toSkiable Acres: 3,149 acresAverage annual snowfall: 235 inchesTrail count: 130 (49% most difficult, 39% more difficult, 12% easiest)Lift count: 20 (1 eight-passenger gondola, 1 six-passenger gondola, 4 high-speed six-packs, 3 high-speed quads, 1 fixed-grip quad, 1 triple, 2 doubles, 7 carpets)Why I interviewed himKeystone arrived in 1970, a star member of the last great wave of western ski resort development, just before Snowbird (1971), Northstar (1972), Telluride (1972), and Big Sky (1973). It landed in a crowded Summit County, just down the road from Arapahoe Basin (1946) and five miles overland from Breckenridge (1961). Copper Mountain came online two years later. Loveland (1937) stood at the gateway to Summit County, looming above what would become the Eisenhower Tunnel in 1973. Just west sat Ski Cooper (1942), the mighty and rapidly expanding Vail Mountain (1962), and the patch of wilderness that would morph into Beaver Creek within a decade. Today, the density of ski areas along Colorado's I-70 corridor is astonishing:Despite this geographic proximity, you could not find more distinct ski experiences were you to search across continents. This is true everywhere ski areas bunch, from northern Vermont to Michigan's Upper Peninsula to the Wasatch. Ski areas, like people, hack their identities out of the raw material available to them, and just as siblings growing up in the same household can emerge as wildly different entities, so too can mountains that sit side-by-side-by-side.Keystone, lacking the gnar, was never going to be Jackson or Palisades, fierce and frothing. Sprung from wilderness, it could never replicate Breck's mining-town patina. Its high alpine could not summon the drama of A-Basin's East Wall or the expanse of Vail's Back Bowls.But Keystone made its way. It would be Summit County's family mountain, its night-ski mountain, and, eventually, one of its first-to-open-each-ski-season mountains. This is the headline, and this is how everyone thinks of the place. But over the decades, Keystone has quietly built out one of Colorado's most comprehensive ski experiences, an almost perfect front-to-back progression from gentle to damn. Like Heavenly or Park City, Keystone wears its steeps modestly, like your quiet neighbor with a Corvette hidden beneath tarps in the polebarn. All you notice is the Camry parked in the driveway. But there are layers here. Keep looking, and you will find them.What we talked aboutHopeful for that traditional October opening; why Keystone is Vail's early-season operator in Colorado; why the mountain closes in early April; breaking down the Bergman Bowl expansion and the six-pack that will service it; the eternal tension of opening hike-to terrain to lift service; building more room to roam, rather than more people to roam it; the art of environmentally conscious glading; new lift-served  terrain in Erickson Bowl; turning data into infrastructure; why the Bergman sixer won't have bubbles; why Bergman won't access The Windows terrain; the clever scheme behind renaming the Bergman Bowl expansion trails; building a new trailmap with Rad Smith; where skiers will be able to get a copy of the new paper trailmap; comparing the Peru upgrade to the Bergman lift project; the construction mistake that delayed the Bergman expansion by a full year; the possibility of lifts in Independence, North, and South Bowls; falling in love with skiing Colorado, then moving to Michigan; why Vail bought a bunch of Midwest bumps; when you get to lead the resort where you started bumping lifts; what makes Keystone stand out even though it sits within one of the densest concentrations of large ski areas in North America; thoughts on long-term lift upgrades, and where we could see six-packs; whether the Argentine lift could ever return in some form; the potential for a Ski Tip lift; where Keystone could expand next; whether a Windows lift is in play; North American Bowl; when we could see an updated Keystone masterplan; why Keystone gets less snow than its neighbors; assessing Epic Pass access; and night skiing.   Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewKeystone is opening one of three large lift-served ski expansions in Colorado this winter: the 500-plus-acre Bergman Bowl, served by a high-speed six-pack (the other two are Hero's on Aspen Mountain and Mahogany Ridge at Steamboat). While this pod has occupied the trailmap as hike-to terrain for years, more people will likely ski it before noon on a typical Monday than once slogged up the ridgeline in an entire winter. Keystone has renamed and somewhat re-sculpted the trails in honor of the occasion, inviting the masses onto a blue-square oasis at the top of Summit County.Which is always a good excuse for a podcast. But… this terrain was supposed to open in 2022, until the project ran into a high-altitude brick wall last July, when construction crews oopsied a road through sensitive terrain. Vail Daily:Construction of a new chairlift at Keystone Resort was ordered to cease this week after the U.S. Forest Service learned that an unauthorized road had been bulldozed through sensitive areas where minimal impacts were authorized.Keystone Resort, which operates by permit on U.S. Forest Service land, was granted permission by the White River National Forest to construct a new chairlift this summer in the area known as Bergman Bowl, creating a 555-acre expansion of Keystone's lift-served terrain. But that approval came with plenty of comments from the Environmental Protection Agency, which recommended minimal road construction associated with the project due to Bergman Bowl's environmentally sensitive location. …White River National Forest Supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams said while the Forest Service does approve many projects like Bergman Bowl, officials typically don't allow construction of new access roads in Alpine tundra.“When you drop a bulldozer blade in the Alpine, that is very fragile, and very difficult to restore,” Fitzwilliams said.In Bergman Bowl, the Forest Service has found “damage to the Alpine environment … impacts to wetlands and stuff that we normally don't want to do,” Fitzwilliams said.As a result, Fitzwilliams issued a cease and desist letter to Vail Resorts. He said the company immediately complied and shut down the impacted parts of the project.The Forest Service has not yet determined if a full restoration can occur.“When you impact the Alpine environment, it's not easy to restore,” Fitzwilliams said. “Sometimes, although achievable in some areas, it's difficult.”Vail Resorts, which has staked much of its identity on its friend-of-the-environment credentials, owned the mistake and immediately hired a firm to design a mitigation plan. What Keystone came back with was so thorough that it stunned Forest Service officials. Blevins, writing a week later in the Colorado Sun:White River National Forest supervisor Scott Fitzwilliams on Thursday said he accepted Vail Resorts' cure for improperly grading 2.5 acres outside of approved construction boundaries, including 1.5 acres above treeline in the fragile alpine zone. The company's construction crews also filled a wetland creek with logs and graded over it to create a road crossing and did not save topsoil and vegetation for replanting after construction, all of which the agency found “were not consistent with Forest Service expectations.”Fitzwilliams rescinded his order of noncompliance and canceled the cease-and-desist order he issued last month after Forest Service officials discovered the construction that had not been permitted. …“Quite honestly, it's the best restoration plan I've ever seen in my life. Even our staff are like ‘Oh my god,'” Fitzwilliams said. “The restoration plan submitted by Keystone is extremely detailed, thorough and includes all the necessary actions to insure the damage is restored as best as possible.”The damage to fragile alpine terrain does require additional analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act, but Fitzwilliams said that can be done while the construction continues.On Thursday afternoon, resort officials said the further environmental review will keep Bergman Bowl from opening for the 2022-23 season, a development Keystone general manager Chris Sorensen said is disappointing but necessary.Indeed. The only way out is through. But how did that plan go? And what is Vail doing to make sure such mistakes don't recur? And how do you manage such a high-profile mistake from a personal and leadership point of view? It was a conversation worth having, and one that Sorensen managed well.What I got wrong…About the exact timeline of Vail's Midwest acquisitionsI kind of lumped Vail Resorts' first three Midwest acquisitions together, but there was quite a bit of space between the company's purchase of Afton Alps and Mt. Brighton, in 2012, and its pickup of Wilmot in 2016. The rest came with the Peak Resorts' acquisition in 2019.About Copper Mountain's season pass priceI said that it was “about $750” for a Copper pass or an Ikon Base Pass. Both were undercounts. Copper's 2023-24 season pass debuted at $799 and is now $849. The 2023-24 Ikon Base Pass, which includes unlimited access to Copper Mountain, debuted at $829 and now sells for $929.About the most-affordable big-mountain ski passes in the United StatesI said that Keystone offered “the most affordable big-mountain season pass” in the country. With peak-day walk-up lift tickets scheduled to hit $269 this season at Keystone, that may seem like an odd declaration. But it's almost true: Keystone sells the second-most-affordable unlimited season pass among America's 20 largest ski areas. Sister resort Park City comes in cheaper on a cost-per-acre basis, and Vail Mountain is tied with Keystone. In fact, four of the top five most affordable big-mountain passes are at Vail-owned properties (Park City, Keystone, Vail, and Heavenly):About night skiingI said that Keystone had “the largest night-skiing operation in America.” This is incorrect. I tried to determine who, indeed, hosts America's largest night-skiing operation, but after slamming my head into a wall for a few hours, I abandoned the exercise. There is absolutely no common standard of measurement, probably because 14-year-olds slamming Bang energy drinks and Faceposting from the chairlift aren't keen on fact-checking. Here's the best I could come up with:Even that simple chart took an embarrassing amount of time to assemble. At some point I will return to this exercise, and will include the entire country. The Midwest will factor significantly here, as nearly every ski area in the region is 100 percent lit for night-skiing. New York and the Mid-Atlantic also host many large night-skiing operations, as do Bolton Valley, Vermont and Pleasant Mountain, Maine. But unless I wanted to publish this podcast in June of 