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NNE Winter Part 3


mreaves

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Did you hit the sporting club at all? The food there is awesome, We would do lakeview for lunch, And the sporting club for dinner, 396 mi, That is a little to much, 250/day is a real good pace

you mean the sportsman on long lake? yes. we were there at 3pm and already had 225mi. I thought we were just going to head back to caribou which would have been ~50mi, but my riding buddy wanted to add an "extra" loop and rack up 300mi. That's when the wrong turn happened. Ended up down in ashland, heading to oxbow on 85S before realizing it. Dark, cold, snowing in places. Not good.  Only passed one groomer all night. Never thought we'd rack up another 175mi between 430 and midnight. Luckily we got gas in ashland and were good to go, but after that many miles and a fogged up shield, the frustration was taking it's toll.

Actually I got bucked off my sled coming into a corner too around dusk.  Thought the trail went straight but it turned to the tight. Locked up the brakes, and hit the berm around 30mph. Got thrown maybe 10'. Thankfully sled didn't roll over me, but bounced a couple times and came to a stop. It was an interesting ride towards the end and a good story I'll remember for a long time.

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you mean the sportsman on long lake? yes. we were there at 3pm and already had 225mi. I thought we were just going to head back to caribou which would have been ~50mi, but my riding buddy wanted to add an "extra" loop and rack up 300mi. That's when the wrong turn happened. Ended up down in ashland, heading to oxbow on 85S before realizing it. Dark, cold, snowing in places. Not good.  Only passed one groomer all night. Never thought we'd rack up another 175mi between 430 and midnight. Luckily we got gas in ashland and were good to go, but after that many miles and a fogged up shield, the frustration was taking it's toll.

Actually I got bucked off my sled coming into a corner too around dusk.  Thought the trail went straight but it turned to the tight. Locked up the brakes, and hit the berm around 30mph. Got thrown maybe 10'. Thankfully sled didn't roll over me, but bounced a couple times and came to a stop. It was an interesting ride towards the end and a good story I'll remember for a long time.

 

Yikes, Yeah sportsman club at the end of LL, We use to stay in ashland so i know that route from the club back, At least you did not get hurt other then your pride probably, But good reason why i don't ride at night, The corners come up real quick

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We usually stayed in Ashland,  And did a west loop one day, Rode the Portage to Fort Kent, A little more Wood, Lakes and Hilly terrain, Then did the PI to border cut trail to Madawaska the next

My one somewhat lengthy ride (work-related) up there came in the middle of March, the day after a moderate rainfall. The ITS trails were groomed but lumpy. We left Ft.Kent about 7:30, stopped at two snomo clubhouses on the St.John Plantation public lot, then headed toward Eagle Lake, crossing the highway and lake (with its 2-3" water on the ice) north of town. After checking on some trail issues north of the lake, we bushwhacked to the shore near the thorofare from Square then crossed it to inspect the old Michaud Camps - was fun blasting up the 50' of 45-degree slope to the campyard. From there we motored west on the ice (and water - only about a skimmed inch there) to gas up in town, then headed west toward Deboullie, with the last 10 miles or so off the groomed trail. A challenging ride across Deboullie Pond (a couple of 2-up sleds got stuck in the slush) and back, then a west/NW loop back to St.Francis and 15 miles of rolling-surface railbed back to Ft.Kent, getting to the Northern Door motel about 7 PM. Under 150 miles, but all I wanted and more.

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Temp-wise, I was -2.5 for January and a hefty -5.6 for Feb.

 

Champlain Valleycentric, ftl.

 

I think its just has to do with that's where the NWS office is located, as well as the longest running climate station in the state. 

 

I was thinking about it today though... in like 20 years if you were looking back on the records for this winter, you'd skip right over it.  If winter ended today, BTV would be slightly below normal in snowfall and -1.3F below normal in temps.  That's a pretty "meh" run-of-the-mill winter on paper.

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My one somewhat lengthy ride (work-related) up there came in the middle of March, the day after a moderate rainfall. The ITS trails were groomed but lumpy. We left Ft.Kent about 7:30, stopped at two snomo clubhouses on the St.John Plantation public lot, then headed toward Eagle Lake, crossing the highway and lake (with its 2-3" water on the ice) north of town. After checking on some trail issues north of the lake, we bushwhacked to the shore near the thorofare from Square then crossed it to inspect the old Michaud Camps - was fun blasting up the 50' of 45-degree slope to the campyard. From there we motored west on the ice (and water - only about a skimmed inch there) to gas up in town, then headed west toward Deboullie, with the last 10 miles or so off the groomed trail. A challenging ride across Deboullie Pond (a couple of 2-up sleds got stuck in the slush) and back, then a west/NW loop back to St.Francis and 15 miles of rolling-surface railbed back to Ft.Kent, getting to the Northern Door motel about 7 PM. Under 150 miles, but all I wanted and more.

 

Slush is a mofo if you get a sled stuck, Most people panic and let off the throttle, You need to do the opposite, In this case the throttle is your friend, Hammer it through

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Temp-wise, I was -2.5 for January and a hefty -5.6 for Feb.

 

Champlain Valleycentric, ftl.

 

You are one of the greater departures in the state, although in line with MPV.
 

Just for comparison:

 

St. J: -0.9, -3.2

Morrisville: -1.1, -2.4

BTV: -0.4, -1.3

MPV: -2.0, -5.5

 

Can't really explain the very large differences between the three relatively rural sites. Only real difference is the elevation and immediate surrounding areas. St. J and MVL are in valleys while MPV is a higher elevation site.

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You are one of the greater departures in the state, although in line with MPV.

