powderfreak

It’s wild. Spring skiing. Folks can’t take jackets off fast enough.

Just went full April… sun and spring at the mountain. 50F now and 55F down at MVL.

The Peak Resort's integration went differently than Stowe/Okemo/Sunapee. The Stowe/Okemo ones retained the vast majority of operations staff and people who make things "go"... institutional knowledge matters.

Holy sh*t... it's 69F in ROC, 68F in SYR and 62F in ART. Very warm sliver of air moving in with that dry slot... we'll see what we can punch to in New England.

Will be interesting this afternoon... there's a lot of sunshine in update NY straight back to BUF. That looks like the time to really heat it up.

Satellite has a wide area of hot sunshine moving through NY and heading this way this afternoon. If the sun comes out the temps are going to skyrocket.

0.40” water in the Stratus at Mtn Ops… all fell at 33-36F.

A quick 0.40” in the Stratus rain gauge outside Mtn Ops this morning in the mid-30s.

It's just a mellower vibe for kids, the terrain is great for learning. As we discussed the groomer conditions are often much better without the big wide open exposed/steeper trails that get scoured and heavier traffic.

Western slopes of wide open valleys get long duration solar energy. The steep eastern slopes see a lot of shadow and are a much colder environment.

Can see it up here too. Steep south facing road cuts going bare despite below freezing temps throughout. This is the time of year when south facing aspects really start to struggle holding onto snow. South facing windy spots like the Mtn Golf Course up here will burn bare fast while feet of snow remain on opposite aspects.

Bolton Valley. 100%. Or even Cochran’s to be honest.

Oh for sure lol. It's real fun when it falls. Looking at most of the numbers around it seems like about 1" of QPF was good for about 20" of snow during this last pattern. Probably like 1.5" in the mountains where 30" totals came in 7 days. It took a few events but it did add at least some QPF to the pack and that fluff in the mountains can absorb some water now vs. the lower stuff that's the texture/hardness of a concrete driveway .

The best powder out there. Champagne blower billowing behind every turn. Luckily we got enough of it to get the trees back fully for the week.

Yeah looking more like wet on Monday.

These folks are ready. Skis and boat.

Yeah we’ve had some big March storms… 2017 and 2018 I think both had like 40”+ systems for the ski areas when combining synoptic and upslope.

Trying to get away from American politics, I do think on a larger humanity-level scale, a lot of humans throughout history love a strong leader regardless of the message. Not to romanticize people like Putin, but many humans respond well to a very assertive, firm, unwavering leader regardless of the message. Throughout history, people have desired firm structure to their lives and followed people who provide that, even if the message may be misguided (or very misguided). Certain personalities of people excel at it... and they exert a strong influence over their followers. They make their subjects feel part of something larger, even if it leads to atrocities. Almost every military around the world has and continues to exploit that "follow the leader" and heavy structure desire of many humans to be a part of something larger. The end goal can be very suspect but it's psychologically fascinating to see how large groups of people can be shaped by a strong leader regardless of message.

Hopefully, it’ll be close and hopefully it doesn’t get any stronger to amp up. Could be messy ZR/IP too.

We ice. Maybe we are just used to it lol. It’s blue ice under there... my most terrifying turns of the season were down through the "Nosedive turns" on literal blue ice last week en route to woods shots that harbored knee deep blower. It was two of the most extreme condition types... from holding on for dear life to oh my god hoot and hollar this is good. Jay Peak is known to be similar, Whiteface, Cannon, Sugarloaf. It’s about knowing where to go, too. Use trails to get to woods. I don't know if it's the wide open, steeper pitches exposed to wind or what but there are definitely hills where trails seem firmer than others. If it requires winch grooming there’s a lot of skidding skiers and snow pushed downhill. I've never skied BW but from what I've seen from the base area, it looks pretty similar to Okemo.... and both are usually tops of the charts in snow quality. This is a different experience for sure than 2pm on Nosedive when the upper turns are blue ice.

The funny part will be worrying about suppression in that one and then having it rain again to Canada. Some of these runs are pretty amped all the sudden.

I think he has a lot of backing and support. I remember having some conversations with Russian students working in Stowe during a previous summer as J1 Visa holders and despite every other student from Europe disliking Putin, it was surprising how much support the Russian students had for him. They loved the western life and consumption of consumer goods… but still we’re very pro-Putin. I’m still friends on social media with a few of them, be curious to ask their opinion. When you have the Russian Ministry of Enlightenment giving Russian wide broadcasts about why the invasion into Ukraine was necessary, it’s easy to see the cool-aid being digested by many citizens. You get taught all this at a young age, it’s hard to let go as you get older. ————— "At the All-Russian Open Lesson, school children will be told why the liberation mission in Ukraine is a necessity," it said in the post. The Education Ministry, also known as the Ministry of Enlightenment, said the lesson would take place at 12:00 Moscow time on Thursday, according to a Facebook post by the ministry. Viewers of the lesson would be taught about the "danger NATO represents to [Russia]" as well as the reason "why Russia stood up for the protection of the civilians of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics." The post also said it would teach children how to "distinguish the truth from lies in the huge stream of information, photos and videos" that flood the internet.

Two steps backward, three steps forward, one step backward? It's hard to stay in the basement for long, that was a nice little run of powder over the past 8 days. Now we take a step back but always onward and upward in the mean. Deepest mountain snowpack of the season for sure, as one would expect in early March. What a day out there today, sunshine and packed powder.

-12F currently at home with a low of -14F. MVL looks like it might have hit -15F. All set with the negative teens.

As I posted elsewhere... Yet another powder day in a week full of them. We can call it "Mansfield Magic" or the "Jay Cloud" or whatever local hill term you want to use... but these last 7 days have been the Northern Green Mountains doing what they do best. From 32" at the Mansfield Stake to close to 60" in the course of 7-8 days, mostly "under the radar" so to speak. The Spine turns a series of weak low pressure systems, clippers, or frontal passages into a powder party that lasts for days. No big Winter Storm Warnings, Weather Channel named storms, or week-long internet chatter about an upcoming snowstorm leading to massive humanity-wide FOMO. They sneak in, fluff out, then move on before the next not-a-storm system moves in as a blip on the radar. I love these weather patterns that we just experienced. Yes, the forecast is not great for Sunday/Sunday Night, but I'm glad we just had a classic cycle. Just to remember why we love these mountains. Here's G.P. enjoying the powder (hooting during most of this) and somehow getting down the hill only making left turns. Even down at 1500ft saw 6" from this little system. After about the same amount the day before with that weak system. The Mansfield Stake was getting very close to 5 feet of depth... quite the increase from the 32" reading last week. A good two foot rise in snowpack up there, even with settling and wind compaction.