Angus

Nuts, will be interesting to read the final reports about hiker preparedness. The weather conditions at elevation could not have been better forecast or communicated. Kudos to the rescue teams.

But what do I know... https://twitter.com/KillingtonMtn/status/1532463157586845700?s=20&t=PVgC1glIq4q_PYN0t4X0ZQ

just looked at the SuperStar webcam - not sure how that's going to work Saturday.

PF nailed it, it's a party. I've been there in early May when there are a few more options open and when your legs are in peak skiing shape and you just crush bumps all day but I think for most folks now, it's casually roll-in, take a some runs, hang with friends, and tailgate. Nice to see them get to June too. Hiked Franconia Ridge yesterday morning. The attendants in the Falling Water/Bridal Path parking lot said Saturday and Sunday were crazy busy. Lake water definitely jumped a 3-4 degrees between Friday and yesterday as well. I floated around for an extended length of time yesterday.

Kudos to Killington - everything looks pretty good. https://www.killington.com/the-mountain/webcams/mountain/superstar-cam

Wow. Spent a bunch of time in Gaylord for work. Actually a great snow area. They can get a lot of snow off Lake Michigan - further west towards the lake which has some elevation is better but been there with easy 4-5' of settled snow on the ground.

Jay just announced they are going another weekend. Friend at Sugarloaf yesterday said it was perfect spring day. Sugarloaf is done.

Pleasant day on top of Mt. Washington - 13 degrees. Snowing at Sugarloaf. 21 degrees on summit of saddleback.

Season done? Probably. Skied at Jay Peak for first time ever Friday. I have now seen the 'Jay cloud' in action. Snowed on and off hard all day - really a lot of graupel. Because I was alone, I didn't venture into the woods which were still skiable. Can definitely see the appeal of mountain with mid-winter powder. From there, I drove to Sugarloaf and planned to ski both yesterday and today. Woke up at 530ish yesterday morning and checked the weather stations at saddleback and saw it was 16 degrees at their summit and kind of knew deep down what was in store for the day! Anything that wasn't groomed overnight never softened and was unskiable on the upper mountain. That unfortunately was a lot of the terrain I really like to ski. It was still fun and they have a ton of snow on the hill - in fact, I have now skied there 3 of last 5 weekends and in that stretch the amount of snow loss has been minimum. Amazingly, Winter's Way and Bubblecuffer are still open but I wasn't going to venture down. Skied gondi line probably a half dozen times and although it has a deep base, with the lack of softening it wasn't great and had lots of big chunks of ice that had been busted up by the groomers. Anyway, at the end of the day thinking today would be more of the same - I decided to drive home and rake leaves today...after I go for a bike ride! It has been a good season! So, knowing the cold start, I drove up Eustis Ridge and took a few pictures - spectacular as both @tamarackand @uncletim said.

check out the saddleback webcams https://www.saddlebackmaine.com/webcams/

I don't think even the most diehard Sugarloafer would argue that Saddleback gets the best snow and has better retention than Sugarloaf. They are reporting something like 30-40" more snow for the season than Sugarloaf. Of course, any reported snow falls on a ski mountain is subject to review! I think the base lodge at Saddleback is advertised to be around 2,400' - Sugarloaf's base area is probably 1,600'.

try this too... https://www.maine.gov/dacf/parksearch/PropertyGuides/PDF_GUIDE/bigelow-preserve-flagstaff-lake.pdf I also have friends who shore camp on Lower and Upper Richardson lakes and believe that offers similar experience.

I was in Portland Saturday night and friends had a mailer on their table, houses listed for $600-$700K were selling over ask by $100K. Nuts. Rumor in my neighborhood is a multi-million dollar listing sold for 25% over ask. Insane. Friends in adjacent town have a tear down across the street, on less than 1/4 acre built out to maximum extent, no backyard, supposedly going on market for $3.5mm. I lack an adjective. Right now, life science stock options seem to be leading the charge but I always wonder about the % down payment on these homes - are the banks allowing a higher % of income to be directed to mortgage - or is it just folks with lots of home equity moving up? I pay no attention to this stuff given I'm want to downsize in 2024 and will probably leave the area.