Just for comparison:

St. J: -0.9, -3.2

Morrisville: -1.1, -2.4

BTV: -0.4, -1.3

MPV: -2.0, -5.5

Can't really explain the very large differences between the three relatively rural sites. Only real difference is the elevation and immediate surrounding areas. St. J and MVL are in valleys while MPV is a higher elevation site.

Is it just me or do you guys notice that MPV tends to have colder departures than the other three, regardless of season? Any way to run like the yearly departure out of curiosity? Likewise, BTV usually seems to have the warmest departures.

Interesting that this season Montpelier had like double the negative departures of the other sites. I just can't see how that happens for stations being only like a county apart.

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Slush is a mofo if you get a sled stuck, Most people panic and let off the throttle, You need to do the opposite, In this case the throttle is your friend, Hammer it through

 

I was riding a very nice Ski-doo 4-cycle with lots more power than track, great on the groomed but more interesting in the slop and bushwhack.  Did just what you wrote, figured if I was going to get paunched, I'd do a good job of it.  (That time, the heavy thumb worked.)

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Event totals: 2.1” Snow/0.06” L.E.

 

I just rolled yesterday morning’s accumulation over into today’s observations, so 2.1” is the total for that event.

 

Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations:

 

New Snow: 0.2 inches

New Liquid: Trace

Temperature: -0.6 F

Sky: Mostly Clear

Snow at the stake: 12.0 inches

 

It looks like ski area totals for the past week topped out around 16 inches at Smuggler’s Notch, and the accumulations attained yesterday morning really put the icing on the cake.  The only thing really keeping the conditions from being top-class Northern Greens stuff was the fact that there was that crust under there.  On some aspects and elevations it was so buried that it was totally irrelevant by yesterday, and conditions were absolutely at the A level, but on some aspects and lower elevations you would still encounter that hard stuff, so there was room for improvement.  It really was a pretty nice ski weekend though; I’ve added a few shots from Saturday at Bolton and Sunday at Stowe below, and the full reports can be seen through the linked text:

 

02MAR14A.jpg

 

02MAR14D.jpg

 

01MAR14B.jpg

 

02MAR14B.jpg

 

02MAR14G.jpg

 

The point forecast and discussion suggest opportunities for snow tomorrow night, then Wednesday night, then again Friday night into Saturday.  There’s nothing major expected in the immediate future, but with way last week turned out, the snowpack at the stake being over 60 inches, and the cold temperatures, a major storm isn’t really needed that urgently at the moment.  These small, freshening storms are going a long way right now with the current conditions.  Naturally if something bigger pops up eventually it will be appreciated, but the slopes are really in great shape right now for as low as the snowfall has been.

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Slush is a mofo if you get a sled stuck, Most people panic and let off the throttle, You need to do the opposite, In this case the throttle is your friend, Hammer it through

i hate riding on slushy ponds/lakes. like you said, just have to power through it

 

a few years ago a buddy and i were heading up the "river" upstream of a dam. we couldn't find the trail, so that was our only option. had no idea how much ice there was, but there were plenty of other sled tracks out there so we went for it. there was at least a foot of snow on top of at least 6" of slush. we just bolted. i was riding an older 2-up sled, which weighed about 2,000 lbs it seemed. i had the throttle hammered and was going about 10 MPH. never got stuck, but we were both relieved to get the hell off of there.

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Nice...should be heading up there on Thursday if all goes as planned.

I noticed wrt snowpack depth...on my journey to stowe that...

Nw of concord def has more snow than the stowe "low lands " (7-800") i stopped for a sandwich in cocacoootook lol cant remember spelling just onto 89 past 93 junction and man nice snow pack . You can really see how areas in n vermont have gotten shaft recently. Albeit up above 2k the cold temps and consistent (if at least one standard deviation below normal snowfall for them) upslope have combined for good depths up high. (No mild ups to torch the fluff last cpl weeks)

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I noticed wrt snowpack depth...on my journey to stowe that...

Nw of concord def has more snow than the stowe "low lands " (7-800") i stopped for a sandwich in cocacoootook lol cant remember spelling just onto 89 past 93 junction and man nice snow pack . You can really see how areas in n vermont have gotten shaft recently. Albeit up above 2k the cold temps and consistent (if at least one standard deviation below normal snowfall for them) upslope have combined for good depths up high. (No mild ups to torch the fluff last cpl weeks)

Contoocook. my former hood

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I noticed wrt snowpack depth...on my journey to stowe that...

Nw of concord def has more snow than the stowe "low lands " (7-800") i stopped for a sandwich in cocacoootook lol cant remember spelling just onto 89 past 93 junction and man nice snow pack . You can really see how areas in n vermont have gotten shaft recently. Albeit up above 2k the cold temps and consistent (if at least one standard deviation below normal snowfall for them) upslope have combined for good depths up high. (No mild ups to torch the fluff last cpl weeks)

 

I heard the same from my friend who went up to Stowe. Further up on 89 had a very substantial snowpack.

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I heard the same from my friend who went up to Stowe. Further up on 89 had a very substantial snowpack.

Oh yeah well it shouldn't be a surprise...we haven't been complaining because we've been jackpotting haha.

I've got 14" at my front yard stake...and per the BTV climate maps, this area (actually a large area of VT) is in that 12-16" range for depths. There's really not many 20"+ spots reporting aside from the immediate Spine and the eastern VT Orange Highlands.

Nothing close to like a 21" at CON in a low elevation.

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Looks like the local cocorahs guys are 21" and 23". That's what they were at the last time I measured (21").

Solid 26" on my lawn, with 8.02" SWE. Would take some days in the 60s to get rid of this prior to mid April. About -16 when I left the house at 6:45. Ten days now without measurable precip not including today, might make it past 2 weeks.

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