powderfreak

Yeah it’s the DIT seasonal line of thinking. Spring weather should start late Feb or March 1st, full summer should start in May, and winter is Nov/Dec/Jan.

If the ski season followed actual best climo winter snowpack here, Stowe would open like December 15 to May 1 or even later sometimes lol. Not try for November 15 to April 15 where the max demand curve falls. We almost always close 100% of terrain skiable as the skiers evaporate.

Lots of pent up demand. More people skiing one or two ribbons of white now than there will be at the end of March or April with 100” at the Mansfield stake and 100% open. Folks are jonesing... drive 3 hours from Boston for two routes of snowmaking this time of year in drizzle/mist but then in late March when the grass is starting to green up at their house (it’s light out until 7pm) and some start talking about installing A/C units in CT, they’ll give it up despite 100% open ski hills. Its something they ski industry has struggled with for decades. It’s just how the demand works, so that’s why ski areas push so hard to open in mid/late Nov to capitalize on that demand. Hell that’s how I grew up in Albany, NY... my parents would take us in the dark days of November and December but as spring moved out we’d transition to spring sports in the Hudson Valley despite deep packs up north and great skiing.

Thank you for your sacrifices!

Ha that does sound like 2020... I was happy we opened yesterday with a surprise few inches of snowfall in the morning. Classic Mansfield, satisfying the snow lovers on opening day. Today was murky and moist, low clouds and dark. Some shots from yesterday...a better way to kick it off. The luck of getting a surprise burst of snowfall timed well with opening morning seemed anti-2020.

The only reason a window should be opened is to put an A/C unit in it, right?

Ha it actually looks close to sunshine aloft tomorrow I think it was. I saw full dry air low RH from like 800-850mb on up but that won’t help Mansfield. Maybe MWN.

I honestly start to feel claustrophobic after several days of low ceiling. Like you know the mountains are there but you are boxed into only seeing this small slice of the world, lol.

You’re gonna love low ceilings. They get claustrophobic after several days of it lol.

32.5F rain at 1500ft. Lovely out. Still had 2” in the yard this morning. Guess we can count it as a white Thanksgiving.

I’m so happy to have Stowe Cable and Stowe Electric as local town utilities. The customer service is really hard to beat as 24/7 you can get a local tech on the phone who lives nearby, ha. Local town utilities are the way to go. My favorite was the Red Sox and NESN was frozen one evening last summer. I call the tech support and get some guy in his backyard gardening who was like “Oh damn the game started didn’t it? I was heading in to watch it once I finished with the garden. It’s frozen? Ok give me 10 minutes.” Then 10 minutes later it starts back up again lol.

Hope it all turns out ok dude. My friends dad is 70 and in ICU in NH with COVID. Also saw a post from an old girlfriend who lost her father to COVID last week. I feel for those with a dark winter coming up but I’m very glad I’m not dealing with burying a family member. Hard to complain when you see the devastation in farewell posts on social.

Ha no can only show you my backyard. My elevated board stand in the garden. What a difference in mood though when you can’t see the grass even if the depth is only 3”. Im sure 1900ft in Eden has 6-7” on the ground right now like 1500ft at Mansfield lol. For a shitty pattern it has wanted to snow if that makes sense. Every little opportunity seems to be getting made the most of it.

2.2” at home. 32F down here. 28F at 1500ft with ~3”.

It’s been snowing pretty hard here at the mountain with another half inch at 1,500ft in the last hour or so.

The only real meltdowns today seem to be people losing their minds over wearing masks and indoor capacity restrictions (what do you mean I can’t go in there right now?!). Been some reports of skiers asking for more space/distancing in lift lines, while others say COVID is a joke and shut up. Have to love humanity. Some people fight it every step of the way, others want a sizable bubble around them.

32/23 at MVL in the valley. Sitting at 29F at 1,500ft on the east slope. Dead calm.

Yeah I think it’s all pretty normal to above normal for places in SNE and NNE that have seen events (outside that zone south of the Whites into adjacent Maine)... I feel for Phin, we all told him he’d be absolutely buried for 6 months... but sometimes the bigger synoptic snows don’t come until Christmas or later even. Sometimes we can nickel and dime for quite a while too. Hopefully he’s not at 40+” cumulative at the end of December wondering why he hasn’t had more than 7” on the ground at any point, ha.

There’s been a couple synoptic systems too, even stuff like this mornings 2-3”. SNE got a decent event so far. That area from just South of the Whites into SW ME seems to be the one zone that hasn’t had a plowable snowfall. It’s coming though, it always does.

Ha I love the 5am drive to the mountain. Can pretty much stop in the middle of the road in a 50mph zone and just sit and watch it snow. No tire tracks anywhere the entire drive up too. That was a fun little stat padder this morning of 2-3" between town and the hill. Keep nickel and diming it.

Wife said a couple inches so far through 8am. No more grass blades visible, solid blanket of white. Looks like through 7-7:30am a good 1.5-2" in the area. Little stat padder to keep bumping that snowfall up for November, ha.

Ha, 1” past 30 minutes at the snow cam. So 2”/hr rate on the hill. It is cranking.

Getting smoked this morning. An inch last hour. This blew up a bit.

It is dumping out this morning. Quick inch so far.

I could live off that combo right there. Scallops and haddock? Game on.