powderfreak

Is this your first time on the internet in several days?

You know the severity of winter storms is just different out there. A place where they cancel/downgrade a Blizzard Warning because only 8-14” (lolli 20”) is left and winds have decreased to 45mph (120mph at the ridges)… it reads like, things are improving, only a foot of snow with 45mph winds are expected at lake level for the inhabited areas. No biggie, just some brief periods of poor visibility are possible.

Yeah me too… obviously huge amounts of snow but 2015 probably wipes out whole villages back then. Colonial times and 5 feet on the level sounds like a problem.

Theres nothing like a spring day on snow to get folks pumped. The vibe is always festive, one of the reasons I love any spring skiing. Even mid-winter, ha.

That is insane.

Weird day… bright sun and blue sky, then fog and mist, then back to sun. A lot of moisture trapped under the inversion. Soft spring conditions though… definitely slow in spots.

Saw this of an AirBnB at Donner Summit near Lake Tahoe….

11” depth increase in 3 hours at Alta’s automated mid-mountain plot. About 0.75” water in short order at temps of 23F to 10F as the front moved through. 13” of depth increase in short order. 142 to 155 inches.

Bucket list experience.

It looks grim. I’m a positive person but think setting expectations is a valued trait. The next 5 days are going to hurt. It will snow again, but is the damage already done to the ski season up north? Snowmaking trails last a long time, but the naturals are in trouble.

For sure, wasn't looking for sympathy as I know you guys have been porked all winter long while there's been at least some winter weather above. To me it's the fact that climo now is turning and +8 could sustain some wintry weather up here in mid-winter, but as we flip to March those departures become inhospitable to snow. Normal daily average right now is 22F... +8 to +10 is now at freezing when it wasn't in the previous months.

Turned into a miserable 30s and rain afternoon and evening up here. Yikes, this is brutal. It was like 32.5F rain on the mountain. 37F rain here in the valley.

Makes sense a little bit, but in what world would a forecaster term 18”+ snowfall in a period as “snow showers?” It happens a lot out there. I guess the question is why would you say snow showers at 2-4” accumulation and then use the same at 24-36” in a given period? What differentiates them?

Love that first comment… Eric @A321200 · I look forward to the day when we are able to know the weather outlook in advance.

But you can’t see the ground? Those forests are super dense.

Not trying to be a dink but how can you tell what’s on the ground on that mountain?

Even up here I don’t think of as an ice spot. I almost think BTV is better as they can get some intense low level cold to funnel down the Champlain Valley. Here we get sleet or snow or rain. Obviously there’s transient icing events, and a 1998… but mostly here the depth of the cold is either as high as the ridges (several thousand feet thick) and we get sleet (mountain can get ZR while we IP). But having a set-up where it’s warm enough at the summits to not re-freeze drops before they get down here, and us holding prolonged surface cold… just not really a thing. The foothills and interior coastal plain of ME/NH and the Champlain Valley or anywhere else (St Lawrence Valley) with an easy feed of super low level cold is best.

Instead of "Heavy at Times" it should just be "Heavy all of the Time." On an aside, I've always wondered why most of the western forecasts use "Snow Showers" instead of just "Snow".... maybe @OceanStWx can shed some light on how the grids are populated out there verses the Midwest and East. Because it does not matter the accumulation, most of the mountain forecasts out west all use "Snow Showers" as the description. Today: Snow Showers. Four feet worth of Snow Showers.

Like this frame… you can’t see them but on the backside/downhill of every rock is going to be a gap/hole, often just covered by wind-blown fluff. It’s a massive boulder field with like rocks of 20-30 feet high and between them is often air. Its spooky. You move very gingerly. Skis often help distribute the weight and you can get through. But if this guy got off his skis and tried to walk down that, he’d disappear. This whole video is filled of them. Looks like someone uncovered one between those rocks in front of the skier. The one in the right will eat a person.

Yeah I don’t know the exact specific hole or whatever but am very familiar with the area and we all know it has holes. Big holes sometimes depending on the winter. It can be unnerving, like at 35 seconds the guy pulls up and is like “yup not that way.” If you happen to fall weirdly or snow gives out, you can get trapped easily. It’s just a boulder field that fills in with snow and most of us like to have the Stake at 75”+ for that zone. We had that huge fluff snowfall tally like 30” and wind and that stuff covers a lot of holes but isn’t strong to support someone. That video shows it great… that guy passes a lot of holes even from the top that aren’t entirely visible. All around those rocks is usually hollow air traps. Sometimes we have sat up top and looked down like 20+ feet into darkness. The holes at the top are really deep.

Wedged in, but such a warm vibe tonight. 14F at MVL here locally. But places suffering cold ambient temps will be across the northern half of NE.

Hasn’t happened yet but any of us would sign up for the highly populated “Lake Tahoe communities” forecast of 3-6 feet with winds to 70mph. 6-10 feet in the mountains with gusts to 115mph? It’s awesome. Ski Towns get 3-6 feet and resorts get 6-10 feet. With wind? Dream forecast that we hope verifies. Greater Lake Tahoe Area- Including the cities of Stateline, Markleeville, Incline Village, Tahoe City, Glenbrook, Truckee, and South Lake Tahoe 101 PM PST Thu Feb 29 2024 ...BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST SUNDAY... * WHAT...Blizzard conditions likely, particularly from Friday evening through Saturday morning. Snow accumulations between 3 and 6 feet for Lake Tahoe communities, with 6 to 10 feet above 7000 feet. Winds gusting to 70 mph in lower elevations and above 115 mph over Sierra ridges. * WHERE...Greater Lake Tahoe Area.

The spring heater wave up here is real. From valley to mountain sites. Feb-May has seen the most intense 2-M max temps relative to normal the past 10 years.

I mean, it’s all relative though. That’s still a big storm for those elevations. And the 7,000ft forecasts are only like 1,000ft above MWN and in the Denver foothills. You can still gawk over it.

I also agree that it’s important to know the where and how, as it educates everyone to the danger or things to watch out for. It was lower down in a popular backcountry “bowl” called the Rock Garden. He fell into a hole or undermined area and became trapped and unable to free himself. Some of those traps are like 20+ feet down. Sounded like Rescuers had a sketchy time getting there, with a lot of undermined traps and punching through to air below the snowpack. It may look good and smooth, but with krummholz stunted trees and big boulders propping the fluffy snowpack up with a lot of air underneath, it’s like a whole zone of trap doors. My mind goes to all the thaws and warm weather, the rocks and trees absorb the heat and melt snow around them all winter. Then we get a big cycle of fluff and wind to cover it all up. You end up immobile or upside down, alone… I don’t know enough about it to know how much a partner would’ve helped, but the alarm would’ve sounded immediately instead of hours later.