powderfreak

It’s a winter evening. Mid-January as it should be. Snowing, very cold, arctic tundra style dry small flakes sifting across the road. No salt will melt snow at these temps, giving it that arctic circle vibe. Just cold and snowy in the valley bottom. We’ve lucked out up north. It hasn’t been the dumpster fire it has been down south. Seasonal snowfall.

The west is interesting… some good, plenty of bad. Like Utah and Colorado seem to be having a good run of it lately and are above normal at places like Alta and Steamboat. Tahoe and into northern Rockies not so much.

We had Quad and Gondola on hold until 10am and 11am respectfully. It was a busy day, people know there’s snow up here, ha.

Yeah, it’s great. Just stuffed with pow. Digging trenches.

Just hit 0F here. Lagging a bit behind the NEK valleys and adjacent White Mtn drainages.

No it’s just depth now. They used to have an observer but that stopped over a decade ago now. Now it’s just us at the ski area measuring at 3,000ft. Another 6” last night. Absolutely incredibly deep powder out there from 50” in the past like 10 days. Snorkeling now.

Not sure we ever lost it completely (the thaw was bad though), but it just feels more like January recently. Has been an odd but exciting winter to be honest. Several wet paste jobs, some true fluffers, some record floods and melts. No shortage of exciting weather… the long boring stretches have been absent. Theres been steady snow cover in parts of NNE that has likely influenced the overall tenor of the winter. Its not great, but not terrible either.

Photos from a friend… but measured another 6” at 3,000ft in the past 24 hours. The mountain has just been fluffing out the remaining moisture from the Ontario band recently. 43” has been measured over 9 days at 3,000ft, with more above that at 3,500-4,000ft. Band is aimed back at the mountain after a north drift late this afternoon.

This displays the current scene so well. Nickels and dimes adding up, with a couple good fluffers in a row… following heavy wet cement.

4” more today, 6” past 24 hours. 9 straight days of accumulations. Place is just loaded with fluff.

I can’t figure it out, nor can others. 40” is a big difference when everyone else is within inches of each other. That’s like a noticeable snowpack difference. If we had 40” more, the stake depth would be two feet higher. But that’s not just a couple inches here or there. Thats the equivalent of four 10-inch storms where the neighbors got nothing.

We’ve measured 125” on Mansfield at this plot: Bolton stands out big around here… from south to north: Jay Peak… 187” Smugglers Notch… 122” Stowe… 125” Bolton Valley… 165” Mad River Glen… 109” Sugarbush… 126” Now, I’m not going to call anyone out but I will list the resorts who make note that they are actually measuring snow at set locations, have live cams on a snowstake or occasionally share photos of a constant location with a measuring device… Sugarbush, MRG, Stowe, Smuggs. Infer what you want from that information. There are two ski areas that I have never seen any proof of actual standardized measuring going on.

Theres been wind and heavy wet snow in several events this winter. We had a weekly pasting event for like 3 weeks in a row in Nov/Dec.

Mid-level magic.

Agreed, the ratios are high, but with cold temps it doesn’t matter. Its mid-January vibes as they should be.

34” measured by the three person team over the past 7 days. It’s been a good run at the Plot. Snow Reporter Chutes area has been deep.

What a scene out there this evening. Just post card stuff in town. The few folks visiting town this week are getting the Ski Town as it should be vibe. Town is snowy, and the mountain is buried. The High Road Snow Plot has seen 34” past 7 days. All measured, no bullshit guesstimating. High quality control measurement standards for Stowe. 5” today through 3:30pm. Snowed steadily through 6:30pm.

Measuring just shy of 6” and 1” past hour in town.

5” at the ski area so far.

Can see us losing our 1-1.5”/hr meso band there.

3” and nuking at base of ski area. This has to be 30:1 ratio stuff. This is how you get 9” on like 0.3” QPF.

Snowing hard. Nice mid-level fronto band developing that looks like it may hold this afternoon.

5F. Pretty chilly evening.

The High Road Snow Plot at 3,000ft at Stowe has recorded 29” in the past 7 days. The snow depth at the fabled Stake has responded accordingly. Another fluffy 3” this morning from overnight squalls. This site is one of the best snow measurement spots one could dream off. Heres a photo from a few days ago, but when we talk about the High Road location, this is the measurement site. Just a nice opening on a bench in the terrain 3/4ths of the way up the hill to sample the “upper mountain”… the readings here truly match with the conditions on the hill. It’s a great representation. If you skied through the woods at 3,000ft, this is the depth of the new snow you would encounter.

Winter is in place, with a fluffy light refresher on tap. Hope you guys get fluffed. Large part of the north has a big/tall DGZ, add in some fronto banding and someone likely has a good event through CNE into NE NNE.