NNE Cold Season Thread 2021/2022

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, PhineasC said:

Gotta feel for the MLK weekend skiers tomorrow. Holy moly. 

Yeah my car said 0F leaving the mountain an hour ago with wind increasing.  And that’s warmer than it’ll be at any point tomorrow.  Yikes.

[PhineasC]

Just now, powderfreak said:

Yeah my car said 0F leaving the mountain an hour ago with wind increasing.  And that’s warmer than it’ll be at any point tomorrow.  Yikes.

You gonna be on duty to rescue the beginner popsicles off the icy slopes tomorrow? 

[powderfreak]

8 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

You gonna be on duty to rescue the beginner popsicles off the icy slopes tomorrow? 

Ha, I was trying to put out operations communications this afternoon to lay it out for anyone wondering.  If this doesn’t make you want to ski, I don’t know what will .  Honestly the wind chill of -40F might be too high, should’ve put -50F.

[PhineasC]

5 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Ha, I was trying to put out operations communications this afternoon to lay it out for anyone wondering.  If this doesn’t make you want to ski, I don’t know what will .  Honestly the wind chill of -40F might be too high, should’ve put -50F.

That sounds like the best update you could give with the basic facts without just telling people to stay home, which of course the Stowe bosses would not appreciate. LOL

[powderfreak]

5 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

That sounds like the best update you could give with the basic facts without just telling people to stay home, which of course the Stowe bosses would not appreciate. LOL

Ha we always have talked about these types of days internally and I generally feel if you are going to tell people not to come… as a business why are you open then?  Like if an business tells people not to come to them, they might as well close.  So if we are going to run lifts, explain the situation to them, don’t sugarcoat it, and let them make their own decision.  Certainly aren’t trying to drum up business and would prefer you make the best decision for your family… like if I had kids I might reconsider tomorrow, or you could make it into a game too.  One run then a hot chocolate or something.  Then 1-2 more runs and a break, etc.

[PhineasC]

9 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Ha we always have talked about these types of days internally and I generally feel if you are going to tell people not to come… as a business why are you open then?  Like if an business tells people not to come to them, they might as well close.  So if we are going to run lifts, explain the situation to them, don’t sugarcoat it, and let them make their own decision.  Certainly aren’t trying to drum up business and would prefer you make the best decision for your family… like if I had kids I might reconsider tomorrow, or you could make it into a game too.  One run then a hot chocolate or something.  Then 1-2 more runs and a break, etc.

Gotta remember too that this is literally the only couple days of skiing many families may have the whole year. Need to be honest with them but also expect that they may brave it to do a few runs since they prepaid and traveled all that way. I used to ski in conditions like this when I skied 4 times a year and paid a lot of money to do it.

[PhineasC]

@J.Spin given that things have been fairly quiet the last week or so we must be starting to fall behind the averages now. Hopefully Monday catches us all up a bit as we head into peak time. 

[Angus]

Get the wool blankets out on the lift.  my uncle who knows cold from skiing at SLoaf has mentioned skiing at Stowe in early 70s maybe late 60s in brutal cold wrapped in a wool blanket on the old single chair.

[PhineasC]

1 minute ago, Angus said:

Get the wool blankets out on the lift.  my uncle who knows cold from skiing at SLoaf has mentioned skiing at Stowe in early 70s maybe late 60s in brutal cold wrapped in a wool blanket on the old single chair.

Thats cool. Wear it like a cape coming down. 

[powderfreak]

54 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

Gotta remember too that this is literally the only couple days of skiing many families may have the whole year. Need to be honest with them but also expect that they may brave it to do a few runs since they prepaid and traveled all that way. I used to ski in conditions like this when I skied 4 times a year and paid a lot of money to do it.

Yeah my family would've absolutely skied when I was growing up.  Family trip to the mountain, going skiing.  Maybe not all day, maybe start at like 10-11am or something, but definitely would've skied.

[Hitman]

8 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah my family would've absolutely skied when I was growing up.  Family trip to the mountain, going skiing.  Maybe not all day, maybe start at like 10-11am or something, but definitely would've skied.