just arrived back, skied SLoaf Sunday and yesterday. Sunday was far better than expected - partly cloudy skies loosened the snow pack. They received 4-5" on the upper third of mountain Saturday afternoon/evening which is the part of the mountain that you really ski - King Pine and Skyline lifts. I was stunned to be able to ski and enjoy a couple steeper, natural snow only trails off the top - Bubblecuffer and Winter's Way. Yesterday was fantastic - blue sky from get-go and slopes gradually softened and everything was good to go by around 11ish. Mountain was fairly deserted - did I say the skiing was just fantastic. You could see Baxter Peak covered in white in the distance along with all the western Maine mountains clearly. The mountain has received little snow since my visit two weeks ago but frankly not really sure if they have lost much either. The trails are deep all the way to the bottom and they have a ton of snow to push around if they need to keep the base lift - superquad - connected and running until May 1 when I think everyone believes they will call it a season. Yesterday was just one of those days that you dream about all winter long. On Sunday after skiing @tamarack, I drove up to Coburn Gore/Chain of Ponds to the border crossing - I'd never been further than Stratton/Eustis. Beautiful area - the ponds are still covered in ice but the ice is very rotten. The views of the Bigelows and Flagstaff lake from north of Eustis give you a very different perspective as well. Drove home via Waterville and didn't realize the mill in Madison had closed - not sure how long that's been but it's too bad for the local economy.

LOL. I delayed my departure to SLoaf until tonight b/c today was forecasted to be crappy. Not a cloud in the sky on the webcam at the moment. Tomorrow's forecast isn't as nice and now Tuesday which I was going to take off looks crummy.

Don't they normally try to make it to Patriot's Day weekend? I remember getting a free ticket there for the next season for skiing there on Patriot's Day for $17.75 or something like that. I think I'd gone up to ski Tuckerman or Wildcat and it was socked in and raining in Pinkham Notch so went over to BW. I believe it was an early season ticket and used it the next December in a heavy snow storm.

@powderfreakfrom the look of Tim Kelley's twitter account, he appears to be skiing at Stowe this morning - things look pretty good!

Gosh, I'm feeling old. I remember reading reports from you when your kids were in the single digits.

Didn't mention how Mount Mansfield really stood out today looking north from Cannon. The whole top was white and you could make out trails. Caught a glimpse of Jay too.

delayed our start from metrowest this am, chose to pass WV on 93 due to windholds and was on the peabody lift at cannon by 10:15. Mostly cloudy with intermittent sun until around noon and then full on sunshine until we stopped about 2:15ish. Pretty tough conditions but it was still skiing. The top of the mountain was very icy and cold - although we had the opportunity to ski upper cannon right after it opened and there was fresh snow on the trail from the night before - no evidence anywhere else. We ended the day with a few runs on the zoomer lift - by then the snow had softened up and was a lot of fun. As I said to my son, it reminded me of why spring skiing is so fun. I usually ski cannon after they have closed in late April, early may and able to go top to bottom with very minimal walking - that won't be the case this year - they have little base and suspect it will go fast.

that is just crazy @powderfreak amazing what a good foot of snow will do...

skied at Sugarloaf on Saturday. I plan to go up to reggaefest in two weeks given I bought a 5 ticket pass and yesterday was only day one. I left feeling better about the skiing in two weeks. Talking to folks, Sugarloaf really made a lot of snow this season and the snowmaking trails are in good shape. Unless they get an epic early april, the majority of natural trails are done - upper bubblecuffer and winters way were closed but looked like they could be skied gingerly if soft but who knows what lurked underneath the 1-2" of sleet that fell Friday. The NorAm/US nationals are being held right now on the mountain and I rode up with a # of coaches and skiers and the crappy winter was a big topic of conversation. It was interesting that one skier who told me he grew up skiing at Sugarbush said SLoaf had way more snow on their trails than any place in VT which surprised me. With that said, Sugarloaf didn't get a hard freeze Friday night and the day broke with partly cloudy skies. The skiing was way better than I expected. By mid-day though, it had clouded back up and although the temps didn't really drop, we got periods of snow as well as a few raindrops in the afternoon. There is a lot of boilerplate ice lurking under the snow and by day end with snow being pushed aside made for some interesting skiing on dull edges and tired legs on the steeper terrain. Have not been to SLoaf since 2018 and again was reminded of how big the area is compared to other resorts here in the east.

looks like it is snowing hard at Saddleback. They have a nice network of cams and weather stations on the mountain. Headed to SLoaf to ski tomorrow. Looks like Saturday will be ok weather-wise. Don't believe they had a lift running yesterday due to wind and icing.

funny b/c every I see the boston snow total, I reflect how out here in metrowest I would judge this winter to be significantly below average due to poor snow retention which cut way down on my # of local xc ski days plus I really missed out on the short period where we had good ice for skating - late January - when I was out west skiing.

that's a unique 'destination' wedding!