powderfreak

Don't generalize it that far. It's the same as it has been all summer, it seems like it's Facebook and the Killington area. I've had several people mention the same Killington FB group that Jen references as being extremely toxic. Killington is also the most visited ski resort in the entire Northeast, so maybe there is some friction there given the scale of things in that area, who knows.

Hahaha, Killington must be like that lawless zone in Portland, everyone fending for themselves. We have been inundated by tourist traffic for 4 weekends in a row and despite it being an annoyance from a traffic standpoint (3-way stops at an intersection are NOT that difficult) I haven't heard of any issues. I think the biggest issue was just that due to COVID restrictions of businesses, restaurants, and the ski area doing reduced capacity that the town could not satisfy the number of tourists. People expecting to be able to go out to dinner on vacation, couldn't find reservations, couldn't ride the Gondola or Toll Road, couldn't do the things they normally expected to do. Going forward, managing expectations will be interesting for people with COVID hangover or those who are just completely done with it has definitely started to be seen in the travelers this fall. They truly expect everything to be running 100% capacity and like it would be any other year. So things like not being able to eat out ("I didn't go on vacation to be forced to get take out Chinese food in my hotel room!"), maybe longer wait times or unavailability of their favorite activities are also frustrating, etc. "Why are you turning me away? You only have three small lots full and I see a ton of parking open and my family came to ride the Gondola." "This is the capacity level we feel comfortable operating at." "Why aren't you running at 100%? We are here to give you money, you should take it." I do think it's going to be interesting as much of the operating capacity of say restaurants and activities is geared to a much, much smaller number of visitors (built around the frame work that the quarantines will significantly limit travel), but we are seeing the normal full boat of travelers on the weekends anyway. So there are a surplus of visitors who can't get service or experiences like they expect. Like many seemed to have an expectation rooted in a pre-COVID world, but everything they want to do is operating in a COVID world still, causing this disconnect.

I have to find my photos from October 2006 at Killington. Hurricane Wilma and another nor'easter hit back to back I think? There were two snow events that dropped like 30" across a wide swatch of the Greens (we skied the trees off Starr at Stowe that October), but Killington was the only one open and I was sent there to take photos and do a write up for a publication company. After the 30" of snow, Killington had the K1 Gondola running and the Glades Triple... but they dropped the ropes on literally everything that you could get to off the top of the K1.... including over by Superstar and that pod. The entire Canyon area was open, Snowden, etc. Two lifts and if you could get to a trail from there they let you have it. It was incredible. I have photos of being one of the first skiers out to Superstar and hitting that with only natural snow in October was awesome. They did end up closing some of it at the end of the day because it got beaten up too much. Overall though, it was carte blanche on whatever you wanted to hit. Memorable day for sure.

32F here. A couple final photos from 4kft this afternoon. Alex probably has the same amount of snow in his yard after this one, lol.

Yeah, just glad to get the first mountain snow of the season even if it was only 1-4" and up real high. I just went higher into the sky to find the snow and mreaves drove to the snow, so we are doing our part to get to winter. I love the first snow of the season on the hill, just such a satisfying feeling this evening having wandered around in the snow for several hours.

I know without a doubt if I schedule a western ski trip, it will absolutely puke snow here and correspond to high pressure out west, ha.

Just joking, plenty of snows coming up. I know every time I leave here in the winter we’ll get a storm. My few March vacations in the past 5 years have corresponded with some very large events lol.

When are you in Maryland next?

That's sick. All these towns are right there on the VT/NH border it seems in the Upper CT Valley.

Found a very sharp high elevation snow line today, with a surprising difference even between 3,500ft and 4,000ft. Up on the ridge at 4,000ft it was more like a healthy 3-4" while it was just a coating to 1" at 3,500ft. I did see traces of snow on the ground on the leaves as low as 2,600ft though, so it was melting while I was up there. Reported 1" in to the NWS for the Stake as it was melted out around the base of the stake, but there was a couple inches in the vicinity... so called it 1" just to get something into the record books that there was measurable snow up there today.

1.11” was my final in the stratus over this way.

Yeah 1500ft is often a magic number for snow around these parts.

Yeah 1500ft is often a magic number for snow around these parts.

Ha where you at Mark?

It can. I’m seeing it on Mansfield. 300 verts is enough to go from 0” to 3”. It’s literally an inch per 100ft on the snow line. Fukkin winter is nice to see.

LOL that's awesome.

Please tell me you told your wife to go drive around and take photos while you are in Maryland.

Yeah I think the cooling going west to east was a big part of it, we see it here too where the CAA can get held up in the mountains. It looked like when it did cool it did it very quickly in NE VT and NW NH. But models also had an area of -3C at 850 wanting to develop there in the upper CT Valley. I think that NW quad of the precip shield was just ever so slightly more conductive to snowing at lower elevations. Heck even Lyndonville pit and KCDA were 33/32 and snowing this morning.

Places in NEK VT not on west slopes doing well though too, I wonder if there was just a pocket of colder profiles just by half a degree or degree C lower in that upper CT River Valley.

Ha! That’s awesome. The NE corner of VT into adjacent Coos County in NH seemed to flip fastest and really rake. That far Upper CT river valley area. Missed that second batch back this way. Mountain is white above 3000ft from the first round yesterday, but missed the second round a county to the east.

That’s awesome. On the snow hunt.

I can feel that. It may get made up quickly though.

Hey exact same here. But you’ve got another heavy wave coming. Hoping we can be clipped by that round. Still, should be near a 7” total since the last few days of September. Been a wet 20 days. Good to see everyone getting wet. Nice to not hear about Stein anymore, ha.

That’s an awesome view right now. Could watch that live for a while. Stratton summit lodge at 3,830ft, basically 4K. I think S.VT elevations will do better than N.VT elevations foot for foot because of the increased moisture. The second wave should hit them harder for sure on that SSW to NNE flow trajectory. Dynamic cooling in the south will offset any difference from temps in the north.