2024, I needed to flee this particular briar patch before I got ensnared.Why you should ski KeystoneThe Keystone you're thinking of is frontside Keystone, Dercum Mountain, River Run and Mountain House, Montezuma and Peru. That Keystone has a certain appeal. It is an approachable outsiders' version of Colorado, endless and wide, fast but manageable, groomed spirals ambling beneath the sunshine. Step out of the Suburban after a 16-hour drive from Houston, and find the Middle Earth you were seeking, soaring and jagged and wild, with a pedestrian village at the base.Keep going. Down Mine Shaft or Diamond Back to North Peak: 1,600 vertical feet of moguls bigger than your car. A half-dozen to choose from. Behind that, yet another peak, like a third ski area. Outback is where things start to get savage. Not drop-off-The-Cirque-at-Snowbird savage, but challenging enough. Slide back to Timberwolf or Bushwacker or Badger – or, more boldly, the trees in between – for that wild Colorado that Texas Ted and New York Ned find off Dercum.Or walk past the snow fort and click out, bootpack a mile and drop into Upper Windows, the only terrain marked double black on Keystone's sprawling trailmap. A rambling world, crisp and silent beneath the Outpost Gondola. Until it spits you out onto Mozart, Keystone's I-70, frantic and cluttered all the way to Santiago, and another lap.Podcast NotesOn Keystone's 2009  masterplan Keystone's masterplan dates to 2009, the second-oldest on file with the White River National Forest (Buttermilk's dates to 2008). The sprawling plan includes several yet-to-be-constructed lifts, including fixed-grips up Independence Bowl and Windows, a surface lift bisecting North and South Bowls; and a two-way ride out of Ski Tip. The plan also proposes upgrades to Outback, Wayback, and A-51; and a whole new line for the now-decommissioned Argentine:Since that image isn't very crisp, here's a closer look at Dercum:North Peak:And Outback:Sorensen and I discuss the potential for each of these projects, some of which are effectively dead. Strangely, Keystone's only two new chairlifts (besides Bergman), since 2009 - upgrading Montezuma and Peru from high-speed quads to sixers – were not suggested on the MDP at all. Argentine, which once connected the Mountain House Base directly to the Montezuma lift, was a casualty of the 2021 Peru upgrade. Here's a before-and-after:Argentine, it turns out, is just the latest casualty in Keystone's front-side clean-sweep. Check out this 1996 trailmap, when Dercum (called “Keystone” here), hosted nine frontside chairlifts (plus the gondola), to today's five:On the new Bergman Bowl trail namesBergman Bowl has appeared on Keystone's trailmap since at least 2005. The resort added trail names around 2007. As part of the lift installation, we get all new trail names and a few new trails (as well as downgrades, for most of the old lines, to blues). Keystone also updated trailnames in adjacent Erickson Bowl, which the new lift will partially serve. Sorensen and I discuss the naming scheme in the pod:On Rad Smith's new hand-painted Keystone trailmapSince 2002 or so, Keystone's trailmap has viewed the resort at a slight angle, with Dercum prioritized, the clear “front side.”The new map, Sorensen tells us, whips the vantage around to the side, giving us a better view of Bergman and, consequently, of North Peak and Outback. Here's the old map (2022 on the left), alongside the new:And here's the two-part video series on making the map with Rad Smith:On Vail's new appI've driven round trip between New York City and Michigan hundreds of times. Most of the drive is rural and gorgeous, cruise-control country, the flat Midwest and the rolling mountains of Pennsylvania. Even the stretch of north Jersey is attractive, hilly and green, dramatic at the Delaware Water Gap. All that quaintness slams shut on the eastbound approach to the George Washington Bridge, where a half dozen highways collapse into the world's busiest bridge. Backups can be comically long. Hitting this blockade after a 12-hour drive can be excruciating.Fortunately, NJDOT, or the Port Authority, or whomever controls the stretch of Interstate 80 that approaches the bridge after its 2,900-mile journey from San Francisco, has erected signs a few dozen miles out that ominously communicate wait times for the GW's upper and lower decks. I used to doubt these signs as mad guesses typed in by some low-level state employee sitting in a control room with a box of donuts. But after a couple dozen unsuccessful attempts to outsmart the system, I arrived at a bitter realization: the signs were always right.This is the experience that users of Vail's new My Epic app can (hopefully) expect when it comes online this winter. This app will be your digital Swiss Army Knife, your Epic Pass/stats tracker/snow cam/in-resort credit card/GPS tracker with interactive trailmap. No word on if they'll include that strange metal spire that's either a miniature icepick or an impromptu brass knuckle. But the app will include real-time grooming updates and chairlift wait times. And if a roadsign in New Jersey can correctly communicate wait times to cross the George Washington Bridge, then Vail Resorts ought to be able to sync this chairlift wait-times thing pretty precisely.On Mt. Brighton being built from landfillDepending upon your point of view, Mt. Brighton, Michigan – which Sorensen ran from 2016 to 2018 – is either the most amazing or the most appalling ski area in Vail's sprawling portfolio. Two-hundred thirty vertical feet, 130 acres, five chairlifts, seven surface lifts, and about four trees, rising like some alt-world mini-Alps from the flatlands of Southeast Michigan.Why is it there? What does it do? Who would do such a thing to themselves? The answer to the first question lies in the expressways that crisscross three miles to the east: crews building Interstate 96 and US 23 deposited the excess dirt here, making a hill. The answer to the second question is: the place sells a s**t-ton of Epic Passes, which was the point of Vail buying the joint. And the answer to the third question is obvious as well: for the local kids, its ski here or ski nowhere, and little Midwest hills are more fun than you think. Especially when you're 12 and the alternative is sitting inside for Michigan's 11-month winter.On Keystone's potential West Ridge expansionSorensen refers to a potential “West Ridge” expansion, which does not appear on the 2009 trailmap. The ski area's 1989 masterplan, however, shows up to five lifts scaling West Ridge between North Peak and Outback (which was then called “South Peak”):On Keystone being among Colorado's least-snowy major resortsIt's a strange fact of geography that Keystone scores significantly less snow, on average, than its Colorado peers:This makes even less sense when you realize how close Keystone sits to A-Basin (115 more inches per season), Breck (118), and Copper (70):When I hosted OpenSnow founder and CEO Joel Gratz on the podcast last year, he explained Keystone's odd circumstances (as well as how the mountain sometimes does better than its neighbors), at the 1:41:43 mark.On pass prices across Summit County creeping up over the past several yearsSummit County was Ground Zero for the pass wars, during which a preponderance of mountains the size of Rhode Island fought to the death over who could give skiing away the cheapest. There are many reasons this battle started here, and many reasons why it's ending. Not the least of which is that each of these ski areas hosts the population of a small city every day all winter long. Colorado accounts for approximately one in four U.S. skier visits. The state's infrastructure is one rolled-over semi away from post-apocalyptic collapse. There's no reason that skiing has to cost less than a load of laundry when everyone wants to do it all the time.As a result, prices are slowly but steadily rising. Here's what's happened to pass prices at the four Summit County ski areas over the past six seasons:They've mostly gone up. Keystone is the only one that is less expensive to ski at now than it was in 2018 (on a season-pass basis). This chart is somewhat skewed by a couple of factors:* For the 2018-19 ski season, A-Basin was an unlimited member of the Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, and Summit Value Pass, a fact that nearly broke the place. The drastic price drop from 2018 to '19 reflects A-Basin's first year outside Vail's coalition.* Vail cut Epic Pass prices 20 percent from the 2020-21 ski season to the 2021-22 campaign. That's why Breck and Keystone are approximately the same price now as they were before the asteroid attack, Covid.* Little-known fact: Copper Mountain sells its own season pass, separate from the Ikon Pass, even though the mountain offers unlimited access on both the Ikon Base and full Ikon passes.On Mr. OklahomaI don't want to spoil the ending here, but we do talk about this.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 75/100 in 2023, and number 461 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Before you head into the mountains or hit the trails to go bike, hike, run, camp, or climb, wildfire, lightning, and smoke exposure are factors that need to be well understood and assessed. OpenSnow founder and meteorologist, Joel Gratz is back on the podcast to discuss the science and practice of smoke forecasting and wildfire tracking, and to share some of the most common weather-related mistakes and best practices for adventuring outdoors.TOPICS & TIMES:Storm Chasing (2:13) Smoke Forecasting (9:32)What to do with this Info? (17:32)Wildfires & Tracking Them (20:49)Technology used for Tracking (25:58)Lightning (38:29)Best Practices for Planning a Day Outside (47:08)Most Common & Most Consequential Mistakes People Make (52:24)Using OpenSnow (1:03:07)RELATED LINKS:OpenSnow.comBlister Podcast Ep.237: Joel Gratz on Modern Weather Forecasting Become a BLISTER+ MemberCHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTS:CRAFTED Bikes & Big IdeasOff The CouchGEAR:30Happy Hour Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For those of you not in the know, Joel Gratz is the CEO and founder at OpenSnow, a company well known in the mountains for their spot-on weather forecasting for both snow in the winter and hiking in the summer. He is the Prognosticator of Powder, if you will. Joel's forecasting is an integral part of our weekly planning, especially in the winter, when how much and where the powder is going to fall dictates the timing of everything else around it. Which is why we are in full superfan mode for this episode, as Joel talks all about his journey in the founding of his business and the integral elements that made it the success it is today. Are you in the Joel Gratz fan club? We've been members since 2007. Here's to an amazing 2022-23 winter season!

