Froude

15 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Snowpack at the picnic tables remains near normal with the long term average.  This season has been pretty normal on the whole for the snow department, snowfall and snowpack. Pretty crazy for Dec/Jan/Feb to average +8 and then a +6.3 March… even April is +2.5.  Statistically, to have these departures in the winter and still see normal snowfall, it’s a weird combo.

Yeah one look at that graph and you can tell it was a weird winter. Surprised to hear those +departures in March and April, it's felt like a cooler spring so far.  Guess when you get used to +8 then anything less feels normal.

Just a fantastic day out on the hill. Not the deepest ever.. but light dry snow, sunshine, and empty lift corrals made it one of the best days this year for me.

My wife and I bought ebikes a couple weeks ago so you can all thank us for the late winter resurgence.

All respect to High Road but I gotta say J.Spin always delivers the most accurate and detailed local snow report right here on the forum. It's much appreciated and always helps me make good skiing choices for the coming days.

Stowe and MRG get the nod for runners up hah

7” at home, seems to be a jackpot locally as everywhere I’ve been today has less.

So nice to see winter back in the valley. Is it just me or did we used to get way more of these fluffy clippers?

Almost craving sun more than snow at this point.

According to local NBC weather: "January 2024 has been an exceptionally cloudy month in the Champlain Valley. 87% of days over the course of the month have had overcast skies at noon, which is the highest percentage since 1951."

20 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I saw a lot of white plates heading south on 89 Monday. Did they get much of good holiday weekend? 

Yeah Sunday and Monday were decent especially considering we just had two warm storms roll through. Certainly no disaster like Christmas week.

But Tuesday's system plus the lake effect/upslope the past two days have really added the powder on top that we needed. Those who took the whole week off are being rewarded.

I gotta think a lot of the VAST system has the green light now too?

Yeah the mountains are stuffed all of a sudden. Such high quality snow too. What a sleeper week.

Dumping catpaws, ushering in the cold air. Hopefully we can keep it below freezing for awhile finally.

Just a couple shingles gone here. A friend in Pleasant Valley said their neighborhood has a bunch of trees down, broken garage doors, shed door blown off the hinges.  Glad the east side and mountains come out of it with a gain.

Had a quick inch of snow followed by some sleet and now flipped to liquid in the west side foothills.  Our house is very exposed to the SE so I don't love these big downslope wind events.  Happy the white pines are all on the lee side at least.

Overperformer here north of BTV.  7" of fluff.

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

There’s going to be 8” at some parts of RT 108 in Stowe and 1” a mile or two north/south of it .  

I had to drive to Spruce Peak tonight for the NYE event and its hard to believe it till you see it. Brown all through some typical snowy spots in Hyde Park and Morrisville, an inch or two as you come into town, and then the jackpot partway up 108. Beautiful snow too, clinging to everything and fluttering down all night.  Just in time so all the holiday crowds can see what they missed before they head home.

6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Caked.

Frameable.

Yeah best start since 2018 I'd say. This week has been stellar. Thanks to PF for the tip last night, this one was sneaky.

3 hours ago, powderfreak said:

It was all-time.

The hill tapped out the season with 8 straight days of sunshine, including 4 straight record highs days.

Everyone on social media talking about the time of their lives.

 

Yeah just an incredible stretch. Was able to hit Smuggs, Whiteface, Tucks and MRG last week.  I love powder but a warm sunny spring day on the hill is about as fun as skiing gets.

Pretty special couple days in northern VT, and across NE from the looks of it. Yesterday and today were probably the best inbounds ski days I've had here since the big March in 2018.  The lowball forecast and maybe some end of winter apathy really cut the crowds down.

And the stake soaring above average during peak seasonal depth is huge. Everything is skiing like it should right now which feels great after a few poor seasons in a row.

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Saturday morning is the one that’ll be next level at Stowe.

 

Operations are usually curtailed to lower mountain lifts and/or Gondola.  FourRunner Quad has shelter at Octagon at the top but I could see lower mountain lifts only and maybe Gondola as a viable option.

Wind hold threshold drops greatly too… any decent breeze and lift goes on hold as no one wants to come close to any issues.  The amount of risk assumed in those conditions is near zero.  Wind can also trip sensors from chairs rocking, even slightly as tolerances of those sensors is extremely small. Normally that’s no problem, a lift mechanic just goes and verifies haul rope placement and it takes <10 minutes.  It’s not ideal but it’s a CPS (cable positioning system) fault that lifts at most ski areas can see a few times a day in some cases.  However, in that type of cold, even a 6-min stop is a problem.  So if there’s a chance, lift goes on hold.  Wind hold tolerance goes way down.

Decisions likely made Thursday and Friday for any operational changes within the next 24 hours based on final forecasts.

Personally, I’d try Friday and definitely Sunday.  Saturday is out unless it’s one run for the novelty of it.

Yeah beer sales will be up in VT ski towns this weekend. Friday is almost looking worse. More clouds, more wind, and temp dropping throughout the day. Not to mention we're all used to skiing in light layers in the 20s and 30s at this point, hah

2 hours ago, Ginx snewx said:

Froude over or under 1?

Tapering off here so gotta be at or over 1 now. Not good for my backyard but great for first chair tomorrow. Colder temps tonight will dry things out too.

Yup coming down nicely here on NW flow.  5" so far of very heavy snow. Tough to get the skis around in the trees today.

Flipped to snow in the northern Champlain Valley and coming down hard. Will be nice to come out of this with white ground.

6 hours ago, MRVexpat said:

Am not. All of the Indy resorts are on the main island and we're heading to Hokkaido.

Japan is amazing. You ever been? Best snow machine on the planet.

15 hours ago, dmcginvt said:

How highly anomalous is this.  I have lived in Lamoillle County or Washington County since 87.  I dont recall us being this bare in a long time.  But i also feel like it has happened before.  Anyone got records to share?   Worst december ever records?

2001-02 comes to mind, back in my high school days. And it shows how you can turn this around into a decent year.

But it feels like we need this one next week.

2 hours ago, eyewall said:

Sounds like this cold front may make my trip not worthwhile 

You'll be fine. We're on the early side of peak, there will be plenty of leaves left and it looks like another sunny stretch next week.

2 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

Usually leaves turn at slightly different times and rain and wind strips some trees while others are not a peak yet.  Not this year.

Was driving around the western slopes of the Greens today and thinking the same thing. The colors are phenomenal. Seems like the trees are all synced up this year and turning at the same time. Between that and all the sunny weather it's been one of the best foliage seasons that I can remember.

April 27 > May 16. Hell of a 19 day turnaround. I love the huge seasonal changes in NNE.

Classic daffodil crusher. Still dumping and starting to stick to pavement.