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I may entertain taking someone on a LES snow event chase


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Yeah man...if the LES machine isn't shutdown yet, those are good times.

Sorry if I made it sound bad. It often is hard to translate certain things without seeming rigid. I just didn't want folks to think (especially those that never have been) that chasing LES events are easy. No extreme weather chase is easy. Sure, finding a snow band and saying "lets go there" is easy, but execution in seriously deep snow, doing really slow speeds, and trying to get quality footage is not easy. I didn't want to paint the picture of it being like we hop in my truck, drive up in a nice cozy Suburban, and drink coco while looking out the windshield. There are times, because I have this requirement to get good footage, that I will bypass certain things. Filming a full white out condition with zero context in the shot is not going to be useful to me. I may, at times, not go for the worst snow band. I may also go after an area that is more important for a sellable shot, but not necessarily the first choice as a "chaser". I understand and also want to see the worst of it, and will at times.

The last thing I want is someone to feel unwanted or unequal. I'm going regardless. It is more just principal of tagging along that I ask for the 50/50 split. If I just wanted a "meal ticket" I'd probably advertise on craigslist and facebook/twitter. Got plenty of followers. I just liked the idea of considering folks here because I know folks here love snow, and have a better picture of what to expect, and even may have already done some snow/LES intercepts.

Does this sound a little better. Still not sure if this is helping explain it.

that sucks

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When I lived in CO we used to road trip to various ski areas that were getting hit with a good storm cycle. Generally it was never that bad on the roads. Lots of plows and very dry snow is way better than the wet stuff we get here. I did have one extremely scary experience worth sharing.

We were heading from the breckenridge area to jackson hole wyoming. The tetons were in the middle of a week long storm cycle. We left late (10pm or so) and it's about an 8 hour drive. I had done the drive before a couple times and knew the roads. There's one section of route 191 that's very remote and in a steep valley surrounded by peaks. It was blowing 30-40mph with heavy snow for miles.

And the worst part (i didn't know this at the time) is there was a law that doesn't allow snow plows in the area from 11pm to 5am. I'm not sure if it's to protect wild life or because of avalanche danger but I was driving @ 3am in heavy snow with big gusts. There was 6+" of untouched snow on the road without a single tiretrack and drifts building anywhere they could. Every time the wind howled I had to stop because of zero visibility. And then crawl at 5mph praying I didn't get stuck. I had a good truck but the drifts were building and I was really scared. There were times where I had to stop for 10 minutes before I could see again. Probably the most scared I've ever been driving. It took me 3 hours to go 20 miles and I never saw another car.

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Not sure about LES unless there is an epic outbreak but I'd be down for upslope this winter. With the new highway tucker county is easily accessible in under 3 hours and we have a place in Davis to stay for a discount if Jon Jon is cool with it.

Yep, we'll give a good discount for anyone coming out on a snow chase if we have availability. Weekends are tough after Christmas and before March -- weekdays are almost always open except between Christmas and New Years. I have a feeling we will have more cross country skiers poaching early season snow this year after the miserable winter last year.

BTW -- another 5.3 mile section of the highway is set to open next month. http://www.wvcorridorh.com/route/map5.html

All the way to Davis in 2014!

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When I lived in CO we used to road trip to various ski areas that were getting hit with a good storm cycle. Generally it was never that bad on the roads. Lots of plows and very dry snow is way better than the wet stuff we get here. I did have one extremely scary experience worth sharing.

We were heading from the breckenridge area to jackson hole wyoming. The tetons were in the middle of a week long storm cycle. We left late (10pm or so) and it's about an 8 hour drive. I had done the drive before a couple times and knew the roads. There's one section of route 191 that's very remote and in a steep valley surrounded by peaks. It was blowing 30-40mph with heavy snow for miles.

And the worst part (i didn't know this at the time) is there was a law that doesn't allow snow plows in the area from 11pm to 5am. I'm not sure if it's to protect wild life or because of avalanche danger but I was driving @ 3am in heavy snow with big gusts. There was 6+" of untouched snow on the road without a single tiretrack and drifts building anywhere they could. Every time the wind howled I had to stop because of zero visibility. And then crawl at 5mph praying I didn't get stuck. I had a good truck but the drifts were building and I was really scared. There were times where I had to stop for 10 minutes before I could see again. Probably the most scared I've ever been driving. It took me 3 hours to go 20 miles and I never saw another car.

Hit upslope once before I understood weather well once in NH near Franconia Notch. Heavy snow in the elevations where we couldn't drive and in the valley dry as a bone.

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Upslope/further up in New England would be a different endeavor. That is a ton of miles away, definitely would be a multiple day trip. I would love to do the White Mountains and such up there, but logistically and overall, not really ready to do that. LES is a simple trip. Full day to two day type trip (three perhaps with a hotel).

For this I'm mostly thinking of the OH, PA, NY areas.

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Upslope/further up in New England would be a different endeavor. That is a ton of miles away, definitely would be a multiple day trip. I would love to do the White Mountains and such up there, but logistically and overall, not really ready to do that. LES is a simple trip. Full day to two day type trip (three perhaps with a hotel).

For this I'm mostly thinking of the OH, PA, NY areas.

You want the greens for that

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