powderfreak Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 43 minutes ago, J.Spin said: Sorry about that, and thanks for the clarification – I updated it in my post. I think I just read the 17” from the SMR Snow and Weather Report text (I usually find that when the resorts have a text detail section, they are pretty good at keeping storm totals up to date vs. the standard 24-, 48-, 72-hour numbers) but the way it was worded made me miss the 1” new part at the beginning. I do see that they’ve got 18” now in the 48-hour total (image below), but I don’t think I would have been able to get to the 19” without your help. Man, look at that amazing storm total consistency all the way down the spine from Jay to the ‘bush – essentially ±1”. Ha I’m only joking. Yeah I didn’t update the text (only do afternoon text if it’s a big event, just let Andre do his morning thing tomorrow) but added another inch for the after 6am snow triggering a new time stamp. That storm has changed the season in a way, finally off the snowmaking routes and not everything needs to be a groomer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 Have the evening news on. WMUR is talking about how warm it has been. For Concord NH January is running 9.4F above average. 29 straight days above normal. Last time we had a day below normal was on Dec 20th. For January 11 days of highs 40F+ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 10 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said: Have the evening news on. WMUR is talking about how warm it has been. For Concord NH January is running 9.4F above average. 29 straight days above normal. Last time we had a day below normal was on Dec 20th. For January 11 days of highs 40F+ Yeah I think the warmth has been impressive. Though most snow lovers don’t notice it unless it’s melting snow, so mild mins or mediocre daytime warmth just doesn’t translate in that sense. For snowmaking though where single digits and teens are ideal...more so than a month of 20-32F... it’s very noticeable. Average morning temps should be near zero in the NNE rad valleys. A morning of like 15F feels cold right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 The elevation gradient was pretty substantial. I saw this photo from 1175 feet on Blush Hill in Waterbury, VT... said almost 15” total. Around here like 1,000-1,200ft was the magic line between solid storm and like wow it dumped. But the water added to the snowpack was the same since it never seemed to pour rain....just was extremely sloppy snow for a long time, ha. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 Beautiful day to be out in the woods. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 1 hour ago, powderfreak said: Ha I’m only joking. Yeah I didn’t update the text (only do afternoon text if it’s a big event, just let Andre do his morning thing tomorrow) but added another inch for the after 6am snow triggering a new time stamp. That storm has changed the season in a way, finally off the snowmaking routes and not everything needs to be a groomer. Here too. Today was heavenly. Lower crowds, open glades, and great conditions all over 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Snowing again outside. Very little on radar but this stuff is pure dust. I do think it’s time for the currier and ives pattern... this is from BTV where lift is weak (won’t be as strong as along the mountains) but nice DGZ cutting right through a few rounds of lift. Tuesday night and Wednesday, then again on Thursday afternoon. This is the look that keeps the snow globe going. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jculligan Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Finally got to do a backyard ski tour both yesterday and today. I think "character building" is the best way to describe it here on the eastern slope. We managed 8" of snow here at 1500' on Saturday and probably more like 10-12" at the top of North Doublehead (3,000') behind my house...but the freezing line soared all the way to the summits at the end of the day, with the event ending as rain. We did not get any of the upslope on the backside of the storm, so when temps tickled back below freezing we ended up with a horrendous crust that wasn't enough to support your weight (the dreaded "breakable crust" to put it into ski terms). The only way to safely descend without tweaking your knee or tearing your ACL was to alternate between jump turns, downhill kick turns, side stepping or the good old fashioned pizza. Really quite horrendous for backcountry skiing. The crust was still there today, but it has firmed up and is a little more supportive...so I feel like today's tour allowed me to ski a little bit more normally. You guys on the west side are so damn lucky to have the benefit of upslope. The woods out this way are not in good shape (even if they look pretty). But hey, it's going to be one hell of a base that we can now (hopefully) build on. