NNE Warm Season Thread 2021

[wxeyeNH]

Temperatures in the 60's.  Snow is melting.  Spring is here, or is it??

[PhineasC]

Next week is looking interesting for parts of NNE.

[mreaves]

NNE Warm Season thread seems a bit early.  I'll blame you for jinxing us if it snows 2" again in the middle of May 

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, mreaves said:

NNE Warm Season thread seems a bit early.  I'll blame you for jinxing us if it snows 2" again in the middle of May 

I’d say it’s a couple months early in a weather sense, and think the same thing happened last year, although this might earlier?  In any event, if it’s just a practical forum logistics thing to avoid continuing very large threads that are harder for servers to deal with, it serves its purpose and the exact title doesn’t really affect that.

[J.Spin]

On 3/21/2021 at 2:02 PM, J.Spin said:

I think we’re planning to head out for another afternoon session today – it’s even warmer, and we did get another freeze-thaw cycle overnight, so that might change the dynamics of which areas have which types of snow surfaces.

We popped back up to the mountain for another sunny ski session at Timberline on Sunday, and the boys were both off work so they were able to join us.  Temperatures were about 10 F warmer than Saturday, but I didn’t notice too much change in the variety of ski surfaces that we’d seen – the direct, west-facing trails were decent corn snow, but there were still some sticky spots on other aspects, and some firmer snow on terrain well out of the sun.

We sampled most of the available terrain off Timberline, and folks had some different favorite runs.  My wife liked Twice as Nice the most, while I liked Spell Binder the best because it seemed to have seen less traffic and offered some of the smoothest corn snow surfaces below the headwall.

A few more shots from Sunday:

[wxeyeNH]

This is how we do a warm season thread in NNE!

 

[dryslot]

I think i would buy more into the EPS totals then the OP run.

[powderfreak]

What a day on the hill.  Might’ve been the most I’ve skied all season.  Definitely the most roving cast of friends I’ve skied with.  Lowest lift lines of the season too.  This is why spring skiing is great.

[J.Spin]

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Been waiting all winter to see a monster low hugging the SNE coast and blowing up in the GOM. A little late, but I'll take it.

LOL Phin, you need to adjust your seasonal clock for up here.  You’re in the middle of the March through April portion of winter for the mountains of NNE – many weeks of great skiing to go, and usually plenty of potential snow chances.

[PhineasC]

4 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

LOL Phin, you need to adjust your seasonal clock for up here.  You’re in the middle of the March through April portion of winter for the mountains of NNE – many weeks of great skiing to go, and usually plenty of potential snow chances.

 

Been having blast skiing with the family in shorts and tees. My wife and I have skied out west in April several times with the whole deal, bikini tops and all. LOL This is my first time skiing this late in NNE and it's been fun. Even starting to get the splashdown effect when you hit the puddles at top speed headed into the nonexistent lift lines.  Been spraying my kids with slush all week. Would be nice to get one more big blue bomb to pad the totals and extend the season a little.

In MD, they are prepping to open my pool soon. 

[PhineasC]

The models are starting to paint a rather ugly scenario of back-to-back big rainers starting Friday...

Seems hard to see how many of the ski places survive that with much of anything aside from a couple of key runs intact.

[wxeyeNH]

17 hours ago, PhineasC said:

 

In MD, they are prepping to open my pool soon. 

I always judge true spring when the yellow forsythia open.  According to my Dad they are just doing that now in Metro Baltimore.  I usually run about 3 weeks behind them and you in Randolph probably close to a full month.  This year has been weird with so much warmth in March that we are ahead of schedule up here so maybe that gap is far less?

[Ginx snewx]

[powderfreak]

2 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

That’s awesome.  Waterbury Res pretty clear there and can see the mean snow line is up around 1,000-1,500ft.  We just patchy now in the RT 100 corridor.  Stowe’s  just out of that shot to the North.

[Ginx snewx]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

That’s awesome.  Waterbury Res pretty clear there and can see the mean snow line is up around 1,000-1,500ft.  We just patchy now in the RT 100 corridor.  Stowe’s  just out of that shot to the North.

