Angus

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.

Whenever I see Ascutney, I can't help tell an important lesson I learned there sometime in mid-late '70s. Probably 10th grade. Day trip on a bus from Boston, knowing it was my last day of skiing for season and my friends and I didn't go in for lunch. It was beautiful Spring day, blue sky and warm. I remember being tired and hungry and probably a bit dehydrated...a skier cut in front of me, I had to turn quickly, hit a bump and next thing I was flying thru the air like a bird! At last second, I got my skis up in front of me before I crashed into a big tree. My friends thought I was dead. I came crawling out of woods with my face all scratched up and a broken ski. I liked the mountain though and always wanted to get back there!

we did a family vacation there two summers ago - roughly following this route - https://goo.gl/maps/d6Uke8GbgMbLaDe9A - over 5-6 days, visiting the national parks, et cetera. Crazy beautiful, wonderful hiking, vistas are dream like. We spent a few days in Oslo as well which is a beautiful city. want to go back and ski tour. Iceland is similar but Norway has far more amenities. Would recommend - would love to go further north. And for me, it's the kind of country I love visiting - they speak flawless english!

The Trump tax reform (whatever it was called) hurt folks in places like MA by limiting total deduction of taxes to $10,000. For folks like us, state taxes plus local property taxes are far in excess of $10K. Google SALT deductions

here's your answer.... By contrast, Republicans who control the Pennsylvania Legislature thwarted efforts by county leaders and the governor to begin processing mail-in ballots there, which as a result did not begin until Election Day. “The legislature has refused to give counties the time they need,” said Amber McReynolds, chief executive of the National Vote at Home Institute, which advocates voting by mail, and the former head of Denver’s election system. “When the president started tweeting about vote by mail, we pretty much lost all the momentum we had with legislatures in certain states. I really wish we hadn’t had the tweeting.”