Angus

9 is deceptive. I get the Covid thing but as my son points out, Vail just raised a ton of $$ in debt market. Stock is at a near all-time high. I could understand them essentially focusing on Attitash for that market but then I read above folks there buying passes at Cranmore. I always say that anything in December or January is bonus skiing in NE but I really was thinking of March-April at Wildcat when I got my pass.

Slept at our cottage last nite on winnisquam (#4), no ice. Waukewan had significant amount of ice and Wickwas seemed to fully closed.

Skied at Wildcat this afternoon for about 2 hours. Lynx has good coverage but Polecat seemed to have been opened in a hurry. There is only 5-6" of natural snow. I didn't see any snowmaking going on either. I have another Wildcat reservation for next weekend but will cancel and try to get a few hours at Crotched...kind of pathetic.

wind in the mountains is very interesting. I've been on top of mount washington in near gale force winds and dropped a few hundred vertical feet and suddenly eerily calm. Same thing happened on Franconia Ridge this weekend - certainly windy above greenleaf hut but last couple of hundred vertical feet was way, way more intense - same exposure, aspect, et cetera.

Can report that once the lift lines diminished around 130ish, the skiing was enjoyable. The low angle natural trails are all bumped up with some dirt showing in troughs but it is not a rocky mountain so all good. You just pick your way around the steeper stuff which doesn't have much cover left. There is some man-made glacier that is going nowhere until May. The lift situation was a joke. Way to many people for the reduced uphill capacity. The parking lots looked busy for a mid- winter weekend. Also, I think these areas need to be a bit more assertive and start going out into the lines and requesting folks cover up or leave. Clearly folks ignoring - and I think the risk of contracting Covid is low risk outdoors.

My favorite Xmas was within last decade where I was roller skiing on the local bike trail in shorts and tshirt before going to our XMAS eve party. Guys were out running topless.what a joke.

As an aside, got my NE Ski Museum magazine last yesterday. An amazing picture of 8+ foot snowbanks in winter of 1936 on the road to Cardigan. The caption said there were heavy rains which ended the season and caused widespread flooding in valley locations. LOL - not kidding! https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/great-new-england-flood-1936/

Cardigan is not far from where @dendrite is reporting. @wxeyeNH lives just east (15-20 miles??) of Cardigan. Just went to the AMC's Cardigan Lodge and they are closed and appear to be reporting nothing. Ragged is due south by 15-20?? and still snowing there heavily https://raggedmountainresort.com/Mountain-Cam/

I assume that's a report you are receiving from friends, reading on a ski board or from personal observation. I was reading somewhere else this morning someone's excitement and was chuckling to my myself and hoping the poster had 1) very fat boards so they would float on the top or 2) planned to ski the fall line 'softly.' Otherwise, there was going to be a lot of damage.

Good for Ragged and probably Gunstock. Given you thought you were getting skunked that's amazing.

9-10" here in Concord, MA. How much more do we think? 4ish?

@powderfreak that is a crazy good photo. I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me up on the far right side of franconia ridge on Sunday! Not only do you see the top of Cannon but that's mittersill in the foreground. I assume the wide slope in the very front, down low is the training slope over at mittersill. You can even spy the observation platform/communication tower on top of Cannon.

This might be the time to do - the often discussed, never done - end-to-end winter ski/snowshoe of the Wapack.

I just want the local nordic center to be able to open with a base that will withstand our unpredictable weather and allow me to ski in the woods. This will likely ruin the pond skating for a bit but if we can get some cold help with small lake and large ponds.

I've been a member for 8 years - can't believe it's been that long - don't know crap about forecasting but am a big outdoor recreation enthusiast. Plus, I joined to keep to keep an eye on my then HS age son. I don't get half the jokes - before my time; but everyone has a role to play (and they do it well) especially during storm meltdown time. You go through a couple of winters of this and it just becomes comical. I literally have been laughing out loud at my computer reading this stuff.

I hiked Mt. Flume via Lincoln Woods today. We got some breaks around 10ish but then got very socked in and was raining lightly. It began to clear out around 230ish on the descent.

to put it into perspective - I might average 1 or 2 days at SB as a day tripper/maybe an overnight (some combo of SB, BV, Stowe and MRG) but as such never skied Slidebrook area given 'time' was a scarce commodity. With that said, I doubt I will ski at SB anytime soon given I've gone with the Epic pass which is too bad. I use to buy the 4 pack discount ticket package.

On a weekend when both Sugarbush and Glen Ellen are open, I stick to GE b/c crowds are substantially less and there is a lot of fun terrain over there. The area on the Glen Ellen summit is a lot of fun. Castlerock terrain is great - but on a weekend, the lift is brutal. On a weekday, I will spend 75% of my time skiing castlerock and poking around terrain off ripcord lift - organgrinder, paradise, et cetera.

and contrast that with Temple Mountain which has been closed much shorter time which is now almost completely overgrown.

It was crazy in the parking lot. I didn't realize they opened at 730am.

Was in the Wawa parking lot about 7ish and did a leisurely 3 hour skinny ski tour. Bottom of hill only had 5-6" of snow but not that far above 12+. The summit chair was broken when I got to the top so I skied down on a groomed trail about halfway down and then cut across. Very pretty and was great to be out on the snow. Of course, because of all the running water, my skis got iced up which was a pain. Talking to some folks who were skinnng up, they said there was close to a 100 skier/skinners in parking lot at 6am! The base area with the broken lift and limited terrain must have been a crap show. Problem right now is the ground is so warm, I think grooming is a bit problematic.

Let's not forget that skiing is increasingly becoming the recreational sport of the wealthy. As it has been commented many times, not a good trend for the sport.

@powderfreak nice picture today and also noted the corporate disclaimer on twitter too.

These rural areas felt Covid couldn't touch them. Not good at all, rural healthcare is a mess to begin with so capacity to treat is restricted to begin with. There was a good article in WSJ (I think) today which profiled a young Doc who was in Boston in April and now in Lubbock, the treatment protocols based upon 6-7 months of experience are very different now. Much better understanding on how to treat.

As an Epic passholder, I will abide by the VT restrictions - my intention was to ski the VT areas Mon-Thurs when volumes were low on a day trip from metrowest boston basis. But I hate rules and laws that are just made to broken and this is an example, it provides a rationalization for breaking other laws and rules IMO.