Buried in snow, with more on the way

Another weekend, another storm. And Punxsutawney Phil said Saturday that alpine residents better get used to it.

The long-range forecast is for a dry spring, but no one will believe that until they see it.

Those already fed up with the snowfall were facing another big storm Saturday.

Telluride has already had two months of record snow.

“Locals can’t remember the last time it has snowed like this,” said Jeff Proteau, vice president of Telluride resort operations.

Nineteen feet have fallen so far. The statewide snowpack was 128 percent of the 30-year average Saturday.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife is considering feeding more wildlife. It’s monitoring the situation with weekly flights. The agency started feeding deer and other big game in the Gunnison River Valley in the middle of last month because the deer are so stressed.

Gov. Bill Ritter traveled Saturday to Gunnison to thank volunteers and help with the Division of Wildlife’s deer-feeding operation.

In Aspen, the Daily Times reported epic skiing. Red Mountain, Aspen’s other mountain, was being skied, perhaps for the first time since 1983-84.

“It was fun. It’s not a long ski. It wasn’t hard. It was just novel,” said Neal Beidleman.