Guests: Joel GratzIntroduction: “Never miss a powder day.” Those coveted days with deep, fresh, powdery snow on the slopes. That was a mantra turned into a successful snow forecasting business. Today on Weather Geeks, meet Joel Gratz - an entrepreneurial meteorologist who has figured out how to optimize forecasting mountain snow. Find out how he sees forecasting and communication changing in the future. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Dec. 10. It dropped for free subscribers on Dec. 13. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoJoel Gratz, Founding Meteorologist and CEO of OpenSnowRecorded onNovember 17, 2022About OpenSnowOpenSnow is a snow and weather forecasting service. It gives you all this, depending on whether or not you want to pay for it:Gratz founded OpenSnow 11 years ago with an email list of 37 people. The company's list now numbers 3 million. Or so. It's like counting flakes in a storm. There are lots of them. The service pinpoints snowfall everywhere on the planet. So Backcountry Bro, you're covered. Lift-Served Larry (that's me), you're covered too. Uphill Harvey – we really wish you'd just pick a side and stop f*****g up the grooming before the lifts open.Anyway, if you love snow and want to know how much of it is going to fall, and where and when, then this app should be your Excalibur. Wield it wisely, Fellow Snowbum.  Why I interviewed himYou know how some people want to live in Florida and make exasperated sounds when more snow materializes on the radar and plan wintertime vacations to places like Aruba? Well I am not one of those people. And neither is Joel Gratz. Wintertime is for skiing. And to enjoy skiing as much as possible, it helps to follow the snow around. That's what Joel, and his brilliant website/app/service, OpenSnow, do.Everyone reading this newsletter is programmed in a different way from Human V1.0. We run toward storms that most humans flee. With urgency. Like some snowy version of a firefighter. Like insane people. Because we know what the genuflecting and hysterical weatherman does not: that snow is potent and intoxicating; that it changes the world and everything in it, including the people who immerse themselves within. If an adult charges into a sandbox or waterpark or ballpit, we regard them suspiciously. That stuff is for kids. But if they spend the day bouncing through snow and enter the bar boot-clicking and semi-dazed and white-draped and grinning madly and asking for a tallboy, we ask them to stand up at our wedding.No one gets this but skiers. And so no one could make a truly ski-centric weather app other than a skier. Someone whose headline, upon analyzing an incoming storm, isn't DEAR GOD DO NOT STEP OUTSIDE STOCK UP ON AMMUNITION AND DRY RATIONS BECAUSE THIS IS IT PEOPLE, but rather DEAR GOD IT'S ABOUT TO SNOW 90 INCHES IN TAHOE GET THERE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!There are plenty of ways to track the weather, of course. Lots of apps, lots of weather services, lots of social media groups. I haven't found one better than OpenSnow, where I can look up any specific ski area and see an hour-by-hour and day-by-day snowfall and weather forecast for 10 days into the future. And that's all I really care about: where will it snow, how much, and when? With a meteorology degree on his wall and a couple decades in his mad-scientist's snow lab, Gratz is as well-equipped to deliver this information as anyone on the planet.What we talked aboutHow early a ski weather guy wakes up; Joel's wintertime and powder-day routine; the secrets of good powder skiing; how a meteorologist was born; Shawnee, Pennsylvania; do they even want snow in the Poconos?; Penn State meteorology; skiing Tussey; an Alpine Meadows powder day on racing skis; Boulder as innovation incubator; how a Vail old-timer outsmarted the guy with the fancy meteorology degree; the mystery of mountain microclimates; the missed Steamboat powder day that inspired the creation of OpenSnow; an email goes out to 37 people on a Tuesday night; a fortuitous conversation with Chris Davenport; how long it took OpenSnow to really establish itself; “a lot of your good fortune is just being born when and where you were”; the several simultaneous tech innovations that enabled widespread online weather forecasting; breaking down the various global weather services (GFS, Euro, etc.), and how they work; “modern meteorology is a miracle of cooperation and funding from taxpayers like us all around the world”; translating raw data and forecasts into the thing skiers most care about: how much is it going to snow, when, and where?; removing the human from the forecasting equation; why and how OpenSnow scaled from Colorado to the rest of the world; why OpenSnow doesn't capture every ski area in the world (yet); snow forecasts for any mapdot on the planet; why OpenSnow shifted to a subscription model and what it meant for the business; La Niña; breaking down the strong early start for the West and the weak weather in New England; dumb meteorology jokes; the two things you need to make snow; breaking down the unique weather systems that determine snowfall for the Cottonwoods, Mt. Baker, Keystone, Tahoe, the Great Lakes, and northern Vermont; how wind impacts snow quality; and America's snowiest places.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewThe image in the “About OpenSnow” section above distills the benefits of the paid subscription tier succinctly: to tap the service's best features, you need to pay. It's worth it. I subscribed long before our partnership, and I continue to.But OpenSnow wasn't always so arranged. For years, Gratz and his team lived on advertising. At some point, they activated a paywall to access certain features, but much of the site remained free.That changed last year, when OpenSnow migrated the majority of its content to its paid tier. Gratz explains why in the podcast, but this business decision resonated with me for obvious reasons. To remain relevant and useful, most digital ski-focused media platforms require an intense and consistent focus. That requires time, energy, passion, and commitment – all attributes that our capitalist society has deemed worth paying for in the form of labor. Labor, we decided a long time ago, cannot be free. Thus, products produced with labor – and media is a product – require a pricetag to access.This is easier to understand when you're purchasing a toaster or a car than when you're buying access to a podcast or a snow forecast. It helps to remember that, in the scope of history, the internet is still pretty new. I grew up without it, and I'm not that old. We're still figuring out how to price the considerable volume of information that we find there. Most of it, I'll admit, is worthless, but some of it is worth quite a bit. But several generations of Americans arrived at the internet with the understanding that it was a frivolous add-on, a place to waste time and get in trouble, a soul vacuum that was the domain of creeps and morons. They have a hard time acknowledging the evolution of the web into a utility, an essential pipeline of connection and information, a place of intangible things with tangible value.That was the challenge OpenSnow faced in finding a path to long-term sustainability. And it is the challenge I face with The Storm. I did it for free for as long as I could. The first 2,076 hours of labor were on me. Then I asked for money. The transition went beyond my expectations. Hundreds of people upgraded their subscriptions right away, and hundreds more have upgraded since. New paid subscribers join just about every day. The Storm is now a sustainable operation. And so, having made the same decision – on a much larger scale – is OpenSnow.I'm sure you've read about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a rat's nest of floating plastic refuse covering more than 600,000-square-miles of the Pacific Ocean. Most of its contents are microplastics – the smashed-up bits of water bottles and medicine containers and candy-bar wrappers. You just know that floating somewhere in there is a Yeti cooler and fully intact G.I. Joe hovercraft (I keep waiting for Disney to release: Toy Story: Tales of the Garbage Patch, featuring a scrappy band of discarded toys who A-Team their way back to the mainland), but most of it is useless garbage.The internet is a lot like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch: an unfathomable well of junk, sprinkled with a few treasures. There's a reason I occasionally step out of my ski-area-manager lane to interview journalists or individuals running ski-related websites: I want to help you find the G.I. Joe Killer W.H.A.L.E.s, the things worth scooping out of the water and taking home.Why you should use OpenSnowWhile OpenSnow is a Storm advertising partner, this podcast was not part of, and is not related to, that partnership. OpenSnow did not have any editorial input into the content or editing of this podcast - which is true of any guest on any episode. I don't do sponsored content. The Storm is independent ski media, based on reporting and independently verified facts - any opinion is synthesized through that lens, as it is with any good journalism outlet.That said, it's a great service, and one that I use every day of the winter – that's why I partnered with them. And part of our partnership is this special link where you can get two free months of OpenSnow. So you should probably take advantage of that so they want to keep working with me:Podcast NotesJoel references Baker's record snowfall year – it was 1,140 inches from 1998 to '99. You can read about that and some other big snow totals here.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 133/100 in 2022, and number 379 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com.The Storm is exploring the world of lift-served skiing year-round - join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

