PowderBeard

On 11/28/2020 at 1:00 PM, Whineminster said:

@PowderBeardwhat kind of fish finder do you recommend? Tried to buy a garmin but sold out! Looking to spend around $400ish

The Garmin 73 Echomap with Side imaging is what I have. One on the bow and one at the cockpit. If you wont be fishing much until next year I would just wait for it. I grabbed both mine for $449 during the Cabelas Father's Day Sale. The echomap feature is great along with the preloaded maps in 1' intervals. The Striker is a similar price but does not come with/allow for mapping features. I was a Humminbird/Lowrance fan for years but Garmin's tech is on par/better and the price cannot be beat. 

Bass are still chewing. Hit about 10 last Friday between 2-4pm. 42/43* water. Any day we get over 50* they move shallow to get warm. Pulled all of them, including two 3.5 and a 4lbs fish out of <2' of water in brush/wood on the jig. 

1 hour ago, bch2014 said:

Mt Snow looks to have some decent terrain for opening day tomorrow... Free Fall on the North Face, Canyon on the skier's left of the main face, and Long John on skier's right. Three true routes down.. I've skied worse on first days!

Free Fall open is fantastic. Saw some pics from there yesterday and there was a tiny patch on upper Long John - figured there was no way they could open before Friday. Must have really cranked it up.

Killington's report says they are going for Downdraft and Lower East Fall to get the Canyon Quad going. Interesting. I know they make snow on the "Downdraft Headwall" under K1 but I've never seen guns going on the rest of it. Needs a ton of snow due to massive waterbars, ledges, etc. and I'm not sure how they move the piles around. They would also have to cover the lower 1/3 of Double Dipper to link it to the lift. IDK. 

2 hours ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

I see they opened with 11 trails on 2 mountains/lifts.  Not bad for an opening day.

Absolutely, especially given weather. 

With some decent windows opening I imagine they go for lower Locke and North Peak next. Killington probably finishes up on Snowdon before the Superstar Pod and Ram's Head. Lower Super is always a pain but in the past they can just cover the headwall and middle sections and re-route to Skyelark/Bittersweet.

Wildcat seems to be in no rush which is a bummer but they really don't draw. They have an under-rated snowmaking system and great elevation/location. There have been a couple years since 2015 when Killington and Sunday River were still downloading from K1/Locke and Wildcat had 2000' of vert open. 

Ugh these popped up on my FB memories today from 2018. Magic was buried so well Broomstick-Black Line was done with no open water bars or core shots. Meanwhile I'm fishing in a hoodie today.

1 hour ago, radarman said:

West Bridgewater isn't much better if coming in from the other way.  There isn't a skiing Masshole alive who can't attest.  

 

Ha! confirm. 42 in a 35 about 4 years ago. He was about 200' after the transition from 50 to 35mph. Looked just like Rod Farva but in his late 50s.

7 hours ago, Skivt2 said:

I think it can get pretty blurry pretty fast who lives where.  A lot of people, myself included, have all the required documentation to prove VT residency to DMV.  This whole thing could become cat vs mouse pretty quickly.

If anyone in VT will try to enforce these regs and ask you for documentation/harass people with out of state plates it will be those county mounties that camp out around Plymouth. I am always driving at or below speed limit that whole stretch up to K/Pico. I was going 2-3 mph under one day and was pulled over. Cop never said why he stopped me, ran all my info, gave it all back to me and just walked away without saying anything. I still have no idea why I was stopped. 

https://www.vpr.org/post/welcome-plymouth-home-vermonts-most-lucrative-speed-enforcement#stream/0

edit: K has the North Ridge Quad running this morning. Going to be close.

Killington is hammering Snowdon now. I bet they open up Thursday/Fri.

Surprised. First time I have ever gotten a little spooked with weather in this house. Moved from the back room to the middle of the house when one gust came through. Every tree looked like it was coming down. 

15 hours ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

An MD/PhD will for sure beat the hell out of you. 

I cannot even imagine. That is a whole other level mental and physical challenge.

14 hours ago, WhitinsvilleWX said:

One of the pluses to waiting is that you generally have your career in hand and aren’t so poor!

By the time we had kids we weren’t struggling to get by. I was making good money, stable job, and could afford good shit instead of trying to raise kids in a tiny apartment eating ramen off of a card table. 
I was kind of unique in that I didn’t need loans. PhD was paid for by the school and the MD was paid for out of someone else’s pocket. Not everyone has that advantage. 

The rule is NEVER pay for a PhD, it will ruin you financially for the rest of your life. If I was not fully funded (tuition waiver and great pay for teaching/research) my PhD would cost about $300k (many grad students only like to think they are only getting paid 20-40k a year for working 60+ hour weeks and forget that 30-50k tuition waiver). That is med school debt while never sniffing MD or upper level JD income. There are many that attend grad school "degree mills" and once they graduate they are unable to get licensed in ______ field or will never make more than 60k per year while taking out hundreds of thousands in student loans. There is no coming back from that since you keep your student debt even if you file for bankruptcy. Even when I interviewed at the notorious Ivy League school in Massachusetts, their "full funding package" was not enough to live anywhere near Cambridge without taking out a ton in loans (probably 60-80k). Meanwhile, that lab was taking in millions in grants, had a full bar, kitchen, three bedrooms, and industrial espresso machine. 

