powderfreak

It's a volume over yield business. From what I've seen they generally know how to run a slick operation but we had it pretty dialed at Stowe as it was. The issues arise from just throwing a lot of people at the mountain every day. Skiing is now affordable for a LOT of people. For years people always complained about skiing being reserved for the 1% and wealthy elite. Now it's getting very affordable and people are like wait, we take it back. We want it to be too expensive and for the one percenters.

Yeah this is getting fairly impressive now. In February it wasn’t noteworthy and put trust in climo but man the next two days are going to be a bloodbath. Dews rising up near 50F with record high temps today. Record high is 53F on Mansfield (1987) and it’s already 46F at 6am. Tomorrow looks like we may hear our first thunder of the season too.

Of the CO ski areas I've hit, Beaver Creek's Grouse Mountain Express was one of the better expert lifts I've been on. The clientele generally doesn't seek out that terrain and the powder seemed to last forever. We were there just after a 10-inch storm and the lift was mostly empty, with around 2,000 vertical feet of wide open terrain available on an under-used high-speed quad.

Dew point up to 44F now, compared to 19F yesterday at this time. That 25F increase in dews is notable... the air doesn't have that immediate chill around sunset that was in place the last several days. The temperature isn't going to plummet immediately below freezing tonight.

That’s awesome. Waterbury Res pretty clear there and can see the mean snow line is up around 1,000-1,500ft. We just patchy now in the RT 100 corridor. Stowe’s just out of that shot to the North.

I still think we’ve got another warning event coming at some point. Mostly because I trust climo (maybe too much) and even if it’s April 14th, I think we still have one in the tank. At the very least spring cut-off season has led to some monster upslope events after a cutter or something as lows meander around NE of here.

Yeah it would be tough if your only option was weekends. Definitely didn’t see that 20% price drop coming. They are going to put the squeeze on. Even Wall Street didn’t know what to do with that news as people couldn’t figure out how it would lead to more revenue by slashing prices 20%. I think it’s also viewed as a credit from this season to retain people... sort of like what @bwt3650’s thought process is. Overall I still think it’s largely good for the industry as far as making skiing more accessible to more people. The overflow will land at the Indy ski areas (like @Angus) and drive revenue towards them while keeping a fresh supply of newbies coming into cheap passes. Also drives the entire market down though, which can be tough for some Indys.

Spring skiing. Mashed potatoes and corn. Great day of seeing friends and skiing with people I haven't caught up with all season.

What a stretch of high pressure with nary a cloud and very low moisture levels... the afternoon RH and diurnal ranges for 4-5 days? Already around freezing outside for the night. We are 50-50 melted out up here. We'll be taking a dip in the river before long, ha.

Just ridiculous air mass. Daytime maxes have been +25 while the mins have been like -2, ha. Last 4 days diurnal ranges have been: 41, 43, 48, and at least 46 today. Low of 22F this morning and high of 68F so far. Dew point is 14F for 12% RH. What a stretch of weather.

What a day on the hill. Might’ve been the most I’ve skied all season. Definitely the most roving cast of friends I’ve skied with. Lowest lift lines of the season too. This is why spring skiing is great.

NNE climo sensei J.Spin told them not to lose faith. Spring never moves in for good in March.

I want to clarify I don’t like high dews, but warm/hot and dry is growing on me each year. I love this weather right now. But hiking in dews during the summer and the bugs that come with muggy weather, pass. I want summer days hot and cool refreshing nights.

Tolland Hills upslope event. Like the difference between J.Spin and BTV. Those are fun events, cool stuff.

"We aim to improve 500mb scores to rival that of the fabled UKMET." NOAA says it will lead to better predictions of hurricanes and other extreme events, ocean waves and weather systems high in the atmosphere.

With those super low dew points, as expected the bottom dropped out as soon as the sun went down. It's already 30 degrees colder than this afternoon... atmosphere becomes a vacuum once the sun goes behind the Spine. It's almost like a cold front moved through, doors and windows slammed shut before the heat kicked on. Will be below freezing in not too long.

He’s still on the dry persistence forecast going on like three summers... the next 5 months will be “don’t be surprised if XYZ finds a way not to rain.” Suppressed, South Coast, far NW, only the Cape, etc everything leaning towards no rain for heart of SNE.

All part of climo in the North Country. Late season snows count, lol. That’s often how these early mild stretches go... then end with some big snowstorm(s) as the rubber band snaps back and reminds you that it can snow into early May. Euro/GFS/GGEM all have something in that time frame early next week.

Doesn’t get any drier than that for a warm air mass... textbook definition of Chamber of Commerce weather.

BTV with 66/6 for 9%. FSO (Highgate, VT) with 66/0 for 7%. VSF with 62/3 for 9%. Today was some legit desert air mass. Temps in the 60s with dews in the single digits to even below zero is absolutely wild.

Forget about COVID though... Some fantastic spring skiing these days. Was on Spruce today enjoying some south facing sunshine as this part of the mountain closes Easter Sunday. This is definitely one of my favorite times of year.

That describes the current situation pretty well. The base area mazes, base lodges and indoor spaces are the target. No one is telling anyone what to do once the chair leaves the terminal and you are up/out on the hill. And by far the vast majority “get it” right now... go skiing, pull into the maze where it’s face covered time, then I go back up for another one. Lots of grilling and tailgating in the parking lots... people still out there with grills when I just left the Mtn at 5:30pm. Its not like it was back in Dec/Jan when the ski areas just wanted to stay open and avoid some super-spreader event being traced to their practices (or lack thereof). Many resort employees (older) and all ski patrol and stuff like that are vaccinated too... which has definitely cooled the vibe off too. Its still spring skiing and it’s still a fun laid back vibe. The people dressed in gorilla, Bigfoot, Borat and banana suits seem to be doing just fine, ha.

Definitely the SOP at most large resorts. First half of the season all ski areas just got hounded for not being strict enough on mask compliance... social media was a bloodbath of photos of people without masks over their noses, videos of guests hounding other guests, the customer surveys were wildly biased towards folks not feeling safe enough. It still is probably 66% to 33% in favor of or thankful for a strong hand of compliance... but that’s down from probably a 90-10 breakdown in January. Spring weather and vaccines are starting to turn the tide a bit more evenly. But still people by and large seem to understand what’s going on and are very polite. There are always a few that are looking for a confrontation.

This. Trying to keep everyone happy all the time when something like COVID is so political or divided and people stand so firmly on one side or another. As an employee, you tell that person drinking the Gatorade in a non-restaurant setting to pull up his mask and the person is annoyed.... don't do it and walk on by and another group of guests will get on you for not telling the other guy to pull up his mask. The lift lines can have people going at each other, going at the staff, etc about whether a nose was exposed. Guest 1 tells other guest 2 to pull up his mask, guest 2 responds that guest 1 needs to go home and watch more MSNBC... then guest 1 tells him to stop drinking the Fox News coolaid, Rush Limbaugh is dead, deal with it. It goes on and on. Ahhh... life in America. Cant wait for next season.