powderfreak

I also truly believe our mountain ops staff is one of the best. Lack of staffing in ancillary stuff like F&B is pretty normal now. Heres something I posted today about a couple mornings ago… “A look at the Mountain Operations Team in action, and an example of how much behind the scenes work goes into keeping things running on Vermont’s highest peak on a daily basis. Recently when starting the Quad in the early morning and running the daily checks, lift maintenance was getting a tower fault as the electrical loop wasn’t closing. The lift maintenance electrician was dispatched to the tower to find out why. He snowmobiles up to a communicated spot and is picked up by a winch cat still operating on the trail. This photo is of the winch operator delivering him to the tower, which is then climbed to find the problem (its an extreme weather environment for electrical sensors). A replacement part is needed but the lift is safe to load chairs on with the mechanic monitoring on the tower. He hangs out on the tower while the line is loaded with chairs from the barn. Lastly, @mountmansfieldskipatrol riding line check brings the replacement part up the lift (which is stopped when they reach the tower so the electrician can retrieve it). Once the MMSP line check off-loads at the top, the lift is secured and the replacement of the part takes place. The FourRunner Quad is then good to go, clearances are given, and it opens to the public with only a slight delay. All of this takes place before 8:30am in the morning on a cold, dark mountain and it’s routine work. Every time I see the communication, teamwork between departments, and skill that daily operations take… it blows my mind a bit. Even after 15 years around here. Gratitude to all the people who work together to deliver us to our favorite terrain on a daily basis.

It’s amazing for some of us. My last paycheck before taxes was around $4k for two weeks. That’s a $100k rate over the course of a year. Granted it doesn’t sustain that much out of season but we have never been paid better. Not even close. They keep throwing money at it, adding bonuses, increasing pay structures and we keep benefitting. The service industry is getting overhauled. It’s amazing to see and we are just along for the ride. It’s not even close to being done either. The next year or two will be awesome for rising pay corrections. The more people complain, the better we live. As an economics person, I think it’s totally out of whack but I’ll ride the wave.

Does Bretton Woods require vaccination status to be employed? From all I've heard, that is a major factor in the NH mountain communities. Something as simple as proof of vaccination in the wrong political environment can sink a ship.

Transplants like myself, need to find the zen zone... NNE is a full mixing pot at this point. Suburbia moves to the country.

-17F and falling here. METAR KMVL 160345Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR M27/M29 A3042 Minus 27C is pretty cold in this area. Your spot is just tanking.

Water is frozen solid outside Lake Champlain's depth and volume. Any smaller body of water is just creating ice rapidly in these air masses.

-15/-20 at both the MVL ASOS and my closest PWS. It's cold. Still some room to fall given the dew points. Decking and trees are popping. Loud pops heard outside during last time out with the dog.

MVL ASOS at -15/-20. So is the closest PWS to me just across the river. It is frigid outside. Dog wants no part of it on our last foray outside for the night. Still have some room to fall with those dew points.

I honestly don’t know, not often but not completely uncommon either. The full calendar day below 0F though might be more rare (usually some cheap high at midnight or something on many days below zero during daylight). Feels like maybe once a winter but hard to say. Some years like 2015 have a bunch of them.

It sounds like some interpreted that as they would be mowing their lawn come Tuesday. Hilarious line of exchanges from saying it gets into the 40s to “you wanna fight bro, I’ll still have snow left.”

Today was absolutely brutal. High of -4F at the ASOS and I just got home with -8F on the car thermometer at 6pm. Good old max temp below zero type of day.

I would’ve told family we’ve got a pipe burst in Randolph and need to get up there to fix it in a hurry. Any number of excuses to return there from MD .

I do wonder if the QPF on that warm conveyor belt is a bit over-modeled. Often we see those like 1” in 6 hour stuff end up verifying a bit less. I know we’ve seen it in colder snowstorms where models have a wall of 0.75-1.25” in 6 hours that ends up around 0.50-0.75” or something… still a heavy band tipping the bucket but not quite to the modeled amounts. The orographics into the Whites though is different than say a push through SNE.

Did you come back from MD early? I would have, ha.

Yeah it’s same at summit of Mansfield as MVL. Rare in CAA. The last cold shot was -24F summit and -12F at MVL… this one is even at -13F all elevations.

-13F this morning, wind chill at MVL ASOS got near -40F. Mansfield is sustained 50mph, gusting 60mph. Wind chill -50s. It’s like the face of the moon outside.

-13F leaving the house this morning.

48 hours left… that’s a long time in model wold.

Kids blowing through the base areas like tumbleweeds on there way to lessons. That's awesome.

That's a great point. Natural snow terrain or something that makes you work, keeps you mentally interested and physically working. Cruising groomers gets old at those temps. Of course with kids they don't seem to mind from what I've seen on the hill. They enjoy being out there if mom and dad have dressed them appropriately.

God I think I'm pretty chill (wife thinks too chill/laid back, ha) but I hate jam band music. Not sure why but I'd rather listen to teen pop on the radio than Phish or stuff like that. We don't pretend to be happy, we'd always love two feet of snow, but I think it's almost an appreciation of the climate you are in (almost cockiness/confidence) that causes the mellowing out or chill vibe with weather. You start to know it'll snow at some point or you take satisfaction in knowing it's a snowy climate on the whole... no need to fret about it. Where I sleep isn't the snowiest place but it gets the job done. Where I am when I'm awake and the sun is up (like today I was up the road at the mountain from 5:10am until about 6pm), it's a pretty snowy place. J.Spin also knows he'll jackpot locally in plenty of events. You know the events that work best for your spot and know they'll eventually come (like this one). I think you can already see a mellowing out of your worrying in your second winter up north. Just wait till its like your 10th or 15th. The more you appreciate the climate you are in, the more you start to lose the competitiveness of weather IMO. That's when you can really gather round the fire and sing kumbaya . Meteorology is also pretty damn fun and awesome to really dig into, which is why we are all here anyway right? Seeing deeper meanings for why weather is the way it is and how it pans out.

Yeah my family would've absolutely skied when I was growing up. Family trip to the mountain, going skiing. Maybe not all day, maybe start at like 10-11am or something, but definitely would've skied.

Ha we always have talked about these types of days internally and I generally feel if you are going to tell people not to come… as a business why are you open then? Like if an business tells people not to come to them, they might as well close. So if we are going to run lifts, explain the situation to them, don’t sugarcoat it, and let them make their own decision. Certainly aren’t trying to drum up business and would prefer you make the best decision for your family… like if I had kids I might reconsider tomorrow, or you could make it into a game too. One run then a hot chocolate or something. Then 1-2 more runs and a break, etc.

Ha, I was trying to put out operations communications this afternoon to lay it out for anyone wondering. If this doesn’t make you want to ski, I don’t know what will . Honestly the wind chill of -40F might be too high, should’ve put -50F.

Yeah my car said 0F leaving the mountain an hour ago with wind increasing. And that’s warmer than it’ll be at any point tomorrow. Yikes.