powderfreak

Awesome thanks! Love the attempt at keeping it going. It stands out as a small local hill from the larger ski area.

And 36-48” overnight with 50mph winds doesn’t even warrant a Blizzard Warning up there.

Conditions at Waterville got heavier later in the day once the precipitation tapered off and the sun even came out. Temps warmed up above freezing and the snow fell out of the trees. Again though, great conditions for testing all-mountain skis and having interesting conditions for brands to showcase their boards made for eastern/western conditions made for a great day. Some lower angle but wide-open glades were fun in the wet snow...surfy. Temps were 33-35F at this point as the snow fell/dripped out of the trees. Basically a 1,600 vertical foot high speed quad was the only lift we rode... and a ski area really wins my heart with 1500-2000ft laps off a high-speed lift. That's a huge plus in terms of maximizing ski time and not sitting on a lift. For whatever reason, I love longer vertical foot gains in short periods of time. Lapping that is fun regardless of terrain... but there were a few good steep rollovers in there. Lower Bobby's Run was something we did several times. Tracked out crud and push piles, mixed with moguls is fantastic ski test terrain. I know @MarkO has talked about a smaller local slope nearby there as he has a cabin in the area... I'd love to know if that's what we saw across the valley. In the photo above there's that small three trail ski area across the valley. It made me think that's the one Mark talks about. Fun to see a different neighborhood. Overall, fun day, diverse conditions, and WV has some vertical that is lap-able from a single base area (seems good for kids, can't get lost, end up at bottom regardless) on a high speed quad. There are some ancillary lifts that would be good on crowded days, along with another high speed servicing learning terrain in the middle of the mountain. Aesthetically pleasing layout for the overall size of the hill; laid out well.

Since I was able to get out of my usual neighborhood, I'll post some thoughts on Waterville Valley as a first trip. Had a great day of skiing and I liked the Waterville set up. This is what is considered a "business trip" in this line of work but headed out to chat with some some of our normal ski reps and meet some new ones in a large industry demo-day. Tried about 10-12 different skis from different brands throughout the day, but the only one I didn't want to give up was the next generation Atomic "Bent" Chetler 10. Skied 4 runs on that ski alone and may take the brand rep up on a pair. It's 100 underfoot but skis like 90 and the shovel/tip design really excelled in today's conditions (90-100 underfoot is my personal sweet spot for a daily driver eastern skiing mix of groomers/glades/ungroomed). That Bent Chetler got my seal of approval for the day out of the flagship skis from brands like Salomon, Head, Dynastar, Rossi, K2, Black Crows, etc. Waterville Valley reported 1-2" of new snow but that may have been at the base. I love a good conservative snow measurement; it's one of my favorite things. In the morning before things warmed up a bit, I'd say a dense creamy 4" was more accurate up on the hill. We call these conditions "visiting the cream cheese factory." Very surfy and great for testing wider width skis. Attachment limits mean another post is needed....

Great day at the cream cheese factory today skiing Waterville. They only reported 1-2” but seemed like a good 4” IMO on the top 2/3rds of the hill. Nice “surprise.”

The difference in about two miles passing Canon to Twin Mtn exit was crazy. 36-37F to 30F, snow back on the trees, winter. Weird thing is looking over in VT the high at a torch spot like BTV was only 33F.

Raining over this way past Loon and heading up into Franconia now. Was very wintry this morning now looks wet, snows fallen off the trees, etc. Truck says 36F.

I thought last night was southerly flow on 850/925 though?

Then kids get to high school and start spending a lot of time in the “woods” and seem really concerned about soil pH and you’ve come full circle.

Ha at some point you’ll be up north long enough to be ok with sharing snow and lose the southern anxiety. You won’t care about seasonal forecasts or patterns. Your kids will start listening to jam band music, growing out the pony-o. Half of them will ask for teleboots for Christmas. It’s coming.

It’s easy to do riding shotgun.

Pretty much raining just SE of Franconia at 32F at Lincoln exit.

You are sounding like me when Ginxy ribs me on being surprised. You expect one thing, then leading into the event you start doubting it, then you get the original estimates and are like “wow, nice surprise!”

Had a half inch coating in Stowe, looked similar across most of northern VT… hit freezing rain in Littleton, NH. Pretty snowy all the sudden in Franconia Notch passing Canon.

Some freezing rain in Littleton and snowing pretty good entering Franconia on 93.

Looks like some light snow and icing last night here.

Seeing is believing.

I love these little clips you get. How do you post that media?

A memory from 5 years ago in 2017. We were in the midst of a stretch of 108 inches at the High Road Snow Stake in 3 weeks. This was the only time in memory that had a tragic UVM student die from drowning in the snow. It was like 5 feet of unconsolidated snow (like what's on the left side of this photo) and if you got flipped upside down for some reason with your equipment on you may not be able to get your head back up above the snow. I have never heard of that ever happening in the east before. Had 375" that season at the High Road Stake. It snowed every day it seemed.

Ha! I may be remembering his name from a decade ago in BGM. I think they are both him.

Where's @kulaginman? This event has looked primed for his cabin up there on the hill in Jackson. Looking forward to Waterville on Tuesday if this is close to correct. It's almost like the snow axis is showing where the CAD spots are... ME foothills down through Dendy.

Now those are some low level glades right there. When you mentioned it I think of some glades around Mansfield but not at that level of openness and ease for kids. The Chapel, Sunrise, Birch glades at Stowe are probably similar to that pitch but not that wide open. Nosedive Glades are wide open but can get into a few more "interesting" shots/parts. Our scale of "relativeness" probably starts to change over time with what we get used to.

The sunset earlier this evening was fire.

100%. We get the radiating nights that cool nicely and lucky enough to have slider doors in almost every room so leave those open it can get cold inside quick even after 85F days (except when the bears are around, wife won’t allow screens to be the only thing from one walking into the kitchen). The problem comes on the last day or two of a hot stretch when dews pump and southerly flow keeps it well mixed and it’s still 70F at midnight outside and not 57F. I think I run our current A/C unit 2 weeks a warm season. May has been very hot the past couple years it seems. I will say if I have a quiet mini-split set up I’ll run A/C more in the evening. The 6-9pm time can be tough before the sun goes down and the quick drop happens. And like you said the big benefit is using it in the shoulder seasons when its “chilly” and you just want some heat but don’t need the full heating system. I think of early autumn and say the May/June rainy 48-55F days.

I'm still not sure I buy it but Waterville on Tuesday might line up nicely if it comes through with that QPF just south of the Presidentials. Though might be a bit too far west?