You wake up, check your phone, and the weather app says it's going to snow 12” this weekend. You're stoked! But should you be? How accurate is that forecast? And what makes one forecast more or less accurate than another?Today we're talking to OpenSnow founder and meteorologist, Joel Gratz, about the science of weather forecasting; the many weather models being used today; his love of skiing and snow; what led him to start a weather forecasting company; and more.TOPICS & TIMES:Traveling (5:01)Current snowpack in the West (6:42)History of modern weather forecasting (8:48)Weather Models Galore (23:05)Advancements in Forecasting (27:39)Forecasting Research (33:11)Joel's background as a skier (36:56)Studying Meteorology, Public Policy & Business (39:54)Why start a weather forecasting company? (43:11)OpenSnow today vs the early days (48:39)How much do you ski these days? (1:03:20)Why subscribe to OpenSnow? (1:05:46)Joel at the Blister Summit (1:15:16)RELATED LINKS:Exclusive Offer: OpenSnow.com/BLISTERBecome a Blister MemberBlister Summit RegistrationSEE OUR OTHER PODCASTS:CRAFTED Bikes & Big IdeasOff The CouchGEAR:30Happy Hour Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Episode 104 of Totally Deep Podcast, Doug Stenclik and Randy Young of www.cripplecreekbc.com bring you the lowdown on the world of uphill and backcountry skiing and boarding. Gear, technique, fashion, jargon, guests, and assorted spray from folks who know how to earn it in the backcountry. The world's best backcountry skiing podcast. Episode 104 features an interview with OpenSnow's Joel Gratz. Often touted as a meteorological wunderkind, Gratz, like the rest of us, like sliding on snow. OpenSnow's website and app allow those seeking powder snow and forecasts to know where, when, and how deep. Gratz discusses how the site and models assisting with the forecasts have changed over the years.   On Episode 104 of the Totally Deep Podcast: 1) The impending storm. 2) The on-piste off-piste dilemma.  3) Forecasting accurately for a specific locaton.  4) The La Niña triple dip.  5) No public heat maps for backcountry spots.  6) Exloring new locations based on forecasts.  Have a listen and get ready for the impending vert and lovely descents. Thanks for listening and joining us for the 2022-2023 season.  And remember: be safe out there.  More info about TDP at Totally Deep Podcast Blog on Cripplecreekbc.com or wildsnow.com. Comments: info@cripplecreekbc.com. Or leave a voicemail: 970-510-0450 Backcountry Skiing, Uphill Skiing, Rando (skimo?) Racing, Splitboarding, it's all uphill from here.  

