Jason215

2 hours ago, j24vt said:

Tahoe area (Squaw, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Alpine Meadows)

I’ve skied Heavenly, Kirkwood and Sierra-at-Tahoe. Fun times!  I haven’t hit Squaw or Alpine Meadows. I was looking for more cold smoke type snow and a region that I’ve yet to ski. But the Sierras got absolutely pummeled this year-  Something to consider. Thanks! 

9 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

a brief edit to the info- snow actually fell at 6200 ft not just 6600 ft and there was a foot of snow!

You know it’s a bad winter when Hawaii has gotten almost double the snow we have! 

7 hours ago, LibertyBell said:

I didn't even have that- it started Friday afternoon here right before midwinter recess so all we got is early release- an hour early lol.

I was in school the same years 1979 -1990. NYC public schools never closed even one time. Bliss of 1983 started about 2:30PM on Friday..school let out at normal time. By the time Monday rolled around, everything was cleaned up enough to open schools.  Every KU storm we get nowadays is like payback for the 80’s. 

Woke up this morning and to my surprise my 1.5 inches (eyeballing it) of snow/sleet has condensed a bit, but at least the ground is still white here in Melville LI. I would have thought the overnight rain would wash everything bare, but that sleet is amazingly resilient.  

Question for you guys..

Have we ever been able to overcome a bad MJO index with a major snowstorm? I remember a few years ago (was it 2012?) were we had a terrible MJO which ruined the entire winter with a SE Ridge that we couldn’t kill.

I’m not technical by any means and that’s why I predominanty lurk on here, but it seems that the state of the MJO trumps all other indices.

it also seems rather difficult to predict the state of the MJO more than a few days out. 

Curious to know what is the largest snowfall ever with a MJO of 5 for NYC/LI?   I believe 5 is the most hostile stage for snow, right?

-Jason

37 minutes ago, LibertyBell said:

Some notes about that storm in Hawaii.

Hawaii recorded its lowest temperature ever at 11 degrees and lowest elevation for snowfall ever at 6600 ft.  They also recorded their highest ever wind gust at 191 mph!

Amazing stats Liberty! Thanks for sharing. I learn something new here every day. 

On 2/12/2019 at 6:44 AM, tnt said:

How about breckenridge?

 

High altitude, great snow this year, fun town.  Great variety of terrain.

 

I’ve been to Breckenridge back in Jan of 2013. I was surprised that they didn’t have that much snow. Vail was markedly better.  Breck must of had a snow drought that season.  I also got altitude sickness. Had to get to an oxygen bar twice. If I were to hit that region, I’d rather hit Vail again. Vail was beautiful and the snow was very good. But I’m sure Breck is one of the least likely places to get rain sitting at 9,600ft.  That being said, I would rather try out a new mountain if things line up right. 

Here’s me getting “drunk st an oxygen bar at Breck! 

9 hours ago, gravitylover said:

My daughter said the Butternut was 'firm' yesterday. 

Jason yeah I sure did have some epic days. I'm so glad I got to do all of that while I was in my 20's. 

Totally jealous man!  

I can’t believe I’m excited about a 2-4 inch snowfall tomorrow. I’ve climbed down from my high horse of snow-snobbery of yesteryear. I’ve been expecting at least a blizzard every year. I’m still expecting one..just because.  

7 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Unfortunately the icy conditions up here have not been good.  I don't know if I've ever seen it this bad.  The glades are straight pond ice, everything not groomed is extremely dangerous.  Even what most skiers would think of as low-angle is slide for life.

A skier died at Jay Peak yesterday when he lost a ski and then slide on the ice into trees.

https://vtdigger.org/2019/02/11/west-montreal-skier-dies-jay-peak-striking-trees/

 

Up on Mount Mansfield yesterday, a local hiker (non-ski related) was on the Long Trail with his dog when he lost his footing.  He slid through the woods, striking trees and suffered severe trauma and was airlifted by DART (flying out of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hospital).  This guy was just walking in the woods and it is literally that icy that even a slip on any incline at all will cause a slide for life through the hardwood forests.

So sad to hear this awful news.  Makes my heart sink.

