powderfreak

It was a moment of weakness! You can take the weenie out of the snow but can’t fully take the hope out of the weenie.

That is mind boggling.

Yeah I have no issues with the herb. Don’t do it regularly but it seems so much better than booze. Alcohol makes me feel on edge and gets people aggressive. No bar fight was ever started by someone who just lit one up and you don’t hear of folks toking then abusing their spouses or kids...but plenty of those stories with booze. The double standard that alcohol is ok and socially accepted but someone who uses a flower to relax must be a stoner. Might as well call anyone who enjoys a glass of wine an alcoholic.

I tried a tincture at a bar once and about an hour later I couldn’t move my arms. Walked home and it was so unnerving sitting my living room, felt so relaxed I wouldn’t have moved if the house was on fire. I’m assuming you’d build a tolerance?

I’m sure it’s a state thing. Given the volume of material they need to put down in the parking lots and resort roadways, I’m not sure all that salt going into the local waterways is any better. At least with sand they can contain it with silt catch basins and various methods. I mean the spread for traction every single day all winter. My guess is it is something the state of VT has told them to do vs just the cheapest method. Like hey you can put all this sand down and then use a ton of money to pick it back up. I think sand is more costly as they spend weeks cleaning it up.

Man out west isn’t even fair compared to back east. Weather is either beautiful or snowing. Sunshine and 40F and nothing seems to melt because the dew is like 5F. Meandering around Park City right now with 3-4 feet on the ground and mansions everywhere.

Yeah we use sand almost exclusively at the ski resort but then we take the huge snowbanks at end of season and push them back into the parking lots to melt, to recollect the sand. We then have a lot of heavy equipment sweep and collect the sand, which then gets reused the next winter. There are numerous catch basins too to keep runoff sand from reaching the waterways. It’s a pretty expensive program though with a ton of man hours to clean up properly.

That’s part of the forum, but yeah it’s funny because when the threat was 5-7 days out and some thought a big event could be on the table they countered those telling them “it’s over” to just let them follow it. Now it’s close range it’s happening all over again with folks telling people what they should or should not be interested in. I would think 2” of white for even a few hours would be better than chilly, cloudy and breezy. Been a rough winter.

Perfect!

Comparing snowpack for the past 4 years on this date.... thanks to BTV for posting this. Wish we could see the entire New England area. Man ‘18 and ‘17 were pretty bleak right now.

Someone posted this elsewhere on social but figured it’s worth a share... I’ve never seen a photo of the original Mansfield COOP set up. Here you can see the thermometer house and snow/precip bucket.

Pad those stats!

I think I’d put this more rare than JSpin’s cycle summaries, but then again maybe not? It really comes down to what a cycle is though...can easily get 40” in a snowy week that’s a “cycle”. Then again we’ve had some whoppers lately, we were 50”+ at High Road during March 2017 “Stella” and then last March was 30+ I think over a couple days. Any substantial storm that has a big upslope response over a couple days can get there. I think this one felt more like an event to me where we’ve sometimes wondered “what would happen if a big 30-40” lake effect event happened on a mountain and not the Tug Hill?” I bet we got 1” of water for the first 10” of snow, then 1” of water for the last 30” of snow.

Fair enough. I still think December snow has just as much chance to see a torching cutter melt it in a week as it does in March, but to each their own.

March snows though are usually great snowstorms. It all melts at some point, I just don’t get the fact that snow after like Valentines Day is just stat padding snow.

April 97 was certainly just a stat padder, no one enjoyed that knowing it would eventually melt.

How would a big March storm be a stat padder? It’s just odd that your climo favored time for large snowstorms is the time you refer to as stat padder time.

Sad news from the search and rescue last night. The backcountry terrain around here is no joke, sounds like they were from CT and familiar with Stowe. One skier found deceased under cliffs and his friend found alive on top of the cliffs. CASE#:20A101038 RANK/TROOPER FULL NAME:Det. Sgt. Jacob Metayer STATION: Williston CONTACT#: 802-878-7111 DATE/TIME: 18:40 02/29/20 INCIDENT LOCATION: Cambridge, VT - Smugglers Notch State Park VIOLATION:n/a VICTIM: Name of the victim is being withheld pending notification of next of kin AGE: 36 CITY, STATE OF RESIDENCE: Connecticut SUMMARY OF INCIDENT: On 02/29/20 at 18:36 the Vermont State Police-Williston barracks received a 911 call reporting two skiers had gone off of the trail at Stowe Mountain Resort. They were lost and one of the two skiers had fallen off of a cliff and was injured. Members from the State Police, Stowe Mountain Rescue, Colchester Technical Rescue, Cambridge Fire Department and several members of the Army Mountain Warfare School responded to begin searching for the skiers. After a search lasting over 2 hours, the two skiers were found. One of the skiers, a 36 year old male from Connecticut, was found at the base of a cliff deceased. The other skier was a 35 year old male also from Connecticut. He was found to be uninjured and was assisted out of the woods by rescue personnel. The two skiers were reported to be avid skiers who were familiar with the Stowe Mountain Resort. The names of the involved parties are being withheld pending notification of the next of kin.

It what we always talk about. You never can write winter off in a place where you can get rogue bombs.

We finished with a 40" storm total at the High Road Snow Plot. This is high-end. Andre and I are big fans of documenting events and a 40" storm total sounds outrageous, but that's what it was at the regular High Road Plot at 3kft on the east slope of Mansfield. This is the same location we measure all winter and have used for Stowe snowfall over the past decade. It is certainly not a drift. This was one of the more freakish events I have ever seen at the mountain. Along with that, the 25" stack that Andre found yesterday morning is one of the single largest stacks we have ever seen there, though it was a full day of accumulation due to the previous day wind hold.

I am still in disbelief that it did it again last night. Look at that firehose... with lake effect those yellows are like 2"/hr on the hill. Like 30 hours of this lake effect streamer being aimed in the Mansfield direction. Finally down to just a few flurries now and even a couple breaks in the clouds.

9" more at High Road Stake this morning. 39" total at that location on Mansfield. This is getting out of hand. 5" more in the parking lots at 1,500ft...almost two feet now at base level.

Here we go again. The ski area is in the firehose again.

Lake effect band moving south again. It’s been going slowly as it moves back south, spending 60-90 minutes in a location...I bet dropping a quick 1-3” to areas just north of us.

And just like that, 15" above the normal level. This one was memorable for how it happened from a skiers perspective. I may never have runs like the past couple days again. Yesterday was pure untracked sweetness in Tres Amigos with literally no tracks in huge swaths, for several laps. Today the Quad opened at like 1pm after wind hold all morning. Folks were tired or started leaving thinking the Quad and Sensation wouldn't open today. Then bam at 1pm everything popped open as the wind abated. All that snow sitting there for a couple days of very low to no traffic/lift access in spots...you don't get that lucky sneaking out for runs at 2pm ever.