NNE Cold Season Thread 2025-2026

[WxWatcher007]

34 minutes ago, eyewall said:

The Presidential Range on a bluebird day after the coastal storm:
 

 

Oh I love these

[eyewall]

Just now, WxWatcher007 said:

Oh I love these

Thank you!

[eyewall]

6 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Oh I love these

One more for you:

[WxWatcher007]

16 minutes ago, eyewall said:

One more for you:

I mean you've always been one of the very best on this site when it comes to photography. I assume you use a drone to capture these?

[eyewall]

57 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

I mean you've always been one of the very best on this site when it comes to photography. I assume you use a drone to capture these?

You would be correct and I appreciate it. 

[eyewall]

In this shot you can see the Lake of the Clouds hut in the saddle right of MWN:

[eyewall]

Aerial video of Mt. Mansfield:

 

[IrishRob17]

On 2/24/2026 at 9:27 PM, eyewall said:

One more for you:

Great shot of The Cog.

[eyewall]

5 minutes ago, IrishRob17 said:

Great shot of The Cog.

Thank you! The Presidentials in winter are as close as you get to the Rockies in the East. 

[mreaves]

Looks like about an inch of snow overnight.  I guess I missed that in the forecast. 

[J.Spin]

It was getting late before I had a chance to post, so here’s yesterday’s report from Bolton Valley:

I hadn’t been up to the mountain since Sunday, and I hadn’t followed the temperatures too closely over the past week, but in terms of powder preservation, it looked like temperatures had remained below freezing through the period. Our highest temperature here in the valley had been 36 F, which meant that 2,000’ should have remained safely above the freezing line. In terms of new snow, it hasn’t been a particularly snowy week – there was a decent storm with about a foot of snow at the beginning of last weekend, and then a clipper system with a few inches midweek, but that was about it.

Driving up in the early to midmorning period, it was already approaching 40 F in the valley and in the Bolton Valley Village at 2,000’ it was just above the freezing mark. As I was gearing up for a ski tour, the winds picked up and light snow moved into the area, and the snow continued for roughly the next hour. My ascent was via the Bryant Trail, and on the ascent it was tough to tell exactly where the freezing line was, but by 2,500’ I was definitely above it. I continued on the Catamount Trail and up to the Catamount Trail Glades, topping out around 3,200’.

The higher elevations had definitely remained below freezing all week, because there was some excellent dry powder out there, but you had to pay attention to aspect and wind exposure. Even up above 3,000’, areas with southern exposure or areas touched by winds had seen some notable degradation to the quality of the powder in the form of wind and/or sun crusts. They were relatively minor, but definitely enough to change the surface snow texture and make the turns more challenging. Outside of those areas though, the powder was dry and the turns were great. Without much new snow in the past several days though, the powder had settled, so that did play into terrain options. Although the settled powder wasn’t as good for tight lines on steep pitches as we’d seen last week, it was definitely an improvement with respect to its utility for moderate and lower-angle pitches.

I caught some fantastic lines through the trees in spots I hadn’t visited before, including a new glade route into Gotham City that was quite fun. I can’t say that it was a perfect descent all the way back down to 2,000’ however, because the freezing level had begun to rise. Like a light switch, as soon as I hit the 2,400’ elevation on my descent, I reached the freezing line and the powder changed and became wet and sticky. It was essentially unskiable at that point, so I returned to the Bryant Trail and finished my descent there. That was at midday, so I’m not sure if the freezing level moved any higher than that, but any snow that did stay above the freezing level should be in good shape heading into next week with temperatures staying below freezing for the next few days.