SB MRG

[Ginx snewx]

Kmart Pico

[Skivt2]

10 hours ago, PhineasC said:

The models are starting to paint a rather ugly scenario of back-to-back big rainers starting Friday...

Seems hard to see how many of the ski places survive that with much of anything aside from a couple of key runs intact.

It’s a shame this is your first winter here and it’s so unseasonably warm and snowless in March. The other folks here are right.  You will soon adjust your expectations of how long mid ski season length should be.  This is not typical.   I ski the week of st Patrick’s day every year and I have plenty of pictures to prove that we often get massive amounts of snow here in March.  In 2017 and 2018 we had 40”+  weeks that week.  I think 1993, 2001 and 2011 as well.  March is usually a pretty solid winter month.  What you are experiencing is typical mid-late April skiing here.  It happens every few years but it’s not typical to have spring skiing like this so early here.  Fortunately The man made snow holds up very well.  Even with this crazy stretch of warm dry weather Followed by snow killing rain, there will be skiing well into May here.

[powderfreak]

Yeah this is getting fairly impressive now.  In February it wasn’t noteworthy and put trust in climo but man the next two days are going to be a bloodbath.

Dews rising up near 50F with record high temps today.  Record high is 53F on Mansfield (1987) and it’s already 46F at 6am.

Tomorrow looks like we may hear our first thunder of the season too.

[powderfreak]

[Whineminster]

On 3/23/2021 at 9:58 AM, wxeyeNH said:

Temperatures in the 60's.  Snow is melting.  Spring is here, or is it??

Think the ice is doing ok up at Stinson Lake? Hoping to get up there but I dunno.... 

[Whineminster]

54 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah this is getting fairly impressive now.  In February it wasn’t noteworthy and put trust in climo but man the next two days are going to be a bloodbath.

Dews rising up near 50F with record high temps today.  Record high is 53F on Mansfield (1987) and it’s already 46F at 6am.

Tomorrow looks like we may hear our first thunder of the season too.

We're gonna pay for this later.... Days and days of clouds and mist in May and June.... Perfect weather for that MainePhotog guy

[PhineasC]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah this is getting fairly impressive now.  In February it wasn’t noteworthy and put trust in climo but man the next two days are going to be a bloodbath.

Dews rising up near 50F with record high temps today.  Record high is 53F on Mansfield (1987) and it’s already 46F at 6am.

Tomorrow looks like we may hear our first thunder of the season too.

I know the gurus keep saying to “trust climo” but how will the ski places survive these back to back warm cutters?

[PhineasC]

6 hours ago, Skivt2 said:

It’s a shame this is your first winter here and it’s so unseasonably warm and snowless in March. The other folks here are right.  You will soon adjust your expectations of how long mid ski season length should be.  This is not typical.   I ski the week of st Patrick’s day every year and I have plenty of pictures to prove that we often get massive amounts of snow here in March.  In 2017 and 2018 we had 40”+  weeks that week.  I think 1993, 2001 and 2011 as well.  March is usually a pretty solid winter month.  What you are experiencing is typical mid-late April skiing here.  It happens every few years but it’s not typical to have spring skiing like this so early here.  Fortunately The man made snow holds up very well.  Even with this crazy stretch of warm dry weather Followed by snow killing rain, there will be skiing well into May here.

Yeah, it kinda sucks. I am having a hard time imagining any ski places having runs until May at this rate, but we’ll see. The snow is rapidly melting down now and some big rains coming. 

[Skivt2]

21 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Yeah, it kinda sucks. I am having a hard time imagining any ski places having runs until May at this rate, but we’ll see. The snow is rapidly melting down now and some big rains coming. 

Killington always stays open until Memorial Day.  Generally until June 1st.

[J.Spin]

Just now, PhineasC said:

I know the gurus keep saying to “trust climo” but how will the ski places survive these back to back warm cutters?

The ski areas that planned to run into April and May will roll right along as we mentioned – it’s areas running on natural snow or that plan to close around the beginning of April anyway that would be in a more marginal situation.  That’s for over here in NVT at least, but I don’t know what the normal closing plans are for the resorts over there in NNH.