11 hours ago, gravitylover said:

I lived in Steamboat for 6 years back in the late 80's and early 90's. It rained there more often than you'd imagine. I remember one day in particular where it was heavy rain and 45* at the base and freezing mist and rain and near 0 up top. The whole mountain turned into a block of ice, some of the trees came through in great shape but the trails were terrible until they got groomed a few times. I spent a winter at Targhee/Jackson and it got wet a few times too. I know it rains in the winter at Big Mt Montana and all of the ski areas in Idaho but I haven't had the pleasure.

Tahoe? I lived there for a while too, forget about it, when it rains there it doesn't fool around. After rolling through a 6 week blitz of over 30 feet it rained 3 or 4 times followed by raging winds and a 40+ degree temp drop. Those mountains would freeze solid 6" thick (on top of a 250-300" base) and it would be unbearable for days until it warmed up and then it would be the most glorious corn ever.

Steamboat for CO standards has a pretty low base altitude. I’m a bit more surprised to hear Big Sky Resort can rain being that it’s about 300 miles further north and a little higher base.   Lake Tahoe area can have such wild swings in weather. Either prodigious snows or rain or severe drought. I guess no ski area is totally immune to rain then in the lower 48. 

You must have had some epic days since you’ve lived in ski country for years. 

I did ski Grand Targhee once (while on a Jackson Hole trip) and the snow was amazing. Like floating on a cloud! 

2 hours ago, snowgeek said:

South Ridge Lift is now open at Killington!!! Woot!!


.

Well how about that!!! Now we just need a good foot plus of natural to cover up the ice. Not too much to ask for in VT in February. 

16 hours ago, uncletim said:

These are good guidelines, but there are a lot of variables that affect them. I think the resort's primary slope direction matters a lot. Not to get hung up on Mid-Atlantic examples in this subforum, but Whitetail in PA with it's south-east facing slopes needs a really cold day to hold up if the sun is out. I would assume Bromley is similar relative to its VT brethren. And regarding the thaw/freeze issue, grooming skill can make a huge difference. This past Tuesday at Okemo was springtime in Feb. with temps in the 50s and then it froze up tight on Tuesday night. I thought Wed. would be a skating rink, but the groomers managed to make a silk(ish) purse out of a sow's ear. Not exactly soft packed powder corduroy, but a mostly good-quality skiing surface.

Bottom line is that skiing the east is usually something of a gamble regarding conditions, but a little bit of foreknowledge about the specific destination can improve the odds!

 

 

Okemo seems to be on top of their game re: grooming and snowmaking. They have quite a bit of water capacity to make snow. Killington for example- though they claim 75% of trails have snowmaking- if you follow their snow reports- they are only able to blow snow on 5-8 trails per night. It would take them well over a week to cover most of the mountain assuming they had an artic blast and it was sub 20 the entire time. A guy told me once they just don’t have the water pressure to blast large chucks of the mountain simultaneously (like Okemo does).

Also, re:your experience at Okemo- you went on a Wednesday- the snow does not get skied off as quickly as a weekend day- (much less skier traffic) so the tilled snow is able to last most of..if not the entire day. 

Not too many mountains around here have south facing slopes, but I agree that would change my guidelines somewhat. Especially for March/April spring skiing. 37 on a sunny March day with a southern exposure would be enough to melt the ice into spring conditions. 

Okemo is a really good mountain, they make the best of whatever the weather throws at them. My gripe with them is they can get really crowded on weekends. Killington is so big, there are plenty of mid/upper mountain lifts where you can escape the crowds. They need to get that South Ridge lift moving already, that’s probably my favorite part of the mountain. 

15 hours ago, Angus said:

I wouldn't rank in any particular order - Telluride - stay downtown, lots of night life options. good assortment of terrain for all levels and enough to keep things interesting for 5 days easy. Banff - haven't stayed there but my son has and says good things. Sunshine Village (I liked) and Lake Louise (my son said was better) have enough terrain to keep you interested and the Canadian Rockies are spectacular. Kicking Horse is awesome terrain wise but Golden has a handful of restaurants and the base area didn't seem like much. The bottom third of Revelstoke is prone to warmth but the top 2/3rds stays cold and there is some great terrain. I might throw in Fernie - the downtown is nice and the terrain there is fun and terrain has everything. I don't think you can beat SLC plus it is definitely the easiest to get to. On the park city side of things, my least favorite is the Canyons due to funky lift setup. Problem is with having snowboarders in your group, DV and Alta are eliminated. I think you can't beat staying downtown because your body recovers faster at lower elevation plus you wake up and choose from Powder Mountain/Snowbasin to north to the cottonwoods to Park City areas... but I can't really speak to the nightlife in SLC though. Big Sky is probably the last resort on my N.A. bucket list - but you need to stay in the village and it is $$$. Don't know anyone who hasn't gone there and hasn't comeback raving. As I write this up, you can't really go wrong at any of these places.

