powderfreak

It has been very rough for the ski areas... just busting your balls . We were closed today, never happens at Stowe! It probably had some to do with a COVID season and not worth exposing people to any contact with this product, but we probably should've been closing on these days in the past anyway. It was always a pride thing to never shut down, even in the worst weather.

It is funny looking at the maps. Phin, I wouldn't worry about it, lol. Most other NNE spots southeast of you haven't seen more than Dusting-2" yet. The forum will revolt when you start talking about how bad it is. Randolph is still by far the highest total around.

Yeah I was throwing in the October snowfall for a season to date analysis. And honestly 2018 skews your November snow quite a bit LOL. The certainly count, just like the absurdly low months, but on a smaller sample size that type of massive month plays a role. I think you are right on the median. Just another one of the ways the NNE mountains get to "normal"... but also leaving a feeling of being unsatisfied. There are definitely seasons when we get solid snowfall numbers when you add the inches up, but it feels off. Not saying this is one of those but the early start has that vibe. Like when I would complain in a main thread and then someone is like "But Stowe is showing 275" for a seasonal total on the mountain...and you aren't satisfied?"

This is a classic case where the actual inches of snow flakes that have fallen from the sky since October 1 in Randolph may not be that far from normal to be honest... but the “feel” and vibe is of a very slow start. Also starts to feel slow when the bigger events were 4-6 weeks ago in October and early Nov. Sort of like the opposite when you get one snowfall early and then it’s cold, that snow sticks around and feels like an “early start” but you are actually behind other years snowfall, but those years featured a lot more grass and melt.

Even here, 16-17” or whatever it is in November, I’ll have to check my notes. We did really well with that warning criteria snow back on Nov 2-3. That was 7-12” for the lower elevations around the Spine and 12-18” at 1500ft and above. BTV was like partly cloudy for some of that. I’m still impressed with the 8.5” snow depth I had after that one and it had like 0.75” water on 10” snow. Was a legit snowfall. Crazy it’s been a month now since that event.

It’s the little things. Hiking in shorts at high elevation in N.VT on Dec 1st. BTV with a 66F and record max.

I am walking the Stowe Rec Path to pick up my SUV from the mechanic... in shorts and a hoodie on December 1st. It’s 60F, partly sunny. There are people out here jogging in shorts and T’s, bikers, it’s like a May Day on the Rec Path. This is absolutely wild. Dews are up so it’s not even a crisp 60F. Might need to take the dog for a hike and enjoy this rare day off in the warmth.

Yeah no way to put a very heavy grooming machine on the snow in that slop and I don't think I've ever seen Stowe open without at least one groomed route down. MRG can pull that off but not a ski resort like this... they need at least one groomed route but a large heavy tractor would've just made a mess in this weather. The SE flow was very efficient at wringing out moisture on the east side... the east side of the county lines got about 1" more water than the west side. Like look at J.Spin's 1.77" and then you probably go 4 miles through the Spine and there's an inch less water when I-89 comes out on the other side.

Yeah we got like twice as much rain as it looked like we’d get too... with dews, high winds, and now it’s just rotting wet snow where it’s left.

Yeah for sure, I think the fact that it’s rain and not snow is what makes it interesting. Snow measurements can be all over the place but water doesn’t usually have those issues. I agree the 45mph gusts definitely play into it as it seems all the heavy rain events have those SSE winds in his obs, so it is definitely with that wind. Anyway, the Euro found a Day 10 storm, lol:

I just saw our dew point hit 56F overnight. Yikes. 60/51 currently. 1.46” for water.

Noticed the guy up the hill behind you had 1.82”. Seems like we’ve found in heavy rain events he’s going to do considerably less than you for water for whatever reason.

Over 1" rain is all I know as the stratus overflows. We've picked up two to four times the amount the 12z GFS and ECMWF had through this time. Models showing 0.3-0.6" earlier through 11pm. But with this type of jet and transport moving across New England, probably could've taken the over on the rainfall.

Makes sense. This has been alarmingly efficient at raining. Looks like you guys up through Phin's area is about to get into another firehose shortly. And you know it's likely seeder feeder raining harder than radar shows in the mountains and upslope wind flow.

Ski country getting swamped. I see 2.25-2.50" so far in the Bethel, ME/Sunday River area so far. Some near 3" amounts in Jackson to Bartlett area southeast of MWN. Yikes.

The entire east slope of the Greens is solidly 1.00-1.75" so far based on PWS amounts up and down RT 100... Sugarbush area up through Waterbury and into Stowe. I mean that's a pretty massive QPF bust going on it seems. Yard is like a swamp. Not really stoked on vastly over-performing rain right now. Mountain must be taking a beating.

Even over here my Stratus is overflowing so it's 1"+. Models didn't have anywhere near this amount of rain here. This was just the 12z EURO showing about 0.60" here through 11pm/4z. We will at least double that. The 12z GFS was even worse.... like 0.30-0.40" through 11pm. The local PWS are at 0.30/hr right now lol. Huge fail.

It would be incredible to feel that change in an hour at some point in my life, ha. It's hard to mentally process a 50-degree swing in 45 minutes.

Crazy thing is there is some 4000ft terrain to his immediate NW that also looks to be affected.

18-24” BTV and local area up here in that one. Think BTV had like 50” that month, Dec 2003. My first winter up here and everyone was like you’ll be screwed in the Champlain Valley... then two 18”+ events and a 10” thundersnow paste job later... I thought those events were the norm lol.

We decided to close for tomorrow, reopen on Wednesday.

Mansfield is 34F and 70mph gusting 93mph. We are shutting down lol.

What dreams are made of! The morning was actually kind of nice but it went downhill real fast 12-1pm. Torrential wind-swept rain outside now at 1500ft, lol. The radar image of skiers dreams.

You hit it and Will was sort of on the same page. I think it’s two different comparisons. It CAN be cheaper and relatively cheaper for what are known as the “core” group of skiers... the users who go a lot and rack up days, find the shortcuts, know what to do and not do. It is an expensive sport for a very large segment of the skiing public who average 3-5 days on slopes per year. Skiing gets cheaper with usage on a per day basis. You get more use out of the equipment, you find frequent customer benefits (ie. passes), you learn not to buy lunch, etc.

Yeah I agree. I get what J.Spin is saying and there are ways to make it "cheap" but on the whole as a family it's certainly an upscale activity compared to the US population as a whole. Maybe upscale isn't the word to use... but it's for financially comfortable families if that makes sense. You can do it cheaper and there are plenty of ski bums who ski 100+ days a year making $22,000 a year at an entry level job... but I think it's still expensive on the whole when compared with a lower income lifestyle (compared to what they might normally spend on leisure activities, if any at all). I think the barometer is where do you draw the line between "upscale" and "low income" and what's the gray area between that. This isn't like a sport like tennis or where you buy a $60 racket at Dicks sporting goods that lasts years and can use municipal tennis courts to play. I mean if you are willing to earn your turns, skiing can be pretty cheap with a ski swap set-up and the right bindings... you could ski all winter for like $200 but that's now what most people think of when they think of skiing.