I think you’re worrying a bit too much about it though – it’s the current temperatures on the front end of this first system that are more notable deviation from the normal spring routine.  You can see that PF posted about the notable high temperatures, so having those going into a spring storm is going to promote more melt than usual (you can see that the BTV NWS had flood watches up).  The general pattern of upcoming storms with mixed rain and snow and temperatures in the 20s – 40s F is not at all that uncommon for this time of year.

[PhineasC]

11 minutes ago, Skivt2 said:

Killington always stays open until Memorial Day.  Generally until June 1st.

I guess they have blown a shit ton of manmade snow on a couple of key runs to stretch that far?

[wxeyeNH]

1 hour ago, Whineminster said:

Think the ice is doing ok up at Stinson Lake? Hoping to get up there but I dunno.... 

I drove around Newfound yesterday and the ice look light and solid except dark at the deepest part to freeze over.  Couple of Bob Houses still up. Stinson is higher but smaller so just don't know.

 

[PhineasC]

11 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

The ski areas that planned to run into April and May will roll right along as we mentioned – it’s areas running on natural snow or that plan to close around the beginning of April anyway that would be in a more marginal situation.  That’s for over here in NVT at least, but I don’t know what the normal closing plans are for the resorts over there in NNH.

I think you’re worrying a bit too much about it though – it’s the current temperatures on the front end of this first system that are more notable deviation from the normal spring routine.  You can see that PF posted about the notable high temperatures, so having those going into a spring storm is going to promote more melt than usual (you can see that the BTV NWS had flood watches up).  The general pattern of upcoming storms with mixed rain and snow and temperatures in the 20s – 40s F is not at all that uncommon for this time of year.

OK, never skied in April in the East so I guess I will just need to see it to believe it. 

[J.Spin]

26 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Yeah, it kinda sucks. I am having a hard time imagining any ski places having runs until May at this rate, but we’ll see. The snow is rapidly melting down now and some big rains coming. 

Hopefully you weren’t misled, but only a few of the resorts around here actually have planned seasons that run through May.  Killington does, and I believe Sunday River often does, but I’m not sure beyond that.  I don’t know of any of the ski areas in your immediate area that even plan to go through May.  I think Wildcat would be the most likely to extend their season if they happened to get an April with below average temperatures and a lot of extra snow, but I don’t think I’ve heard of any of the other areas around there doing that.

A lot of us here like to ski right through May, but we’re not necessarily doing that riding lifts at our local resort.  Even in years with tremendous spring snowpack, everyone stops running their lifts except for the places I mentioned.  Some resorts will extend their normal seasons a week or two if they think people will come, but that’s typically up in the air and they make the decisions on fairly short notice.

But for places that plan on it like Killington, there’s no concern about getting to May as Skivt2 said – they could have very warm temperatures for the next month and it would still be no issue.

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, J.Spin said:

Hopefully you weren’t misled, but only a few of the resorts around here actually have planned seasons that run through May.  Killington does, and I believe Sunday River often does, but I’m not sure beyond that.  I don’t know of any of the ski areas in your immediate area that even plan to go through May.  I think Wildcat would be the most likely to extend their season if they happened to get an April with below average temperatures and a lot of extra snow, but I don’t think I’ve heard of any of the other areas around there doing that.

A lot of us here like to ski right through May, but we’re not necessarily doing that riding lifts at our local resort.  Even in years with tremendous spring snowpack, everyone stops running their lifts except for the places I mentioned.  Some resorts will extend their normal seasons a week or two if they think people will come, but that’s typically up in the air and they make the decisions on fairly short notice.

But for places that plan on it like Killington, there’s no concern about getting to May as Skivt2 said – they could have very warm temperatures for the next month and it would still be no issue.

I was planning on being finished with skiing next week (headed to Florida for a while), so I am good irrespective of what happens weather wise. I was just finding it a little optimistic to be talking about regular skiing well into May given the well below average March snow and recent warmth. But I realize now you guys are talking mostly about skiing down a stripe of shrinking manmade after skinning up and not really a resort being open for regular business. I have never skied Killington, but their method sounds like more of a publicity stunt than anything.