I’ve skied Powder Mountain and Snowbasin, but would like to hit the Cottenwooods.

Leaning towards Canada at the moment- with the favorable exchange rate- The thing that I like about Fernie and Big White is the accommodations and slope side village. But I’ve always wanted to ski Lake Louise/Sunshine. I love the Spectacular Scenery.

When I skied Breckinridge and lodged there for a week, I got altitude sickness- I had to go to the oxygen bar twice. I didn’t have issues at Vail or Beaver Creek. For Telluride- staying at Mountain Village would give me issues, so yeah in town would be better.

My favorite mountain thus far is Big Sky, beautiful place,  no crowds- just friendly folk.

On 2/5/2019 at 10:52 PM, Hitman said:

Whistler is on the coast, whereas the other areas in bc are inland.  Much less chance of getting rained on and the snow in general is lighter.

You have a valid point! If I wasn’t so snow starved this year plus being traumatized by the rain we got at Whistler up to the 6,000ft level, (temp then dropped and 3/4 of mountain was ice) I would not be as paranoid about rain. I know some of those places in interior BC got rain at the their at the same time.. I think Fernie was one of them and for sure Revelstoke. Usually Whistler does not rain above 4500 ft.

Funny thing is, I have never ever heard of any rain at like a Vail, Telluride or Big Sky during the winter months. I wonder if they ever get rain. 

I know Lake Tahoe resorts can get rain up to 8,000ft via the “Pineapple Express” 

On 2/5/2019 at 8:50 PM, #NoPoles said:

My friend is a lift electrician for the Yelliwstone Club in Big Sky. He loves Big Sky!

Yellowstone Club is for the high rollers! LOL. Big sky was my favorite mountain out west. Got a group of friends together and rented a ski in/out Moonlight Mountain House. From the house, we had the option of skiing Big Sky or Moonlight Basin. Both were amazing. No lift lines or crowds whatsoever. Pristine place. I couldn’t get enough of just staring at Lone Peak. Such a jagged and sharp summit. The view from the summit was spectacular. 

On 2/5/2019 at 5:29 PM, Steve25 said:

Hey everyone. I actually live down a little further south but I had a general ski question. My sister and I live down in Maryland and we were thinking about going skiing soon. We considered this week but it's going to be 50+ degrees all week so we chose to wait for colder conditions. Next week should be 30s/40s. My question is how bad conditions are to ski when temperatures are above freezing and what would be your cutoff temperature for when you don't think it's worth going?

In my opinion, assuming there is no freeze/thaw issues, I think the conditions are close to ideal when the temps are between 25-30 (for nice powder/packed powder). Colder than that is perfectly fine, but you just might not be as comfortable.

After a rainstorm and then a hard freeze, you want to ski in temps about 40-45 or so to make sure the icey hardpack melts.  This would provide soft spring-like conditions- which in my opinion is the second best scenario. You don’t want to go skiing after a thaw or rainstorm and then a hard freeze and temps remain sub freezing- the whole mountain would be all ice and terrible conditions. 

43 minutes ago, burann said:

If you're looking for hard skiing and are okay with a more subdued nightlife, for the money you can't go wrong with BC. I've skied Kicking Horse (Golden, BC) and Revelstoke the past two years early-mid March. Kicking Horse is more old school, fewer "tourists" than LL, Banff, SV. Similar to a Cannon or MRG vibe. Revelstoke is more commercialized (trying to be anyway), but skiing is still excellent.

