LaGrangewx

@MRVexpat Great pics skiing looks fantastic! @HitmanYea those remote Cat and heli lodges are super cool. Congrats on the trip I’m actually looking into a trip to the OPUS hut near Telluride potentially.

Was snooping around some cat skiing operations in BC after seeing a bunch of Instagram videos recently and found some cool data. Mustang Powder in the Monashee mountains near Revelstoke has kept records at their lodge at 5700’. They claim to average 380” just December thru March which blew my mind. Nearby Mount Copeland had a station at 6000’ for a few years in the early 1970s and averaged like 750” during the 5 or so years and had one year with almost 1000” snow. Another station nearby in the Selkirks with longer term data Mount Fidelity at 6150’ averages ~550 inches and around 350” December to March. Rogers pass below at 4300’ averages around 350” for the entire season. So the Mustang powder lodge probably averages somewhere around 550-600” during a full winter. Mountains in this region get up over 9000’ so the claims of 800-1000” average snowfall in the higher alpine are probably not far fetched at all. The Columbia Mountain region fascinates me and is tops on my bucket list of destinations. I have read people claim this region averages the most “dry powder” in the world and they always seem to be consistent, it’s not usually feast or famine like the Sierra can be. The amount of quality powder snowfall in this region blows my mind and truly has to be one of the best regions in the world for snowfall and skiing. Hopefully I’ll experience it firsthand one day!

7 days straight of ~30” is just incomprehensible. I’ve never witnessed a 30” storm.

The latest 0z GFS run for them was biblical. It just spit out a 250” number around Kirkwood. Potentially A nice 20 feet in the next 15 days. They are due for a massive winter and look to be off to an awesome start.

From personal experience I think Killington usually has more snow than Okemo. I’d classify Okemo more with Stratton and Mount snow in terms of snowfall and geography. Killington area seems to be the major transition to where the spine sees more upslope snowfall. Okemo rarely gets a big upslope snow but Pico definitely can and I remember it happened last year in January when they jackpotted an event. Killington has a slightly more northern latitude but this area can often be the cutoff for mixing as just seen in this event. It also has a better geographic position for snowfall and about a 1000’ higher summit. They also definitely report their numbers from a good sheltered spot at the tippy top as that’s where their long term data is from. Okemo on the other hand could very well report from mid mountain or lower so I think the large discrepancies on reports can have some validity but have to be taken with a grain of salt. I will say if you look at Killingtons long term data they had some abysmal winters up until the last year or so where it seems they have really put a focus on reporting higher snowfall numbers as they seem to come out near the top on a lot more events. It also bothers me a bit they report identical snowfall at killington and pico even tho I bet there’s slight differences quite often. I know we’ve discussed this before but some resorts just market snowfall better and want to tally every inch like Jay peak versus Gore mountain where they seem to walk outside and estimate with a ruler sometimes. I think Killington has had a combo of lucky storms lately and has become more diligent at marketing their snowfall.

Awesome picture that view never gets old.

Looks like Hermit Lake raked up a foot or so based on the 9” depth increase yesterday. Pretty sweet hopefully ski season starts with a bang.

Indian Head was gorgeous yesterday.

Indian Head in the Adirondacks. One of the most picturesque settings on the East Coast in my opinion.

Plenty of color today. It really takes off as you go north of Lake George.

Getting up early to hike Indian Head in the Adirondacks tomorrow. Expecting beautiful colors. Will post pics.

Nice right near eddy street it looks like.

Hey no way that’s awesome!! I am a Notre Dame Grad as well. Heading out for the Cincy game October 2nd.

For what it’s worth hermit lake plot has average 200+ inches I think at like 3900’ over the past 3-4 seasons and I don’t think they’ve even had 1 average winter so who knows up at 5000+. Like you said wind could be a huge factor. I think they had 175 or so counting October and November last year in a pretty abysmal winter for that zone. The early and late season snow really tallies up there. April 2020 was huge there I think.

I’ll chime in and say I’m confident Whiteface does not average the same as Stowe. They cash in a few times with decent lake effect but Stowe is almost always getting snow as well when they do. Stowe is better with the uplsope and is positioned better for many of the coastal storms. I think an interesting question is what do the core high peaks around Mount Marcy above 4-5000’ average. I think that could be much closer as I think that area does a bit better than the whiteface basin.

