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NNE Summer Thread


mreaves

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Yesterday I was finally able to survey the extensive damage caused by a micro-burst on Mount Mansfield back on the evening of July 3rd. 

 

No one at the ski resort remembers anything close to this amount of forest damage dating back to at least the 1970s.  The VT State Forester has toured the area to give the ski resort guidance on what they can and can't do to clean it up.  The estimate is around 6 acres of timber has been flattened, with scattered pockets of damage on either side of the main wind path.  The Forester estimated winds in the main swath likely exceeded 100mph in spots.

 

This will have significant impacts for the expert skier and rider...as the fabled Goat trail took some significant damage to trees on both sides of the trail (there's essentially a clear cut gash in that area now) and the glades on either side are pretty much a complete loss.  These are old, large trees in this area...been through numerous ice storms, wind storms, significant events...but these were just tossed like toothpicks, in some areas piled 10-20 feet high on top of each other.

 

Details:

-Estimated 6 acres of timber completely flattened, hundreds of trees.

-Main path covers roughly 700 vertical feet, around 100 yards wide.  Scattered damage on either side of the main wind path. 

-Damage starts just below the spruce-fir line around 3,000ft and extends down to 2,300ft before the winds lifted, crossed the Hazelton drainage, then hit again on the Hazelton ridge and small portions of the Gondola trails (see map).

-A lot of uprooted trees, along with others snapped near the base.  Several areas had trees ripped right off the bedrock surface. 

 

 

This view did not exist last week before the storm.  This vantage point would be looking at a wall of trees, that have now just been mowed down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Low of 46F this morning, high of 77F...near perfect.

 

I think the BTV NWS was on board with that weather as well, based on part of their discussion from early Saturday:

 

.NEAR TERM /UNTIL 8 AM THIS MORNING/...

AS OF 406 AM EDT SATURDAY... DEWPOINTS WHILE GENERALLY RISING THROUGH THE DAY WILL HOLD IN THE 50S FOR COMFORTABLE HUMIDITIES WITH A LIGHT SOUTH WIND OF 5 TO 15 MPH. ENJOY!

 

You could already feel the moisture building back in as Saturday progressed though; by the time we were done with soccer around midday, we had to hit one of the nearby swimming holes.  That’s pretty classic summer though, and hard to beat.  By Saturday night, it looks like the dew points were up into to mid 60s F - we were camping off the Long Trail on the west slope at 2,200’ Saturday night, and even up at that elevation, the combination of humidity and temperature was pretty blah for sleeping since we were in a sheltered location and didn’t have a breeze.  There was enough moisture that a shower even came through for a few minutes.  It really felt like a dew point of 60 F or below would be preferable for that situation.

 

It does look like those 50s F dew points will be returning this week however:

 

.LONG TERM /WEDNESDAY NIGHT THROUGH SUNDAY/...

AS OF 321 AM EDT MONDAY...LITTLE OVERALL CHANGE IN EXPECTED WEATHER CONDITIONS FOR THE EXTENDED FORECAST PERIOD. MID-UPR LEVEL TROUGH SHEARING OUT TO OUR NORTH WILL BE ASSOCIATED WITH SOMEWHAT BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES FOR MID-JULY...WITH THURSDAY HIGHS GENERALLY IN THE MID 70S. HUMIDITY LEVELS WILL BE PLEASANT WITH DEWPOINTS IN THE 50S.

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Awesome photo from Mount Mansfield's ridgeline on July 4th by my friend Greg Petrics over at FIS.  Figured some might enjoy this photo.  Left side is the hazy Champlain Valley to the west, and to the right/east is the town of Stowe with the Stowe Mountain Resort fireworks going off.  This is one of the best summer photos I've seen in a long time from this area.

 

Check out some more sweet shots in this post:

 

http://www.famousinternetskiers.com/no-vermonters-in-heaven/

 

sunset_n_fireworks_HQ_2firework5-4.jpg

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Looking forward to a good couple of inches of rain.  Lots of .10" and .20" things here past couple of weeks.  My pond is getting really low.  Couple of inches of widespread rain will help the gardens and crops during mid summer stretch. Hopefully no super training echoes to produce FF that take out roads etc.

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Yesterday I was finally able to survey the extensive damage caused by a micro-burst on Mount Mansfield back on the evening of July 3rd.

 

Thanks for that update PF, that’s very dramatic stuff.  Are you guys thinking of forming some regeneration zones in those areas the way Mad River Glen does?

 

 

Awesome photo from Mount Mansfield's ridgeline on July 4th by my friend Greg Petrics over at FIS.  Figured some might enjoy this photo.  Left side is the hazy Champlain Valley to the west, and to the right/east is the town of Stowe with the Stowe Mountain Resort fireworks going off.  This is one of the best summer photos I've seen in a long time from this area.

