powderfreak

The irony is the best ice storm I remember living in Albany area and only one to lose power in was in April 2003 (I think it was 2003, last winter there).

72F today at MVL! Record max yesterday and again today. Mansfield Summit tied record high of 58F from 40 years ago in 1982. She warm! Amazing afternoon wandering the mountain with the dog in shorts and a t-shirt.

The skiing is just best in LCC. BCC was ok but I go out west I want that big vertical, dramatic mountain experience that LCC has.

Oh yeah I’m out at noon today, home to grab the dog and get outside. Wife working till 6, let’s goooo lol. Gotta enjoy these final warm season days.

If we hit 68F yesterday… we have a higher launch pad today at 32F. That’s a 7-F head start already, ha. We’re hitting 70F+.

Oh there hasn’t been anything left for a bit now. Consistent nights in the 20s for a while, nothing hangs on. Though only 32F last night.

25F this morning and frozen solid (-5 on the min). 68F this afternoon in shorts and t-shirts (+19 on the max). Now back into the 30s this evening. Wild swings on these dry clear days, can swing 40 degrees in 6 hours.

Brighton and Solitude is a bit better but it’s still a two lane road. All it takes is one car or one accident to jack the whole thing up for an hour or two. Midweek was always fine for me in LCC but I haven’t been there in 3 winters. Of course any Winter Storm Warning these days is pretty much a shitshow in a lot of areas. People know snow is coming, can make plans to move other obligations, and with everyone having a season pass these days (Epic, Ikon, Mtn Collective, whatever) they are going to the mountain on that powder day… the day the internet has been telling you is coming, the local TV broadcasters talk about, social media weather outlets, the iPhone blowing up Winter Storm Watch or Warning, etc. Hype in storms is at an all-time high in skiing IMO. To be honest, it’s counterproductive but the best days/vibes sometimes are when it’s not snowing…and that’s wild, ha.

Skiing is popular these days and two lane roads don’t help. Powder days are well forecast and well advertised too… there’s no sneaking a storm in when a massive city lays at the bottom.

Watching the sun go down at 3,200ft right now… in NVT in November… and comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt. That’s wild. Not a leaf left anywhere, everything dead, but a comfy mid-50s above 3000ft.

Oh yeah I guess I was thing from the race event stance, natural would be more cosmetic than anything. It all helps but they’ll be looking for like a foot of QPF from the guns giving 3 feet snow.

Natural snow has zero factor in it. It’s all man-made and dense. Maybe if an inch or more QPF snow bomb but a snow gun can do that in a few hours. Need a lot of water to support a race like that… to drill in gates and then safety wise, they need to have feet of depth on the sides to be able to anchor the various netting and such. They have specs for depth to secure that netting so it won’t pull out when a human slams into it. That’s honestly the biggest hurdle is width and sideline depths.

My guess is if the forecasts hold they might give them the chance until the second snow inspection seeing as Killington has pulled the event off impressively well in the past for an FIS ski race in November in the East.

I know they are, ha. First FIS snow control inspection is November 12th. If they haven’t started by then it’s over. If they have some white down they’ll make it to the second snow control inspection a few days prior to the event.

25F this morning. Heat on. Really wish the winter heating bills were fake. Heat pump though on electric gets the chill out.

Ahh ok then that’s fine. As long as you can still see when it’s 32F and dumping paste while it’s 35F and raining where people live… I didn’t know it was manned observations.

Averaging 500” it’s gotta come at some point, ha. 49” season too date and 22F with +SN in the parking lot base elevation. I want their snow observation platform though. Fun hourly water stuff with this one 0.08/.14/.17/.14/.11/.09… I need that detail on Mansfield .

Need to go out west. Utah going to get rocked with another big cycle. Alta, Utah Collins Station has picked up 10” in the past 8 hours on ~0.9” water and the storm just started. 29” on the ground. Look at the y-axis on this model run for Alta, ha. I thought it was cm but no, it’s inches.

The day they stop reporting on Mansfield summit is the day I smash my laptop, ha. Even if it’s not an ASOS… put something up there that’s reliable and can continue the record.

Hate that. And I’d really hate it if I lived near there. What a unique station and history around the BOS area.

We get those occasionally… winter events, lol. But no really the times when it seems impossibly warm for so long and then a region wide snow event comes out of no where to end it in a minor torch relaxation. More likely to get that in a warm January or something, but all it takes is one trough. Be funny to have a well above normal temp November and sneak in above normal snow from a rogue event.

Less likely to get fake warmth out of those days too. Not stretching the atmospheric tails on both ends, usually just low diurnal changes.

Man, I love visiting the tropics of Burlington. Those white sandy beaches of Lake Champlain look nice with the Hilton hotel there behind it.

Lady bugs are bonkers these days up here. South/sunny side just plastered with the things. High of 63F but high clouds capped the warming.

Haha for sure life choices trump everything. I was just playing the devils advocate and sourpuss at losing my end of day light outside with the dog… already transitioning to the headlamp. Bottom line… Get out and ski or ride . Luckily there are places that turn on the lights for that too.