Fly into Calgary, rent a Suburban, and road trip out on the Trans-Canada Rt 1, 2.5 hrs to Golden. AirBnBs are a dime a dozen. If you're into backcountry, Roger's Pass is world class. With the exchange rate you save a fair bit of money, and lift tickets are at least 30% less than anything in the western US.

My group ( except for myself) has either never gone out West or only once. So anything out there compared to east coast would be amazing. 

Revelstoke sounds amazing, but since their base is very very low, I worry about getting Rained on like what happened to me at Whistler. I’ve dealt with enough rain this winter, here on the LI rainforest. I think Kicking Horse is prolly too intense. Mostly double blacks from Summit. (My sweet spot is single and some double blacks, but that is east coast standards. West coast would be more like blues and single blacks. I’ve skied a handful of out west double blacks (Whistler, Big Sky, Jackson Hole) but that was to say I did it, rather than enjoying myself while doing it. 

We’re east coasters who want an out West experience, doesn’t have to be untracked- hellisking-like. A few tourists won’t scare us off. Heck, I’ve skied Vail, but don’t remember any lift lines (must have been a weekday). 

What are your thoughts on LL, SV, Banff Vs Telluride vs Snowbird UT, vs Vail.

also, have you ever hit Big white, Fernie, etc? 

It would be great to take advantage of the favorable exchange rate we got going in Canada.

Sorry for the long ramble! 

36 minutes ago, Angus said:

been to majority of places, how hardcore is the group. i.e. looking to ski hard, challenging terrain or mix it up with night life and that sort of stuff.

Good question.

Group is a mix of skier and snowboarders. None of us are that hard core. ( I’m only hard core by LI standards). I get humbled real quick out West. 

The only side- country terrain I’ve skied was “The Dip” at Jay Peak. Never did any backcountry. And I’d be a bit intimidated to ski the Face Chutes at Jay, but I’m sure I could do it. Can prolly do all double diamonds on east coast. Out West, I would need to be careful because I don’t do cliffs and mandatory air!  

We are all about the same ability. 

Night life would be great (a big plus for Telluride) but we’re not going to get hammered every night drooling over ourselves, LOL!  We would probably want at least some night life. 

I’ve skied Jackson Hole, Big Sky, Whistler.  I don’t think lack of expert terrain out West would be an issue no matter where we go.

My main concern is good snowpack and great conditions and No rain issues like what happened to me at Whistler back in 2011 or was it 2010. 

On 2/3/2019 at 8:26 AM, cny rider said:

Outstanding day at Plattekill yesterday.

Perfect conditions.  As crowded as I have ever seen it, which meant waiting up to 5 minutes for the lift.  Truly an under appreciated gem.

 

 

I’m Jealous!! I love the little secret place. 

It’s the Anti-Resort. 

The snow there holds up very well compared to other mountains. Not enough skier traffic to ski/scrape the snow off. Plus they aren’t open on  weekdays. Glad you took advantage of the great conditions. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make it up there this past weekend.. 

Hey Guys, I’m looking for some advice. Trying to plan a group trip out West with some friends. Between end of Feb to end of March. 

I’m thinking either Telluride Big Sky, Jackson Hole, Banff, Lake Louise/Sunshine Village.

other possible options are Snowbird/ Vail.

I haven’t really been keeping track of snow tallies out West, except I know the Lake Tahoe got absolutely buried. But I’ve already skied there and want to hit something new and I prefer cold smoke. 

Bucket list for me is Canadian Rockies or Telluride, but any of above lisT would work to. Anyone know how these resorts are doing? 

Thanks!

-Jason

On 2/4/2019 at 12:24 PM, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

I cannot describe to you how happy I was to be back out. I’m certainly not fully healed though! I took a chance against advice from pretty much everyone I know. But for those that love it as much as I do you do what you have to do. Conditions were primo and I made sure not to fall, which i did not do once all weekend. I also knew that next weekend will be an ice skating rink again. You have to get on it when it’s good and make sacrifices!  

 

Glad you’re back at it!  I agree you gotta strike when the iron is hot! Especially this season with all the cutters, freeze/thaw cycles. Last Feb/March spoiled me with all those back to back Nor’Easters. 