Hey team! On this week's show, I've got some life updates to share, and then I dive into the state of the snowpack and what I've been seeing in pits and observations. Then, we get a glimmer of hope from Joel Gratz's Colorado Daily Snow, a challenge to the skiers of the Juans to keep up  our trend of no major avalanche incidents, and a discussion/reminder on why its important to establish your tour plan before you leave home. Thanks again to Coop for returning to the show, and thanks to you for listening! Leave a rating or review, and shoot me an email at sanjuansnowcast@gmail.com to let me know what you think of the show! Want a sticker? Send me your address and you can help spread the good word of the ‘Cast by slapping it somewhere special. Until next time… THINK SNOW! Venmo: @Chris-Dickson

We talked to meteorologist and founder Joel Gratz about turning his lifelong love of weather into a successful career, if going to business school is a good idea, jokes you should never tell a meteorologist, and more. Mark also expresses his love for Total Request Live VJs and pitches a new cookbook idea. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Are you ready Colorado? Joel Gratz of OpenSnow and Jason Maurer of Colorado Mountain School live from Neptune Mountaineering's Virtual Kicking Into Winter Party.  Use code WINTRYMIX to get $10 off ski shop work at Neptune through Nov 30.   This episode is supported by Beau Jo's Colorado Style Pizza and 10 Barrel Brewing Company.  Email me alex@wintrymixcast.com. Leave the pod a voicemail/text at 802 560 5003. Questions. Rants. Anything.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play or elsewhere. Now on Spotify too. Follow and/or pester me on instagram @wintrymixcast. All the links are on the sidebar of WintryMixCast.com too.  Image courtesy of Colorado Ski Country by Carl Frey 

