powderfreak

Afternoon round up of the state of the snowpack… High Road Plot (PM reading): 62” Depth (2” decrease past 24 hours, 12” lost past 5 days). Big Spruce Plot (PM reading): 42” Depth (2” decrease past 24 hours, 14” lost past 5 days) Barnes Camp Plot (AM reading): 28” Depth (4” decrease past 24 hours, 14” lost past 5 days). First 24-36 hours saw the biggest melt and the snowpack is getting a bit more resilient as it gets deeper down into some of the previous thaws and ice storm from mid-season. Only 2” decreases past 24 hours at the higher elevation sites is a positive trend but we still have at least 48 hours to go and likely 72 hours. Good spring skiing.

We spring.

Those are my least favorite people. The ones that need to tell you that people don’t recognize their brilliance. If you are that smart, people will notice over time. But if you go for sympathy because folks didn’t bow down to you… good grief.

57F.... there's like a slurping noise coming from the snowpack in the yard, haha. Just getting eviscerated.

11-12” here. Been a hairdryer. CAD land doing well.

First time below normal snowpack on the season. The Mansfield stake lost a solid foot. Our Stowe Mtn Resort plots lost a similar amount across multiple elevations and aspects over the past 2-3 days. Don’t let anyone tell you ski areas don’t measure snow and work to preserve the observations. High Road (primary plot at 3,000ft), 2/3rds of the way up the mountain. 72-64” Spruce Peak knoll… 56” to 44”. Barnes Camp 1550ft… 42” to 32”.

The 7pm light hits hard. Love to see it.

Honestly it’s felt like everything has gotten twice as bad in the last week. What were small undulations in the road like 7-10 days ago are now speed bumps.

We’re doing a solid melt right now. Last 72 hours at 1500ft has gone from 42” to 32” this morning.

Yeah dark this morning, but for whatever reason I respond better to light later in the day. I can do dark mornings, and half the week I’m up by 5am in the winter anyway… but big, big fan of being able to be outside in light between 5-7pm after work. We need to find a way to stop the earth from tilting and just do a constant all year lol.

Ahhh, later sunsets are back. The best time of year.

Hit 57F here today… mostly sunny afternoon was glorious. Spring skiing at its finest. Taking the sunny torch award up here.

Yeah, I mean it’s still been a great winter, snow depth days way up, and shows the overall importance as a skier if getting that deep early season base and then being able to ride that out. Been skiing the glades since November… it really lengthens the ski season. Feel like we’ve been at 30-45” depth in the base area for 2+ months now too.

At 3,000ft we measured only 36” in February, which is kind of wild. It didn’t rain either, just didn’t do much of anything. Should be 70-75” on average. We’ve gone really dry since sometime in January… but snowpack has remained healthy due to the strong early season base. Snowfall was pacing way above normal by like early to mid January and has now fallen back to a normal pace for the high elevations.

Weir is a fun guy to ski with, and he loves snow. It’s those shared passions that unite us all regardless.

Hit 45F and sunny up here.

Pretty nice cold drain down the Champlain Valley… low level sub-freezing air oozing south. BTV now 28/17 with 15mph NNW wind. Its 34F Mansfield Summit, 40F base area and 41F MVL.

Guess it’s the same down in SNE between ORH and everyone else around there. Dripping off rooftops at ORH but locked up tight elsewhere.

Talk about an inversion and fake cold preserving snowpack down low… 3,600ft… 29F 2,600ft… 36F 1,550ft… 39F (Ops building) 750ft… 21F (MVL and local PWS)

What a day. 2” (2.25”) new and then 40 degrees.

Nice morning.

Yeah that’s what I would expect. I don’t remember anyone saying a week of 70s.

That’s really the question… I mean, even if it fails at 60s or 70s… it’s still pretty mild at 50s. It’s not like it’s going to be 38F instead of 65F.

We are currently tied with the blizzard… 0 flakes.

I found those sharp gradients interesting too… like the model couldn’t figure out if it’s fully mixing or not from one location to the next. Figured snowpack was impacting those 2-m outputs.