Angus

rain and thunder have arrived in Concord MA.

Two great days at the camp on Winnisquam. I can't remember the water temps ever being this warm on Memorial Day weekend.

I may be done for the season but still holding out hope. Just looking wistfully at the SLoaf webcam and looks beautiful. They are still skiing with close to 100 trails. On a SLoaf chatboard I read occasionally, there was a discussion of this season's snowfall - 171" with almost no snow falling from January 18 to March 9 - a person posted the following...

Easter Sunday was the 18th and remember being at my grandmother's house in Boston and the heat was intolerable inside. I remember talking about how the heat would affect the marathoners the next day.

@LaGrangewxare you working out there? how did you find a rental (I assume). Thinking about a winter long trip in western US and Canada next year.

@HIPPYVALLEYre: Iceland. I looked at the map of totality - the pictures below are from the area (westfjords) in northwestern corner of iceland in July 2017. Barren and beautiful. We took a ferry from Stykkishólmur, arrived in Brjánslækur and drove a big clockwise loop back to Stykkishólmur - literally 20 hour day if I recall. Most of the roads (or all) were gravel/dirt. I remember us laughing that the scenery was so beautiful that it got to be ho-hum. This was the most spectacular area we visited IMO.

as @ariofmentioned, half the fun was navigating the traffic. We hiked off of little Bigelow (3.5-4 miles) while my boss with young family departed from Eustis Ridge immediately after the event. He got home to Milford MA area about 11:20 while I arrived in Concord MA at midnight. Heck, we stopped for a quick pizza in Portland at 930! My big decision was going west on rt 2 at Norridgewock versus going to Waterville and getting on 95 and from there to 295. I didn't get on 295 until below the Gardiner tolls on 295. The Sugarloaf area is constrained by rivers and therefore bridges - there aren't many bridges so those became choke points. @HIPPYVALLEY did Iceland in 2017 during summer months - such a different landscape - would be very cool.

won't be going into the ravine this year. given the late February/early march warm up I'm not confident in the snow. Skied Saddleback on Sunday and it was ... outstanding. Mostly stuck to the terrain off the Kennebago lift. if you skied the sides of trails, there was lots of loose fresh snow. A few runs in the trees including chute 3 and 4 in Casablanca were great. The pack is not super deep - stumps and rocks protruding from the steep entry sections of Supervisor, Black Beauty and Warden's Worry but easily avoided. Day started with upper parts of mountain obscured by clouds, ended with blue skies. Not sure if that was it for me this season - really hoping for one more day - but if not, my best day of spring skiing will have been Killington in early February!

at the recommendation of @tamarack climbed Little Bigelow Mountain which looks south and west towards Sugarloaf and the Crockers. Excellent choice and thank you so much. There was something like 3 dozen people up there with my party of six including two guys from Franklin county search and rescue who stayed up and were going to do a sweep after everyone had gone down. They also packed out the trail on Sunday which was pretty awesome. We got up about an hour before totality and everyone was in a festive mood - families, some students, a large crew from Ashbury Park NJ??? Watching the darkness move across the valley floor towards us was pretty spectacular. The winds really increased substantially and it got very cool. Just an awesome experience. Traffic getting through Madison and Norridgewock was hilarious - to experience a one mile backup in those towns is a once in a lifetime experience too! Route 16/27 and the area around Sugarloaf access road was all time from what I have been told. Without and with light!

April 1987 must have been crazy to see. I was living in Austin Texas but my grandmother sent me all the local newspapers. I think I still have them somewhere.

Yeah, my son just texted from NYC and then I swear I felt something here in metrowest boston. Crazy.

I was living in Waterville and I have no recollection of this storm. It's kind of strange. I remember running I think the day after the Boston Marathon either in '82 or '83 in heavy snow - somewhere across the river in Winslow.

@markO I posted earlier that I was in Oxford in 1999. We were 99% sun blocked and it was like a really dark cloud moving over the sun. I didn't have glasses so didn't look at the sun directly.

