powderfreak

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.

Kids test better in school with early daylight, and are more likely to be obese, depressed and sedentary with that early darkness. Pick the poison, ha. Its always a big topic in the northern tier rural zones. I had an entire UVM course around the Maine Winter Sports Center and combating lack of activity in kids (and their parents) during the darkest and coldest times of the year. Got some great trips out of that class to Fort Kent, lol. I’ve always wondered how activity levels after school and work would be if we could combine heat with low daylight. Like gets dark at 4pm but it’s still 80F at 8pm. Does that change routines of basically hibernating (especially more rural communities) during the dark time of year.

Yeah the getting dark early sucks. Really limits outdoor/active time. Gets to be headlamp season just to walk the dog. Gone are the hiking from 7-9pm days of summer, lol. Sure one can go to the gym or do sit-ups in their living room, but not the same as getting outside.

Nah many skiers all thought AIG was always doing things to save money to boost profits (like not making snow for 12 hours altered AIG’s global bottom line), especially after the taxpayers bailed the company out in like 2008 or 09. It doesn’t matter what ski area it is, if someone *thinks* it’s cold enough, or it’s not windy enough, or whatever… ski areas are always looking to save money by not making snow, running lifts, not grooming (even though it rained all night), etc. It can’t possibly be because there’s a valid other reason (temps, wind, weather, snow preservation, etc) .

Agreed. I'm not really sad by any means about it. It feels to go against what I used to live by but winter's are long up north... if we can enjoy a couple more weeks of these mild days and large diurnal swings, I'm all for it. November ribbon of death is fun for the first few runs and then it can be a while before any other meaningful skiing can take place.

Probably riding the roller coaster there for a while in mid-late Novie. It’ll be a step down from the first 10-14 days of the month though.

Until we see the Ensembles show more wholesale changes, I think we’ll keep seeing this back and forth. The 12z GFS went back to blowtorch where 6z had full winter. Settles in chilly at the very end though.

Raise the minimum at 1500ft. That’s a local warm spot. Like a Tolland hilltop… often stays well mixed. Nighttime is a snowmaking issue in that elevation band unless it’s strong CAA top-down cooling. Low diurnal temp changes often at 1500-2000ft.