PowderBeard

ICON gone wild. Looks like a solid 8+ hours of 1-2" rates for most of mass.

13 hours ago, Professional Lurker said:

Kinda a blessing in disguise, as the lot this year will be a shit show with people gearing up at their cars. There's a science to maximizing the Berkshire east parking lot and I enjoy the challenge, but it's time to pass the torch.


 

Real life Tetris?

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Ha what?  First family this morning in the shop was from Peachtree, Georgia.  Yesterday people were talking about their flight from Fort Lauderdale.  I’m definitely getting the Vid at some point.  People from all over pouring in.  It’s a fight just to get them to wear masks much less follow any other guidance.  

Shit dude, that is so damn frustrating.

IDK, have to teach the grounds crew how to properly stripe the law, install inserts/stoves into those fireplace areas, rip all that shit out of the Yankees themed bedroom-bathroom suite. A lot of work, they should probably pay me to take it off their hands. 

28 minutes ago, mreaves said:

Looks like it.  I find the mention of a ski area in Dorset interesting along with the fact that Pabst packed it in and shuffled off down the road to Bromley.

https://www.newenglandskihistory.com/cancelledskiareas/Vermont/dorsethollow.php

Just as interesting, Bigelow.

https://www.newenglandskihistory.com/cancelledskiareas/Maine/bigelowmtn.php

That thing would put feet of snow in the Poconos and Catskills. 

21 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

Yea, living here I can tell you no chance in heck the base of auto road averages 98" at around 650ft-even though its close to the Taconic's.  More in the 75"ish range.  To get any real effect of the Taconic upslope you need to be a little higher and further west.  I have a friend who lives around 1350ft on the east slopes of the Taconic's  in Manchester and I can tell you the difference is STARK between that and say a little further east towards town in regards to snowfall. ( A sneaky good upslope spot is Shaftsbury NW of Bennington actually)  One strong cutter with a south wind and dews the Taconic's snowpack get's hurt really bad though, if not wiped out depending on how much is OTG.

Shaftsbury for good upslope, must have been named by a skier who played the old "Greenland and Iceland" trick.

10 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

I guess you are meaning lower elevations---you probably know Mt Equinox goes up to almost 4K.  They certainly average over 100" above 2K in the Taconic's of SVT.  No one lives above 1500' in the Taconic side of SVT, so hard to get any iron clad evidence of snowfall.  There are few guys I loosely know that do some back country skiing in the Taconic's west of Manchester, have no idea where exactly.

You are right that the Taconic's and Mt Equinox do pretty well on W/NW somewhat blocked uplsope flow. They can block some of that moisture from getting over to the Greens and Stratton, Bromley, etc at times and can relatively clean up while those areas get less. They don't do as well with strong E/SE obviously and they also can really torch, and have really bad retention--even the high elevations you can see melt out quickly at times say compared to much lower elevations east of the Greens.

Have always wondered why they never put in some type of ski area on Mt Equinox-- I mean you would have almost 3K of pretty steep vertical right down into the west side of Manchester.  I'm sure there were some political wrangling's going on over the decades that had a part in it.

It did not say where but even measuring at the base I would assume more than 98" a year at Equinox,. I doubt it is the true base of the auto road because that is several hundred feet lower than Manchester but would get an extra ~30".  If Stratton gets about 180" I would assume both of those would get over 200". 

7 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

Pike north keeps it, but Kev will find a shady areas behind the moss covered shed to prove me wrong.

Naaa, inversion at 1000' and temps in the 60s...TORCH!

15 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah Killington looked favored on that blocked SW flow ahead of the low today.  We had 1.5" daytime at Stowe... the same I got down in the village.

There's an insane amount of rime up on the hill from the thick moist clouds.  The hill is plastered white, despite low natural snow depths.

Some terrain expansion coming.

 

Upper LL looks good to go and afterwards you can turn your sticks into shot-skis or a chair.

That is some serious agreement we have something to keep eyes on. Going to get busy.

2 hours ago, powderfreak said:

The bolder I agree with.  It’s not as big of a difference as up north, but I truly believe there is still a north/south gradient between Mt Snow and Killington. 

I would think east-west would matter in SVT but its the direct opposite of what I thought for down there. A sample other than ski areas, Dorset and Equinox average only 90-100" a year according to the google machine. Always figured it would be much more, radar always seems lit up in that area even during the weaker flows.

Just now, bwt3650 said:

And that’s how kids learn to ski before they can walk straight.  You’ve got a powder day partner for life right there.

Hopefully. She staggers like a college kid leaving the bar at 2am and the 67cm skis and boots are waiting in the basement.

3 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

It is brutal.   Definately something you need to be in good shape for... I ain't in good shape now...lol

I thought I was in decent shape in Feb-March until I started doing this. Been working out 4-5 days a week because she is now ~15 pounds heavier and I won't have many solo days.

14 minutes ago, radarman said:

The woods skiers left of Black diamond holds literally like 1-2 lines, but it's frickin chest deep in there...  And the other side ain't bad either

Nothing whatsoever against LP, but I have a special fondness for the Ellen summit.  I think it's overlooked sometimes.

I have not done enough exploring at Ellen. My impulsive side gets the best of me and I find it hard to resist checking out "The Church" and rabbit holes around Castlerock each time I am there. It can be "interesting" to see people try to carve into the Church wall when below it only to find it is a rock face with a white blanket over it.