On today’s episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Joel Gratz, the captain of a team of meteorologists at Open Snow, who love to give winter sports enthusiasts the most accurate weather reports. Joel has helped people chase powder and find the best snow for years. Tune in to hear us talk about Open Snow and how Joel got his start. Topics: [02:15] Having moderate expectations is important. [03:00] He’s a skier, so he knows how to speak the language. [04:05] You can get excited within 3-5 days of a good snow report. [04:35] A 3 day forecast can be 95-98% accurate in terms of storm tracking. [05:00] At 5 days out, you are at 90% accuracy and it continues down from there. [07:50] There is no one who could consistently predict the weather for all the different regions in the U.S. year in and year out. [09:48] Joel discovered his love of skiing at Shawnee Mountain in Pennsylvania. [10:20] Joel has loved skiing and weather since he was four years old. [12:52] When he started out, Joel didn’t have a strategy or business plan. [13:05] Basically, he was surprised by the weather and found it frustrating. [13:30] His method was a lot of trial and error. [15:15] Joel credits his success to his team at Open Snow. [15:52] When Open Snow started, they didn’t mean to make it a business; it was mostly for their friends. [19:00] Skiing is better than not skiing, so you can’t wait for perfect weather. [19:32] If you are on the fence, always choose to ski. Worse case scenario, the conditions aren’t perfect, but you still get to ski with friends and family. [21:00] All you can say a week to 10 days out is whether there may be storms in a region. It’s very general. [25:02] Wind direction is a key factor in figuring out the weather in the west. [27:50] If you want to look at weather maps, look at them at the 700 Millibar level (around 10,000 feet). [30:48] Open Snow gets a lot of emails from thrilled users. [34:40] The snow report that you see on most apps is a 24-hour snow report. [34:57] That 24 hour period usually covers 5am the previous day to 5am that day. [35:13] So, you have to figure out when the ski fell. [35:50] Joel yells at himself to keep his hands forward whenever he is tired and not skiing well. Quotes: “Science is always advancing and the only way you advance is by trying, failing, trying again, failing, trying again, failing.” “We write the way we feel.” “Beyond about 7-10 days, you’re really grasping at straws.” Resources: Open Snow Wagner Custom Skis

