powderfreak

Great morning on Mansfield. That storm was a true game changer. Can't say it enough. Obviously could add another two feet to cover up more shwack and make it less brambly, but still, adding up to 2.0" of water equiv to the mountain was a great shot of base that for the most part has made the trees a lot less sketchy than I thought they would be.

There are so many weenie zones around here. The town of Stowe has so much variation. Like today up the Sterling Valley, there was in the 18-24” range on the ground in that 1500-1600ft. Folks that live in Sterling Valley always talk about how they get double the snowfall other parts of town get. Same with Nebraska Valley. I have 12” on the ground and this part of town has 20” easy. It would be great to have like a dozen observers around town, ha.

Nice afternoon exploring winter in Stowe. Sterling Valley got crushed with snow in this last storm. They are the north end of town of Stowe. Pretty consistent 18-24” depths at 1500ft. Deep winter.

I still firmly believe it’s the lift capacity over here for the lines, not crowds. Wildcat/Attitash definitely on the rise with Epic Pass and probably the VT travel regs are pushing some that way. I’ve been taking the Gondola this morning. I can see how it’s frustrating to some, but like I am typing this from the Gondi and for 8 people to get on it took 6 cabins! Singles and a couple doubles. 8 people per cabin normally but this year right now I just watched 6 cabins come through to take 8 people up the hill! The trails are completely empty, can ski top to bottom and not see anyone until the line at the bottom. The Gondola is averaging under 2 riders per cabin.

This is where skiers and riders get the stereotype of being one of the most entitled groups of people out there, ha. And I say that with love and that I am in it too sometimes when I don’t step back and realize... “it’s just sliding on snow.” So much complaining about a leisure activity sometimes. I try to block it out, haha.

It’s been a Stowe constant as long as I’ve been here. The crowds will back up at the FourRunner for the shiny high-speed lift. And forgo the slow double chair that goes to pretty much the same place. I always try to highlight it to people because I have no sympathy for people complaining about a lift line when right next to it there’s a chair with no line. Here I am skiing past the line recently, and skiing right onto the Double with no wait.

What those people don’t know if there’s a fixed grip double chair right next to that (Lookout Double) that is open and goes to the same place...didn’t have a line all weekend. But Sunday of MLK Weekend during a monster snowstorm and we never came close to actually running out of parking or having any traffic issues... rare. Was very light on the whole compared to normal. Last 5 years MLK weekend is people parking in town and riding buses up if the traffic moves at all.

Diamond dust this morning. Good to see. “Take me to your leader...”

Estimated snow totals based on recorded totals and radar estimates over the last few days. Synoptic plus meso-scale. Certainly not perfect.

That still is mind blowing and I don’t think it will ever change. The most I ever witnessed was back when I really skiing all day, every day. 2016-17 was something like 108” in around 3 weeks at the High Road 3kft board. I checked it at least 5 days a week per winter in that stretch of years...morning and afternoon (~8-9am/4pm). To witness that level in the Boston area, highly populated... is insane.

That's the only reason I had ever heard of Randolph, NH prior to Phin, ha. I'll have to hit that sometime, it's just so hard getting out of this area for me in the winter. And yeah, for sure the Whites and Adirondacks have more rugged alpine terrain. Without a doubt. Though the terrain off Mount Mansfield's summit ridge and the zones into the geographic Smugglers Notch on both sides can and does kill skiers/riders, unfortunately.

Love character building expeditions sometimes though. Even hiking in the summer during sh*t weather. Always feels like a day not wasted. Good report. That's a sweet looking trail. Good for the base is right, hopefully you can get some fluff this week too. One thing that always sticks out to me is just how dense the woods seem in NH. It's like a wall of trees lining a corridor. I still don't have any good reason except elevation/climate but the Adirondacks and Whites just seem to have much denser forests. Maybe soil differences? Amount of species diversity? Or maybe it's just all in my head. Definitely a difference between hardwoods and softwood forests though too....'Dacks and Whites seem to be covered by very hardy softwood forests, which seem to be denser on the whole.

Snowing again outside. Very little on radar but this stuff is pure dust. I do think it’s time for the currier and ives pattern... this is from BTV where lift is weak (won’t be as strong as along the mountains) but nice DGZ cutting right through a few rounds of lift. Tuesday night and Wednesday, then again on Thursday afternoon. This is the look that keeps the snow globe going.

Ha yeah I mean I see plenty of friends do it ice-fishing... or even just partying with a fire on Lake Elmore. It’s just one of those funny things... “so you want to have a bonfire on the frozen lake, huh?” First time you hear it, it’s like go figure.

I know people do it all the time ice fishing but it always cracks me up to see a bonfire going on a frozen pond/lake. Seems counter-intuitive.

Yeah hard to say but those Woodford observers have been around forever. They were there when I was a kid, they report to the WeatherNet 6 (CBS news out of Albany)... I always remember their location as 2,400ft TOP OF HILL (always in caps lock, ha). Definitely might be weenie-ish but they’ve been around for decades reporting snow up there. The only reason I get skeptical is the fact that it was an even two feet. I’d rather see like 23” or 23.5” ..something that doesn’t sound like it was mailed in (there looks like two feet out there!). Either way, growing up skiing at Mt Snow I often felt like that high part of RT 9 there in Woodford had deeper snowpack than the actual ski area lol.

The elevation gradient was pretty substantial. I saw this photo from 1175 feet on Blush Hill in Waterbury, VT... said almost 15” total. Around here like 1,000-1,200ft was the magic line between solid storm and like wow it dumped. But the water added to the snowpack was the same since it never seemed to pour rain....just was extremely sloppy snow for a long time, ha.

Yeah I think the warmth has been impressive. Though most snow lovers don’t notice it unless it’s melting snow, so mild mins or mediocre daytime warmth just doesn’t translate in that sense. For snowmaking though where single digits and teens are ideal...more so than a month of 20-32F... it’s very noticeable. Average morning temps should be near zero in the NNE rad valleys. A morning of like 15F feels cold right now.

Ha I’m only joking. Yeah I didn’t update the text (only do afternoon text if it’s a big event, just let Andre do his morning thing tomorrow) but added another inch for the after 6am snow triggering a new time stamp. That storm has changed the season in a way, finally off the snowmaking routes and not everything needs to be a groomer.

Hey now, don't sell us short! 19" after last night's/this morning's snow.

Oh for sure and plow piles. Roof-tops like discussed. I do think it's a lot less visible though than growing up in suburbia and urban areas... where there are snowbanks everywhere and more general "snow clean up." Here it's like they just plow the snow further into a field or lawn... but when you don't have that, you start to really see the piles grow in urban/suburban areas. I just always felt like you "see" 30 inches of snow more visibly in terms of impact back where I grew up. It's also a joke my wife has with me. When I'm like "hey seems like we probably got 7 inches last night" the answer is usually "it all looks white to me, I have no idea how you can tell."

I noticed it on the models yesterday... there was a pretty good push of H85 and 925mb cold that gets hung up across the northern third for a bit today before another surge tries to drop it south a bit. It finally feels "cold" ish today. 20F at 1,500ft and 23F at MVL.

Yeah that's what I think of as far as looking at NNE fields and woods. Once the corn stalks are covered in the fields, it's all the same. The field behind my place looks the same at 8" as it does at 30" lol. It's just white. Of course your brain knows the difference but if you take a photo of one, and then a photo of the other, it's just a snow covered flat expanse ha.

That’s what it should look like! 2010 in Maryland all the time, ha.

Finally looking like it should around these parts. Don’t get too close to the edge of the road.