General Sugarbush rule, find a shack/building, look for rabbit hole behind it lol. My most memorable day there involved this and I stumbled upon John Atkinson et al. doing a photoshoot after a 20" upslope deal. Photo credit to him on this one.

8 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Walking up a ski slope and then skiing down sounds downright exhausting, not gonna lie.

Dawn patrols with fresh snow are always worth it. You can see the real power of some storms at elevation too if you venture out in the midst of one. Scary the first couple times because you think every tree is about to come down then you realize why they grow short and fat. Skinning at night during upslope is pretty amazing, I have had a couple trips where it seems like there is not a cloud in the sky and you can see stars but snow is accumulating on your jacket and all around.

Been trying to snow most of the morning. Just some scattered flakes. Feels and looks like winter out there.

12 hours ago, J.Spin said:

 

1) Remember that Killington does have roughly 700’ of vertical over Mount Snow in terms of summit elevation, so if both resorts are reporting summit area snowfall numbers, that’s a pretty substantial disparity.  That’s more vertical than some of the SNE ski areas that people were recently talking about in one of the threads.

 

Guess I never thought of "base" elevation too, If Killington was measuring at K1 for a period of time, that is 1000-1500' higher than the base areas of Sugarbush, Smuggs, etc. and like measuring mid-mountain at many areas. I have only been really skiing and paying attention to snow the past 10 years, and from that my mindset is Killington is more similar in snowfall to Okemo than it is to Sugarbush.

In regards to Jay do they over report, sure. But the wind definitely distributes things around and makes it hard to measure. There have been times I have hit Staircase/Everglade area and there is a 3-4' base meanwhile you are hitting stumps and root systems in Canyonland or Deliverance. 

Check out Killington's report and the webcams this morning. Penny and nickel to 250!

I find it funny that Killington and Pico both report 250". If one of them averaged 250" it would definitely be Pico. 

10 minutes ago, MRVexpat said:

Killington on the other hand does claim the same 250" average as Sugarbush while being 40+ miles south as the crow flies. Do they avg more synoptic snow? Maybe, but that has to be a wash over the long term and they likely only get 50 and 25% of the upslope that Sugarbush and Stowe get respectively. 

 

 

LOL, there was a recent thread on K-Zone about this and Mike S. come on to respond. They were reporting multiple 2-3" events over the course of a week and Superstar Headwall was grass. One day they reported like 4-5" and it looked like Superstar had a dusting on the cam.

1 hour ago, backedgeapproaching said:

I know on the surface it seems like that would makes sense funneling down the valley ala I-89 and JSpin on NW winds, but I honestly haven't noticed that funneling effect at all here.  If that was the case Manchester would get a lot more snow than they do, as  they would also benefit from it. I have thought about that exact funneling your mentioning and really just haven't noticed it on radar or in real time obs.  I think its more the fact that the Greens rise up quickly there and Snow Valley is close to top of the ridgeline.

 

Interesting. I wish I had kept data because that SVT area is confusing. The saying I have always heard from locals is if Mt. Snow does well, so does Magic. 

1 hour ago, LongBeachSurfFreak said:

 It’s also a great snow spot as it always seems to upslope well by SVT standards. 

 

 Funnels down Rt. 30 then between Equinox and Dorset and hits it?

 https://en-us.topographic-map.com/maps/o7cg/Winhall/

4 minutes ago, MRVexpat said:

Speaking of Greylock and needing a ton of snow, I've been looking at those powerlines for a few years. That looks like a 30+ degree pitch and not sure what the underbrush looks like but I'm sure 2 feet of settled snow would be appreciated. 

The youtube video makes me think A LOT of rock and ledge as it can be seen in a few frames. Comparing it to Red Line or Chute/Liftline at MRG I would agree 2' of settled.

9 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Lawyers suck

I had one contact me via PM on a ski forum regarding an incident when someone fell off a lift. I had captured the image form the resort webcam of the skier dangling from the lift about 20' up and he wanted to know about it. Apparently the area had blasted the chairs with snowguns and not cleaned them which led to some people slipping off chairs that day.

1 minute ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Yeah. It can’t ever become a ski area again.  I thought it had more than 600’ of vert but I know better than to second guess you. Lol

If you do some Killington math I bet you could scrape 900' out of it.

It's the Dutch Hill of Massachusetts, in a nice snow spot. I have been to Dutch Hill when Mount Snow was only on man-made and that place had plenty of base.

15 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

For a MA hill east of the Berkshires, it has some good vertical. Like almost 600 feet?

 

There are some sneaky good areas east of the Berks with 500-700' of vert with consistent intermediate and legit advanced slope. Most are single lane fire road wide or with thinned out glades. Two of which only need about an 8" base. 

Haven't had the best experience in the Berkshires, more ledge and you're skiing hiking trails or going to scratch your goggles up on branches. There is one place I have been able to hit twice with a friend that was 800-900' of consistent advanced/expert vert - similar to Ripcord at Mount Snow for pitch and as wide as Broomstick at Magic or Misery Whip at Sugarloaf - that was well maintained by the power companies. I would take it over Greylock's Thunderbolt any day.

This should be on everyone's to-do list during a good winter. I'm all for rope-ducking in the "right" circumstances but these would need a ton of snow to ski safely. 

https://nebackcountry.blogspot.com/2013/01/trip-report-mohawk-trail-slides.html

8 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I hadn’t seen that. Neat site!

https://www.newenglandskihistory.com/

Solid as well. I love the lift history details, just learned the chair at Watatic was from Diamond Hill, RI. That place has some seriously steep little chutes.