MRVexpat

55 minutes ago, jculligan said:

Skied the steep trees in the east basin of Big Jay yesterday. Wow. Even in a lean year like this, that zone still delivered! Absolutely the best powder I have skied all winter. I skinned up from 242 rather than approaching from the Jay Peak tram. If you're looking for a real "adventure" involving steep trail-breaking through thick vegetation, I would suggest repeating my route...but it was truly a battle to the summit lol. Next time I think I'll take the more traditional approach by traversing over from the tram. But hey, a little adventure ski feeds the soul every now and then!!

Looking forward to see what today's system can dish out. I'm feeling good for at least a couple inches in my location.

Holy shit! That's such a committing skin/boot-pack. Much kudos. Attempted that last year the day after going over from the ridge. At 2800 feet the skins came off and we started booting. 30 minutes and 200-300 vert later of pushing thru waist deep snow we gave up haha. Such a good zone but I don't think I'll ever again attempt to summit if coming from 242, unless the pack is very consolidated. I've found Little Jay to be a better bang for your buck if coming from the road. Lots of cool lines and aspects off of that peak. 

1 minute ago, Hitman said:

It is the staffing issue why they arent running the slidebrook lift.  They are down lift mechanics and that lift has 40 towers that have to be inspected daily whenever its running.  That being said, even if they had the staff, the limited snowpack would have impacted when it could be run.

Specifically they were short on staff this summer so the yearly inspection/maintenance couldn't take place. Don't know much about the details but apparently you need a certain level of certification to perform this level of yearly maintenance and of course other lifts took priority. Based on what I've heard, the decision was made to not run it long before any sort of an official announcement. 

Anyways, looks like its really coming down out there. 5-6" up high in the MRV as per about an hour ago. 

4 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Sugarbush didn’t run slidebrook this year due to staffing issues, but I wonder if they would have had enough snow to run it for more than a week or so even if they had the staff with those totals so far?  

Mtn ops typically likes a foot of packed down snow on all of the work roads in the Slide Brook basin for snowmobile/snowcat access prior to running that lift. But like you said, I don't think more than a couple of weeks would have been feasible this year. Hopefully inspection can get squared away in the summer and we have even an avg winter next year!

27 minutes ago, jculligan said:

Drove up from Boston early this morning. It rained all the way to Ossipee, briefly flipped to snow in Tamworth then changed back to rain from Chocorua Lake all the way to Center Conway. Changed back over to snow in North Conway where I stopped for a brief ski tour on Peaked Mountain, but even North Conway flipped to rain prior to my departure around 10am.

Here in Jackson...no rain to speak of. There was 5.3" of new snow on my driveway when I arrived home, and it continues to snow big fat flakes at 34F. Our settled snow depth is up to 33" which is 10" deeper than at any point last year. The pack has a LOT of water content in it. I know this area is particularly known for snowpack retention, but I feel I didn't get to test that last season. Hopefully we don't HAVE to test that for a while yet...

I know you've mentioned this before but are you at the base of the black mountain ski trail or doublehead? I hiked black in early January last season and was shocked at how little snow was needed for it to be skiable. I'm sure conditions up there are great right now. 

Was in PFs hood (briefly) on Sat as we got up to the nose via the Teardrop trail on the west side of Mansfield. 0 degree temps and 50+ mph gusts made our stay on the summit a brief one but I managed to break out the phone for a quick picture.

The tree skiing on the way down was dreamy! Still some schwack here and there but the vast majority of woods skiing in the Central and Northern Greens is "in" right now. 

The next day at Sugarbush brought more powder skiing and slightly warmer temps. Had to dig a bit deeper at my old haunts to find freshies after the Sat assault but the old stashes delivered!

9 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

If Mansfield is 111 on the season, then 141 is not ridiculous.  I skied both mountains the same day and there is a difference in coverage.  They pulled 5 out of their ass last Friday and it was deep in the woods.  Skied off after the weekend, but even I was surprised.  I really can’t wait to get a full season up there to get some accurate numbers, but you can’t compare it to your spot.  

That's the thing. Jay does pull snow out their ass at times which is where some of that confusion comes from those who haven't experienced it. Like I've witnessed on more than one occasion skiing there or the immediate BC where point forecasts show 20-30% pop and "less than an inch" per BTV and then bam 4-6" comes flying thru with nothing appreciable on radar. No doubt the Jay cloud is real. It's when these kinds of differences are reported during a synoptic storm that make me think a bit haha. Place is so rad though. Love skiing there. 

21 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Just a bunch of fake posters about fake snow.

Jay reporting 8" up top as of EOD. You get out today? I don't scrutinize their totals as much as some but that one does seem a bit suspect to me. Hopefully its legit! I'm up the following weekend.  

6 minutes ago, mreaves said:

Latest from BTV.  Bumped up a little more

 

LOL @ the tiny red dot over Mt Ellen

2 minutes ago, mreaves said:

You're a soccer guy.  Give this a listen

 

YNWA

12 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Yea true. it was all part of the Floyd rotation though and after a few turns and an eighth later, it all blended in lol. The wall, wish you were here…I forgot the others. 