One thing I have learned about grad school is it is close to impossible to get through if you don't have some sort of supports and the majority of bosses/supervisors are understanding. I have two years left of my training and my wife and I had our first last year. She has a great job that she loves and if it was not for that we would have never been in a place financially to buy a home or have a child. Our 14 month old is home with me full time while I teach/attend meetings/supervise/complete my research projects. Thankfully my department is AMAZING, supportive, and has a lot of research resources (I can easily get undergrad research assistants to help on projects). The only reason I am able to even be in grad school is because of my wife and department - as they are far from the stereotypical academic ivory tower. 

2 minutes ago, radarman said:

It's not totally clear to me what happened.  It seems like from the FB page they may have reopened as a member owned coop, but retained Milltown to manage the mountain ops.   It does sound like they intend to reopen this year.  Good for them.  Much as I love Nelsap, I'd rather not see it updated with anything other than memories and recent trail pics.

Absolutely, I remember The Witches pod being pretty fun. I was actually checking out Ascutney this morning on NE Ski History and didn't realize how big it was. 

Just now, powderfreak said:

Western side of Mansfield melts out to 3,500ft well before it melts at 1,500ft on the east side lol.  Getting direct sun during the warmest diurnal time of day is a killer in the spring.

Wow.

I never made that western facing connection. Makes sense because Magic melts out and natural stuff can still be skied on Timber Ridge side if it was a good year. 

13 minutes ago, radarman said:

FWIW Berkshire East purchased the Hermitage out of bankruptcy this year and they are going to reopen as a non-profit. 

They have a kink for ski areas with 1100' of vert lol

7 minutes ago, radarman said:

FWIW Berkshire East purchased the Hermitage out of bankruptcy this year and they are going to reopen as a non-profit.  But the deed requires them to remain private, which presumably was a condition of the original sale from Mt Snow.  At any rate, the country club demand can't be too high considering that's basically the only one and they were broke.  That said, put a country club on Mansfield and you might have something.  Release the hounds on the riff raff.

Moved it over here given its more ski based. Did they ever sell any of the lifts or all still in place? I know that was discussed a lot. 

When they built Haystack they should have put it on the western slope, straight gnar on that side. 

40 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Ha, it’s really only clubs/bars and restaurants after 10pm.  The sports leagues make sense as those have been huge sources of spread in VT.  Hockey leagues, bowling leagues, etc.

I think they need a more pointed/isolated closure of activities that lead to spread like that rather than a blanket stay at home order.  Hopefully ski areas don’t get blamed or we are done too.

Makes sense. It's amazing what we could have learned if we paid attention elsewhere. There have been several super-spreader hockey events over the summer. Some excerpts from two...

In its most recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the CDC documented the case of a recreational hockey game in Tampa Bay, Fla., back in June, in which 14 players and one arena staff member became ill within five days after the game. Of the 15 people, 13 later tested positive for the novel coronavirus, while the other two were not tested.

2 hours ago, radarman said:

Monday Dec 14th?

Only took a couple hours to shut most things down lol

https://vtdigger.org/2020/11/13/scott-bans-multi-family-gatherings-in-vermont-closes-bars-and-clubs/

Well all the travel advisories and Vermont couldn't save it from itself. Super spreader Halloween and bowling events. Over under on how long until bars/restaurants/anything athletic is shut down again?

Damn, should have just gotten a pass to Berkshire East/Catamount/Bousquet for an extra $150 this spring. They are really planning.

"A lot of effort is going into building 100 winter timber framed ‘cabanas’ that will fit a group of 6. These units are being manufactured at Catamount, using wood responsibly harvested from our Warfield House farm, and milled at Hall Tavern Farm in Charlemont. Fifty will end up at each mountain, respectively, providing up to an additional 300 extra seats at each space. 

These units will have heat, a table and provide space for a family. We are still working on allocating these units to customers each day, but we will announce that process in the coming weeks. The lodges will operate per state guidelines at reduced capacity. Berkshire East will see the addition of new outdoor gathering spaces and patios that will be fun and very logical once you see it. "

A lot of ignorance and "it will never happen to me/my loved ones" in this thread. I'll leave it at that.

11 minutes ago, mreaves said:

They are an amazing, adaptable animal.  It's too bad they are so hated by a lot of people. 

I think in more rural areas they are not much of an issue given more food sources. They have made their way back into more populated areas and family pets make easy meals. There are a couple documentaries on European cities that have specifically introduced them and foxes to deal with rats. Coyotes are really thriving in Chicago due to the rats.

There is one notorious coyote in our town that I have spotted once. I thought it was a German Shepherd at first but it was definitely not. Absolutely massive. I have come across a few folks with the same story that insist it is a grey wolf that was found and relocated to the Prescott Peninsula but managed to find its way off. Got to love town myths. 

We will all need a nice weekend by the time Friday comes. 

Winds is still going. Had a big limb come down and missed the front half my truck by about 2'. Would have definitely taken out the hood.

7 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

12z GFS puts 1.0" QPF over J.Spin's head.  

Lol it has quite a burst tonight.

Curious what the ratio ends up being. A 18-20" surprise? lol 

Lost power/interwebz three times so far this morning, all 5-10 minutes each. Wind is howling, occasional snow, woodstove cranking. Funny to think I will be fishing on the boat in shorts come Friday. Got to love New England.

Absolutely cranking up the spine from at least Stratton (no Mt. Snow cam) north. The gondi cars at the summit of Stratton are really swaying in the wind.

7 hours ago, powderfreak said:

The scene at 3pm up high.  Blitz by huge flakes.  We'll see what the next day or two brings.

Love these events. The NW flow really favors some places. Twice I was at Pico and they received 12"+  above 3000' and was snowing at 2-3" per hour rates, meanwhile Killington reported 3-4" for the day. A true snow stealer being just a mile NW.