Use to go there for work - it's actually a nice college town. Was there in 2013 - Memorial Day week when Superior was still iced in.

Still not convinced but I'm chuckling b/c a member of my family will be joining their cousins in Hill county for the eclipse while I'm planning to be in NW Maine on a mountain and as of right now, I'll have the better show! Not what we were expecting.

I skied (ski) SLoaf from mid-late March until mid-late April regularly. Last year I skied April 10-12, there were bumps everywhere. Ripsaw, Winters Way, White Nitro, Bubblecuffer, Misery Whip, Sheer Boom, Skidder, Double Bitter are places to go standardly. SLoaf has so much terrain open during spring time.

I referenced in a previous post the backup on 93 getting off at the Lincoln exit Sunday morning. I got caught in a similar backup - thankfully I was off the highway - on 112 over MLK weekend. From the off-ramp to the main entrance is almost 3 miles and it took us at least 30 minutes to get by there. When we passed by, they were turning cars around b/c the parking was full. I would have been ballistic as a customer.

Skied today at Cannon. It was a zoo getting into the parking lot. They announced they sold out. The line of cars at the exit to Loon was more than 1/2 mile down 93... Basically, Cannon was one big bump run at the end of day. Ton of fun but exhausting skiing like that on back-to-back days. They opened everything including DJs - which IMO is nuts. After two days of skiing this stuff, I'm whipped.

I skied at WV yesterday - last night drove from Meredith to Sunapee for an event and then back. It was raining on the lake when I left, by the time I got to Franklin, it was frozen rain and then by Andover near white out conditions. Crazy driving. The snow rates were crazy. Back at the lake, I'm guestimating we added nearly a foot from 6 to 11 last night

From the SR report this AM We received almost 2' of snow yesterday during our open hours, and over a foot fell through the night. That brings us to a whopping 36" of snow for this March snowstorm. It's the fluffy stuff, too @NW_of_GYX

I was in Oxford England in August/early September 1999 (???) and I think they were something like 97-98% totality. I was in a work meeting and we paused and went to the windows to watch and I'd describe the experience as a really dark cloud moving across the sun on a sunny day. It left most of us confused!

Hah! Navarro county doesn't get mentioned much on this board. Know it well with family just south in Hill county. Perfect place to watch - but I plan to be in Maine hoping for good weather!

watching the webcam at MRG today. It has been pounding snow all day.

A real tragedy. Can't understand what these people who are putting themselves and their rescuers in danger are thinking quite frankly. Is it just simple lack of awareness about preparation and the conditions they will face, does a mobile phone provide some sort of security blanket, i.e., if I get in trouble I'll just make a call, youthful invincibility or is it trying to emulate social media influencers and/or post 'cool, look-at-me' stuff on the internet? A MWV skier who is widely followed on social media posted video from the floor of the ravine last Thursday. The place is a complete mess - crevasses, waterfalls, rocks sticking out, low snow levels - the little headwall below the ravine is a waterfall. Under these weather conditions, huge blocks of ice are separating from the walls and tumbling down. It's crazy. The parts of the Sherburne trail shown in the video had almost little snow and lots of patches of dirt.

Skied yesterday at Mount Cranmore participating in the NE Ski Museum's Hannes Schneider Meister Cup. This fund raising event also recognizes the history and continued contributions of the 10th Mountain Division. The event is always a good time and had good symmetry with my recent visit to Mount Hale/Ski Cooper in Colorado. Spend the night in Meredith where the bottom half of the lake is ice free - not sure if it ever froze up. There is still ice in Meredith Bay and Center Harbor. Didn't encounter any snow in the woods en route up to MWV until Sandwich and Tamworth. Mount Cranmore and N. Conway has almost zero natural snow but the mountain is generally covered pretty well in man-made. Their closing date is in two weeks - probably enough snow to push around if they want.