Animals, Obscured by Clouds and especially Meddle are favorites. The latter might be #1 overall for me....hard to beat Dark Side tho

Looks like a hair over 3" so far mid mountain at Sugarbush (they cleared the boards this morning). Coming down decently with mod snow down to the base @ 33 degrees. 

BTV AFD mentioning 8-10:1 to start followed by 12-15:1 beginning Thursday night. Right side up! A skier's delight. With most models showing 1.2-1.6 QPF thru C/NVT, this should be that solid pack injection that J Spin has been talking about. 

Not sure which thread this belongs in but here are some pics from our excursion to Summit Ave in Brookline! 

12 minutes ago, Massplow said:

What is the start and end time look like for accumulating snow in the Boston area. Been busy getting everything ready havnt had much time to follow along

Also curious. 

Good rates and snow growth at Stratton. Eyeballing at least 10" 

45 minutes ago, Hitman said:

The groomers don’t do anything to get the heart rate up.  That’s the issue.  At least if there are moguls the exercise gets blood flowing to the extremities.  You finish a groomer and you’re just as cold if not colder as when you started.

Slalom skis being the exception. Pays to have those in your quiver skiing in New England. 

4 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I am not totally familiar with the geography up there, but you are facing NW right? This is an east flow event from the coastal but I'm sure when the winds shift you will get buried in fluff with all the residual moisture around and it's not like the low escapes to the east, it goes right over NNE. Should wrap some stuff around I would think.

Yeah the low placement seems nearly ideal, its just that it moves out of the area fairly quickly. I'd like to think those areas (esp Jay and Stowe) are good for a decent topping of fluff after the main event. 

3 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

What’s with the snow hole over the northern greens?  

Shadowed by the Whites? Idk tho. Over the NEK it makes more sense...

Just now, powderfreak said:

I hope you guys are right, that’s how we get more snow up here too if that thing tugs SE.

What's your thought on ratios assuming CVT/NVT don't get in on that banding?

21 minutes ago, wxmanmitch said:

20° F and overcast. I think I see a tiny little under the radar snowflake from time to time too. 

I had a minimum temperature of -7° F yesterday, which was the coldest since last winter. I had a cheap midnight high of 7° F though since the arctic boundary didn't reach my location until around 2 AM. The daytime high was -3° F despite full sunshine. 

I had 3.4" of lake effect snow with 0.2" LE Sunday night through Monday night. Total snow depth is 6". While it's not much, it's a full on Currier and Ives winter scene out there with snow and ice on the trees. So much better than that garbage pattern we had December into the first week of this month with rain, freezing rain, fog, and mud.

Saturday's arctic shot is the real deal, and I fully expect double digit negatives here Saturday AM for the first time since MLK Day 2019. It doesn't look like there will be a cheap above zero midnight highs either as this boundary comes in late Friday. 

The Sunday night and Monday storm appears be our first significant synoptic snowstorm. While it may take a track over or west of us, the storm could occlude off to the SW of us, which in essence cuts off the warm air from the low center. Although a track like this would usually be the kiss of death, not this time. Worse case scenario it could be a good front end dump followed by a dryslot with some light snow or mix. Also, an occluded storm to the SW of us could result in a nice firehouse LLJ from the E or ESE, plastering the Greens and their eastern slope with a solid 12"+ storm while the western slopes get shadowed with strong downslope winds.

All of this assumes and early capture by the 500 mb low as much of the guidance currently depicts, but if that doesn't happen, the storm will probably take a more traditional coastal storm track along or just off of the shoreline. This could put us in the midlevel deformation zone with a storm that hopefully doesn't occlude as fast. Either way, there's finally some legit hope for us snow lovers in what has been a lean winter so far in NNE.

Sure friggin hope so! Out of curiosity, what is your snowfall YTD? Friends of ours just got a place nearby. 

3 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

I dunno’ I am with @Ginx snewx on this one, I think a track over Boston is more likely than a track over Albany.

Would be huge for the ski areas. Its been such a rough season up there so far. 

Decent upslope signal Thursday > Friday on the GFS? Just a weak low hanging out in southern QC for some time. 

9 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

What park is that? Cambridge doesn’t have many open spaces. 

Hastings Square in Cambridgeport

Just shy of 10" in Cambridgeport after some compaction. This is for sure beautiful, but would rather have it up in ski country. Gonna be depressing driving to a nearly snowless Sugarbush tonight. At least the powderhound loves it!

10 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

No that makes sense for 2 reasons.  The ridge sugarbush is on runs more N-S opposed to SW-NE and a NW wind is down sloping off the high peaks region of the Adirondacks. So a W wind would be more favorable.  

Looks like the high peaks are actually more due west of the Monroe skyline, so I would think a NW wind would actually avoid downsloping? In my experience a WNW wind is actually best on account of that N-S orientation you mentioned, depending on Froude #s. 

But yes, lots of moving parts to figure out something like that. In a classic NW flow setup with a froude around 1, it seems like Stowe generally does 50-100% better than SB. Definitely event dependent though.