NNE Cold Season Thread 2025-2026

[EMontpelierWhiteout]

7 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Interesting they were all working for me…

Seems like they won’t load on my IPad.  Worked on my laptop.

[powderfreak]

35 minutes ago, EMontpelierWhiteout said:

Seems like they won’t load on my IPad.  Worked on my laptop.

That’s actually good to know.  I’ll try on my wife’s iPad later.

[powderfreak]

44" seasonal snowfall measured.

38" of snow depth at the Stake.

Not much settling happening out there.  This snow is dense, with plenty of dense graupel and smaller flakes, mixed with wind.

It has felt like dense sand... QPF-rich frozen precip.

 

[masonwoods]

6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

44" seasonal snowfall measured.

38" of snow depth at the Stake.

Not much settling happening out there.  This snow is dense, with plenty of dense graupel and smaller flakes, mixed with wind.

It has felt like dense sand... QPF-rich frozen precip.

 

This weekend I’m heading up to your neck of the woods to hike Camel’s Hump and Mount Abraham.  What should I expect for snow conditions?

[powderfreak]

6 hours ago, masonwoods said:

This weekend I’m heading up to your neck of the woods to hike Camel’s Hump and Mount Abraham.  What should I expect for snow conditions?

Expect snowy conditions, ha.  Probably a couple feet on the ground up high there.

[powderfreak]

22 hours ago, Boston Bulldog said:

Looks like Jay’s claiming 34” at the summit for the cycle that ended last Friday (Based off them reporting 21” over the last 48 hours). Coverage up there was great on Saturday, but I would subtract 10-12” from that for sure. It’s not like it was 3 feet of blower that condensed down, the snowpack was dense and surfy with little room for compaction. 

Love Jay but these reports seem to get increasingly ridiculous. 55” in a drift up against the Tram House perhaps?

Jay reported another 16-24" in the past 24 hours and 40" in 48 hours.  It just keeps getting wilder.

Mansfield measured 16" in the past 48 hours and all-time snow depths.

[WxWatcher007]

9 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Jay reported another 16-24" in the past 24 hours and 40" in 48 hours.  It just keeps getting wilder.

Mansfield measured 16" in the past 48 hours and all-time snow depths.

Insane

[Lava Rock]

39 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Insane

Jay now reporting 92" already? seems fudgy

[Boston Bulldog]

48 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Jay reported another 16-24" in the past 24 hours and 40" in 48 hours.  It just keeps getting wilder.

Mansfield measured 16" in the past 48 hours and all-time snow depths.

It was clear when they reported 6-10” last Tuesday morning (with a bare Stateside cam no less) that they were going to keep the preseason snow totals very fast and loose. Alta’s 2022-23 season total better look out, Jay’s coming for the 900” crown

[WxWatcher007]

2 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Jay now reporting 92" already? seems fudgy

Isn’t that a common thing among these establishments?

[powderfreak]

21 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Isn’t that a common thing among these establishments?

It was, becoming much less by the number of places actually measuring snow. 

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, Boston Bulldog said:

It was clear when they reported 6-10” last Tuesday morning (with a bare Stateside cam no less) that they were going to keep the preseason snow totals very fast and loose. Alta’s 2022-23 season total better look out, Jay’s coming for the 900” crown

Past event map:

[bwt3650]

It was, becoming much less by the number of places actually measuring snow. 

“This is jay peak. It’s the snowiest spot in the east, period. We’ve gotten a shit ton of snow. There’s a shit ton at 1800 ft, there’s a larger shit ton at 4000 ft. It has been snowing a lot, and it’s been really windy and there’s a shit ton of snow. In some spots, there’s 4 feet, in some spots there’s a foot. Wherever you ski, there’s a shit ton of snow”

I think this would be a more effective snow report and prevent the endless debates over what we all know is a shit ton of snow, skewed heavy due to obvious marketing embellishments and lack of precise measurements when numerical values are put on it.


.

[WxWatcher007]

17 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Past event map:

It was a good event in Saranac Lake, better than originally expected. It’s early, but I’ve noticed 1) BTV underestimates snow potential here and 2) it’s often snowing even when the radar looks clear 

We’ll have non-accumulating flakes during the day and as soon as the sun sets BAM we’re approaching an inch of fluff. 

[mreaves]

KMPV is -1.8° just over half way through the month.