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 29 minutes ago, jculligan said: Finally got to do a backyard ski tour both yesterday and today. I think "character building" is the best way to describe it here on the eastern slope. We managed 8" of snow here at 1500' on Saturday and probably more like 10-12" at the top of North Doublehead (3,000') behind my house...but the freezing line soared all the way to the summits at the end of the day, with the event ending as rain. We did not get any of the upslope on the backside of the storm, so when temps tickled back below freezing we ended up with a horrendous crust that wasn't enough to support your weight (the dreaded "breakable crust" to put it into ski terms). The only way to safely descend without tweaking your knee or tearing your ACL was to alternate between jump turns, downhill kick turns, side stepping or the good old fashioned pizza. Really quite horrendous for backcountry skiing. The crust was still there today, but it has firmed up and is a little more supportive...so I feel like today's tour allowed me to ski a little bit more normally. You guys on the west side are so damn lucky to have the benefit of upslope. The woods out this way are not in good shape (even if they look pretty). But hey, it's going to be one hell of a base that we can now (hopefully) build on. Love character building expeditions sometimes though. Even hiking in the summer during sh*t weather. Always feels like a day not wasted. Good report. That's a sweet looking trail. Good for the base is right, hopefully you can get some fluff this week too. One thing that always sticks out to me is just how dense the woods seem in NH. It's like a wall of trees lining a corridor. I still don't have any good reason except elevation/climate but the Adirondacks and Whites just seem to have much denser forests. Maybe soil differences? Amount of species diversity? Or maybe it's just all in my head. Definitely a difference between hardwoods and softwood forests though too....'Dacks and Whites seem to be covered by very hardy softwood forests, which seem to be denser on the whole. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jculligan Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 7 minutes ago, powderfreak said: Love character building expeditions sometimes though. Even hiking in the summer during sh*t weather. Always feels like a day not wasted. Good report. That's a sweet looking trail. Good for the base is right, hopefully you can get some fluff this week too. One thing that always sticks out to me is just how dense the woods seem in NH. It's like a wall of trees lining a corridor. I still don't have any good reason except elevation/climate but the Adirondacks and Whites just seem to have much denser forests. Maybe soil differences? Amount of species diversity? Or maybe it's just all in my head. Definitely a difference between hardwoods and softwood forests though too....'Dacks and Whites seem to be covered by very hardy softwood forests, which seem to be denser on the whole. I feel the same way. Granite Backcountry Alliance has done a ton of work over the last few years to thin out specific glade zones, and I've been looking forward to exploring them this season. One of the zones is up on Crescent Ridge, which is very close to where Phin is located. Given the fact that Phin pulled nearly 20" out of this event, I think that might be my target zone next weekend. There is something to be said for the more open hardwoods in Vermont. NH has more extreme terrain with the various gullies and couloirs that are scattered throughout our alpine terrain in the Presidentials; so we have the steeps, but I think Vermont has far better tree skiing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Doublehead is such a classic! J, living at the bottom of it, it is up to you to ski out that crust:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
STILL N OF PIKE Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 I would love to have a 3000’ mountain behind my back yard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jculligan Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 4 minutes ago, borderwx said: Doublehead is such a classic! J, living at the bottom of it, it is up to you to ski out that crust:) I do feel like this is my obligation lol. One of the trade offs of being able to set a skin track from your front door Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhineasC Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 13 minutes ago, jculligan said: I feel the same way. Granite Backcountry Alliance has done a ton of work over the last few years to thin out specific glade zones, and I've been looking forward to exploring them this season. One of the zones is up on Crescent Ridge, which is very close to where Phin is located. Given the fact that Phin pulled nearly 20" out of this event, I think that might be my target zone next weekend. There is something to be said for the more open hardwoods in Vermont. NH has more extreme terrain with the various gullies and couloirs that are scattered throughout our alpine terrain in the Presidentials; so we have the steeps, but I think Vermont has far better tree skiing. The snow in my area is just about perfect for skiing. Packed dense stuff and some fluff on top. No crust here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhineasC Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Moon’s out, uplsope’s out. 15 degrees with snow showers. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 22 minutes ago, jculligan said: I feel the same way. Granite Backcountry Alliance has done a ton of work over the last few years to thin out specific glade zones, and I've been looking forward to exploring them this season. One of the zones is up on Crescent Ridge, which is very close to where Phin is located. Given the fact that Phin pulled nearly 20" out of this event, I think that might be my target zone next weekend. There is something to be said for the more open hardwoods in Vermont. NH has more extreme terrain with the various gullies and couloirs that are scattered throughout our alpine terrain in the Presidentials; so we have the steeps, but I think Vermont has far better tree skiing. That's the only reason I had ever heard of Randolph, NH prior to Phin, ha. I'll have to hit that sometime, it's just so hard getting out of this area for me in the winter. And yeah, for sure the