powderfreak

I guess NW wind brings more marine influence there locally east of Hingham looking on a map, makes sense coming off the bay. But isn’t Weymouth west of there?

Wow, I only looked at BOS ASOS and saw upper 50s on the water (only like 5F cooler than BDL)... assumed that was representative.

Are you 44F with mist? Ha.

Yeah that looks legit. Nice looking band just pushed into Phin’s neighborhood too.

Meanwhile sunny spring corn over here in NVT, haha.

It’s a weird mix of like historical precedence and just lost of interest. Too far north to get day traffic, but then people rightly say Jay and Sugarbush go longer. I think it’s falling now firmly in the “this is just what we do” regardless of ownership group. Third Sunday in April has been the day for decades. Business levels play into it but it’s also weird that we get almost zero push back from the local community. They look forward to closing or at least have also accepted that third Sunday in April. They all just will be skinning the very next day. Most of the people I know couldn’t wait to close Big Spruce so they can now skin it with friends and dogs. Main Street is a bump run right now all from skinning traffic. I truly believe the local community enjoys the closure with snow still left because this is such a strongly uphill oriented town and area. They know they can go to Sugarbush or Killington for a while, but it’s an odd mix of people who cannot wait for the lifts to stop running here. To answer your question, the main reason I get is just “That’s what we’ve always done.”

Yeah looks like Phin and Alex seeing snow too. I’d think it’s a good flow for that northern slope of the Presis. Crazy, I’m going to walk the dog in a hoody when I get home probably, ha.

Sunny over here but wow has it been windy all day at the ski area. Impressive gusts of 40+ rolling through at times at 1500ft. Even MVL has been consistently around 30mph for gusts and sustained 15-20.

That's mammatus. I've seen them outside of thunderstorms before too. Ninja'd by Dendy.

Variability in the 10-day progs. Still below average water, but there would be some dampness.

Late this afternoon I took my final Gondola ride of the season... this first weekend of April is the historical closing weekend for Spruce and Gondola, with the Quad running for two more weeks. We always close in the same pattern (first Sunday in April for the others, third Sunday in April for the Quad) regardless of how much snow is on the ground. 2011-2012 will remain the only winter I do not remember making closing day as we ended it on April 1st. But this also is a good reminder that even though it looked bleak 7-10 days ago, it's also really, really hard to truly finish off the Mansfield to the point of closure prematurely. A photo from the last run on the Gondi, and this is how it's supposed to end on a bluebird spring day with soft snow on all 2,100 vertical feet. Also the last day of the Gondola means access to the High Road Snow Plot (which is really just a pole attached to a board set out in a random clearing at 3,000ft) gets restricted, so I pulled the snow board out of there. Doesn't look like any snow is on the horizon and we can use the Lookout Plot to assess upper mountain snowfall if it does. It's funny how this simple device is so well regarded among the Mansfield faithful. People (like me) crave data and these sites give consistency to the snow measurements... instead of just eyeballing it while out and about. The looks on two snowboarders' faces was funny when I just randomly blasted out of the woods (in an area skiers usually do not go, which is why its a great spot to measure) with this board and pole over my shoulder like I'm just casually skiing around.

Today was worlds better than yesterday... that extra 10 degrees made a big difference in fun factor due to the snow surface. Yesterday never softened and while there were pockets of fresh snow, the steepness and wind blown nature of the snow led to a lot of just glare ice. It was essentially a spring day that doesn't soften, and leads one to feeling unsatisfied, ha. The bright sunshine but sub-freezing temps just never got the snow into that "playful" zone. Today however, fantastic. Everything I skied except the upper third of Nosedive softened nicely. The Nosedive "Turns" were the only thing that was really firm and slick all day in that cold pocket. Can see the difference easily on the temperature graph... yesterday stayed sub-freezing and today ticked up past that critical 32F point.

Looks real nice. Hate wasting rainy days this time of year when the sun is finally out until 7-7:30pm. Fantastic for outdoor activities, ground is so wet anyway with the thawing.

Very likely could just be overly courteous too. I will do it when walking the dog and passing people, not for any fear whatsoever but just out of respect. I feel like I see it a lot when wandering around with the dog... both parties don't care or have any fear but each person is like "oh yeah, I was just doing it out of respect. You ok with no mask? Yeah me too, cool."

That was an incredible game. What an ending last night.

Happy Easter all. Last push of the season this morning on Spruce Peak at Stowe. Starting tomorrow only the Mansfield side is open.

True, it just killed people earlier at the very least. It had a real impact on families. The economic impact was high too.

Big fan of excess death data. Everyone in my family is in the medical field, which likely makes me an internet expert. Regardless of the data, they always tout that excess deaths neutralize the "reason for death" metrics. More or less people dying relative to previous time periods indicate some sort of event or action took place.

Ha right... “offers a fun challenge”... that ice later from the rain prior to the snow is pretty damn slick block ice .

Beautiful Saturday up north... still a bit chilly though surprisingly despite the sun. The super dry air mass is keeping the snow cold mid-winter... a bit too icy now that the recent snow has been skied and blown around. Need about 10-15F warmer for a true top 10 day.

Nice. Was a beautiful morning today.

13F outside right now in the village. -10F wind chill on the mountain. Pass.

I don't disagree about the wider implications on a larger United States level. I do understand what Vermont as a state with a defined border and population make-up was trying to do.

The marketing and communication of this decision could've been better in a big way, but in Vermont you can see how it happened. Non-whites generally reside in the Burlington area (this is an exceptionally white state) and that BIPOC community often lives in larger family units in the BTV area, often in lower income zones. VT also takes in a larger percentage of refugees (the culture is great, plenty of Sudanese traditional dress and people seen out and about around the south end when I lived there) per capita than most other states and obviously you would gravitate towards a larger community of your culture if you relocated. Those communities are also less likely due to socio-economic reasons, as well as trust, to try and seek out the vaccine. They are also the larger at-risk community due to tight living spaces and larger family units/gatherings being the cultural norms... along with some studies showing higher risk levels. Anyone you talk to around here just sort of shrugs their shoulders and is like, sure makes sense. They get why because it's aimed specifically at a given community. They should've narrowed it down more for sure, or definitely phrased it better, but it is aimed at Vermont specifically and no where else. Vermont gov't makes decisions in a vacuum of Vermont, which in this case will open it up to some larger issues given that it's part of the United States, ha. Does every BIPOC live in an urban area and in larger family units in Vermont? No, for sure, but it's obvious that is the group they are going for. The phrasing and roll-out of it was a PR nightmare relative to the larger United States but I understand what they were going for here. That doesn't happen in a place with more BIPOC per capita... Vermont is in the basement with Idaho and Montana per capita. The gov't here is targeting a very specific community, but it's coming off as shocking in other parts of the U.S. due to it's implications.

That bolded is spot on here too. It's wildly variable over here. Spruce Peak actually did really well with snowfall, but I think it was because it seemed a lot less windy. Mansfield was a wind-hammered half foot or so with zero loft to the flakes. Top of Sunny Spruce had stacked fluff heading into Side Street and I saw pics from tracks up on Sensation (closed now) that looked like trenches.