Thought I would share my attempted Presidential Traverse this past Friday and Saturday. We camped out at Crawford Notch Campground Thursday night in the rain. Then woke up at 5am Friday morning dropped one car off at the Highland Center and made our way to the Appalachia Trailhead. Our hike started off with a light mist and 60 degrees at the Appalachia Trailhead in Randolph. We immediately ran into brutal conditions above tree-line on our first summit attempt, Mount Madison. Rain and 50 mph winds with 50 feet of visibility quickly put a damper on our trek. Originally we were hoping to make it all the way across Washington the first day and stay at Lakes of the Clouds hut, then finish the southern part of the traverse Saturday. Winds were only supposed to increase throughout the day Friday into the night so we decided it would be safer to try and bail into the Madison Spring Hut for the night. After summiting Madison we carefully scampered our way down the wet rocks in what felt like 40 degree hurricane conditions. Thankfully the Madison Hut was able to switch our reservation from Lakes and we stayed the night. The wind overnight at Madison hut (4800 feet at tree line) was incredible to hear as I checked and saw Washington was gusting to 90. Wind chills were in the single digits and the hut has no heat so we could easily see our breath. The following morning we realized our traverse attempt would be too much to bite off for one day so we decided on trying to summit Adams and Jefferson. Started the morning in snow pants and a jacket with higher spirits since it was dry but sadly both summits were socked in and still blowing hard. There were some nice views to be had a bit lower down. Made it back to the car where it was a calm 70 and sunny, and headed over to the Omni Resort for some drinks and food. By the time we got there the summits were completely in the clear and even looked like they were giving us a nice middle finger. Lol. All in all it was an experience and the Presidential’s always amaze me every time I visit with the drastic difference in climate in the alpine and sheer size of the mountains. The Madison hut saved our asses and the food was fantastic. I would definitely recommend the hut experience and I can’t wait to give it another go next year!

I was only a kid in October 2005 but I agree. My friend lived in the house across from the overlook drive in back then and his property was flooded even worse then compared to today. I think there were two back to back 8” rainfalls in Dutchess that month?

Driving around Dutchess this morning. Freedom Lake and Skidmore area is in rough shape again. Redwing is across velie and Pages near 55 there is a lake of standing water. Area near the Overlook drive in is also flooded badly. Bad flooding with Probably 5-6” rain in Dutchess after a wet summer. Can’t imagine what the 10-12” in a few hours did down in parts of NJ and the City.

Nice Weathertap seems great. Based on the flooding I think 4+ inches in that area is definitely reasonable. Some of The PNS reports definitely don’t depict what happened last night. Also the Jaffrey area of NH had 7-8”.

Took a drive out to Freedom Park off Skidmore. Flooding is devastating. Red wing lake is overflowing onto Velie road which is currently closed.

Absolutely Poured here last night. Also What map/graphic is that?

I know I’ve seen you track the number of snowstorms per year which is great data do you also have data on the total number of days with snow each year? I was looking at some places. I believe old forge in lake effect country is around 75 and the johnsweather guy in Pittsburg is around 85. I would guess yours is high as well with all the constant upslope.

Just got a short light snow squall down here in the Hudson valley. It was almost 50 degrees out and sunny before the squall and it is now sunny again. Probably the warmest temp snow I’ve ever experienced. Makes me think hard about the times I had mixing at single digit temps in the past.

Getting snow here at almost 50 degrees

Great write up. Killington is actually about 15” above average based on the data they have on their website. They claim 170” is average by the end of February. Stratton should average a bit more snow than Mount Snow but they always seem to report pretty conservatively. Both those mountains are probably a bit above average. It is surprising Okemo seems to be below average even after their record 45” storm in December which accounts for almost half their snow on the season which basically disappeared not long after they got it. Seems like The great stretch that was enough to provide excellent skiing conditions wasn’t quite enough to overcome the lackluster start to the first 2.5 months to get places up to their season average to date. I believe The Mansfield stake has always been just below average and hasn’t been able to quite break above the mean line yet. Like you said, a below average winter has still provided one of the better stretches of skiing up there and that really goes to show how much it snows in the northern New England mountains during an average winter. Down here in the Hudson valley, if you get one big storm above 18” and have a sustained period of colder weather it’s an A winter. I wonder if Sugarbush could be measuring or reporting differently Or if they really did just miss out this winter a bit more than everywhere else? I remember in the past it was rare for them to report less on the season than Mad River Glen and especially rare to have less than Killington let alone 25% less like currently. Usually they were very close to Stowe’s numbers when they used their summit snowfall totals.