mreaves

You know from living down there but Dorset is such old money. You can really feel it at the Field Club. I’ve always sort of though of Dorset as the old money and Manchester as the gauche, new money. Of course I live in the part of VT that is no money.

Looks like it. I find the mention of a ski area in Dorset interesting along with the fact that Pabst packed it in and shuffled off down the road to Bromley.

"Davidson investigated but never carried out two other lofty mountain projects. He abandoned the notion of a ski resort on Mt. Equinox after candid consultations with Fred Pabst of the Wisconsin beer-brewing family. In the early 1930s Pabst had started his own ski area in the Taconic range, a few miles north of equinox in east Dorset, but found the snowfall there insufficient; he then met with far more success at the higher, south facing Big Bromley in Peru, in the Green Mountains. Davidson also considered a cable-driven railroad between his mountaintop and the Southern Vermont Art Center. A funicular rail ride to the summit from the art center, the former Gertrude Devine Webster estate on an eastern flank of Equinox near Manchester, could have been a grand tourist attraction. But its cost would have been prohibitive in relation to revenues gained during the brief warm-weather Season. In any case, Davidson always "thought big" about his mountain." http://www.equinoxmountain.com/earlytimes_davidson_phd.php

I don't think I ever rode my snowmobile that season. I will say that it is like a blur for me as both my parents passed away that December. I think there was a decent upslope event in February or March. Also, I grade my winters on how usable the snow is, when it snows and then melts out repeatedly, I consider it useless.

Clubs get a grooming contract each year that pays for start up costs and grooming twice a week. There is a minimum amount they get even if they never turn a track (hello 2015-16). For construction projects, there is a grant system where projects are submitted for funding allocation but clubs also do some small stuff on their own. There are also grants for equipment purchases and major repairs. The main reason why TMA prices are higher is because we are a private, non-profit organization so we don't have really have any state involvement other than a passthrough from DMV registrations ($28 per sled -$5 the state keeps for handling) and a small % of the gas tax. Liability insurance is crazy expensive and each year the company we use "drops" us before the jack up the rates. VAST's, the umbrella organization of all 127 clubs, annual budget is about $3 million.

Were you up here in 2015/16? There was nothing redeemable about that winter. I don’t recall a great stretch at all.

About 15 years ago, we undertook a 10 year plan to widen and smooth out our 40 miles of trail. It took longer than 10 years but it was worth it. Our trails weave in an around some granite quarries and the piles of waste rock so its not always easy to smooth the trails.

As much as I would have loved to have gotten more snow, I'm pretty happy to not have go out and clear trails like that.

There are a couple of clubs that groom the National Forest roads that skirt that area but I think a large portion of the area you circled is part of the Glastenbury Wilderness tract of the Green Mt. National Forest

@powderfreak posts some great undercast pictures from the top of Mt. Mansfield from time to time. I saw one from Whiteface yesterday. I don't remember where it was.

This week is turning out a little better vs. what I was expecting. We didn't get the micro storm you had yesterday but we have had snowcover and sub 30° temps since Saturday night/Sunday morning. I figured we were going back towards some November stick season, doldrums type conditions. Hopefully we can pick our way through the minefield of meh to keep the holiday feel going. Edit to add: I know @dendritewanted to warm up to melt some of the frozen crap off his car etc. but I like the hard pack laid down over my gravel driveway. I hope it remains through the first snowblower worthy storm so I can avoid the machine gun effect.

I guess I get the silver medal with the second highest total, 23.2, right over me.

I remember an event in 2007 between the MLK Day storm that gave us a good, sleety base and the VD storm that crushed us where my area got something like 10" from a lake effect streamer and 3 or 4 miles either side of us got like 3" or 4". It was one of those things where you have to tell people you're not making things up. Stuff like that happens from time to time and as you have pointed out, it's part of what makes the weather so interesting.

24°/17° wind NW18G28 Pretty wintry feeling at KMPV

Not state, province. Apparently he grew up in Labrador or the north of the St. Lawrence in Quebec

Ended up with a little more than 1” on the roof of my car. Didn’t drive it yesterday so that surface stayed cold and was the first place that started accumulating. Pain in the ass scraping it off this morning so my wife could runs an errand. Doors and windows pretty iced up. At least it’s a wintry look for a few days.

Obviously, Alex needs to get you a company 4x4!

St. Agatha?

I figured I must just about be the western extent of the snow, at least this far north. We have maybe an inch, probably just under. I just went down to Montpelier to walk on the bike path and I didn’t have to go far to hit zero snow. Still snowing some here and the roads are starting to get covered.

Ground whitening up here Maybe we’ll get lucky and score a couple of inches.

Finally snow here. Not expecting much but it will brighten things up a bit.

It’s funny, I rarely get anxious about any single event, I get anxious about entire seasons. Will it stay cold enough, can we avoid big meltdowns and cutters, will the snowpack actually be a usable depth etc. when the activities you enjoy have no access to snowmaking, the tenor of a season can be the bigger worry.

That is exactly what I was thinking. Still pre-seasoning my sleds right now anyway

Millinocket might be a good compromise between Jackman and St. Agatha. Easy access of 95, decent hotel options.

Trying to keep the COVID out.