powderfreak Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 2 hours ago, bwt3650 said: This has to be close to an all time worst for Presidents’ Day weekend. 30 trails at Stowe in mid feb is unheard of…and people will pack them no matter what tomorrow. Really terrible stretch. I have to hope the rubber band will snap and March will rock. No we'll be at like 65-70 tomorrow. Just didn't have enough time to groom with the late freeze. We went into today with the plan that from 5am to 10am we could groom 30 trails to be skiable. With two full shifts they should be able to get to all the snowmaking trails and some natural trails. We've had one day acute trail reductions most winters after a thaw... normally they can groom 60-70 in a night and it's hard to be much below that for any period of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 1 hour ago, bwt3650 said: No, I agree. But to even be in that position in mid feb here has got to be rare. And even so, I would guess it’s snowmaking trails only this weekend. I saw what anything with pitch or natural was like before this storm so I can’t imagine any of those being open. There’s just no room to maneuver when someone stops right in the middle of a trail or is cutting across right now. It was a real uncomfortable feeling. You kind of have to own it going down and dig your turns, which makes stoping so much more difficult. See I disagree that it’s rare. Every year has its thaws and freezes… they’ll groom even natural snow trails. It’s just a groomed vs ungroomed trail scenario. They’ve got 2-3 winches working both shifts tonight I think. Hayride, Liftline, etc. You fall you’ll go for a long ride though. If you fall on an beginner trail that’s not groomed you might be in for an uncontrollable fall . But we have times after thaw-freeze where it’ll be a day of one route down off of each lift. The snow is still there, just need to groom it. I’m not saying it’ll be good but it’ll be open, ha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 17 minutes ago, powderfreak said: No we'll be at like 65-70 tomorrow. Just didn't have enough time to groom with the late freeze. We went into today with the plan that from 5am to 10am we could groom 30 trails to be skiable. With two full shifts they should be able to get to all the snowmaking trails and some natural trails. We've had one day acute trail reductions most winters after a thaw... normally they can groom 60-70 in a night and it's hard to be much below that for any period of time. Good to hear..did you guys get any help up top after the changeover? Maybe tnrw over delivers. It looks like a pretty vigorous wave. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, bwt3650 said: Good to hear..did you guys get any help up top after the changeover? Maybe tnrw over delivers. It looks like a pretty vigorous wave. Its hard to tell with the wind but I’d bet it’s 2-3” up high and 1-2” down low. There’s some snow in the lot but it’s all blown around. Has the look of 1-2” with wind here. And I don’t mean to say it’s going to be good skiing, just that trail count to me isn’t a huge barometer… as there could be 10 feet on the ground at the stake and it rains and flash freezes, and the same exact trails would be open as this weekend (anything a groomer can hit). Once that thick ice layer is there, the only way to fix it is mechanically or with a lot of fresh snow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 5 minutes ago, powderfreak said: See I disagree that it’s rare. Every year has its thaws and freezes… they’ll groom even natural snow trails. It’s just a groomed vs ungroomed trail scenario. They’ve got 2-3 winches working both shifts tonight I think. Hayride, Liftline, etc. You fall you’ll go for a long ride though. If you fall on an beginner trail that’s not groomed you might be in for an uncontrollable fall . But we have times after thaw-freeze where it’ll be a day of one route down off of each lift. The snow is still there, just need to groom it. I’m not saying it’ll be good but it’ll be open, ha. The thaw/freeze yes…but this weekend you have people that are skiing no matter what. “I paid blah blah blah, so we’re going out” where I think an average weekend, maybe people don’t push the conditions on a day like today. And with all that holiday traffic, that grooming has to get skied out quick. Obviously, you have much more experience with this so maybe it’s not as uncommon as I think for it to happen this weekend. Anyway, your mountain ops guys are heros for trying to put this back together for the weekend and the extended looks promising so maybe this is all a distant memory after Friday’s storm. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 18, 2022 Share Posted February 18, 2022 17 minutes ago, bwt3650 said: The thaw/freeze yes…but this weekend you have people that are skiing no matter what. “I paid blah blah blah, so we’re going out” where I think an average weekend, maybe people don’t push the conditions on a day like today. And with all that holiday traffic, that grooming has to get skied out quick. Obviously, you have much more experience with this so maybe it’s not as uncommon as I think for it to happen this weekend. Anyway, your mountain ops guys are heros for trying to put this back together for the weekend and the extended looks promising so maybe this is all a distant memory after Friday’s storm. Oh yeah absolutely on vacation weeks. People have been looking forward to it for months in many cases, they are going skiing whether it’s tropical downpours or -50F wind chills. They have a week of lodging, tickets, etc it’s vacation… they going. To be honest, Christmas Week sees it almost every single year of crap weather then hard arctic freeze . Presidents Week has been more lucky. I’m sure beach community folks think the same when my family rents at the beach and goes even if it’s cool, cloudy, showery… I traveled to the ocean I’m sitting on the beach and swimming dammit! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froude Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Got out in the woods on the west side of the Greens this afternoon. Predictably thin coverage, refrozen crust, and streams still running high. But amazing what 3" of fluff does for the aesthetics with fresh snow on the surface and clinging to pine trees. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Event totals: 2.5” Snow/1.21” L.E. The snow tapered off this afternoon, so the above totals should be the final numbers from Winter Storm Miles here at our site. Details from the 6:00 P.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 1.6 inches New Liquid: 0.03 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 53.3 Snow Density: 3.3% H2O Temperature: 12.7 F Sky: Partly Cloudy Snow at the stake: 10.5 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Ouch, we took it hard here. We lost a lot of pack. Bretton Woods is blowing some snow to try to help resurface some trails to make it through vacation week. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 1 hour ago, Froude said: Got out in the woods on the west side of the Greens this afternoon. Predictably thin coverage, refrozen crust, and streams still running high. But amazing what 3" of fluff does for the aesthetics with fresh snow on the surface and clinging to pine trees. Such a different look on the calm windward side vs the lee side high winds mixing down with the snow. That looks so much more uniform and stacked on vegetation than the 50 mph scour and drift on the Lee side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowfan Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Looks like MRG was really messed up last night. Gotta hand it to their social media team….they tell it straight with a sense of humor. They also had some flooding issues per their instagram stories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Froude Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 45 minutes ago, powderfreak said: Such a different look on the calm windward side vs the lee side high winds mixing down with the snow. That looks so much more uniform and stacked on vegetation than the 50 mph scour and drift on the Lee side. Hah yeah night and day compared to your moonscape shot. 3% fluff doesn't do too much for the surface conditions but it's a huge mood booster when it's able to stack like that. The smooth low angle stuff was actually pretty fun. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 10 hours ago, Froude said: Woke up to 3" of new fluff with some sleet on the bottom. Grateful to not have to look at bare ground in mid Feb at least. 9 hours ago, mreaves said: We didn't lose the pack in my immediate area but we only got a dusting of new snow. 4 hours ago, powderfreak said: Its hard to tell with the wind but I’d bet it’s 2-3” up high and 1-2” down low. There’s some snow in the lot but it’s all blown around. Has the look of 1-2” with wind here. 2 hours ago, Froude said: Got out in the woods on the west side of the Greens this afternoon. Predictably thin coverage, refrozen crust, and streams still running high. But amazing what 3" of fluff does for the aesthetics with fresh snow on the surface and clinging to pine trees. 2 hours ago, J.Spin said: Event totals: 2.5” Snow/1.21” L.E. 1 hour ago, powderfreak said: Such a different look on the calm windward side vs the lee side high winds mixing down with the snow. That looks so much more uniform and stacked on vegetation than the 50 mph scour and drift on the Lee side. 21 minutes ago, Froude said: Hah yeah night and day compared to your moonscape shot. 3% fluff doesn't do too much for the surface conditions but it's a huge mood booster when it's able to stack like that. The smooth low angle stuff was actually pretty fun. Based on the conversation here, and what I saw on my trip to BTV today, it sounds like the spine westward did better on the back side snow vs. the east side. I guess it wasn’t so much a Froude Number phenomenon, but just where the cold air caught up with the moisture, consistent with the projected snowfall map from the BTV NWS. In line with what Froude reported above, I think modest terrain on the west side should be nice, especially if we get additional snow from this next system. We’ve actually had about 0.20” of L.E. thus far in the back side snows, so I’m looking forward to a bit of low angle touring depending on how this next storm goes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 I see that snow has started up here at our site in association with this next system moving into the area. