NNE Cold Season Thread 2021/2022

[PhineasC]

Another dusting this morning.

Kinda ready for spring, TBH.

[powderfreak]

4 hours ago, PhineasC said:

Another dusting this morning.

Kinda ready for spring, TBH.

Now you are a true North Country resident.

[PhineasC]

3 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Now you are a true North Country resident.

I mean, it kinda gets to the point of a little frustration. We keep getting teased with these minor snowfalls, but you know the chances of a big dog are remote now and even if one happened it would melt as soon as the sun came up. Meanwhile, my yard is turning into a pretty gross slime pit. Bring on lower 70s and dry, please. I will be ready for a return of this next October. Right around the corner.

[backedgeapproaching]

19 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I mean, it kinda gets to the point of a little frustration. We keep getting teased with these minor snowfalls, but you know the chances of a big dog are remote now and even if one happened it would melt as soon as the sun came up. Meanwhile, my yard is turning into a pretty gross slime pit. Bring on lower 70s and dry, please. I will be ready for a return of this next October. Right around the corner.

I think I saw you mention in some other post about putting in AC.  Are you doing mini-splits or full duct work AC?

I'm maybe one more humid summer away from doing a full mini-split install.  Every summer is more dewy than the last it seems.  

[PhineasC]

7 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

I think I saw you mention in some other post about putting in AC.  Are you doing mini-splits or full duct work AC?

I'm maybe one more humid summer away from doing a full mini-split install.  Every summer is more dewy than the last it seems.  

Mini-splits. They are here putting them in now, actually. The layout of the house with the big windows all over facing south means a lot of heat builds up. I could shut the blinds and try to reduce the heat, but it's hard to escape the humidity, like you noted. It's nice in the dead of winter for sure. Not so much when it is 85 out.

There are 3 or so weeks a year where the AC is really needed. I plan to use them to heat as much as possible too. The oil heat here isn't efficient due to the radiator layout. Some rooms get really cold and there is not enough radiator surface area to properly get them to set temp so the boiler just runs forever. The heat pump will be able to assist, in the shoulder seasons at least.

[powderfreak]

9 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

I think I saw you mention in some other post about putting in AC.  Are you doing mini-splits or full duct work AC?

I'm maybe one more humid summer away from doing a full mini-split install.  Every summer is more dewy than the last it seems.  

I’m doing mine in May, it should be early enough.  It is weird… a decade ago it seemed like 3-4 days a summer maybe.  Now it’s weeks where you are like yeah that’d be nice to have.  

[powderfreak]

35 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

I mean, it kinda gets to the point of a little frustration. We keep getting teased with these minor snowfalls, but you know the chances of a big dog are remote now and even if one happened it would melt as soon as the sun came up. Meanwhile, my yard is turning into a pretty gross slime pit. Bring on lower 70s and dry, please. I will be ready for a return of this next October. Right around the corner.

Yeah I’m a big fan of spring.  Still so much snow, the skiing today is phenomenal and it’s nice enough in town to walk the dog for an hour at like 6pm.

So much snow left… zero people. This is why ski areas close with lots of snow ha.

[PhineasC]

4 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah I’m a big fan of spring.  Still so much snow, the skiing today is phenomenal and it’s nice enough in town to walk the dog for an hour at like 6pm.

So much snow left… zero people. This is why ski areas close with lots of snow ha.

Little different look over here in NH right now. The snow you guys got over the last couple weeks was pretty localized and helped extend things. It's clearly the end of the line over here. Still some decent corn snow at BW but it's getting thin.

[powderfreak]

6 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Little different look over here in NH right now. The snow you guys got over the last couple weeks was pretty localized and helped extend things. It's clearly the end of the line over here. Still some decent corn snow at BW but it's getting thin.

We are actually in much better shape than last year at this time to be honest.  The last 2 weeks have held ground if not gained.

[mreaves]

42 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

We are actually in much better shape than last year at this time to be honest.  The last 2 weeks have held ground if not gained.

The "so much snow" areas are small islands in a sea of brown.  

[backedgeapproaching]

@powderfreakand @PhineasC---Nice guys!  I will probably get a quote done in the next few weeks to see the cost.  My house gets zero shade in mid summer and I hate any dews above 58F..lol.  I run my window ACs all the time in the summer, I need it icy to sleep and just be comfortable in general.  

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, mreaves said:

The "so much snow" areas are small islands in a sea of brown.  

It’s that time of year for sure.