I could/would ski on a day with temps like tomorrow, but only if I could get into the trees, where it’s somewhat wind protected and I’m working up some heat internally.  Bombing down groomers at 40 mph when the wc is -30f, is no bueno.

[powderfreak]

Just now, Hitman said:

I could/would ski on a day with temps like tomorrow, but only if I could get into the trees, where it’s somewhat wind protected and I’m working up some heat internally.  Bombing down groomers at 40 mph when the wc is -30f, is no bueno.

That's a great point.  Natural snow terrain or something that makes you work, keeps you mentally interested and physically working.  Cruising groomers gets old at those temps.  Of course with kids they don't seem to mind from what I've seen on the hill.  They enjoy being out there if mom and dad have dressed them appropriately.

[Hitman]

Just now, Hitman said:

I could/would ski on a day with temps like tomorrow, but only if I could get into the trees, where it’s somewhat wind protected and I’m working up some heat internally.  Bombing down groomers at 40 mph when the wc is -30f, is no bueno.

Coldest day I ever skied was at Stowe, about 30 years ago.  The speedometer in my car froze.

[PhineasC]

2 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

That's a great point.  Natural snow terrain or something that makes you work, keeps you mentally interested and physically working.  Cruising groomers gets old at those temps.  Of course with kids they don't seem to mind from what I've seen on the hill.  They enjoy being out there if mom and dad have dressed them appropriately.

Blue jeans and those jester hats from the 90s for us when it gets cold. For tomorrow I might put them in a Patriots hoodie (strictly so they blend in). That should do it. 

[SJonesWX]

no idea what year it was but I skied Waterville Valley in NH one time several years ago. it was ice cold, windy, and the trails were icy as hell. I came off the lift, headed downhill, and between the wind and the ice, I was on my ass being blown straight across the trail into the woods, it was almost blowing me up the hill. I made it down eventually and headed to my car. huge waste of 50 bucks or whatever the ticket cost me that day.

[PhineasC]

6 minutes ago, SJonesWX said:

no idea what year it was but I skied Waterville Valley in NH one time several years ago. it was ice cold, windy, and the trails were icy as hell. I came off the lift, headed downhill, and between the wind and the ice, I was on my ass being blown straight across the trail into the woods, it was almost blowing me up the hill. I made it down eventually and headed to my car. huge waste of 50 bucks or whatever the ticket cost me that day.

There was a day last year at Cannon where a squall blew through and my two younger kids were being pushed uphill by the wind and couldn’t get down the hill. It was pretty funny. 

[Hitman]

The groomers don’t do anything to get the heart rate up.  That’s the issue.  At least if there are moguls the exercise gets blood flowing to the extremities.  You finish a groomer and you’re just as cold if not colder as when you started.

[Hitman]

1 minute ago, PhineasC said:

There was a day last year at Cannon where a squall blew threw and my two younger kids were being pushed uphill by the wind and couldn’t get down the hill. It was pretty funny. 

That’s what I need video of.

[J.Spin]

Event totals: 2.4” Snow/0.05” L.E.

 

It looks like this afternoon’s snow was the end of the precipitation associated with the cold front and cold air advection – we’re definitely into the cold air now.  I discovered that the snow we were getting here at our house was actually because we were just on the eastern edge of this afternoon’s activity - I headed to Burlington, and the snow continued to pick up has I got into the western slopes.  At times the visibility dropped substantially, and at one point the snowfall was intense enough that it prompted switching over to headlights and fogs.  Once I was through Williston, the snow began to clear up to partly cloudy skies, and the temperature had dropped off well into the teens and single digits.

 

Details from the 6:00 P.M. Waterbury observations:

New Snow: 0.2 inches

New Liquid: Trace

Temperature: 1.9 F

Sky: Partly Cloudy

Snow at the stake: 6.0 inches

[MRVexpat]

45 minutes ago, Hitman said:

The groomers don’t do anything to get the heart rate up.  That’s the issue.  At least if there are moguls the exercise gets blood flowing to the extremities.  You finish a groomer and you’re just as cold if not colder as when you started.

Slalom skis being the exception. Pays to have those in your quiver skiing in New England. 

