MRVexpat

8 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Appreciate the detailed info, as usual. I am not very familiar with this uphill stuff at all because it just doesn’t exist down south as far as I am aware. Or if it does the community is much smaller and unknown to me. I pictured you guys trudging up thousands of vertical feet in waist-high snow and was pretty confused as to how that was fun. LOL

Sounds like skinning takes a little finesse and technique but once you have it down it makes the work easier.

Definitely did plenty of hiking with the kids before the snow set in. We are slowly working our way up Madison in each hike, going a bit further each time. Takes time with the 4 and 6 year old but they love to see the progress. 

If you ever get the equipment (or even snowshoes), I can certainly recommend the GBA crescent ridge glades that are literally right behind your property. You couldn't have a more perfect place to understand why everyone these days is so hooked on self powered skiing. Its a casual half mile to a mile approach that opens up into a mellow field that's perfect for practicing skiing soft snow, though if its deep you'll want some more pitch which you can find by following the prescribed skin track to the ridge. From there you have 3 or 4 lines that are the equivalent of skiing a black diamond glade at a resort, but often with much better conditions!

https://granitebackcountryalliance.org/crescent-ridge-glade

5 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Not lower FIS, but left of the Mountain lift (Glen Ellen's name for the long sl-o-o-w lift from the base) as one looks downhill.  Most trail names there had a Scotch motif, with names like Black Watch, Inverness and Hoot Mon.  Got onto the last by accident (missed the beginner trail turnoff) my first morning of ski week but before the classes were assigned and it was a disaster for someone barely past the snowplow - advanced intermediate with icy moguls and slabby powder in the hollows.  I probably fell 20 times and the remaining $80 in Travelers Checks were left behind sometime during the process.  However, it worked out okay, as I was initially placed in advanced stem but there too many, so they asked if anyone had been up the Mountain lift that morning and the 2 of us got bumped up to beginning parallel.

I believe you may be talking about what is currently known as Hammerhead, not sure about former names though. 

45 minutes ago, Hitman said:

I'd just add that Exterminator woods holds snow really well and there are some cliffs off the long trail to the north of there that are great but you need to know where you're going because the pines in there are really thick.

Those cliffs are something of a white whale for me. Of all the known and unknown tree shots along the monroe skyline, thats the one I never figured out. Tried it once and ended up going too far (I think). Had a couple of super steep turns down a barely skiable chute before doing the wiggle in flat pines before I hit the northway cutover about 1/3 of the way to inverness. One day!

My personal favorite is longtrail north of castlerock and then drop in right over the ridge into slidebrook. Entrance is tough to find but boy is it worth it. That's all I'll say  A nice view followed by 2k vert of tree chutes to the cat track under the slidebrook lift line. 

3 minutes ago, radarman said:

Sparse trees on either side of Upper FIS are usually good to great.  Not many turns in there, but they hold it.  Cut over through the woods from the top of black diamond and it opens up.

SHHHHH!!!  but yes, that whole ridge from MRG to Lincoln Peak holds so many goodies when the pack is deep, and some even when it isn't!

9 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Quick question..As a sugarbush alumni, have you ever witnessed a day where upper FIS was not the iciest trail in New England?  Had some of my scariest moments on skis on that trail.  Love sugarbush tho.

Haha yeah that trail is so exposed to the wind and gets a good amount of snowmaking so lots of times its a bit umm...firm. Yes I've had good runs on it but you can guarantee that if FIS is skiing well, black diamond or the trees are skiing better. Where it shines is when it gets blasted with cold early season gunpowder or on a nice warm spring day. 

9 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

That glade off the tram gets crazy deep.  I’m obviously biased, but jay is just a different animal.  You can’t compare the powder in their woods to anywhere.  North glade and andres will hold it for days.  
 

Can't help but agree with this. My first true (and to this day 2nd best) day of powder skiing was on a high school ski trip in March 06. I convinced my parents to let me demo a pair of Head Monster 88s from the Alpine Haus in Wethersfield CT as I heard Jay would be getting snow. Side note: funny how those were considered powder skis at the time!

