powderfreak

We just broke free… around 60F now. Sun starting to come out.

Miserable low 40s up this way in the RT 100 corridor right now and this afternoon was no where near as warm as expected. Damp and raw outside. Heat needs to be on.

That ice coming at terminal velocity… nature dropping softball plus size ice is awesome.

Gonna need photos of that… wow. One stone, 5.5” tall. One is advisory level snow, ha.

55/21, super dry air mass out there. Some local stations had dews in the teens this afternoon. Love the low RH mild days. I absolutely love that it's 8pm and still twilight enough to walk around without any artificial light. In two months it'll be like this close to 10pm... can start a hike at like 7pm those days, love it.

Ha, it’s wild. Would’ve been walking via headlamp in pitch black darkness like two months ago. Now it still feels like midday. 5:45pm and it seems brighter than it does at 1pm in January, lol.

Wait what? 4pm? This is prime time outside right now. About to head out for an hour or more with the dog. Some other friends are just starting to hike a ski run. Light till 7:30pm. 63/25 and sunny.

Hey dude! Hope all is well and you had a great winter. Down here, the Chin looked buried, given the season high snowpack. The shots from people who got over there to ski it look awesome. Profanity and Hourglass in fine shape.

That looks terrible, ha. Mid 20s and frozen ground while folks down south walk around in shorts.

It was a stunner for sure. Mild and bluebird. Spring in the valley, winter on the mountain.

That winter white is melting off quickly in this heat and sun. What a day to be outside though.

Yeah for sure, get 1,000 vertical feet of sweet powder and then get 1,000 vertical feet of variable mush to get back to the lift.... ride it back to the top just for those thousand verts of sweet pow. Some last winter views today.

Ah weren’t they open yesterday? That guy was riding lifts. Yeah I hear ya, I saw some good reports though and it looked fun on video. But it’s the hardcore time of year, can see why most families stop.

At that elevation its not hard. Peak is mid-March through mid-April for snowpack above 3,000ft. The upper 1,000ft really start to separate from the lower elevations as mean temps stay 32F or lower to keep building snowpack… while down in lower elevations mean temps are above 32F with melting. This time of year you have the elevations maxing out on depth while there’s 0” down low. While in January it could be 24” down low and 50” up high. Now it’s 0” low and 61” up high.

I dunno man, the video I've seen from Wildcat seems to indicate fresh, snowy skiing. You can ride a lift to this stuff.

Wet snow falling down in the valley now. It's pounding again along the Spine. Mansfield Stake up 8" to a season high of 61" of depth. Upslope all day long. Fun weather day. Wind and snow combo today was just as good as some of the Winter Storm Warnings this winter, ha.

Mansfield Stake at it's highest of the season with that 8 inch gain in this cycle... it really starts to separate itself from the lower elevations this time of year. Climo is a bit different up there at the picnic tables.

From another report of mine: The Northern Greens came through again! It's no surprise to anyone by now, ha, but it snowed today. I definitely was not expecting a round of 1"/hr snowfall today with steady snow continuing pretty much all day. Best skiing was by far above 2,500ft, with wet sloppy new snow and slow spring soft serve below that. The 3,000ft snow plots saw 4" after 7am, with half a foot falling this weekend at that level on Mansfield's eastern slope. There was quite a gradient with even more snowfall found above that. To that end, the Mansfield Stake is now at it's highest depth of the season right now with an 8-inch gain this weekend! Once again I thought we were done with the "uppers" off the Quad but the new snow let MMSP reopen Upper Goat, Upper Liftline and Upper Starr... my 3pm run down Upper Starr might have been my best on that trail of the season as the wind kept buffing it out. A surprising amount of liquid equivalent fell this weekend and it would not surprise me if 0.75-1.00" of water was added to the snowpack up high. That will beef things up for the mild weather coming this week. The only downside of this snowfall is that we'll all want a thick spring wax the next few days to avoid getting ripped out of our boots. There could be some winter turns tomorrow morning still, but it will warm up quickly in the sunshine. The recent snowfall will turn to glue up high but for now, we revel in the classic windy, snowy Mansfield experience.

2” of slop at 1500ft here at the ski area. VTrans even ran a plow up Mountain Road. Light snow at 34F base and 26F up top.

It is absolutely dumping even to the base area 1500ft. 1”/hr snows rolling through. About 3” since 7am.

Ha, shocking the stereotypes are different than reality.

Damn. Sorry hear Tip. Keep your head up, as hard as it may be at times.

Snowing up high with accums mostly 3000ft or higher. Snow line 2000-2500 but just switched to flakes at 1500ft now leaving the base area.

Just busting your balls. Expected you to say you were going to a Sox game for nice weather. I hope every day is nice this time of year, ha.

Don’t they play hockey games inside?