The VT to CO podcast transition continues. It's hard, but not as hard as forecasting snow. Episode 72 is a lightly edited version of Joel Gratz, founder of OpenSnow, doing a winter forecasting pep talk to the hometown crowd at Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder on Oct 24. He's doing more of these throughout the fall so get to one if you can.  Email me alex@wintrymixcast.com or leave the pod a voicemail/text at 802 560 5003. Questions. Rants. Anything.  Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Google Play or elsewhere. Now on Spotify too. Follow and/or pester me on instagram @wintrymixcast.  Visit patreon.com/wintrymixcast to join the podcast listeners pooling their spare change to keep me from quitting and support local causes (and help me pay for the $800 I just dropped on equipment). As little as $1 per month.  AK  

A conversation with Joel Gratz, Chief Powder Finder and Meteorology Startup Founder. After realizing that forecasting snow in the big mountains was very difficult, and missing one to many powder days due to inaccurate forecasts, Joel studied the mountain weather patterns of Colorado and started sharing forecasts via Colorado Powder Forecast, eventually to create OpenSnow.com, with over 1.5 million skiers and riders relying on it today. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This episode is presented by Chris Klug, owner of Klug Properties. To learn more head to www.klugproperties.com/ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Music in this episode by Revolution Void: Artist Page - freemusicarchive.org/music/Revolution_Void/ Song Page - tinyurl.com/p8ytxun - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This podcast is Produced by Level Head Audio https://www.levelheadaudio.com/