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

“This is jay peak. It’s the snowiest spot in the east, period. We’ve gotten a shit ton of snow. There’s a shit ton at 1800 ft, there’s a larger shit ton at 4000 ft. It has been snowing a lot, and it’s been really windy and there’s a shit ton of snow. In some spots, there’s 4 feet, in some spots there’s a foot. Wherever you ski, there’s a shit ton of snow”

I think this would be a more effective snow report and prevent the endless debates over what we all know is a shit ton of snow, skewed heavy due to obvious marketing embellishments and lack of precise measurements when numerical values are put on it.
 

Yeah its becoming a thing now on the internet and social media.  Throwing out 16-24" like candy is essentially saying it snowed 1"/hr for 24 hours straight and while it does happen sometimes, there should be people drowning in snow at those amounts.

I mean 40" in 48 hours... I've measured that once here and if you get an honest 40" in 48 hours it is on a level that few can comprehend.  It is almost paralyzing.  It is not something that just gets tossed out there as a guess.  Like cars should be completely gone in the parking lot at a 30-40" storm.

And you are right, it is definitely the numbers that get people.  Everyone knows it's the most snow, but the number of people who I see posting online that have hit some variety of Bolton Valley, Stowe, Smuggs, and Jay this November... most are saying the amounts seem pretty similar.  I'd give Jay about 30% more just based on upslope climo as it moves north.  Just like the BV to Smuggs stretch usually sees about 30% more than Sugarbush/MRG.

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if Bolton was sporting some of the most either given their location and high base elevation like Jay's.

[renegade700]

3 hours ago, WxWatcher007 said:

It was a good event in Saranac Lake, better than originally expected. It’s early, but I’ve noticed 1) BTV underestimates snow potential here and 2) it’s often snowing even when the radar looks clear 

We’ll have non-accumulating flakes during the day and as soon as the sun sets BAM we’re approaching an inch of fluff. 

We have a place on Lake Ozonia north west of you  and I have yet to find a radar site that shows the precipitation accurately. I have tried many radar sites without any luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WxWatcher007]

8 minutes ago, renegade700 said:

We have a place on Lake Ozonia north west of you  and I have yet to find a radar site that shows the precipitation accurately. I have tried many radar sites without any luck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah it’s an impossible task. I use the KTYX radar most of the time. It’ll be interesting in the summer for sure. I’m used to good radar coverage.

[mreaves]

32 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Yeah it’s an impossible task. I use the KTYX radar most of the time. It’ll be interesting in the summer for sure. I’m used to good radar coverage.

We have the same problem on this side of the spine. By the time the beam is over us it’s really high so a lot of precip falls under it. @powderfreakexplains it much more elegantly than I can. 

[powderfreak]

44 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Yeah it’s an impossible task. I use the KTYX radar most of the time. It’ll be interesting in the summer for sure. I’m used to good radar coverage.

Honestly the NWS composite radar might be the best bet.  The radar up north is rough with the mountains blocking the low level beam.  I need to use like the 2.5 degree tilt for here (level 4 on radar scope) as that’s the first scan that clears the mountains… but then it’s hitting precip like 5,000ft over my head.

For folks further away east like Mreaves it’s hitting precip way up and often the beam is overshooting cold season low level precip pretty fast.  Often in low level upslope the radar isn’t seeing the Jay area well as the beam is too high by the time the higher angle scans get there.

Although this radar image is a bit meh for graphics, it’s actually one of the better coverages you’ll find up here.

https://radar.weather.gov/station/KCXX/standard

[J.Spin]

On 11/17/2025 at 2:07 PM, powderfreak said:

I’ve been too busy to ski it today so far but the content coming out of the woods around here is crazy for 11/17.

10” on top of the rain crust and all is good again.

That shot is a great representation of what’s been going on out there. I was busy yesterday as well, but I was able to swing by Bolton for a quick tour to check out the snow from the back side of the system. I was going to head up to the main base, which has been the way to go so far this season with its overall deeper snowpack, but I passed by Timberline and could see that the snow looked great even down to 1,500’, so I figured I’d save some time and tour there.

Right at base lodge level I was getting snow depth readings in the 15-20” range, and part of that is consolidated base, so I could tell that all the terrain would be good to go. I have no idea what the snow depths are up above 3,000’, but with the snow depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake sitting around 40”, it’s probably getting close to that mark in Bolton’s higher elevations as well.