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 55 minutes ago, J.Spin said: I see that snow has started up here at our site in association with this next system moving into the area. Just started here too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Let’s go, east slope making up for yesterday. Crushing dendrites. A quick 1-2” already. Easily 1”/hr. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMontpelierWhiteout Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Really nice steady light snow right now with decent flakes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timp Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Yeah it’s really cranking out there. Looks like 2” already. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 This is legit heavy snow. Wasn’t expecting this. 30-35dbz. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 15 minutes ago, powderfreak said: Let’s go, east slope making up for yesterday. Crushing dendrites. A quick 1-2” already. Easily 1”/hr. We’ve been running at a bit over an inch per hour here since the flakes first appeared, and that includes the initial ramp up time. You guys up there are surely even above that based on the radar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EMontpelierWhiteout Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Dime size flakes predominant here right now. Nice surprise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Did not see this coming at all..probably a solid 6 spot if you add in yesterday, though good luck finding all of it. Another “pulled that out of our ass” snow! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 31 minutes ago, J.Spin said: We’ve been running at a bit over an inch per hour here since the flakes first appeared, and that includes the initial ramp up time. You guys up there are surely even above that based on the radar. Puking snow for a bit 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 38 minutes ago, EMontpelierWhiteout said: Dime size flakes predominant here right now. Nice surprise. Close to an inch here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timp Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 5” on the dot. It was absolutely ripping here from 8-10am. Probably 2” an hour and then lighter until shutting off just now. Nice surprise! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tamarack Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 20 hours ago, PhineasC said: Yep, easy to get in to trouble there. We prefer Wildcat to Cannon, but both mountains have some really intimidating terrain literally right off the main path and not the best signage system sometimes. I frequently see beginner skiers stuck on the runs under the lifts at wildcat, which are all pretty rough. It's easy to make a wrong turn off a blue or even a green and end up on icy steep bumps with boulders sticking out. Brings back long-ago memories of my 1971 ski week at the old Glen Ellen. Super deal for January, half-price just $22.50 bought 5 days of skiing, 5 lessons and 2 apres-ski parties with a movie and gluwein. Got my skis latched on about an hour before the class level sorting was scheduled, so I rode the mountain lift and took the long traverse to the west slopes, intending to ski the advanced beginner trail. Missed it and ended on an advanced intermediate trail named Hoot Mon, a Scottish exclamation, and I said that and worse as I crashed over and over again. The trail was steep icy moguls with wind-slab powder in the hollows, far beyond my skill. The remaining $80 in traveler's checks parted company somewhere on that hill, and being dressed like a Jerseyite on one's first visit to VT I was sweating profusely by the time I climbed back to the base. However, it worked out for the good. I was initially put in advanced stem but there were too many in that class, so they asked if any of us had gone up the mountain lift and 2 of us thusly got bumped to beginning parallel, which was a blessing. Sled trail thru the fields in Farmington Falls looks deadly, uncontrollable without picks. Some roads look the same as runoff froze overnight. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Event totals: 1.8” Snow/0.08” L.E. Details from the 12:00 P.M. Waterbury observations: New Snow: 1.8 inches New Liquid: 0.08 inches Snow/Water Ratio: 22.5 Snow Density: 4.4% H2O Temperature: 27.1 F Sky: Flurries Snow at the stake: 12.0 inches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patriot21 Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Looks about 1.5" new here so far today Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 1 hour ago, timp said: 5” on the dot. It was absolutely ripping here from 8-10am. Probably 2” an hour and then lighter until shutting off just now. Nice surprise! Ha that's awesome. 5" out of that. I think 3-4" at Stowe. No idea down in town but nice to see MVL ripping moderate snow for a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 19, 2022 Share Posted February 19, 2022 Snow Squall Warning. We'll see if this can amplify as it hits the mountains. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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