bwt3650

Starting to pick up again here.  Might squeeze another inch or two out since last chair if this keeps up tonight.

52 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

The thing is you VT Northern Greens guys are just as competitive, you just pretend to be chill about it. Members of the NVT crew have written like 5,000 words this season explaining to me in great detail how the Northern Greens are one of the greatest snow kingdoms on earth and if anyone else in NNE is complaining about their snowfall, it must be a personal climo issue. Just saying. 

Valid point..not gonna lie; there’s a reason we picked a place that averages 350” plus...and it’s not to lose the snowfall race..ha.

Cannot overstate what a recovery this was.  Every glade was back in play (though a few were closed, ha). Underneath was a solid layer that froze, then about 8 inches of powder.  As long as you kept you eyes open for the random branch and rock, it skied as well as any midwinter day.  Underneath should melt nicely and be a great few days coming up.  Really good day out there and good weekend coming up...even some natural steeps back in play.

5 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah that sounds about right for Jay at your elevation.

I saw Smuggs reporting 8" at 11am which not going to lie, I don't like questioning because I know snow measuring can be tough but for that snowfall at that time would imply 1"/hr sustained from 3am to 11am.  Especially when all the ski areas up and down the Spine seem to be in the same ballpark, that one stood out.

Yeah, that seems a little high.  There was a 1 inch an hour band that just came through..they would have had to sit under that to be at 8+..I would think the top of Madonna should be the same as the picnic tables, no?

Maybe there’s 7 up on the ridge here, but I think that’s the absolute max.  It’s not going to be enough to get the steep natural stuff back, but wow, is it skiing great.  We still had a lot in play holding on by a thread.  The usual late season suspects like upper can am and river quai; and star and goat at your place, I would think are done for the season barring a one day 20” dumping, but that’s to be expected in april.

Dumping snow...probably about 5”

Conditions are fantastic for what this event is..really helped out there and the perfect density.

Starting to come down now..about 3.5 so far.

Just switched to snow.  Let’s see what this thing can do.

Temp down to 40 at 1850’...nothing more frustrating than watching liquid wasted as you wait for a changeover.

8 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Darby’s Drop looking a little suspect today. 

There’s plenty of lines in there..ha

Def spring conditions, but there’s some natural stuff and glades holding strong!

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Our last day out there today. We are headed south for April.

BW may be able to hang on for the weekend, but they are done if the 1-2 inches of rain with high dews pans out tomorrow.

Bare spots opening up on trails, and they tend to shut trails down earlier than the Cannons of the world.

Probably my last weekend up here too...it’s been a fun ride...Less time up north next year, but hopefully, more snow. 

Possible upslope enhancement delivers more inches after the fact and the storm itself delivers more L.E. Frozen.  It’s not going to take much for a really decent ski weekend.  It’s beat up here, but there’s still some natural terrain and woods holding on.

Latest nam run is garbage too...wow at the back and forth with these runs..it delays the change-over...so only hope is elevation does it’s thing a little sooner.

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Large east move on the NAM. Has me in the snow zone now. 

Make sure you steal from the daks, not the greens...

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Meanwhile NAM looks worse. 

Weak.

12 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Wow, 00z HRRR nice jump east. Good snow here.

One last good one before us transplants call it a snow season?

20 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

I think the trend is legit as many have speculated earlier on in the big thread... progressive and weaker/not as wrapped up.

You end up with a more 3-7" type event that's displaced eastward.  As always, I set my bar at 3 inches ha.  That number is when the vibe "feels snowy"... like yesterday morning's upslope burst at the ski area.  At 3 inches it feels wintry.  Plowable.

That 8 spot at jay may be high, but doable with enhancement.  Wind should be kickin too up here so it might be the perfect situation where the gaps get filled in with the low density stuff  at the start and then then the wind hides some powder in the woods for the weekend...probably overly optimistic, but maybe this is one of those where 1500’ is the difference maker...just hoping the winds don’t go too crazy as we all know how temperamental the flyer is!

1 minute ago, powderfreak said:

To be honest I think this is more elevations dependent than models show and also less snow due to lower ratios.  I could see 70% of those 10:1 maps.  More like the ICON’s look of a 3-6” event for most with some spot 6-7” at the peaks.

maybe a little upslope enhancement at the end with the low departing over central Maine for you and me though.  A few inches or maybe just snow globey.  Those 850s get cold after 0Z Friday.

Yeah, 18z Nam showing a nice burst of heavy snow Thurs morning/afternoon up here.   Thurs/Fri into this weekend might be the best two days for the remainder of the season in the Northern Greens.  Still looks like a pretty sharp cut-off for the difference making snow once south of the MRV.

14 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Not a fan of where things are headed now, but I am in the minority on this, I guess, at least in terms of who is loudest on the Internet. Hope everyone enjoys their vaccine passports and continued lockdowns. I'm sure none of that can end badly for us.

Think people are tired of the hyperbole quotes in the news.

36 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

18z NAM with rain to a prolonged period of sleet then snow... big snow in NNY.

Sleet with a dense 6-8 on top would fill in the gaps on some trails that weren't completely washed out, no?  Just hoping for one last good weekend before we are relegated to the token 5-10  snow making trails that we limp to the end with.  

18 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Interesting needle threading event possible Thursday...

The big 3 models... GFS is by far the furthest east with accumulations.  Need a tick eastward from EURO and the GGEM is close.

12z GGEM

12z EURO

12z GFS

I’m going to guess a fairly dense snow and temps stays seasonal too so could make for a decent ski weekend after the garbage we have had the last week.  Too little, too late tho, for all but sugarbush north through jay I would think.  We might get back in the trees tho up here.

Flipped to snow..if we get about 30” tonight, that should fix everything.

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

The crowds? Snowmaking?  Grooming?  Everything is worse now?  I'm a little curious too but I am always careful as a VR employee to push it too far (full disclosure, they seem to treat me well and pay me far better with benefits, bonuses, etc than previous ownership and nearby competitors.  I don't care who the owner is, I love Stowe and Mount Mansfield so my opinions will reflect those locally) .  I do like to ask opinions though as maybe I can help avoid it or do little things to change that when the opportunities present themselves.  I'm no big wig but for some reason they respect me and I feel like I have a voice. 

In the industry there is what is termed the "Vail Sucks Guy" that sort of follows a certain pattern.  You said everything Vail touches turns to shit and then @bwt3650 gave some examples he saw, and hit the nail on the head about remote customer service just being completely unprepared for the call volume.  Embarrassing.  It seemed like an honest thought process of pros and cons.  That's what we  We always talk about it because we want to know what's wrong but the majority of comments seem to be of a "Vail Sucks Guy" mentality.

Here's the condensed definition from the Storm Skiing Journal:

"Do you want Vail Sucks Guy to elaborate? Good luck. There are plenty of thoughtful critiques of Vail out there. They did not come from Vail Sucks Guy.  Vail Sucks Guy knows “a lot” of people who have been screwed over by Vail. Vail Sucks Guy could tell you some stories. But he won’t. Instead, Vail Sucks Guy is just going to tell you that Vail sucks."

The “vail sucks guy” was hanging out on Facebook a lot this year with the “why is the flyer on wind-hold guy; don’t they care about covid”....The “wind hold guy” would bash jay because “he’s been skiing his whole life and it’s not that windy at the base...and now all these lift lines are longer and spreading covid all over and it’s going to cause a super outbreak all because you put the lift on wind-hold when it’s not windy”...mean while, the wind on tower 16 is over 60 mph...