Anyways, they got 18" or so of absolute blower powder overnight and the flyer was closed for wind so all morning all I did was take the Bonny, hike the 5 minutes up the ridge and go straight to beaver pond/andre's. I quickly understood the "snorkel" joke haha and learned to ski with my mouth closed so as to not choke. Thats when the addiction truly took hold! 

1 hour ago, J.Spin said:

I’m right there with you; I’m shocked every time I look at the reported snowfall averages up and down the spine, especially with so many people having the perception that the Southern Vermont Ski Areas get the most snowfall in the state. 

Sweet breakdown! Super interesting. The quoted got my attention though. Have you really heard repeated sentiment from the general public that the ski areas in so. VT get the most snow in the state?? I think that even as a kid I understood that further north = bigger/colder mountains and more snow for whatever reason. Skier's instinct maybe!

16 minutes ago, LaGrangewx said:

I just looked at their website and their 10 year average is around 215" at the summit and that is excluding the abysmal 2015-2016 season. 

215" seems much more reasonable for a long term average

26 minutes ago, radarman said:

Mostly agree but that last part I'm actually not totally sure about... Mt Snow often does better than KMart on coastals, and it's pretty rare that the R/S line hangs up between them. And for orographic snows I'm not sure the S Greens are notably different on average than Killington (are the C Greens a thing?).  The height of the mountain helps a bit, but the relative narrowness of the spine there may hurt some.  You are certainly the expert on upslope and I will defer.

I mean I still think there is a notion of north to south decrease in upslope snow, it may just be a question of diminishing difference as you head south. Strictly anecdotally speaking, if Jay is the high water mark in orographic snows, I imagine Stowe/Smuggs get 80-90% of that, Sugarbush/MRG 45-55%, Killington 25% and areas south of there roughly 15-20% of Jay's total. Of course this is broad brushed and can differ season by season and I'm also sure that among the So VT resorts, distance from the spine plays a part but generally speaking this is always how I've thought of it/observed. 

32 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

 The unopened mountains like Sugarbush/Bolton/Smuggs probably miss some snowfall as it’s hard to get upper mountain reports.  We are lucky with a decent snow cam and I also get up a lot for early season snowfall to verify at the Stake and on hill.

 

 

I will say that in following Sugarbush's #s pretty closely, the mtn ops team does a pretty good job of clearing that snow stake even during pre-season. Hammond would always be on top of his team about reporting strictly based on what the snow stake reads, which is understandable given the headaches we endured fine-tuning that thing. Its still not perfect (I imagine your setup is better for a number of reasons) but the added bonus there is that nobody can reasonably second guess snowfall at the 'bush. What you see is what gets reported. 

12 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

With Killington doing the math on the vert and Jay peak doing the snow measurements. it would be quite a place..

Haha I personally think Killington's marketing takes the cake when it comes to over-inflating #s. In terms of Jay Peak, when you look at South to North #s in VT, it isn't that far fetched that Jay Peak might avg 350" a year when Sugarbush > Bolton > Stowe axis is 250" > 300" > 314" respectively. Sure Jay has a reputation of over-reporting but I don't think its all that egregious, as that area does without a doubt get the most snow of any resort in New England. Killington on the other hand does claim the same 250" average as Sugarbush while being 40+ miles south as the crow flies. Do they avg more synoptic snow? Maybe, but that has to be a wash over the long term and they likely only get 50 and 25% of the upslope that Sugarbush and Stowe get respectively. 

In my four years working at Sugarbush (maybe I'm biased? lol) and three since, I've noticed that they tend to report a bunch of snow early in the year and then we've caught up and surpassed them in the later months. For example they are already reporting 46" inches on the season while areas south are in the teens and single digits while Sugarbush/MRG is in the 20s and only Stowe and Jay are 40"+. I wouldn't be surprised if their marketing angle is to hype up the SNE and NY/NJ crowd with higher snowfall totals in order to tap into that early season demand. That, or their snowmaking system is so powerful that they aren't able to discern between what is falling from the sky vs. what they are generating themselves haha. 

