powderfreak

Still fresh in the mind though so doesn’t feel that bad. I mean we did have a great 3-4 week run though. Had snow cover at home for like a month, we’ve had worst. It’s just not good right now.

It could be worse though, much worse. This was 12/27/2015. At least all trails are white and the mountain passes for winter. Everything is based off 2015-16, just 8 years ago. Its rough, but no where near the worst in even the past 10 years.

This is the catch-22 right now… aesthetically in our minds, we want the cold, flurries, snow guns cranking, type days. But conditions right now when soft are likely better. When this freezes again it’s just going to be hardpack that skis off to ice. We need some natural snowfall. Even just a few days of upslope, but 6”+ natural is needed to really make the current trails fun again IMO. It could be a wait.

It is… it hit me today, knowing another mild rainy day is coming tomorrow, with a little CAA on Friday but not much. It has felt very much like April over the 7-10 days. Flooding rain/snowmelt was now 9 days ago and nothing close to winter since then. Only a half inch covering passed as snow cover for a few days in there. It’s just glacial larger plow piles, grass, and elevated water levels. April.

By previous pattern you mean one that doesn’t snow. Thats the problem. It might be a completely different pattern but like Ray said, if it’s not snowing in your backyard, it’s just going back to the “old” (aka non-snowy) pattern. There are two types of patterns at this point for some folks… one that snows and one that doesn’t. Doesn’t matter how the actual atmosphere looks across northern hemisphere.

Agreed. We’ve actually been pretty busy. Starting to rain now though so starting to dial it back a bit. Past two days were busiest of the season, not much surprise. I mean everyone pre-buys and prebooks lodging in the area that’s all non-refundable. Beginners also don’t care, all that terrain is open anyway. Stowe is more destination than day trip type place, so we seem less affected by weather. They book lodging and stuff, they are going skiing.

Today was like spring skiing. Soft snow, bumps forming, some sun. Could be worse but definitely not mid-winter. If there’s a week with bad ski weather, it’s Xmas week every year.

Dense fog at 30F this morning had an April morning type vibe. With late December darkness.

How was his post lacking respect? Lol. I may not agree with the pessimism but are we looking for everyone to bow down to our thoughts?

I’ve never heard of them being required anywhere. Some require them for children’s ski school lessons or junior programs though, that’s gaining popularity.

Not ideal. Riding the probabilities but on the low end for NNE.

This reminds me of why U-Wind Anomalies are so important. Strong southerly flow is a moist torch… if that wind direction was more easterly (instead of S/SE), it advects moisture deeper into the cold pocket. As it happened, it was just a very robust S/SE jet streak rotating through…not transporting moisture into the cold sector.

Ahhh to be in college again…

Have seen it on a couple runs but this place will be real lively if a couple suppressed mid-Atlantic sliders roll through.

There have been excavators going up and down Nosedive to get to it.

See I would say we had by far the best start to the season since 2018’s record November. It all got completely reset though. Theres still snow too… its just that it’s all a block of ice. If we got a foot of snow, the snowpack is still there to open natural snow terrain. But we are in a holding pattern now. The irony is that the official record will show the Stake depth is just back to normal now . But there's still "snow", just in the form of a glacial ice pack. Luckily wasn't a true total melt out.

lol. You get so defensive my man. It was a joke. With that said, Tamarack has been around for a while, probably one of the most level headed observation oriented poster on here. Tom has seen a lot of winters if you’ve paid attention to his posts. If he says it’s desperate, most of us are inclined to believe him as he’s never had any reason to shape a discussion outside of facts. The guy knows more about Maine climo than anyone on here. It’s on another level than just anecdotal snowmobile experiences.

Part of me wonders what it would take for Wolfie to acknowledge it being not ideal, lol. I feel like Bananas could be harvested in Fort Kent in December and it would be “yeah it happens, I saw them growing while snowmobiling 22 years ago. No biggie.”

It’s rare to have a winter rain event raise the lake level on the “6th Great Lake” to a level above the spring melt. December never gets the highest water level of the year. Add it to the list of things we haven’t seen in a minute of history. Its been a wet year overall.

Just imagine how warm the rain would’ve been without the Atlantic’s help. That assist might have been what marginally tipped the scales pasty to the north.

It’s made the white coating the past couple days at home feel like deep winter. We need to get back in the flow. It was a pretty good 3-week stretch in the NNE mtns.

But if we get snow in April or October we count it? Does it make them winter months? I don’t disagree with you but the logic doesn’t float completely.

That Cliff trail damage on Mansfield is one of the crazier things I’ve seen on that mountain and I’ve seen a couple crazy things over the years. Heard there was an excavator heading up there today. That is a key trail connecting the Gondola and Quad. And that won’t get fixed with snow. That flash flood dug a trench in the ground for like a half a mile down that trail.

Snow is back. Nice light snow and we white again. Rebuild one half inch at a time.

Pretty much every major snow event prior to this was high QPF… there was one fluffer but multiple 1”+ SWE snow events sat laying in wait east of the Spine. Then strong SE winds brought a huge wave of moisture into those same areas that harbored the most SWE. Many big QPF events have occurred in the past month, but we lucked out by 1C each time. This one wasn’t even close though. Pattern has been very wet.