powderfreak

Literally no one seems to be following that stuff that I can see. There's no penalties it seems either. So I wouldn't waste a ton of energy worrying about it for now. And I still haven't seen anyone genuinely whining about out of staters, except some vocal minority of nut-bags online that want to keep everything for themselves. If you remove the stuff you read online, you'd never even know it. I know you're in a tough spot but it's clunky in a lot of places that I can't imagine people are following. I would think your husband traveling for clinicals is similar to traveling for a job and would be exempt. Is it true that RI residents need to quarantine to visit MA? Who's doing that? It's all just political posturing by the states to try to cover their asses if things go south..."Look, see, we tried to restrict access." Just enjoy the turns this winter and remember it's a privileged life we live to be able to do these leisure recreation activities, at least that's going to be my motto. Like PowderBeard.

Disagree. I think people have COVID fatigue. It takes a lot of energy to stay safe, ha. But yeah, you can see what happens when a lot of people get together indoors...there are universities across the US that are just baking out COVID positives like they are weed cookies in the dorm common kitchen. University of Alabama has had 1,000+ positive cases in the first 10 days of classes.... they found another like 400 in the past day or two. Was it University of North Carolina that was open for 3 days before hundreds tested positive and they went to full online learning? The best bet right now for everything from schools to businesses and ski resorts is to do anything to mitigate that, as you're pretty much forced to shut 'er down in a big outbreak. Wearing a mask and capping skier visits is how the ski areas are going to try to do it. Honestly, a reservation system on busy holiday periods might make for a better experience than the free for all crowds, ha.

Yikes! Our hidden obstacles are old racing timing wire that seems to be strung along a variety of trails and I know we've tried to remove a lot of it (I once walked Liftline and the woods pulling it up) but on the sides of some trails is still that thin black cable hung in trees from like 1950 that when the snowpack gets really deep, all the sudden there's this clothesline wire chest high in the woods. Ski areas have all sorts of junk left over but barbed wire is a whole other ballgame, ha. Good luck against that.

Honestly the only ones I've seen of that are just wishful thinking locals at some mountains who think if they can keep people away it'll be the best winter of their lives. Just like skinners this past spring wanting full access but also not wanting anyone to travel more than 10 minutes to the hill.... skiers are selfish when it comes to powder and honestly, humans are selfish and it's really shown in this whole thing. No ski area is going to ban people based on billing zip code. If anything it'll be lodging right now, where you sign a form that says you followed the quarantine rules. Everyone has been signing those all summer long in Stowe, but we all know they aren't following it because it's impossible to go two weeks without coming into contact with anyone. I bet Killington will have a reservation system like Vail announced. I know Alterra is beta-testing one right now and likely rolls out a similar system. The mountains want to know who is coming and it also helps the communities from becoming overwhelmed with people. Lodging at only 50% also helps capacity. The one thing I keep remembering is to take a deep breath and remember that it's just ONE winter in a global pandemic. Chances of a vaccine and moving past this are very high by winter 2021-22. It's obviously not ideal or normal, but people are eating food at restaurant tables in parking lots right now and kids can't go to school full time. That's where we are. It is what it is this winter. I'm just trying to enjoy every turn I take and if I do a lot less skiing than a normal winter, so be it. There will be other winters, not the end of the world.

The clouds this evening were wild... undercast and very fluid-looking like water running over rocks.

Yeah the cloud layer here is around 1800-2000ft. Above that is nice and warm. Walking into it, it gets immediately chilly and damp. Heres the line, walking into the soup.

Inversions back. Warm sunny breeze up here right now... chilly moist air in the valley.

Now that’s pro style! Crushing that right after a stomach bug!

Yeah I'm with you. It was actually talked about in that storm thread, Ray made the same point at the time... go big or go home, who cares what happens days later. It does all melt eventually, even at the picnic tables. I get what Will is saying too, I wouldn't want to do a whole winter of that sort of up and down 40s in BUF and then lake effect, then 40s and missing synoptic snows to the east. But man, to get a 5-7 foot storm in like 48 hours? Sign me up. Worrying about what happens afterward does remind me a bit of like how Kev can have an 18" event in-progress and seems like he can't really enjoy it because all he's focused on is the EURO showing a rainer 3 days later.

Ha, I’m very confused. Wonder if there’s some big game park in someone’s backyard? Edit I guess some dude owns a zebra, lol.

But we aren't out west. If we were we'd talk about those local mountains? I can tell you at the ski area one of the most common questions is "What is that mountain?" when standing at the top of a chairlift looking out on a bluebird day and MWN is just glistening there on the horizon. For our area, it is one hulk of a rock.

It's been the weenie reflex every time there's a big lake effect event to comment on how fast it disappears (I guess it makes us less jealous, ha), but man there's something about even seeing a day with 6 foot mushroom caps on top of houses in a suburban development. The photos from that event are absolutely insane regardless of what happens afterwards. I found myself reading that thread last night for whatever reason when I couldn't sleep, and we were all in there jacking it to it, ha. Even Ray was ready to up and move to BUF lol.

Looks like exactly 0.5” up here this morning. 57F.

This is all we want, right? Some random photo from the November 2014 lake effect storm in the BUF suburbs. That's the dream right there.

This is pretty crazy. 1:45 into it is getting about to conditions most of us wish we could experience. The noise of the shattered glass at 2 minutes in is crazy to me...then that same place getting destroyed at 3:00 minutes.

Gotta love life in the mountains.

Do you have one? More oaks to fall for sure.

Ha, I’m up there right now for the evening dog walk, coming down one of the ski trails on the left side of that second photo. Thats a weenie spot, has to be at least 1,500ft elevation judging by the old Kellogg mansion height in that first photo...that’s like the highest house around and they look just under it. Probably off Weeks Hill/Edson Hill area, maybe White Gates or Wade Pasture? Great spot!

Is that what it’s trying to show? I figured it was truly an error.

WTF happened to the crazy uncle? These are 36-hour totals by tomorrow evening lol. Ends the drought in E.CT... And washes out some covered bridges in VT.

Great reading for right before a Cog trip!

The falling doesn't kill you, hitting the ground though....

No rain up here. Just thin mid-level cloud deck and cool air. 55F currently. This morning’s low of 41F followed by a high of only 65F in this cold air mass... all windows and doors shut to avoid having the heat come on since last evening. Glad we don’t have any A/C units in the windows letting cool air seep in, seeing as 65F is the highest temperature in the past 2 days.

You’ve got the right attitude dude. It’s one winter in a global pandemic...people are eating at restaurants in their parking lots and under tents, schools don’t know what to do with children, makes sense that ski season won’t be the same. It’s a season where you try to enjoy the little things, explore something different. Things will be functioning but not ideal or “normal.” It’ll be what people make out of it. I do think it’s important for the communication to start now to adjust expectations.

For the reservations,. it's going to be a challenge but there's a belief that once early season limited terrain/lifts moves into more mid-winter operations that reservations likely wont be needed at some mountains. I can't disagree with the idea of developing procedures now that can be dropped if they aren't necessary... vs the other way which is get caught with your pants down and overrun with crowds and then have to implement controls in-season. Better to prepare for it, communicate it, and then if need be, you can scrap it at some mountains. This was from Katz on that: “This season we will be implementing a reservation system across each of our mountains. It is possible that at some point in the season, as we evaluate the dynamics of our operations, we may decide that we no longer need the reservation system at certain resorts. However, with so many uncertainties, we believe it is only prudent to have this system in place now.”