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NNE Cold Season Thread 2020-2021


wxeyeNH
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Snow just started falling in association with this next system.  When I was on the mountain this morning it was wall to wall brilliant sunshine, but clouds had quickly built in to create very overcast skies when I was leaving after noontime.  I thought this was a new system that just sort of snuck in here, but I guess it’s actually front end precipitation from Winter Storm Harold.  The BTV NWS isn’t saying much about the snow at this point, but you can see the precipitation building in on the local radar:

23DEC20A.gif

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5 hours ago, wxeyeNH said:

Wish it had been over NH.  I'm sure lots of social media chatter.   

They do it here all the time, it's annoying as f--k. First few times I've run out of my house in panic at the sight of a plane coming straight for us just a few hundred feet high. I guess the White Mountains are a good training ground because there are plenty of places to abandon the plane if needed. Eek. It's kinda cool now that I know, but scary at the same time. 

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I took advantage of the snow we have before it goes away. Went down to Woodstock, which is unbelievably classic New England with snow and Christmas decorations up, and did a 60 mile snowmobile ride. Still lots of snow from there through Plymouth and down to Ludlow. Caught a couple of glimpses of Killington but none of Okemo while we were down there. At least we got to play in the snow for a little bit. 

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39 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Same here. My big windows looking over the field to the mountains tend to leak on big south winds. I am buying extra towels. 

Oh we actually flood for real. Like the houses are surrounded by the Ammonoosuc. It's only happened once since moving here but I really don't care to repeat the experience 

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1 minute ago, alex said:

Oh we actually flood for real. Like the houses are surrounded by the Ammonoosuc. It's only happened once since moving here but I really don't care to repeat the experience 

Yeah you guys actually get surrounded by water and have it come inside.  Living along a flashy waterway can be interesting.

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3 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah you guys actually get surrounded by water and have it come inside.  Living along a flashy waterway can be interesting.

It's crazy. It's just like a wave that comes down. A few hours later it's back to normal. 

We built our house elevated above the estimated record level, but 2 of the other 3 get it pretty bad. We have put generators on stilts now to keep sump pumps and everything else running, but at some point I want to try and actually flood proof the bottom levels 

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Just now, backedgeapproaching said:

That south facing meadow pack is going to take a beating.  Plenty of time to start over, especially up there.

I am expecting a total loss, but an inch or two of frozen glacier when the smoke clears would be awesome. I have about 12 inches around in most spots. It’s already pretty well packed since the bulk of it is from the storm at the start of the month. 

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I get that it rains here sometimes in the winter. That’s fine. It’s these bomb cutters I am done with. This is the second one so far. They suck. It can get warm and rain a little, whatever. Just no need to be some historic, greatest cutter of all time BS. That’s gotta stop. I have noticed in this area it takes forever for the cold front to clear us. It prolongs the agony in these setups. 

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Just now, PhineasC said:

I am expecting a total loss, but an inch or two of frozen glacier when the smoke clears would be awesome. I have about 12 inches around in most spots. It’s already pretty well packed since the bulk of it is from the storm at the start of the month. 

Could be possible there is some left. Probably some good liquid in there.

I'm going to be wiped out almost for sure, is what it is.

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10 hours ago, powderfreak said:

What a day!

Today turned out to be sort of a bit of a midwinter gem, which is pretty nice considering winter just started.  I hadn’t expected it to be quite so stunning, but with the recent snows, it was clearly a good day to head up to Bolton for a tour and check out how the powder had settled in.

In the morning, before any clouds rolled it, the sun and sky were simply brilliant.  And that’s the first thing I noticed when I got out of the car at the mountain.  And I couldn’t believe how hot the sun felt.  We’re up near 45 N latitude, and this time of year is just about as low a sun angle as we get, so all I can think is that I’m just not used to actually having the sun shining on my face.  I had a 23% VLT lens in my goggles, figuring that sure, it was sunny, but it’s late December way up here in the north.  Well, I could have easily gone with something sub-10% VLT; it was that bright.

The powder definitely exceeded expectations today – I found settled depths of roughly 5-7” above the subsurface at 2,000’, and many spots with 8-10” up near 3,000’.  I initially couldn’t figure out where all of it had come from, but then I realized that since the 4-5” from Winter Storm Gail, it’s just continued to snow with these past couple of smaller systems.

The Wilderness skin track was in excellent shape, and it almost looked like the resort had groomed the adjoining Turnpike trail because it was so smoothly packed.  It’s possible that it was just very nicely packed by skier traffic, but for folks looking for groomed turns in the Wilderness area, it’s good to go.

Off the main route though, there was tons of untracked powder available, and it was definitely right-side-up, midwinter quality stuff.  That synoptic snow from Winter Storm Gail, topped off with the drier snow from these last couple of systems has really put together a quality surface.  Low-angle stuff is good to go, and even moderate-angle slopes are nice if the snow is protected from the wind and there hasn’t been any skier traffic.  Above those angles though, the snowpack is definitely not ready yet; the base is just not deep enough.

It’s going to be interesting to see how things play out for this next week.  This next storm looks to consolidate the base, and there are a couple of potential systems behind it that could make some nice conditions atop that if they came to fruition on the snowy side of things.

I’ve added a couple of shots from today’s tour below – that first one is definitely representative of what the skies were like in the morning.

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