powderfreak

What a week. Couldn't believe I had just about the same exact snowfall at home today as the mountain. Got home to 3.5-3.75" of new snow.... snow depth up to 16" in the backyard. The ski area is absolutely buried though. Looks so amazing up there right now. 1,500ft is just positively buried... I'll get a snow depth tomorrow at the base area but it has to be mid-20s at the least. Town looks like a Candy Land Forest... snow stacked high on all objects. All this snow has fallen with zero wind, even the power lines are sporting solid coats.

4” on the car leaving work.

Just checked the High Road Snow Plot again, two-day total of ~12" at 3,000ft. More fantastic skiing.

Pretty snowy day. Even MVL hasn’t gone above 2 mile visibility since 9am out in the valley.

I mean we just got 2" of absolute dust on probably 0.04" of water, ha. This has to be 40:1 or even a bit higher.

I bet we are pushing 2" already. These are some of the largest fluffy flakes you'll ever find. They are like the size of half-dollars and it's really cold. Can see Mansfield blocking the beam to the NE.

It is just absolutely dumping. A very quick inch in the base area. Snow growth is phenomenal again.

Oh look, it’s snowing again. Days and days.

A good upslope pattern that includes the entire Spine axis is awesome, love how you and Mitch down south can enjoy the same pattern as up here.

28” since the beginning of the synoptic storm I believe. Yeah it was 17” from the storm, then 3” from a little wave and now 8” from this round. I really think getting that first 8-10” of total paste job snow was the key. That just smeared high QPF snow on everything and then ratios have been increasing since then... but even the upslope part of the synoptic storm was pretty mild with lower ratios than normal. The cold didn’t come in very fast. Today’s stuff though was that 30-40:1 blower. Probably got a 1/4” water for 8” would be my guess. Soundings from a couple days ago keyed into it nicely, with a very deep DGZ layer, so any lifting was going to squeeze out fluff. Looks pretty similar tomorrow afternoon/night.

What a turn around in the past 5-6 days. It nuked all day on the hill. Just fat fluffy flakes. Snow globe got shaken real good. 8" new snow from this round and it's still snowing steadily.

Snowmobile trails looking pretty damn good these days. I've seen huge groups moving through the VAST network that goes through the fields in town. Saw a bunch of them in Morrisville at the gas station too.

Mind blowing how good the skiing is. From zero to hero in like 5 days. Boot deep fluff from last night and today on top of the big storm snow. Still ripping fluff from the sky.

It is cranking up here right now. 1”/hr fluff.

You guys all trying to field a basketball team or something? Ha, props to all for that. Must be awesome watching them learn to ski/ride.

Up to about 3.5” new snow in town. Total winter wonderland with the fluff stacked up.

It snowed last night. Eyeballing ~3” outside in town? Groomer up at mountain estimated 6-7” there.

Snowing nicely here this evening. Means only good things for the ski area when it's fluffing down in town.

Wow.

We've had the persistent flurry going on after the period of light snow that dusted things up around 4pm. It looks like we have more moisture approaching from the west. I like when Lake Ontario is also adding moisture to a great snow growth profile. It results in fluff but can also be localized depending on the moisture stream. 30dbz on composite moving through can leave a quick half inch to inch in a short period of time. BTV NWS latest forecast map for the next few days with several rounds of snow. Large DGZ zone in the moisture, should be able to pile up some fluff on the Spine through Friday morning.

Yeah 40" is the rule of thumb for more confident tree skiing. Obviously the type of snowpack does matter. I remember in early December 2010 we got a 30" upslope event that was blower powder. Folks were shattering their femurs despite a good snow depth number because they were skiing on essentially 10" of snow topped with fluff. That was the storm with a high-profile leg break from the shark fin on Upper Liftline above the Haychute. Dude screaming in absolute agony while folks were riding the Quad not 20 feet above him. Leaves an impression on you. I've always thought the real barometer is more "effective base depth".... what is the highest snow depth that your ski sinks into the snow on a turn? Just 24" at the stake with a bulletproof crust followed by 6" of snow can be a very confident snowpack. You know if you don't see something, you likely won't hit anything because the crust is so stout. As a skier, the real question mark is when you don't know how far into the snowpack you'll sink, and when you can't see indications of submerged objects.

We call that a "Healthy D" on the snow report.

Always need to tread lightly and cautiously. Read the snowpack and adapt. I feel like today, after a cold night and some minimal settling (whatever was possible given the high QPF) the snowpack felt more supportive. I wasn't expecting it to ski as it did, I thought it would be much more sketchy. But I've been wandering around on skis on Mansfield for a long time and that sixth sense definitely helped today. We found the perfect mix of snowpack and terrain choice for some damn good skiing. But yes, it's very easy to get hurt bad if you are over-aggressive for the snowpack/conditions. It's definitely about reading the situation and adjusting when traveling in the mountains.

Have run into him a couple times over the past week in the base area. Always good to see but haven't skied with yet this season.

Some people just don't do uncertainty in weather. It's either yes or no. Pick a side and stick with it.