 

Check out some more sweet shots in this post:

 

http://www.famousinternetskiers.com/no-vermonters-in-heaven/

 

sunset_n_fireworks_HQ_2firework5-4.jpg

 

 

That’s gorgeous stuff from Greg as usual.  He seems to have stripped the EXIF data out of his photos in that collection, so I couldn’t get the lens information, but he’s making extensive use of something quite wide, well below 30 mm if I had to guess.  I grabbed the fireworks image for my computer desktop; it’s really unique.  With the height of the sun is in the west, it’s likely he had to build that image from a composite of multiple shots.

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Wow!  I had 0.10" from the warned storm yesterday evening, and another 0.02" overnight (most in about 30 seconds at 10:30 PM), but since then the echoes have been south of my gauge.

 

lol, I don't think i have been missed yet on anything so far today

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Thanks for that update PF, that’s very dramatic stuff.  Are you guys thinking of forming some regeneration zones in those areas the way Mad River Glen does?

 

 

That’s gorgeous stuff from Greg as usual.  He seems to have stripped the EXIF data out of his photos in that collection, so I couldn’t get the lens information, but he’s making extensive use of something quite wide, well below 30 mm if I had to guess.  I grabbed the fireworks image for my computer desktop; it’s really unique.  With the height of the sun is in the west, it’s likely he had to build that image from a composite of multiple shots.

 

J.Spin, the State Forester has surveyed the damage and at this point the resort only has the legal ability to clear the existing trails.  That includes Midway, middle Goat, and Lower Goat which sustained the most significant damage.  Lower Goat to me is essentially gone as there's no wood-line on either side of where the trail used to be.  The clear cut blow-down goes right through it, so the boundaries of the old trail are hard to see in the vicinity of the Midway intersection. 

 

The Mountain Ops trail crew has been busting ssa and is doing what they can in that area.  The State Forester has given directive to stay away from cutting anything outside of pre-existing trails for fear of massive erosion.  In a lot of spots the root systems of multiple trees have been pealed right off the bedrock and the concern is removing all of that will be setting up that area for a large mudslide or something (its still quite steep in a few aspects in there).  We'll see what happens but its going to change the whole character of the skiing in that area.  I think over-time locals and the mountain will find a way to take care of it...the mountain may reach out for permits to do something in there in the future.  But the timber is so big and extensive that you'd almost need logging equipment to really clean it up, and that's going to be almost impossible to get into that area.

 

If you are curious, I'd suggest a hike in that area...if you go up Hazelton to Cliff Trail, then cut over to Nosedive and head up 100 more yards to where Midway starts, then from there just hike down Midway to get the best view of the damage.  You'll see some scattered damage in the Hazelton area, but the most eye opening stuff is off Midway.  Just be aware it can be a little muddy in spots on Midway depending on when it last rained.

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J.Spin, the State Forester has surveyed the damage and at this point the resort only has the legal ability to clear the existing trails.  That includes Midway, middle Goat, and Lower Goat which sustained the most significant damage.  Lower Goat to me is essentially gone as there's no wood-line on either side of where the trail used to be.  The clear cut blow-down goes right through it, so the boundaries of the old trail are hard to see in the vicinity of the Midway intersection. 

 

The Mountain Ops trail crew has been busting ssa and is doing what they can in that area.  The State Forester has given directive to stay away from cutting anything outside of pre-existing trails for fear of massive erosion.  In a lot of spots the root systems of multiple trees have been pealed right off the bedrock and the concern is removing all of that will be setting up that area for a large mudslide or something (its still quite steep in a few aspects in there).  We'll see what happens but its going to change the whole character of the skiing in that area.  I think over-time locals and the mountain will find a way to take care of it...the mountain may reach out for permits to do something in there in the future.  But the timber is so big and extensive that you'd almost need logging equipment to really clean it up, and that's going to be almost impossible to get into that area.

 

If you are curious, I'd suggest a hike in that area...if you go up Hazelton to Cliff Trail, then cut over to Nosedive and head up 100 more yards to where Midway starts, then from there just hike down Midway to get the best view of the damage.  You'll see some scattered damage in the Hazelton area, but the most eye opening stuff is off Midway.  Just be aware it can be a little muddy in spots on Midway depending on when it last rained.

At SB about 3 years ago there was a microburst that knocked down a section of trees adjacent to the lower birdland trail at the bottom of Egan's Woods.  The mtn was not permitted to clear any of the blowdown that wasn't on the open trail and so it is still there.  That being said, it seems to be a much smaller area that what you have there.

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