[J.Spin]

After Saturday’s fresh powder out on the hill, I hadn’t really planned to ski on Sunday, since the forecast called for gray skies and temperatures heading above the freezing mark.  We were thiking we might have left one of our water bottles up around 2,800’ on Wilderness during our tour on Saturday though, so that was incentive enough to get me out for another go.  If in doubt, it’s generally good to get out and get some exercise anyway.

I made my way up to Bolton around midday, and whereas temperatures on Saturday were in the upper 20s F when we’d arrived, on Sunday they were in the upper 30s F.  Some of the new Friday/Saturday snow had definitely melted back, and that effect decreased with elevation, but the freezing line was still somewhere above the 3,000’ mark.  So, I never encountered any snow yesterday that had been fully preserved below freezing.  With that said, the snow skied really well.  On the upper mountain, the new snow had seen little settling, and untracked areas skied like dense powder vs. any sort of mush.  At all elevations, even where the snow was transitioning due to the above freezing temperatures, it seemed to be doing it a subtle way.  It wasn’t sticky, just dense, and perhaps that slow change was due to the cold overnight temperatures and the overcast keeping away dramatic warming from direct sunlight.  In thinner areas where the new snow had melted back, the skiing typically transitioned right to the underlying corn snow, and that skied really well.  It was sort of strange to move from areas of dense powder skiing, right to spring corn snow, but somehow it worked.

In any event, the water bottle ended up being right where we thought it was, so that part of the tour was quite successful.  A few shots I took during yesterday’s tour:

[powderfreak]

I love this time of year. The long daylight, plenty of snow left, evaporating skiers, corn snow. Spring skiing at its finest.

Now for some retrospective… There was a time back in mid-March when I was skiing around with Andre and we were checking things out after the mountain failed to see a freeze in four days. We’d just seen over an inch of rain as well. It looked dire. The natural snow trails looked smoked and secondary snowmaking runs were not fat.

The prospect of Mother Nature limping us out of another season was looking likely. A month left and we’d be skiing main snowmaking routes and that was it. Fantastic.

Skip forward two+ weeks and today we skied Upper Starr in the sunshine. Upper Liftline? Open. Goat, good coverage. The Hayride rock reefs in the flats above the Waterfall pitch? Covered. Even mighty Chapel Lane was sporting wall-to-wall good coverage for downhill polling today, ha (it barely pitches downhill).

It’s funny how it works out but despite the dire scene a couple weeks ago, Mother Nature has come through big time with several healthy snows, and cold weather that will make the last two weeks of lift service on Mansfield very fun. And it’s safe to say there will likely be a considerable “third season” of skinning given snowmaking snow depths.

Bravo on the revival Mother Nature.

If you look closely here, you can see Mount Washington glowing white even on an iPhone photo on the right side horizon.

[PhineasC]

You guys certainly lucked out over there. No meaningful snow here since the March 12th event. Hopefully it hits 70 soon.

[NW_of_GYX]

Any thoughts on this weekend from the northern Greens crew? Skiing has been great here but just booked a weekend at Jay on a whim and GFS is selling a nice upslope event after the rain Friday and Saturday. 

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, NW_of_GYX said:

Any thoughts on this weekend from the northern Greens crew? Skiing has been great here but just booked a weekend at Jay on a whim and GFS is selling a nice upslope event after the rain Friday and Saturday. 

I’d need to see more model support and run to run continuity on that 12z GFS run… but verbatim that would be a large elevation snow event for the upslope zones of NVT.

This time of year with cut-offs slowly meandering around they are always possible but that particular run needs a lot more support.  Wouldn’t surprise me to see some Mtn snow though on the backside of that system with ULL pushing east slowly.  But might only be 2-4” or something.

[#NoPoles]

Bretton Woods final day is April 10th.

[NW_of_GYX]

15 hours ago, powderfreak said:

I’d need to see more model support and run to run continuity on that 12z GFS run… but verbatim that would be a large elevation snow event for the upslope zones of NVT.

This time of year with cut-offs slowly meandering around they are always possible but that particular run needs a lot more support.  Wouldn’t surprise me to see some Mtn snow though on the backside of that system with ULL pushing east slowly.  But might only be 2-4” or something.

Seems like we're getting some run to run support since 12z yesterday. Hoping things line up!

[Angus]

16 hours ago, #NoPoles said:

Bretton Woods final day is April 10th.

Don't they normally try to make it to Patriot's Day weekend?