Whites and Adirondacks have more rugged alpine terrain. Without a doubt. Though the terrain off Mount Mansfield's summit ridge and the zones into the geographic Smugglers Notch on both sides can and does kill skiers/riders, unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 1 hour ago, powderfreak said: Snowing again outside. Very little on radar but this stuff is pure dust. I do think it’s time for the currier and ives pattern... this is from BTV where lift is weak (won’t be as strong as along the mountains) but nice DGZ cutting right through a few rounds of lift. Tuesday night and Wednesday, then again on Thursday afternoon. This is the look that keeps the snow globe going. Friday night/Saturday has been looking promising for a few runs on the gfs too. Can’t tell (and admittedly don’t know enough) but looks like maybe some lake enhancement, as the steam seems to go all the way through northern ny state. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jculligan Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 50 minutes ago, PhineasC said: The snow in my area is just about perfect for skiing. Packed dense stuff and some fluff on top. No crust here. I'm kicking myself now, because for some reason the idea of Crescent Ridge didn't even pop into my head until this evening. I would have much rather skied 20" of powder in your neck of the woods than served as a human-powered ice breaker in my backyard! But with deep cold moving in and a few more nickel-and-dime type events this week, I would imagine Crescent Ridge will be skiing very well for the foreseeable future. Back on the weather side...I do like the potential for some squalls tomorrow night. It takes an extremely unstable setup for the squalls to push over the Notches into my neighborhood, but I have a feeling you'll be good for a couple/few inches of fluff by Wednesday morning. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timp Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 12” pack and 16° out there. The stars are out but snow is still falling so it’s a perfect night. Definitely what I imagined when I moved up here. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Upslope has actually picked up here tonight, back to fluffy moderate snow 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alex Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Super fluffy stuff tonight, stacks up quickly but has no Water content 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Estimated snow totals based on recorded totals and radar estimates over the last few days. Synoptic plus meso-scale. Certainly not perfect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavisStraight Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 That must have freaked some people out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 8 minutes ago, DavisStraight said: That must have freaked some people out. Crowded place ugh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhineasC Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 12 degrees with persistent snow showers. What a last few days. Total transformation here from perpetual November to deep winter. Let’s keep it rolling! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Event totals: 12.2” Snow/1.59” L.E. The rate of snowfall has really wound down since midday yesterday, with just a couple rounds with a tenth of an inch of snow since then. So I think the above totals are likely the final numbers here for Winter Storm Malcolm. I cored the snowpack this morning to get an idea of the change in the snowpack L.E. due to the storm and got 1.84” of liquid. That’s a bit lower than I’d expected based on the amount of total liquid picked up in the storm, and the NOHRSC modeling for our site suggests something more in the range of ~2.3” of liquid in the snowpack. But the snowpack in place before the storm wasn’t all that dense, so perhaps a lot of liquid ended up percolating through. I’ll grab another core today and let it melt just to make sure the first one wasn’t from a poor sampling spot. Details from the 6:00 A.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 0.2 inches New Liquid: Trace Temperature: 13.3 F Sky: Flurries Snow at the stake: 12.5 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Diamond dust this morning. Good to see. “Take me to your leader...” Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 9 hours ago, Ginx snewx said: Crowded place ugh What those people don’t know if there’s a fixed grip double chair right next to that (Lookout Double) that is open and goes to the same place...didn’t have a line all weekend. But Sunday of MLK Weekend during a monster snowstorm and we never came close to actually running out of parking or having any traffic issues... rare. Was very light on the whole compared to normal. Last 5 years MLK weekend is people parking in town and riding buses up if the traffic moves at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginx snewx Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 4 minutes ago, powderfreak said: What those people don’t know if there’s a fixed grip double chair right next to that (Lookout Double) that is open and goes to the same place...didn’t have a line all weekend. But Sunday of MLK Weekend during a monster snowstorm and we never came close to actually running out of parking or having any traffic issues... rare. Was very light on the whole compared to normal. Last 5 years MLK weekend is people parking in town and riding buses up if the traffic moves at all. I love that tidbit, lol I was the master at finding empty chairs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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