OpenSnow Image https://uploads.fireside.fm/images/0/037e01ef-c3bb-4048-9bb2-f57e8e9144e2/BmR5rzXN.jpg OpenSnow Website (http://opensnow.com) OpenSnow Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/findopensnow/) OpenSnow Twitter (https://twitter.com/findOpenSnow) OpenSnow Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/findOpenSnow/) This is the first time The Travel Agent Interview features winter travel and this episode is awesome! If you know a skier or snowboarder this App is on their phone! OR, IT SHOULD BE - Seriously, GET IT!!! The OpenSnow App is a must piece of technology for your winter adventures. Today's guest is Joel Gratz, a skiing meteorologist and founder of OpenSnow. He and his team give winter sport enthusiasts their daily fix of snow forecasting. Join us to learn the beginning, inner workings and trip tips from the snow man himself, Joel Gratz. OpenSnow was created by a team of local weather forecasters who are life-long skiers and riders. During the winter, our forecasters write "Daily Snow" updates that will point you toward the best snow conditions. You can also use our mountain-specific forecasts, webcams, and snow reports to find the best snow. Over 1.5 million skiers and riders use OpenSnow, and we are so glad that you are among this group. If you like what we're doing, tell a complete stranger about us during your next lift ride. Our featured travel professional available for travel planning is Michelle Tatum. You may remember Michelle from the Hawaii episode. She does hot and cold! Ooo lala! Special Guest: Joel Gratz.

This week Tyler and Dakota are joined by Joel Gratz to discuss his mountain forecasting products "OpenSnow" & "OpenSummit" Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theweatherjunkies Twitter: https://twitter.com/thewxjunkies Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/weatherjunkies/ SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/weatherjunkies/ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/weather-junkies/id1056471528?mt=2 Audio used for opening, transitions, and closing are from Riot, Weather Channel, AccuWeather, National Weather Service, Brad Guay, and ABC 33 in Tuscaloosa.

On Episode 27 of Totally Deep Podcast, Doug Stenclik and Randy Young of www.cripplecreekbc.com bring you the lowdown on the world of uphill and backcountry skiing and boarding. Gear, technique, fashion, jargon, guests, and assorted spray from two guys who know how to earn it in the backcountry. The world's best backcountry skiing podcast. More info about TDP at Totally Deep Podcast Blog on Cripplecreekbc.com On Episode 27 of Totally Deep Podcast: 1. Guest Joel Gratz of opensnow.com 2. Opensnow app. 3. Joel's ski jam. 4. Control your stoke, up your knowledge. 5. Secret BC resources: CAIC weather station list. SNOTEL. 6. El Niño, La Niña, LA Nada. 7. Joel's first BC rig.  8. Global Weirding. Comments: info@cripplecreekbc.com Or leave a voicemail: 970-510-0450 Backcountry Skiing, Uphill Skiing, Rando (skimo?) Racing, Splitboarding, its all here. SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES  

A conversation with Open Snow's Joel Gratz about predicting weather, getting mad about missing big powder days and the joy of skiing/riding pow. opensnow.com

In our first interview with John Hickenlooper since Donald Trump's election, the governor says if he had Trump's ear he'd urge caution in healthcare, immigration, trade and the nation's power supply. Also, where does the governor find promise in a Trump administration? Then, Joel Gratz has been called "Snowstradamus." He's the founder of the popular snow forecasting website OpenSnow. We get a preview of ski season. Plus, in Nepal elephants trample rice crops, which is what people eat, so the animals are often shot. A Colorado zookeeper may have a way to save the crops -- and the elephants. Hint: it involves bees. And, a Thanksgiving recipe from U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

Let's get stoked for snow!  Listen in as we chat with some badass snow enthusiasts about what to look forward to this year.  We talk gear tips, training tips, uphill skiing, skimo racing, backcountry adventures, and of course weather predictions. Joel Gratz - meteorologist who tells us where to find the pow over at opensnow.com Jon Kedrowski "Dr. Ski" - author, ski mountaineer, and geographer.  Check out his book about camping on top of all of Colorado's 14ers. Joe Howdyshell - all-around badass who helps people achieve their fitness goals at Summit Endurance Academy Henrik Førland Lampert - editor of FREESKIER Magazine Kimberly Beekman - editor of Skiing Magazine Thanks to Neptune Mountaineering for having us!

Joel Gratz is the founder of Opensnow.com: the future of weather, brought to you with added flair. Most weather information is sensationalistic and overwhelming, but not here. In a fun and witty style so often lacking in weather reporting, OpenSnow helps snow lovers smile and find their perfect mountain experience. Their industry-leading features include handcrafted and personable forecasts, LiveSnow reports direct from the hill, custom snow alerts, and the first “Ask a Weatherman” service available to the public. Plus authenticity is baked in, as the site is run by skiing meteorologists who keep track of their accuracy.

Joel Gratz is the co-founder opensnow.com, a website hosting weather forecasts and information with an added flair. They include personable forecasts, LiveSnow reports direct from the hill, custom snow alerts, and many other services to help you find the powder.