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NNE Cold Season Thread 2021/2022


PhineasC
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Woke up early this morning and it felt cold inside... huh.  Checked thermostats, set-temps all at 65F and all zones reading the same 60F.  Uh oh.  That's a sinking feeling when temps are in the single digits outside.  Not sure what's up, went downstairs and seems the boiler is not igniting... the fan runs, the thermostat zone relays all are asking for heat (it's baseboard hot water) but boiler (propane) doesn't want to ignite.  A bit harder on a Saturday but emergency service should be here any minute, about 6 hours after I discovered the issue.

Meanwhile my perpetual optimism has me thankful this issue has allowed me to have my first Saturday off from work since November, ha.  This is so nice, getting some stuff done on an extra day off around home while it's 52F inside now.  The funny thing is even at temps of like 10F the floor to ceiling south facing windows have managed to recover the temperature up a couple degrees in the past 90 minutes.

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6 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Woke up early this morning and it felt cold inside... huh.  Checked thermostats, set-temps all at 65F and all zones reading the same 60F.  Uh oh.  That's a sinking feeling when temps are in the single digits outside.  Not sure what's up, went downstairs and seems the boiler is not igniting... the fan runs, the thermostat zone relays all are asking for heat (it's baseboard hot water) but boiler (propane) doesn't want to ignite.  A bit harder on a Saturday but emergency service should be here any minute, about 6 hours after I discovered the issue.

Meanwhile my perpetual optimism has me thankful this issue has allowed me to have my first Saturday off from work since November, ha.  This is so nice, getting some stuff done on an extra day off around home while it's 52F inside now.  The funny thing is even at temps of like 10F the floor to ceiling south facing windows have managed to recover the temperature up a couple degrees in the past 90 minutes.

That’s a bad feeling for sure. 

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1 hour ago, J.Spin said:

A number of us were up at Bolton yesterday to catch the snow from Winter Storm Landon, so I’ll pass along some images and snow updates.

Hearing about this storm being focused on NNE, our friend Dave came up from Boston for a visit and the usual local ski country food and lodging.  It’s been a couple of years since he’s been able to visit for one of these trips, but his schedule lined up well for this one.  He actually skied Killington on Thursday and said that he almost bailed when he arrived in the morning to find it raining.  Thankfully, he found that it was much more wintry up high on the mountain, and the conditions just got better as the day went on.

There were no concerns about rain for Friday at Bolton though; everyone in the north was over to 100% snow by that point, so the only things to wonder about were snow density and snow accumulations.  Winds weren’t strong at all, so there were no wind holds, and the lifts seemed to start right up at their planned times aside from the usual smaller delays of getting the later lifts rolling on a storm day.  It was chilly out there on the mountain, with temperatures probably in the 10 F range.

The new snow was undoubtedly a solid resurfacing of the entire mountain at all elevations.  We’d picked up 1.40 of liquid equivalent down at our house by the morning, so the mountain would have had at least that much.  The snow had started out quite dense at the very initial stages of the storm as temperatures were still coming down, and then it seemed to settle down to roughly medium-weight powder for the bulk of the overnight accumulations.  My 6:00 A.M. analyses revealed snow density at 9.4% H2O, which is solidly in that medium-weight powder category.  There hadn’t really been any fluff at that point to set up an impressively right-side-up powder accumulation, so you were generally riding in that medium weight snow, and we found the best skiing on steeper terrain.  Low angle slopes were just a bit on the slow side with the available snow density.  Thankfully, with that 1 to 2 inches of liquid equivalent down, it was game on for even the steepest terrain, and steep areas that we hit such as Vermont 200, the Spell Binder headwall, and the Tattle Tale headwall all delivered.  You could attack those pitches as aggressively as you wanted, without concern.  Another great example of the resurfacing was hitting Cobrass on our second run to find that even the usual ledges and ice bulges were covered.  Initially, I’d gone in with the usual strategy of negotiating those obstacles, but quickly saw that they were irrelevant, and I was able to ski like they weren’t even there.  That’s the sign of a solid resurfacing.  With depth checks, I was generally finding settled accumulations of about a foot at that stage of the storm, which I think was right in line with what the resort had noted in their morning report.

We actually skied with an associate from PeakRankings.com who was getting info for his report on Bolton Valley, so we showed him around for a few runs.  His ski jacket has something like “WE RANK PEAKS” written in huge letters on the back, which quickly gets your attention and lets you know what he’s up to.  I had to head out around midday, but Dave and my wife did catch up with our younger son and his friends out on the mountain for some skiing.  I have to give the boys a hard time for not getting out right at the start of the morning, but one of my son’s friends did pull off a classic dual resort move to really maximize a powder day.  He headed to Stowe first thing for the typical “hour of power”, where you can get some good fresh runs before it’s all tracked up and the lift queues grow, and then he headed to low-key Bolton where you can enjoy powder for the rest of the day in peace.  I’d say he’s wise beyond his years.

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Great shots…I think I rode the tram with that guy last week.  I remember the jacket and him explaining his videos.

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15 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Great shots…I think I rode the tram with that guy last week.  I remember the jacket and him explaining his videos.

I bet you did – he’s been working on Smugg’s and Jay Peak in the past week or so, but he has to go back to both of those I believe because of terrain/lift closures or other timing issues that didn’t let him get everything he needed.  He also said he has to get back down to Okemo because they’ve got some new lifts that weren’t there previously and they need to update their review.

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Event totals: 16.4” Snow/1.70” L.E.