4 hours ago, gravitylover said:

I'm honestly not sure what some of those other numbers look like. Until this I hadn't been to a doc in years but expect that I'll be finding out a lot about what's going on inside of me soon. I've tried to eat reasonably well but have probably been too high in carbs, I also avoid white bread like the plague. I am pretty anal about avoiding transfats and saturated fats for years but I have (had ) a thing for cookies and donuts. 

I'll resist the meds and pills route big time, heck I don't even do pain killers or cold medicine unless I absolutely must.

I guess I've been fooling myself that a high level of activity would counter so much of the bad stuff... 

I used to be clueless about all those metrics, but when people close to me were getting sick, I had to do some due diligence and find out root causes and resolutions. I take my mom to a Naturalpathic Doc in Forest Hills, Queens. We were able to get her off all statin drugs while also reversing her stage 4 kidney disease to stage 3. 

Mainstream MDs did nothing and offered no hope. She would probably be on dialysis now if left to them.  Perhaps you can see a Naturalpathic Doc up by your neck of the woods. Expect to pay out of pocket- I don’t believe insurance covers that. I would get that blood work done, find out those metrics. 

Donuts are among the worst things you can eat. It’s fried, full of sugar. Probably fried in Trans-fat. That could totally be the culprit here along with any other ancillary factors.

Hoping you are able to quickly resolve any underlying issues sir! 

22 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Posted this in NNE thread but probably belongs here...

So they say it rained two days ago...

The skiing did not suck today.  I mean, everything that can go right has gone right this season.  It rains 1-2" and then the Greens get 6-8" of snow showers to save the weekend skiing.

Everyone today was totally blown away.  Expecting the worst after Thursday's torrential rain, only to find 40-80" natural depths and powder turns in the woods.

Late this afternoon I went to some of my stashes to get away from the crowds.

 

And a photo from a buddy... I mean look at the snow on the trees?!  You'd never know it poured for 10 hours two days ago.

I never would have thought 6-8” of upslope would be sufficient to cover boilerplate. Amazing! Perhaps this was a fairly dense snow?

21 hours ago, gravitylover said:

In my case mt biking 8-10 times a month (sometimes more), hiking once or twice and assorted other activities didn't seem to make a difference and I managed to have a heart attack last month and then found out that there are two more arteries partially blocked. Funny thing is my cholesterol numbers aren't terrible but apparently my body just doesn't process it well.

So sorry my friend to hear you had a heart attack. It’s not the cholesterol that’s the issue, how are your triglycerides? High triglycerides can be problematic. Also, how are your blood sugar levels?   Transfats, refined carbs, wheat, white flour are what cause inflammation and may lead to heart disease.

I eat plenty of whole eggs, red meat etc. my total cholesterol is 181, triglycerides 75, fasted glucose 86. I leverage a ketogenic diet, carb cycling, intermittent fasting and avoid mainstream MDs to maintain a healthy fit lifestyle. There are plenty of alternative health professionals online that would back me up. Your regular doc most likely will just prescribe pills and not fix/address root cause. Healthy people don’t make money for big pharma, LOL. 

On 1/26/2019 at 5:52 AM, LibertyBell said:

2010-11 was the best we could do, that was 60 inches over 30 days with two 20" storms and one other storm that was close to that.  Snowcover lasted for three months too!

 

Agree. That was total insanity for us!  We essentially had 5 blizzards between the winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11. In the 80s we would get 1 blizzard every 10 years. I think we get something big before winters over. I say that because some highly skilled posters/forecasters on this forum are still optimistic about Feb and I haven’t seen any of them jump ship yet to say it’s over. 

4 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

If you experienced it you would understand.  

Also. I am not in the Boston area.  We didnt get clobbered as much here in 2015. I am also speaking from living in Foxboro in 1978.

Gotcha. I was too young to remember 78 and I was living in queens at the time. We got much less. 

But given the fact the a big chunk of eastern MA got about 100” of snow in 3 weeks time was stunning. Not to mention they are not Caribou ME and near sea level makes it all the more impressive. Living on LI, we got less than half that amount, but I recognize how anomalous that  was for eastern MA. It was just so over the top. I would be curious to know what the record snowfall for Jay Peak, Stowe, Killington are for any 21 day stretch for a comparison.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Killington has ever beaten that. When it comes to snow, Boston spits on the rest of the megalopolis, LOL.