Anyway, Saturday offered up some great skiing, but yesterday’s skiing was next level because of the new powder that fell. Up to this point in the season, I’d say my outing back on the 6^th had offered the best quality turns, but it certainly takes a back seat to yesterday. My snow analyses from the back side of the system gave an average of 6.0% H2O, and it was set up perfectly with a right-side-up gradient atop the denser snow below. If I rated Saturday’s skiing as a 6 out of 10, then yesterday was up around 9 out of 10. I guess a way to improve it would be to go even deeper, but 1 to 2 feet of 6% powder with a density gradient beneath it is way up there in quality – the turns were just effortless, and you really couldn’t go wrong. Those are stellar ski conditions for any time of the season, but it’s especially notable for mid-November. As I was floating down through the champagne on the Twice as Nice trail, one thing that struck me was that many ski areas in the country might not even have a day all year with such primo conditions.

There was actually only one other car at Timberline for the entire time I was there. It was a father and son out for some touring, and the son had already had hockey practice that morning, so this was his next activity of the day. There’s nothing like getting in two sports before it’s even lunch time. The dad, Willie, saw me taking some pictures and when I confirmed who I was, he introduced himself as a fan of our website, so it was fun way to meet another couple of Bolton Valley regulars.

[CoastalWx]

Jay Peak over 90” this season? lol. I’m sure PF would love to chime in.

[powderfreak]

On 11/19/2025 at 8:49 AM, CoastalWx said:

Jay Peak over 90” this season? lol. I’m sure PF would love to chime in.

One of the best opening days in history.

85% of terrain off the FourRunner Quad open and fair game.  Absolutely insane coverage too.

All of this in the photos on natural snow.

59 trails, 258 acres.  50% of Stowe’s skiable terrain.  And that’s only with 50” falling… can’t imagine what 93” would do

 

[WxWatcher007]

Models converging on a little clipper moving through the area Sunday-Monday. Not much room but let’s amp that up a little. 

[J.Spin]

By midweek, our protracted period of snowfall was winding down here in the Northern Greens, and we finally began to get some views of the mountains. When the clouds broke away you could see that the mountains were absolutely plastered with snow – the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake topping out near 40 inches will attest to that. Also notable in the views was the very low snow line – it reached way down below 1,000’ into the valleys.

I hadn’t been out to the hill since Monday when the storm was still going strong, but I had enough time yesterday to go on a ski tour for my workout. I was unsure if the lower elevations of Timberline were still going to be offering good powder turns, but when I parked and checked out the snow consistency, it seemed quite good, so I decided to tour from there. The snow had definitely settled since Monday; depths at 1,500’ that were 15-20” on that outing were roughly 12” yesterday. There hasn’t been any real melting of the snow, so that really just represented settling of the snowpack, and all the liquid equivalent was still there to support skiing. Areas in direct sun showed greater effects of consolidation, but humidity levels have been low, so even the most affected areas still weren’t getting mushy.

The depth of the snowpack definitely increased with elevation, and up around 2,000 – 2,500’ the snow depths were in the 1 to 2 foot range. I didn’t get any higher than that, but above 3,000’ the depths should be fairly similar to the depths at the Mt. Mansfield Stake.

By yesterday there had naturally been a lot of additional skier traffic compared to Monday, but there were still plenty of untracked lines available. The very best powder was in areas protected from the sun, but that’s a lot of terrain at this time of year when the sun angle is so low. The snow may have consolidated a bit more today with the current system affecting the area, but as of yesterday, fat skis were still definitely the way to go. There were some areas of deep, unconsolidated snow that could really throw you for a loop. To that point, I hit one especially deep pocket that was 2 to 3 feet of bottomless fluff, and even on my 115 mm boards, everything just dropped away from below me and I wound up going head over heels into deep snow. It was a chore to extricate myself from that. In general though, the skiing just offered more sublime powder turns that would rank right up there with the best midwinter days.

[WxWatcher007]

Can I ask a dumb question? I’ve noticed that gutters aren’t really a thing in my area, is that because of ice dams?

[alex]

4 hours ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Can I ask a dumb question? I’ve noticed that gutters aren’t really a thing in my area, is that because of ice dams?

I think so. We don’t have gutters in our area either. They’d just be clogged 50% of the year.