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The 2016-17 Ski Season Thread


Skivt2

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Skied Waterville today. It was pretty decent, with about an inch fresh overnight. I don't find the terrain there super entertaining, but it was an easy drive and good deal on Liftopia.

However, the high(low)light of the day was getting evacuated off their high country double. First time that's happened to me in 300+ career days (I'm only 20!). Got me a free lift ticket as a result.. But not that valuable since I'm primarily in Houston these days.

Just booked a 4 day ski trip to Sunshine Village/Lake Louise from February 8th-12th. Should be fun... I skied SV one day last year on my Kicking Horse/Fernie trip, but am excited to check out Lake Louise. Flights are pretty cheap and plentiful to Calgary from Houston because of the energy connection, and the exchange rate makes lift tickets and lodging reasonable for a college kid like me.

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Skied at WV today too. Noticed the High Country lift was shut down late morning. I'm not big fan of WV either but the new terrain should bring variety to the area and I was very impressed by snow making efforts. I get impression from infrequent visits over last 5 years that place is headed in right direction. 

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I like to think of Waterville as the working class blue-collar mountain. It's got relatively cheap tickets ($56 if you stop by the front desk at WE) and is also under 2 hrs from Boston. In the lower half of my top 5 of my favorite NH mountains due to limited terrain, but they're expanding over to Green Peak which should have some great tree skiing and snow retention. Definitely heading in the right direction.

They also have one of the best ski programs in the country. I think they had 7 Olympic athletes in the 2014 games thanks mostly to the BBTS program.

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10 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Yup, there are "chances" but you never really know if it'll work out.  Like adk and I will be discussing something in the NNE thread and its often with the caveat that hey this little feature might be like 6-10" or it might be a dusting to 2". 

Like the past two days I knew the potential was there even though the models weren't really showing anything.  The WSW flow off Ontario can be very productive and everything came together (snow growth, moisture from Ontario, and then orographic lift) to blast the mountain with some fluff...the first time as the band was lifting north I think, and then last night it was dropping south.

I generally don't know until I show up to work, though radar and text messages from grooming and snowmaking can keep me up-to-date all night long, haha.  The past two mornings around 4:30am I've gotten something along the lines of "Dude no idea what its doing in town but its been dumping up here.  3" in 2 hours and 5" new total.  You're going to be stoked when you get up here.  Grooming plan is complete, just dropping in on Liftline with the winch and we're all good." 

 

Yep....wake up at 4:15, check the radar, check the webcams, check the cars in BTV (if they have 1" of fluff it's on), and then go. Even then, lots of faith.  For all the days like the last two, there are 30 that feature way less snow, way more wind, and a lot more grumbling. 

One way to ensure a good day however is to schedule something you can't move or send a friend out of town. Happiness needs some level of misery. 

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On 1/5/2017 at 8:53 PM, Hitman said:

That's 8" of rain in between.  How can that be good, other than for the drought?

Snow levels rose earlier than expected yesterday, per the Sierra Avalanche Center and the risk levels are off the charts.     A tremendous load on the pack, with cat 2 gusts whipping up massive cornices of wet snow just waiting to go.  

http://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/advisory

edit- cat 3 actually, this from yesterday on the Squaw/Alpine website

summit.jpg

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8 hours ago, radarman said:

Snow levels rose earlier than expected yesterday, per the Sierra Avalanche Center and the risk levels are off the charts.     A tremendous load on the pack, with cat 2 gusts whipping up massive cornices of wet snow just waiting to go.  

http://www.sierraavalanchecenter.org/advisory

edit- cat 3 actually, this from yesterday on the Squaw/Alpine website

summit.jpg

Saw a 159 today

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DEEP   

Carson 17se (Hhm)
7798 ft

 

01/08/2017
19:00 PST

Dew Point Temperatured 34.6 undefined
Snow Depth 210.3 Inches
Snow Water Equiv 19.6 Inches
Precip Accum 0.1 Inches
Wind Direction 177 Degrees
Precip Accum One Hour 70.6 Inches
Altimeter 30 INHG
Air Temp 34.8 Fahrenheit
Wind Speed 20 Miles/hour
Relative Humidity 99 %
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On 1/8/2017 at 0:58 PM, Sugarloaf1989 said:

MLK weekend does not look great with rain and warm temperatures leading up to it.

