powderfreak

8F Over it.

Alex...that's awesome. The bench or mid-slope elevations are just buried right now. 1,500ft is where the snowpack gets to another level. Nice evening here on the valley floor. I love these sunny days in the spring. It's light until 7pm. Dark, low albedo surfaces (like Dendrite mentioned recently) melt rapidly but the mud hasn't been bad at all so far.

Those 200"+ amounts in the NEK of Vermont are pretty crazy. I mean that's a lot of snow and they are away from the real upslope zones. Makes my 135" seem like child's play....but even J.Spin has had 50" more than me as he usually does, ha.

Anything tilted southward is getting crushed by the sun despite the temperatures. Now we are getting to the point where there's bare ground showing up on some south facing houses around town, but then you'll get into some shaded area and it's like 24-30" deep. My wife and I stopped by a friend's place that is sheltered by big huge pines (similar to like HippyValley) and his fence is still completely buried with just the top of the posts showing. It was eye opening, like that poor guy's lawn won't be snow free for a long time.

What a stretch of days...despite the cold the full sunshine still feels good. Despite a high of 32F so far, I was still able to only wear a hoodie while walking the dog. Crazy how warm the sun feels despite the temperatures. The sun is trying to work on the snowpack, which is still sitting around 20".

Yeah it's the 3rd Sunday in April, just like it's been for a decade. Last year April 1st was a Sunday so closing was early at April 15th. This year the 1st is a Monday so closing day is the 21st.

Hard to beat days like today in the Stowe side-country... a quick 20 min walk from the top of the lift brings you to this...

Yeah that's all skiable. We got a couple inches of fresh last night that blew around the filled all the tracks back in but that all got heavily skied this weekend.

What a day dude. The sky is so blue and the mountains are plastered with snow.

Skiing at Stowe since 2003 I've never seen the snow anywhere remotely close to this deep on Upper Liftline. That part has been closed for over a month due to clearance issues with the chairlift... but MMSP actually had to remove snow to allow the downhill chairs clearance to move. That is absolutely wild. Foot-rests on the downhill chairs would drag in the snow if the bar was down for any reason. That is so much snow. You could stand there and just load the chair going downhill right now... that first chair on the left is like 18" above the snow grade.

Mansfield is just loaded with snow. It's hard to even ski the glades because you are skiing in the tree canopy. All the branches that are normally trimmed are at like knee height. I'm 6'3" and can barely get through a bunch of areas. Mountain is a playground. Lots of folks teed it up off the Chin yesterday. The Ultimate Chutes area...only skied by a handful of skiers with ropes, harnesses and ice climbing gear. I still remember being at UVM when one of the Ski The East/Meathead Films guys (Alex Stall) fell to his death in here. His slough pushed him over a cliff leading to a 100+ foot fall that was survivable. After growing up skiing in SVT, I remember that happened my first winter skiing at Stowe/Mansfield and thinking, this place is unlike any other mountain I've seen in VT. The consequences are real if you wander into the wrong area.

Yeah...especially with the cold snowpack in the mountain valleys, we should be primed for some big diurnal ranges here soon. Tis that season. Low of 5F and a high of 50F like you said, while temps at 1,500ft warm through the night the fields on the valley floor here just continue to drop. Good fake cold set-ups coming.

25/2 with NW wind gusting up to 20mph. That sun is full on scam right now. Looks so nice until you step outside.

That's nuts. What's the elevation there? High-end snow depths this winter in the north country.

21" in two measurements at the 3,000ft site. 18" snow depth increase. Very QPF heavy stuff despite being a bit fluffier than the lower elevations. The high-ratio topping certainly didn't pan out. This was straight wind packed synoptic snow density.

This is insane. Tuckerman's Ravine on MWN...whole thing ripped out to the bottom of the bowl, just like a roof sheds snow weight. This just wind-loaded and then let loose a crown estimated to 10 feet in spots. No chance of survival if you were in the bowl.

Fuk this. I guess I wanted 10 feet on the ground on the upper mountain, now it's here to stay. But fuk this for the valley. 48 hours of sunshine but below freezing. Single digits in the morning warming up to maybe freezing? Monday...Sunny. Highs around 30. Northwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Monday Night...Clear. Lows around 8 above. Northwest winds around 10 mph. Tuesday...Sunny. Highs around 30. Northwest winds around 10 mph. Tuesday Night...Clear. Lows around 10 above. West winds around 10 mph.

Nice. I love the excitement of the camera man, that's what it's all about to be sending it with your friends down a snow covered mountain.

Yeah, after any thaw/freeze you'll usually see steeper ungroomed terrain reduced...this time of year all mountains have plenty of snow so any closures are due to snow surfaces.

It was bad up here too. The freeze happened at just the wrong time around the time-of-opening. Nothing the mountain operations teams can do with that region-wide.

RIP to the skier who died in the collision at Cannon yesterday (no helmet). Report says other skier suffered serious injuries too but will survive. https://www.unionleader.com/news/safety/police-identify-skier-who-died-in-cannon-mountain-accident/article_7e092b19-df5a-5f27-87e0-3f322f581d29.html?fbclid=IwAR3urrt8vTsagSxqSsASMUVTL7Kp4cyYUhcQmCJotQ5SibkfgoxbiAn69G0

Agreed...I think it'll come through Sunday morning as a burst of snow, changing to sleety snizzle then then just straight drizzle/freezing drizzle. Net gain to the snowpack, but conditions should be softer on Sunday afternoon. Could be real good surface conditions (soft snow that pushes back when you turn) if you can stand the visibility issues of low clouds and drizzle from low level moisture.

3" last night to fill it in a bit... Mansfield is skiing like out west with this snowpack. Can just drop into the woods anywhere really. 2,200 vertical feet to the parking lot from this spot. Start of a long pow run through the trees.

Some shots from wandering around Stowe this week.

There can be a 12" difference in town up here, lol. Hell you can do 1" per mile or even more. A couple inch difference in towns is nothing at all.