17 minutes ago, PowderBeard said:

It's the Dutch Hill of Massachusetts, in a nice snow spot. I have been to Dutch Hill when Mount Snow was only on man-made and that place had plenty of base.

There are some sneaky good areas east of the Berks with 500-700' of vert with consistent intermediate and legit advanced slope. Most are single lane fire road wide or with thinned out glades. Two of which only need about an 8" base. 

Haven't had the best experience in the Berkshires, more ledge and you're skiing hiking trails or going to scratch your goggles up on branches. There is one place I have been able to hit twice with a friend that was 800-900' of consistent advanced/expert vert - similar to Ripcord at Mount Snow for pitch and as wide as Broomstick at Magic or Misery Whip at Sugarloaf - that was well maintained by the power companies. I would take it over Greylock's Thunderbolt any day.

This should be on everyone's to-do list during a good winter. I'm all for rope-ducking in the "right" circumstances but these would need a ton of snow to ski safely. 

https://nebackcountry.blogspot.com/2013/01/trip-report-mohawk-trail-slides.html

 

Speaking of Greylock and needing a ton of snow, I've been looking at those powerlines for a few years. That looks like a 30+ degree pitch and not sure what the underbrush looks like but I'm sure 2 feet of settled snow would be appreciated. 

9 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Wachusett is now selling uphill passes.  $50 for the season if you don’t have a downhill season pass, $25 if you do

Does this now mean they will be allowing uphill access during operating hours? Seems worth it if so, especially this year. 

31 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

I’ve got a local update on these mountain streamers.  As I was back at the house checking out the radar, I was looking at the streamer down here, and it actually looked like it was shifting to the west (presumably due to a shift in the wind to a more northerly direction).  It looked like it was actually shifting enough to bring it near our site, and sure enough, I was looking out the window, and an immediate wall of big flakes came down.  It’s funny, having experienced going in and out of the streamer that we’ve got down here during my travels this afternoon, it’s clear that these streamers have a very sharp cutoff like LES bands vs. the typically broader effects we see with upslope.  Sometimes we’ll get some very sharp upslope bands, but these have definitely shown quite the cutoff.  I’ve got a radar grab below that shows the Waterbury streamer shifting to the west, and it quickly put down a half inch of snow when it got here.  The radar image also shows another pulse of moisture coming into the area from the north.

 

J, where are you able to get these composite radar images? I seem to remember the NWS providing the ability to zoom in to certain areas based on office location but I can't seem to find those anymore. They looked just like the above image...

11 minutes ago, Angus said:

and contrast that with Temple Mountain which has been closed much shorter time which is now almost completely overgrown. 

Was considering checking out Temple as well, glad I stuck with my first option!

14 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Wow nice. Watatic still has a lot of very skiable trails visible on it. It's amazing how long they have lasted considering it hasn't been open in over 30 years.

Spoke to a local at the summit who mentioned that there is a small crew that does some glade thinning and clears underbrush from the trails most years in the fall. The water content in this storm was noticeable as some of the narrower trails were barely passable at times with trees overhanging. Birch bender indeed. 

Hey there fellow wx/ski enthusiasts. Been lurking on here since about 14-15, my first of four winters at Sugarbush. Was a software admin there and logged 100+ days each winter...what a time that was! I actually laugh every time PF mentions the on-mountain snow stake cams there as I was peripherally involved in their installation yet intimately aware of the challenges we had with those hah. Life has happened since then so I'm now residing in Cambridge MA but still try to get out as much as humanly possible across the region (this winter may prove to be challenging).

Anyways, was able to get out to Watatic in Ashburnham on Sunday  with some friends for a quick tour after a dawn patrol lap at Wachusett. Found depths of about 10" at the old base area at around 1300'. Was surprised to find spots of 16" near the summit at around 1850' or so. A nice right side up snowfall that skied surprisingly well, dense yet not too wet.