Why would anyone expect anything less leading up to a holiday period?  Grinch storms are yearly for the Christmas period...then there's the January thaw for MLK weekend...and then the next time I'll rain after that should be a day before Presidents Weekend.

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26 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Why would anyone expect anything less leading up to a holiday period?  Grinch storms are yearly for the Christmas period...then there's the January thaw for MLK weekend...and then the next time I'll rain after that should be a day before Presidents Weekend.

LOL, or like Presidents weekend last year where it was -100F followed by rain.

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13 minutes ago, MarkO said:

I heard from a friend who is out at Heavenly. Even though they're getting feet upon feet, they haven't been able to ski the past 2 days. 

Too much of a good thing:

 

...BLIZZARD WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST WEDNESDAY...
...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM WEDNESDAY TO 4 AM
PST THURSDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RENO HAS ISSUED A BLIZZARD
WARNING, WHICH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 10 AM PST WEDNESDAY. THE WINTER
STORM WARNING IS NOW IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM WEDNESDAY TO 4 AM PST
THURSDAY.

* TIMING: DANGEROUS BLIZZARD CONDITIONS DUE TO HEAVY SNOW AND
  STRONG WINDS WILL CONTINUE TODAY THROUGH WEDNESDAY MORNING.
  PERIODS OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SNOW WILL CONTINUE THROUGH
  WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

* SNOW ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH THURSDAY MORNING: 5 TO 10 FEET ABOVE
  7000 FEET WITH 3 TO 7 FEET AT LAKE TAHOE LEVEL.

* WINDS: SOUTHWEST 20 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS TO 60 MPH THROUGH
  WEDNESDAY MORNING. SIERRA RIDGE GUSTS OVER 100 MPH.

* SNOW LEVELS: BELOW LAKE LEVEL...MAY BRIEFLY RISE TO 6500 FEET
  THIS AFTERNOON BEFORE FALLING AGAIN.

* IMPACTS: DANGEROUS LIFE THREATENING BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WITH
  NEAR ZERO VISIBILITY WILL EXIST FOR TRAVEL AND OUTDOOR
  ACTIVITIES WITH HEAVY SNOW ACCUMULATION ON ALL SIERRA ROADS.
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1 hour ago, MarkO said:

I heard from a friend who is out at Heavenly. Even though they're getting feet upon feet, they haven't been able to ski the past 2 days. 

 

Blizzard conditions the next 24-36 hours...I suspect not many places will be open with the winds. But it should be pretty spectacular once the storm moves out.

 

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11 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Lol brekenridge snow stick cam ( time sensitive)

http://www.breckenridge.com/mountain/mountain-web-cams.aspx

Always fun to see the west get buried...even if it sometimes means we're in a holding pattern here. They just get some crazy snow out there with their elevation and orographics. Even last year when I was in Telluride, it was awesome to see the town just completely buried in early January....walking around to the bars and restaurants with monstrous snow banks and piles everywhere, and of course the mountain itself was amazing with basically everything you were willing to ski as fair game.

 

Looking forward to seeing what the Sierra snow totals are by Thursday.

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4 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

Always fun to see the west get buried...even if it sometimes means we're in a holding pattern here. They just get some crazy snow out there with their elevation and orographics. Even last year when I was in Telluride, it was awesome to see the town just completely buried in early January....walking around to the bars and restaurants with monstrous snow banks and piles everywhere, and of course the mountain itself was amazing with basically everything you were willing to ski as fair game.

 

Looking forward to seeing what the Sierra snow totals are by Thursday.

Heavenly had 42 overnight

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Too bad the Blue Canyon ASOS crapped out at 1pm today....in the previous 20 hours, they had gotten over 2.5" of qpf as snow after the changeover, and they are down at 5k feet, so it was likely quite a bit more up around the pass levels. Models were printing out another 5 inches of QPF between tonight and Thursday night.

Damn.

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