NNE Cold Season Thread 2025-2026

[WxWatcher007]

Snowing here. Merry Christmas!

[Baroclinic Zone]

FIS aerials and moguls events slated for January at Deer Valley and Park City have been relocated to Lake Placid(aerials) and Waterville Valley(moguls) due to lack of snow out there this season. Lower Bobby’s run is the trail they hold mogul events on.

[das]

Another 0.5” since 2:30am with a nice batch rolling thru at 10am. Christmas Day snow is the best.

 

[WxWatcher007]

.3” but these are now the best rates of the day. 

[WxWatcher007]

It’s ripping outside! 

[WxWatcher007]

At an inch of snow now. Been snowing all day. Wonderful. 

[powderfreak]

Been hammering this afternoon.

Another 5.5” since yesterday afternoon.

 

Snows getting deep on the High Road.

[mreaves]

I did not think it was going to snow on and off all day. Not as much as in the mountains, maybe an inch. If only we hadn’t had that friggin’ crap last week. 

[mreaves]

The State House in Montpelier is looking nice. 
 

[das]

I’ve had snow falling in 13 reporting hours so far today with periods of legit high-ratio wind-driven moderate fluff this afternoon and evening from the lake enhancement. 1.1” on 0.07” liquid equivalent. With three more reporting hours to go. Real Currier & Ives hallmark type of winter day. 5” OTG. A legit white Christmas from any vantage. I even went for a run during the heaviest squalls in the 5”. Winds were NNW 23G34. 6.2 miles felt like 10. And, I had the pleasure of running through two big snow devils. Ha. 

[J.Spin]

It was cold out there today – midwinter cold. By the afternoon we’d reached the upper single digits F in the valley, but I knew it was colder than that in the higher elevations. I wasn’t too excited to get out in those temperatures to ski, but Bolton had reported another 5-7” of new snow from the Christmas Day storm, and on top of all the recent snowfall, there was likely going to be some really great skiing out there.

I ultimately decided to head up for a quick ski tour and was planning to get on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network from the Village, but I figured I’d at least take a look at Timberline on the way up. A woman I rode the chair with on Wednesday said that the resort was working their way toward getting Timberline skiing underway during the holiday week, and indeed they were blowing snow at Timberline, so that made the decision easy to head up to the Village. By the time I’d ascended to the Village, the temperature was down to 2 F, which is about what I’d expect based on the valley temperatures.

I’d geared up with my usual dual base layer setup for cold temperatures, so I was actually nice and warm on my ascent. The fact that there was no wind actually helped make it quite comfortable, and my older son was up riding the lifts and giving ski lessons to some beginner friends, and he commented about the lack of wind as well.

For a change of pace I ascended part of the Bryant Trail and connected over via Cliff Hanger for a descent of Prayer Flag. The powder depths I measured in undisturbed areas were typically 12-15” at the 2,000’ level, and 15-16” in the 2,500’ range. The subsurface just continues to get buried under deeper and deeper layers of powder, and the descent of Prayer Flag was one of the better ones I can remember. I was worried that the skiing might be on the slow side with the cold temperatures, but the composition of the powder out there made for great gliding. It also didn’t hurt that only one or two other skiers had toured in the Prayer Flag area, so the snow was mostly unracked. Once I was back down to the Broadway bridge I made another ascent up to the top of World Cup and descended through some of the glades in Telemark Practice Slope area. It looks the current conditions are going to make for some fantastic skiing this weekend, with some additional snow expected tonight, and much warmer temperatures for the next couple of days.

[eyewall]

[WxWatcher007]

1 hour ago, eyewall said:

We warm for a little Monday but we may have a glacier on our hands next week. 

[qg_omega]

5 hours ago, eyewall said:

Looks pretty significant to me but not much talk on here, going to cancel the kids ski lessons on Monday

[J.Spin]

We were on the fringes of Winter Storm Devin up here in Northern Vermont, but Bolton Valley still picked up 3 inches of new snow from the system to top off the current powder depths. And thankfully, today was much warmer than yesterday – it was 15 F when I arrived in the Bolton Valley Village in the late morning period, which was quite a contrast from yesterday’s 2 F temperature at the start of my ski tour.

Today I toured more on the eastern side of the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network. I ascended the Bryant Trail up to and around the Bryant Cabin, then headed out on North Slope to catch some glades there with a descent via Gun Sight in the Gotham City area, and I finished off with some of the lower glades near the Telemark Practice Slope. The powder skiing continues to be absolutely fabulous, with the accumulations from Winter Storm Devin coming in around 6% H2O based off my snow analyses in the valley. That meant it topped off the current snow quite well and maintained the right-side-up density gradient in the powder. Between settling and compression from the new snow, total powder depths were about the same as what I encountered yesterday, with 12-15” around the 2,000’ level and 15-16” in the 2,500’-2,700’ elevation range.

We’re definitely into the holiday week now, and with the great snow conditions, it’s not surprising that the resort is seeing a lot of visitors. Arriving in the late morning, they were already having people shuttle up from the Timberline parking lots, but thankfully some early morning folks were leaving at that point, and I was able to grab a spot in the second lot for backcountry/uphill skiers. The upper backcountry parking lot was actually blocked off for lessons, and while I was out on my tour I saw a couple of groups out with backcountry instructors, so it’s nice to see that people are taking advantage of the holiday week and the great powder conditions to get out there and become familiarized with backcountry skiing.

[J.Spin]

Schedules lined up today to make the whole family available for skiing, so we headed up to Bolton Valley for a session. Things started off cold in the single digits F for the early morning around here, but by the time we headed up to the mountain in the mid-morning period, temperatures were up into the 20s F with plenty of sunshine. Conditions on the slopes are excellent, and it really was a spectacular day for getting outside – it was so good that the National Weather Service Office in Burlington even mentioned it in their afternoon discussion:

Area Forecast Discussion

National Weather Service Burlington VT

129 PM EST Sun Dec 28, 2025

NEAR TERM /THROUGH MONDAY/...

As of 127 PM EST Sunday...High clouds are beginning to stream into the region out ahead of the storm system tonight into Monday. The lingering effects of a polar high is keeping winds relatively calm. A stark temperature inversion is in place today, with mountain temperatures in the upper 20s and 30s, while elsewhere is in the upper teens or twenties. Overall, it`s a great day for winter recreation.

We’re in the big holiday week now, so there are certainly plenty of visitors at the resort, but the quality of the snow both on piste and off piste is excellent, and conditions are holding up well. Everything is open except for the Timberline area, so we roamed all over the main mountain’s alpine trails, hitting some excellent groomers as well as powder off piste. For the first time in a while, there wasn’t any fresh power this morning, but the resort has seen two feet of snow in the past week, and temperatures have been cold, so there are plenty of adventures to be had with fresh tracks if you poke around a bit.

Arriving when we did in the mid-morning period, we had to park down at Timberline and shuttle up to the main mountain, but without any mountain operations taking place on Timberline, we were able to ski back down to the car. They’ve made a ton of snow at Timberline in the past several days, and the rumors I’m hearing are that they’d like to open in time for the New Year’s holiday. They’ll just need to groom out all the huge snowmaking whales they’ve put down, but it sure seems like there’s plenty of snow there to open up that lower part of the resort now.

[J.Spin]