NNE Cold Season Thread 2025-2026

[tamarack]

3 hours ago, mreaves said:

@tamarackI took Rt.2 to Bangor today. Thought of you as I drove through New Sharon

We were taking our daughter to PWM for her flight to PHL, so we'd have missed even if we tried.  (And the snow in PHL and Harrisburg canceled her flight.  She and a couple dozen fellow 'refugees' are overnighting in the secured section of the airport, and will catch the 5:20 AM flight to DCA thence to PHL, probably on a 2nd airplane.  Fortunately, she had no checked baggage.)

Sandy River was up thanks to yesterday's warmth, but nothing serious.  If we get an inch-plus at 50° on Monday, could be some excitement.  Ice cover should still be thick and solid, and a 3-mile jam formed from Farmington Falls to the head of rapids in New Sharon last December during ice-in.

[powderfreak]

This was a solid thaw.  Noteworthy.

We lost 20” of snowpack at home, and 21” at the base of the mountain.

42” to 21” this week at 1,500ft.

[J.Spin]

I’d seen in the BTV NWS forecast discussion that Winter Weather Advisories were going up in association with the next system moving into the area, but there wasn’t any specific mention of alerts here in Northern Vermont. Now that I look at the BTV NWS alerts map though, I see that the area is surrounded by Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Warnings, and some of the projected snow accumulations are substantial, so there’s certainly a lot going on. The Event Total Snow Accumulation map shows some areas of 6-8” shading here in the Northern Greens, and some of the mountain point forecasts are coming in with 12”+ of snow through Sunday. The BTV NWS forecast discussion does highlight the QPF only topping out around 0.4” with shadowing in many areas due to the track, but they also point out the locally higher amounts possible along the western slopes, and the accumulations map certainly highlights that. Some models show >0.5” of liquid along the spine, and we’ll see how things evolve with the next update ahead of the system. With the spring cycling and refreeze that the snowpack has seen over the past few days, it’s going to take a decent amount of liquid equivalent for resurfacing of the slopes, but every bit of liquid that comes with this system will increase the angle of terrain that comes into play and enhance the potential for decent turns.

[J.Spin]

It was a relatively slow second week of March for snowfall here in the Northern Greens – our last winter storm finished up on the 4^th, and then we had multiple days of springtime warmth. That warm stretch brought some fun spring skiing, but by midweek, cooler weather had returned and we were back into wintry storms. Our most recent storm began yesterday, and while the lower valleys received snow with minimal accumulation, the mountain valleys and especially the mountains themselves stacked up several inches or more. After a modest start in the morning, the upslope snow kicked in for the afternoon into the evening and pounded the mountains. The snowfall was so intense that the road crews couldn’t keep up with it on the Bolton Valley Access Road, which had to be closed for a time to clear out cars that were stuck. Out of caution, the resort even closed its lifts during that period, since emergency vehicles wouldn’t have been able to get up to the resort if they’d been needed. We weren’t skiing yesterday, but Bolton’s snow report updates told the story, and it sounded like quite a challenge for resort operations. Ultimately, accumulations topped out around a foot along with spine, so it was just another example of what often happens when one of those minor clipper systems runs into the Northern Greens:

3:30 PM UPDATE: The good news is that it's nuking up here, the bad news is that Vista will be closed for the evening due to winds. Mid-Mountain, Mighty Mite, and Snowflake will run as scheduled. With all of the snow coming down hard and fast, please use extreme caution when traveling on the Access Road. Winter tires and four wheel drive is highly encouraged at this time.

4:15 PM UPDATE: The Access Road is currently closed to both uphill and downhill traffic. We're working to clear cars off of the road and then will have to wait for plow trucks to make their rounds. We'll keep you updated as soon as something changes.

4:45 PM UPDATE: The state police and plow trucks are currently working to untangle the Access Road below Timberline. We are making the call to temporarily close ALL LIFTS while the Access Road is closed due to it being inaccessible for emergency vehicles to reach the resort if needed. Stay tuned for updates, and thank you to our local officials, Bolton township, and Bolton team for working hard to get things moving again.

5:30 PM UPDATE: Traffic is now gradually moving on the Access Road. It's not completely clear just yet, but the teams are getting close. We will resume lift operations. Please continue to use caution when traveling. If any skier and rider needs to get back to Timberline but does not have a night ticket, our lift ops team will gladly let you on the lift to get back to Timberline while it's still light out.

The storm wound down overnight, so my older son joined my wife and I today for a Bolton session to check out the new snow. I was surprised to see the Bolton Valley snow report only indicating 7 inches of new snow when we’d picked up 6 to 7 inches from the system down in the valley, but I’d say that report was on the conservative side – we did find some spots with only 7 inches, but even after overnight settling, depths of 8 to 10 inches seemed more common. In the valley at our site, the new snow contained close to a third of an inch of liquid equivalent, so I’m guessing the mountain picked up probably a half inch of liquid. It certainly wasn’t a full resurfacing storm, but it did reset the low-angle terrain and a decent percentage of the mid-angle terrain to bottomless or nearly bottomless turns. The average density of the powder down at our place in the valley was 4-5% H2O, but the settled powder we found out there today was still dense enough to slow you down somewhat in the lowest angle areas. The trick to dialing in some of the best powder turns today was finding that sweet spot of terrain pitch that was steep enough to give you good momentum in the available powder yet keep the turns mostly bottomless. We had a lot of fun using our knowledge of the mountain and seeking out those untracked areas with the right pitches to yield some excellent turns.

On that note, temperatures in the 20s F today and minimal wind made it that much better. We were glad we started up right when the lifts were opening though, because even at that point it was clear that it was going to be a busy day at the resort – we were already parking in the 4^th tier of the main Village lots right around opening bell. It was a big event day for the resort though, with the 5^th Annual Blauvelt’s Banks competition taking place at Timberline, and some slalom racing and other events taking place at the main base. When we were leaving around midday, it looked like both the Timberline and main Village lots were basically full.

 

[mreaves]

I drove home from northern Maine towing a snowmobile trailer yesterday. We delayed leaving Presque Isle due to poor road conditions and wind. Finally got on the road around 2:00. Everything was smooth sailing all the way through Bangor so I decided to go through the White Mtns. on Rt. 2. Worked fine all the way to Gorham, NH. At Gorham the wind was absolutely ripping and it was snowing and even though we saw a couple of state trucks coming down the mountain, I knew it was going to be sketchy. And I was correct. The wind was howling and it was near white out conditions. The snow was starting to accumulate on the road and combined with the salt made it pretty slushy. It was a white knuckle drive all the way to Twin Mountain. The road was fine most of the rest of the way until a mini repeat through Groton, Topsham and Orange.
 

Pulling the big trailer in the wind was worse thing. It made me feel like I would get pushed around on the slippery road surface. o was pretty happy to get home.