powderfreak

Mud season is a special time of year. The colder climates do it unfortunately well. The deeper you can freeze the ground over the course of a winter, the deeper your mud seems to be in the spring across New England. A couple photos... a friend shared this from Waterbury, when you can't get to your AirBnB because your car can't handle NNE mud season. Friend in truck stopped to help these folks get to their weekend rental with a trip up the hill after seeing this. This one was from Moretown, VT (Mad River Valley, town borders Waterbury to south) in the rain this weekend. Damage.

That's a very common scene around NNE... so much standing water around, melting snowbanks and shaded drifts/patches. Grayscale ice that makes up the base of the former snowpack is the last to go. You sink in at least an inch walking around the yard here, with water filling your footprints. It's literally like walking around on top of a waterbed. Quick melt of snow on top of frozen tundra and the water has no where to go. Nothing close to growing so can't utilize the water. Ground can't soak in, sits on top. Like summer in the permafrost zones.

I think we can do 2" wet snow above 2,000ft this evening. Radar looks very blocked right now. Snowflakes have been making it down to about 2,500ft or halfway down the Gondi terrain at times this afternoon.

Looks a little different out there today. Oh how the weather can change.

So to summarize the last hour... "Will can't argue with me on this one. It's iron clad. This Morch will be the hottest since 2012". "There’s a decent chance that this March is actually colder than 2020 and 2021. Throw in 2016 too if you want yet another year that this one won’t beat post-2012." "Will thinks this month will finish below normal, ha. How can someone think that with the current positive departures! My lawn whispers to me." "Will didn't say anything about the month finishing below normal." "Pull ski pole from ass. Show us the month-to-date departures this year because I didn't look them up, nor did I compare them to 2012."

You must be pounding beers to read Will’s post and think those written words mean that he thinks this month ends up below normal. Just nude on the couch spraying cheese wiz into your mouth like it’s 3am at a frat house.

That must have been the one that went through Killington. They shut down lift operations for a time due to some close lightning strikes this afternoon.

Useless cold.

What a miserable ski weekend, ha. Mid/upper 30s at the mtn with SE flow packing in the low clouds and mist. It looks like it should a full month from now. This is the absolute worst weather conditions this time of year. Raw, cold, damp but not cold enough to snow.

Back to back 60F+ at MVL and 50F at the picnic tables.

Mud season in full swing when temps reach the 60s in mid-March. The ground here is thawing very fast.

Today was HOT up here. 60F in the base area and low-50s at the summits. Snow is sticky on all but steep, man-made trails that are more granular. Avoid any intermediate or lower natural snow trails like the plague, feels like it wants to rip you out of your boots lol. The steeps are great though, I bet stuff like Ripcord, Organgrinder, and Steins will be fantastic. Spring skiing is also about the fun vibe regardless of snow conditions. Folks BBQing, sitting in the lot drinking beers, popup tents and stuff. I love the spring anything goes atmosphere.

Probably one of the earliest I've seen 1,500ft here get to this patchy cover point. South facing is just getting obliterated, north facing still solid cover but man the Spruce Peak south facing slopes are getting hammered. 2012 was similar melt out time at 1500ft during 5 days of 70s with lows like 40s and even 50s. Still really fun spring skiing with the stake at 54" on the north/east facing aspects.

Summit is at 51F! Mixing down to 64F at MVL. It’s hot.

Now this may be sacrilegious but if it's going to be warm I'd prefer for skiing reasons that it doesn't snow on the backside? Getting 2-4" snows that then warm up and turn sticky doesn't do a whole lot. I'd rather it rain, freeze, then warm up with sun... providing corn snow and smoother wet granular rather than wet powder/crystals. The skiing can be so good when granular (snow that's been through melt/freeze metamorphosis) pack warms up and becomes wet/glistening on the surface. This time of year you need a good 6"+ to make it worth the trade off IMO. Constant backend light snows of 1-4" in the spring can sometimes be worse for surface conditions.

It is. I put a fresh wax on but man you need some steep pitches to get going. Intermediate and lower cruisers are brutal. The steep manmade trails are a lot of fun though. It honestly needs to rain on it a bit as powder warning up just turns to glue.

it’s warm. 54/23 at MVL. Full spring skiing. It’s melting . Snow in town getting smoked.

Not to prolong the discussion but curiosity gets the best of me... is it the daylight change or is it the lack of sleep one night? Like how do you deal with time zone changes or say traveling to Europe or something? If you have something come up and get one less hour of sleep a night, does that linger for a month? Or is it purely that the body is fooled into thinking its a different time with the daylight? For folks who struggle with this I can't imagine jet lag or even changing a time zone.

Light white rain here at 750ft. Not going to be much QPF at all though here.

If it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it.

Gah no way … be like sleeping in Norway on a trip I took there in June years back. People BBQing at like midnight and get up to piss at 3-4am to full daylight. Weird way to live, ha.

I do like it this time of year. Goes with that spring vibe. Lots of late afternoon skiing and chilling up top before late ski back to the parking lot. In the end it’s still the same amount of daylight.

I mean you just pivot by an hour. If you used to wake up at 5am, now you get up at 6am. Society could adapt pretty easily as long as everything shifts.

No more 8am chairlift openings if it happens. Ski day probably would have to be 9-5 instead of the classic 8-4. I love the late light in summer… don’t really care in the winter, I’d keep it how it is.

One way or another it’s going to be dark… either morning commute or evening commute. I go to work in the dark and get home in the dark most of the winter, not sure it matters to me, ha.