I remember getting a free ticket there for the next season for skiing there on Patriot's Day for $17.75 or something like that.

I think I'd gone up to ski Tuckerman or Wildcat and it was socked in and raining in Pinkham Notch so went over to BW. I believe it was an early season ticket and used it the next December in a heavy snow storm.

[alex]

2 minutes ago, Angus said:

Don't they normally try to make it to Patriot's Day weekend?

I remember getting a free ticket there for the next season for skiing there on Patriot's Day for $17.75 or something like that.

I think I'd gone up to ski Tuckerman or Wildcat and it was socked in and raining in Pinkham Notch so went over to BW. I believe it was an early season ticket and used it the next December in a heavy snow storm.

Yes they were originally aiming for the 17th, but Mother Nature decided she preferred golfing to skiing this year

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, alex said:

Yes they were originally aiming for the 17th, but Mother Nature decided she preferred golfing to skiing this year

That's wild the differences from here to there during the last few weeks.

Today was another Top 10 Spring ski day.  No crowds, good coverage, all the steep/narrow Front Four still open.  It's going to look a lot different after 1-2" of rainfall though over the next couple days.

Upper Starr just before it rolls over and out of view.

Upper Goat, just one ski width wide elevator shaft.  There could be 12 feet of snow on the ground and that skiers right side would still be bare rock with snow only packed in on the skier's left.  That's what makes it a classic.  You fall and you can go for a very uncomfortable ride downhill, just aim for the snow instead of steep ledge.

[wxeyeNH]

Precip just started . Ice pellets 41/27

[alex]

15 hours ago, powderfreak said:

That's wild the differences from here to there during the last few weeks.

Today was another Top 10 Spring ski day.  No crowds, good coverage, all the steep/narrow Front Four still open.  It's going to look a lot different after 1-2" of rainfall though over the next couple days.

Upper Starr just before it rolls over and out of view.

Upper Goat, just one ski width wide elevator shaft.  There could be 12 feet of snow on the ground and that skiers right side would still be bare rock with snow only packed in on the skier's left.  That's what makes it a classic.  You fall and you can go for a very uncomfortable ride downhill, just aim for the snow instead of steep ledge.

By comparison, this is what yesterday looked like here. The last 2 weeks have definitely hurt us - but it would have hurt much more in the heart of ski season. I’m sooooo ready for spring at this point! But I’ve never seen so little snow on the ground at this point since moving here, and the river is far below where it usually is during the spring melt. The Mt Washington auto road also said they are far ahead of where they normally are clearing the road - it’s an easy job this year, relatively speaking! But hey, in spite of everything it was still a great ski season, and that’s the beauty of the combination of upslope, gentle terrain, lack of wind, low skier traffic and a great mountain ops team that knows what they’re doing!

[wxeyeNH]

38.5F  Ice pellets, few mangled flakes and rain

[Patriot21]

Some ice pellets falling when I pulled in from work at 4pm

[#NoPoles]

We ping

[alex]

Wow wasn’t expecting this. It’s nasty. About 1/2” of sleet snow and ice, the roads are slick and the howling wind just adds to the misery. 

[powderfreak]

This is one of the weirdest stories I’ve heard.  Driver became stuck in mud in Middlesex, VT… and I have no idea how it gets to this:

Mud season nightmare: A VPR host was stranded for 7 hours on a rural road. She barely survived.

Nearly three weeks after Linda Radtke’s mud season disaster, she was still finding mud in her ears.

She hung inverted out the driver’s side window. She was freezing, unconscious, her mouth in the mud.

When Matthew Collins, a driver for The Auto Clinic, arrived on the scene, he could not initially make sense of what he saw. Something was hanging out of the car window. 

It was Radtke. She was wrapped in a dirty sleeping bag. She had one leg stuck through the driver’s side window of her car, lodged beneath the steering wheel. Her face, buried in the mud, was obscured.

“You could hear gurgling,” Collins said. “She had a very, very faint, shallow heartbeat, just barely breathing. Her airways and all that, her nose, everything was full of mud.”

https://vtdigger.org/2022/04/07/mud-season-nightmare-a-vpr-host-was-stranded-for-seven-hours-on-a-rural-road-she-barely-survived/

[Ginx snewx]

10 hours ago, alex said:

Wow wasn’t expecting this. It’s nasty. About 1/2” of sleet snow and ice, the roads are slick and the howling wind just adds to the misery. 

Just so you are not surprised again. Expect frozen tonight again. Looks like a good storm for Greens and Whites