 

The skies are really starting to clear out, so this morning’s snow might represent the final accumulations for Winter Storm Landon.  It’s interesting how close this storm’s total has come to Winter Storm Izzy from a couple of weeks back, which ended with 16.5”.  So this storm is just a tenth of an inch behind at this point.

 

Details from the 12:00 P.M. Waterbury observations:

New Snow: 0.2 inches

New Liquid: 0.01 inches

Snow/Water Ratio: 20.0

Snow Density: 5.0% H2O

Temperature: 16.2 F

Sky: Partly Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 25.0 inches

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Unbelievable scene when the sun fully come out today around town--every tree glistening caked in ice, looked really cool. Most birches touching the ground now, lots more tree damage now the second day than I noticed yesterday. 

Interestingly, the ZR line stopped literally about 3/4 mile north of me, just sleet and snow north with trees totally bare.

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Here is the snowfall map from the last storm.  Big gradient through my area.  I think I set a record for the longest cleanup of a 6" storm.  The 1" or so of sleet was just so compact and frozen it was near impossible to remove.  Cleanup for a 18" powder snowfall is easier than 1" of cement sleet.  

Another way below zero night.  I think I had 2 last year.  Tonight will be #13.

storm.jpg

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Here is the snowfall map from the last storm.  Big gradient through my area.  I think I set a record for the longest cleanup of a 6" storm.  The 1" or so of sleet was just so compact and frozen it was near impossible to remove.  Cleanup for a 18" powder snowfall is easier than 1" of cement sleet.  
Another way below zero night.  I think I had 2 last year.  Tonight will be #13.
storm.thumb.jpg.e98957bdfee7d2b276c72e9f32d107bb.jpg
We were so close to 12" but only got 6"

Sent from my SM-G981U1 using Tapatalk

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6 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Woke up early this morning and it felt cold inside... huh.  Checked thermostats, set-temps all at 65F and all zones reading the same 60F.  Uh oh.  That's a sinking feeling when temps are in the single digits outside.  Not sure what's up, went downstairs and seems the boiler is not igniting... the fan runs, the thermostat zone relays all are asking for heat (it's baseboard hot water) but boiler (propane) doesn't want to ignite.  A bit harder on a Saturday but emergency service should be here any minute, about 6 hours after I discovered the issue.

Meanwhile my perpetual optimism has me thankful this issue has allowed me to have my first Saturday off from work since November, ha.  This is so nice, getting some stuff done on an extra day off around home while it's 52F inside now.  The funny thing is even at temps of like 10F the floor to ceiling south facing windows have managed to recover the temperature up a couple degrees in the past 90 minutes.

Update?

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7 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Woke up early this morning and it felt cold inside... huh.  Checked thermostats, set-temps all at 65F and all zones reading the same 60F.  Uh oh.  That's a sinking feeling when temps are in the single digits outside.  Not sure what's up, went downstairs and seems the boiler is not igniting... the fan runs, the thermostat zone relays all are asking for heat (it's baseboard hot water) but boiler (propane) doesn't want to ignite.  A bit harder on a Saturday but emergency service should be here any minute, about 6 hours after I discovered the issue.

Meanwhile my perpetual optimism has me thankful this issue has allowed me to have my first Saturday off from work since November, ha.  This is so nice, getting some stuff done on an extra day off around home while it's 52F inside now.  The funny thing is even at temps of like 10F the floor to ceiling south facing windows have managed to recover the temperature up a couple degrees in the past 90 minutes.

Is it fixed? You need a wood or pellet stove just in case.

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59 minutes ago, #NoPoles said:

Update?

Boiler inducer motor anchor screws are loose/compromised and it vibrated enough to where the fan jammed up by making contact with the housing.  Without that fan moving air, the thing won’t ignite.  Need a new inducer motor unit which from what I was shown looks like a pretty easy fix once the part is in.  They cost a couple hundred bucks as a part online.

I’ll give the guy credit, he jerry-rigged it as well as he could with pipe strapping to attempt to keep the fan from hitting the housing and we are back up in the mid-60s for temps.  Fingers crossed that strapping can hold for a few days.

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20 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

Is it fixed? You need a wood or pellet stove just in case.

The irony is we were going to put in an electric heat pump for A/C and heat last August/September but deferred until the spring.  I wanted it primarily for better AC than what we have now and it’s much more efficient.

Had we gone ahead with that project we’d be fine.  It wouldn’t have been hot like a stove but serviceable heat. I just balked as I wanted it for better AC than what we have now and given it was later in summer, temps on downhill slide, I figured we’d do it in April/May before the warm season.  Oops.

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12 hours ago, powderfreak said:

The irony is we were going to put in an electric heat pump for A/C and heat last August/September but deferred until the spring.  I wanted it primarily for better AC than what we have now and it’s much more efficient.

Had we gone ahead with that project we’d be fine.  It wouldn’t have been hot like a stove but serviceable heat. I just balked as I wanted it for better AC than what we have now and given it was later in summer, temps on downhill slide, I figured we’d do it in April/May before the warm season.  Oops.

Strike before the iron is cold (to mangle the old proverb.)  We bought our heat pump in November of 2020 even though it was almost entirely for AC - didn't know how long the 1k rebate would stay in effect.

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Just now, tamarack said:

Strike before the iron is cold (to mangle the old proverb.)  We bought our heat pump in November of 2020 even though it was almost entirely for AC - didn't know how long the 1k rebate would stay in effect.

Ha that's actually another thing that made us delay, the rebates at the end of last summer were very "meh" because those things had gotten so popular.  But I just read somewhere that Efficiency Vermont has another deal running this winter with $1K back if purchased before February 28th.  They seem to do them with the demand, so I've got to get on that.  It seems to change every couple months to be honest.

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