[J.Spin]

59 minutes ago, Hitman said:

Coldest day I ever skied was at Stowe, about 30 years ago.  The speedometer in my car froze.

That reminds me of my coldest ski day I can remember, because we had a situation almost the opposite.  My friend’s radio in his Blazer had not worked in years (he instead just drove around with a boom box on the seat), but it started working on that day, and it appeared to be due to the cold.  We always joked that it was simply because we’d finally reached superconducting temperatures, although it was probably something along the lines of cmponents contracting enough in the cold temperatures to reestablish a broken contact.

We were skiing at Jay Peak, and the summit air temp was -20 F.  I didn’t remember the wind speed, but I know that the net result was -80 F wind chill on the old wind chill chart, so I just looked it up, and that meant the summit winds were in the 30 to 35 MPH range.  On the new wind chill chart, it’s only -55 F, but it’s right on the verge of that fuchsia 5 minute frostbite time area.

We only took a few runs, and after each one, we’d have to spend 30 to 45 min in the lodge warming up because we both found that our knees were tightening up horribly (maybe due to the fluid getting cold).

Now I don’t even think of riding the lifts when the air temperature is below 0 F, and rarely even if it’s in the single digits F.  I find it just excruciating to have to sit there on the lift, suspended in the winds without being able to move and generate body heat.  It’s just much more comfortable (and obviously safer with respect to the potential for lift malfunction) to skin up a sheltered route out of the winds and be able to quickly turn around if the combination of temperature and wind just doesn’t make sense.  As PF noted the other day, the skiing often sucks at those really cold temperatures anyway because of crystal structure and the fact that you’re not able to generate the typical liquid for glide.  You can help get around this somewhat with the right cold weather wax I believe, but it can only do so much, and there are just too many factors detracting from the experience on those really cold days to make worth the hassle when, as a local, you have so many opportunities for great days anyway.

[powderfreak]

54 minutes ago, PhineasC said:

There was a day last year at Cannon where a squall blew through and my two younger kids were being pushed uphill by the wind and couldn’t get down the hill. It was pretty funny. 

Kids blowing through the base areas like tumbleweeds on there way to lessons. That's awesome.

[J.Spin]

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

@J.Spin given that things have been fairly quiet the last week or so we must be starting to fall behind the averages now. Hopefully Monday catches us all up a bit as we head into peak time. 

This prompted me to update my numbers and check, and we’re right around 18” behind average season snowfall pace as of today.  We’ve actually had 7-8” in the past week (helped by 3.8” from Winter Storm Garrett last weekend, and 2.4” from this frontal passage), but it’s sort of been a trickle, and not really helping to gain any ground on average pace.  I’ll try to put together the updated season snowfall vs. average plot when I get a chance.

[timp]

Down to -5. Hoping you make a run at -20. If we’re not going to get the snow I’ll take the extreme cold as a reminder of the winter climate I have chosen to live in. 

[PhineasC]

-4 here.

[J.Spin]

2 hours ago, PhineasC said:

@J.Spin given that things have been fairly quiet the last week or so we must be starting to fall behind the averages now. Hopefully Monday catches us all up a bit as we head into peak time. 

 

20 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

This prompted me to update my numbers and check, and we’re right around 18” behind average season snowfall pace as of today.  We’ve actually had 7-8” in the past week (helped by 3.8” from Winter Storm Garrett last weekend, and 2.4” from this frontal passage), but it’s sort of been a trickle, and not really helping to gain any ground on average pace.  I’ll try to put together the updated season snowfall vs. average plot when I get a chance.

I’ve added the updated season snowfall progression plot for our site below.  As you can see from the slope of this year’s cumulative snowfall trace over the past week, we’re toddling along at a reasonably steady pace, but comparing to the average slope, we’re clearly behind average snowfall pace.  We’re obviously not going to catch up all in one fell swoop without a real whopper storm, but even a typical 6-12” storm would make a notable dent in catching up, since we’re only 18” behind average pace at the moment.

[mreaves]

-4.7° I hope to beat the -11° I have as my boldest reading in this weather station. 

[powderfreak]

-13F leaving the house this morning.

[backedgeapproaching]

-11.8F here. 

[#NoPoles]

-18