powderfreak

It's humid. Higher than desired. By a long shot. What a summer.

Water be flowing?

I am interested in seeing what happens with this. Hard to say... it could be normal or could be less. If the weather cooperates then it usually doesn't matter too much during the bulk of the season. One could imagine a scenario where less snow is made, with the expected reasoning being to save money. I think it is like most endeavors going on right now... try it but don't push all the chips in until you know what works. I honestly do not know and am just spitballing, but from a COVID standpoint they could also be ways to keep employees safe. It is an outdoors job in theory, but they spend decent time indoors together either via bus cat transport to the upper mountain at night. Maybe they go via tandem snowmobile instead? Maybe move in smaller teams that work together all the time, not a roving list of people at different shifts. If there are scaled down operations, mountains usually focus on one or two routes for snowmaking at a given time, then move on to the next spot on the hit list... you still won't see a good snowmaking window wasted by anyone.

I've always used alpine 130 flex boots for downhill resort skiing and have used those for early/late season uphill.... but am definitely thinking about adding a softer Scarpa style AT boot. I do think I'll be skinning a bunch more during the season too, whether dawn patrols or sunset skins, etc. Just like there are no air conditioners left, the uphill community has been exploding in the past 5 years and this year probably makes a huge jump up. AT gear is going to be in short supply.

Ha yeah, like any college aged Met student who is super passionate... sometimes the inner gets the best of them. Every upslope snowstorm will be multiple feet type of passion. Wall clouds can be wedges, etc. Just funny you posted that and I’m like hey I know that name.

Sean gets very excited, ha, but he knows his stuff too from Lyndon State Meteorology. He’s no hack. Wonder what he’s doing down there (or just chasing?) he lived near here and worked as a lift operator at Stowe last winter, good kid.

I don’t think that would happen again unless for some reason it gets so off the rails we go into “Stay at Home” orders again. That was what brought about those closures, to literally try to pinch off any attractive reason to get in your car and drive somewhere. I think that ship has left the port though and not coming back. But temporary closures of operations is certainly in play if there are local outbreaks or staff outbreaks, IMO. Having uphill gear will come in handy at some point and allow for more options, as maybe now you *really* want to avoid ski areas during the holiday periods even if they are fully open. Most locals avoid that time or plan differently, but maybe now is when you take a couple extra trips to the Cold Hollows, Eden/Belvedere, Gilpin Mtn, etc.

These two points cracked me and had me laughing. J, your family is not like most families. I've seen them skiing pow in photos for what seems like over a decade. I wonder how many shops have had people tell them renting from Nov-Apr isn’t the full season, ha (most seasonal rentals are picked up in Dec and returned in like mid-March before little Johnny starts little league practice on April 1st). And yeah forget AT or Tele, most places won’t have that for adults even, outside very specialized shops. Whenever someone asks about seasonal rentals though I’ll have to keep the J.Spin families in mind, ha...I usually answer the question in the frame of mind that most parents just want a pair of skis that allows their kid to slide downhill maybe 1-2 dozen times a winter. If that’s accomplished, big win.

This season will be frustrating I think. The only way to go into it is to think any skiing is good skiing and this winter is a bonus. Season passes may be the way to go, I think there will be some severe restrictions on day tickets sold at times to reduce crowds. No one knows what’s going to happen though. There’s like Plan A through Plan F. Heck they don’t even know what kids are doing for schools in one month, much less do ski areas know what 4 months away might look like. If local communities or ski area staff get an outbreak it’ll be done for a bit. I bet a dozen ski area employees texting positive could close a mountain pretty fast. Like the Marlin’s in MLB, ha.

There’s no way normal swaps happen where it’s a packed high school on like an autumn Saturday. Kids seasonal rentals are usually the way to go. Can be done pretty cheap and stores will even swap out boots if your kids feet grow during the winter.

That’s summer QPF for ya. Glad that dry area got a solid soaker.

Those are some pretty solid rainfall totals up I-84 into NE CT. Looked like Tolland to North Woodstock got rocked. Tolland stations with 2.92” and 2.26” south of 84. Woodstock on RT198 with 2.15” Coventry with 1.95” Union 1.40” Ashford 1.40”

People get excited for surge in New England? That probably effects and is seen by less people on here than upslope snow, lol.

Ya’ll climbing back up the rope to get on the bridge again.

Tropical moisture and orographic processes make for some interesting combinations sometimes. This is mildly concerning. If that track holds with the PRE ahead of it, certainly could do 3-6" somewhere. Some very strong H7 fronto that pivots right through N/C VT there. Would be quite a 6-hourly dump of water.

Nice, you let him stay up later than DIT. Congrats 4-year-old ORH.

You’re a hard read these days, haha. Zzzzzz or yawns with maybe a wind threat and isolated tornadoes.

Ha what changed from this morning for you? You were telling ORH/Will that making any determinations today was way too early... then like 2 hours later it's completely done and over with? I get the "post traumatic drought disorder" that's going on right now, but the UKMET, EURO and GFS lit the swath of heavy rain pretty much over you today.

Extremely confusing, ha. Models paint heavy rain swath right through SNE.

Every model gets you pretty good. Euro was like 2.5”.

Yeah I thought that was his home mountain. Anyway he’ll know the climate differences well, he knows he’s getting into a snowier zone at home now ha.

Yeah Sugarbush skier right?

That last name is real familiar... I’m in some skiing circles with a Gabe Aceves? I don’t think we’ve ever met but we are both active in a closed group local VT ski/ride page.

Love the new maps! My rough tally was around 4.75” here and totaling up the PWS around here, including the Stowe CoCoRAHS and MVL ASOS, pretty much the entire Stowe area was like 4.25-5.25” this month. Nice wet axis right down the Winooski Valley from Williston to Waterbury, too. One spot that stands out is down near Killington or just north of it, there’s a cluster of high elevation sites that only had 1.89-2.50”....that area is usually real wet in summer. Also up near Newport, that’s usually a minimum but 6-8” in the two stations up there. Such is the nature of convection. Great to see the monthly totals laid out graphically!

Great area. Real estate is going so fast, and Waterbury is a great investment. That place will always be in demand as you can work in Montpelier or Burlington area...and it’s the exit on the interstate that accesses Stowe to the north and Mad River Valley to the south. It truly is in the middle of everything. Can’t get a more central location up here.