PowderBeard

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.

13 minutes ago, HoarfrostHubb said:

Wachusett is now selling uphill passes.  $50 for the season if you don’t have a downhill season pass, $25 if you do

 The days of free uphill are quickly disappearing. 

Happy to hear about the local beavers keeping Watatic in good shape. Probably in better shape than Mittersill was when Cannon opened it - then destroyed it. That is some serious base over 600' of vert.

I'm curious what Brodie trails look like but don't want to risk a trespassing violation, apparently they are really strict there. Maple Valley is still pretty cleared out minus some grundel floss. I have always wanted to hit the upper liftline section given the ledge bands but it would need a ton of snow. 

19 hours ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Lol, 30mi to your west Greenfield is at 1” for the season. 

Damn that is tough. 20 mins south and just under 4" on October 30th and 4.5" for the 12/5 storm.

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

Getting raked pretty well now. 31 degrees. 

Enough for tubing I see lol. 

That stretch from just east of Athol into southern NH just south of Concord should keep going for quite a while. Another decent area to watch.

Have to love parachutes falling from the sky. Beautiful sight.

Excited to see what bands pivot or areas build. First time having a decent radar subscription. 

Boom. Pronounced with an "Umpty".

1 minute ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Still rain at Berkshire East according to my buddy In Charlemont. 

Every time I hike Negus I wish they had built the ski area there lol. 1000'+ of vert, a ton more snow, and steeper with few ledges.

6 minutes ago, ORH_wxman said:

All snow on NW side of town at 900+ feet. Should be all snow there shortly

Jackspot. Going to be an amazing day there. 

42* around 5am, down to 34.2* now. All snow is around 800', stations at 300-500* still around 39*. Another amazingly tight gradient like the October 30 storm. 

Quickly changing over here, more flakes now.

13 minutes ago, subdude said:

In for 30-36" lmao 

That was two systems, the second system put down 15-20" of that which fell the second night (and only 3-4" was forecasted and we grabbed 18"). 

Well looking more like a Mount Toby or powerlines in Brookfield for skinning. 

HRRR wants to do another Dec 3rd 2019 26" crushing for central Mass lol. It did nail that. Still thinking 6-8" here.