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January 16-17, 2022 MLK storm obs/now cast


George BM
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5 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

So far the skiing is an epic fail. All the high speed lifts are on wind hold. None of the expert terrain is accessible. Sitting in the lodge while kids play at kids world debating if it’s worth waiting in hopes the wind dies and they open. Talked to a ski patrol and didn’t like the effusive way they avoided saying anything about prospects. Usually when they aren’t saying hopeful things that’s bad. 

Sorry.  That sucks especially if wanting to ski the difficult terrain.  Go to Silver Creek though to just get out of the crowds and at least have fresh tracks.

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Winds howling into the 40s (had an earlier gust to 54). Midnight high of 26 before winds switched out of the NW. Currently 20 after a morning low of 18.

Upslope kicking in - hopefully another 3-6” today/tonight which would push totals into the 14-16”+ range. I love the layering of the snow up against the slider. Heading out later for a walk and will take some pictures.
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eb0d4e9a569deb77ef1eb688e6ef258a.jpg

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1 minute ago, nj2va said:

Winds howling into the 40s (had an earlier gust to 54). Midnight high of 26 before winds switched out of the NW. Currently 20 after a morning low of 18.

Upslope kicking in - hopefully another 3-6” today/tonight which would push totals into the 14-16”+ range. I love the layering of the snow up against the slider. Heading out later for a walk and will take some pictures.
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eb0d4e9a569deb77ef1eb688e6ef258a.jpg

Ridiculous conditions right now. Vis is about 1/8th over here with occasional whiteouts at times. 

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1 hour ago, Chris78 said:

What were you able to measure? 

Really tough to get an accurate # .

I was going with 3.5 but we added another half inch this morning so I was going to go with 4 but it's hard to say exactly.

I am going with 3.5”.  It was one of the tougher moderate snow events to measure.  

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20 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

So far the skiing is an epic fail. All the high speed lifts are on wind hold. None of the expert terrain is accessible. Sitting in the lodge while kids play at kids world debating if it’s worth waiting in hopes the wind dies and they open. Talked to a ski patrol and didn’t like the effusive way they avoided saying anything about prospects. Usually when they aren’t saying hopeful things that’s bad. 

Sad to hear about the wind stoppage.  Was wondering what the conditions would be like given Snowshoe's orientation (from your description before since I haven't been there).  Hope things break so you can get at least a few runs in.  Now is where you could use some tele-skis.  Can tele down, put skins on and hike back up.  But it is a LOT of work.  Maybe hanging out in the lodge is better.  

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3 minutes ago, WinterWxLuvr said:

Forgot to add to earlier list … went for a 2 mile Jeb walk last night about 5. Awesome. Heavy snow the whole time, temp at 16. Winter wonderland.

 

Indeed, it was great!  I went out a little after 4 to plow for about 4 hours with my Kubota (see profile pic).  It was sn+ and ++ until the change to sleet.  There was almost no traffic on our main state thoroughfare at the time (Lawyers Road NW of Vienna) except the snow plows crawling by at about 10mph.  They went by multiple times, 3 plows at a time, all just crawling.  Never seen that before and no clue why the crawl, unless it's because they are on the clock.      

 

 

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2 hours ago, The Ole Bucket said:

I think we managed to stay at or below freezing all night. No evidence of any FRZ overnight. Just a glacier out there, but the road crews realllly overcompensated for their failures in the prior big storm.

Main drag is now not only driveable, but pavement is clearly visible! Almost time to shovel out. Need a bit more coffee...

The gym was closed this morning due to weather, but now I don't even need to go in.

It was back day but smashing through that glacier and clearing the sidewalk, my steps and space around my gigantic van was a 90+ minute back and leg workout.

That stuff is extremely heavy and difficult to move around. Holy smokes. Within 10 minutes I had stripped off my jacket.

Now well over freezing. Everyone *should* be able to go back to school and work tomorrow.

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It’s really wicked out there. Just walked out to the truck and walking is difficult. There’s a layer of about 1/2” of sleet with about 1/8+ or so of freezing rain that melded it into about 3/4” or so of pure block ice on top of the snow. I’ll bet the piles out here are gonna be epic.

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40 minutes ago, Potvinsux said:

Sorry.  That sucks especially if wanting to ski the difficult terrain.  Go to Silver Creek though to just get out of the crowds and at least have fresh tracks.

It’s ok. It happens. Can’t control the weather. I might try to get some turns tomorrow since we decided to stay another night. The road is awful right now. Took me an hour to go 500 yards from condo to the top. Problem is all the people getting stuck and blocking the road. Maybe I could get home today if I tried but with 2 little kids it’s just not worth the risk. It’s bad out there and would be for about 75 miles until you clear east of the high ridges to the Shenandoah Valley. And I’m not even sure how good they got those roads there yet but at least there is no upslope snow there. 

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6 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

It’s ok. It happens. Can’t control the weather. I might try to get some turns tomorrow since we decided to stay another night. The road is awful right now. Took me an hour to go 500 yards from condo to the top. Problem is all the people getting stuck and blocking the road. Maybe I could get home today if I tried but with 2 little kids it’s just not worth the risk. It’s bad out there and would be for about 75 miles until you clear east of the high ridges to the Shenandoah Valley. And I’m not even sure how good they got those roads there yet but at least there is no upslope snow there. 

I was on the fence between Wisp and Timberline for today. I’m so glad I chose Wisp. Driving an hour and a half in these wild conditions would be too much, and who knows whether Timberline would have a wind hold as well by the time I would’ve arrived.

I’ll hit Timberline tomorrow. My ticket there is good for any day.

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1 minute ago, Fozz said:

I was on the fence between Wisp and Timberline for today. I’m so glad I chose Wisp. Driving an hour and a half in these wild conditions would be too much, and who knows whether Timberline would have a wind hold as well by the time I would’ve arrived.

I’ll hit Timberline tomorrow. My ticket there is good for any day.

Hows Wisp? we are planning to head up in the next hour.

Probably 12-16" so far with off and on heavy snow. Just shoveled the driveway and its already white again.

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5 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

It’s ok. It happens. Can’t control the weather. I might try to get some turns tomorrow since we decided to stay another night. The road is awful right now. Took me an hour to go 500 yards from condo to the top. Problem is all the people getting stuck and blocking the road. Maybe I could get home today if I tried but with 2 little kids it’s just not worth the risk. It’s bad out there and would be for about 75 miles until you clear east of the high ridges to the Shenandoah Valley. And I’m not even sure how good they got those roads there yet but at least there is no upslope snow there. 

Oh no!  Yes, that is the issue around here whenever it snows.  It's almost impossible to reach the top, not because your vehicle can't make it, but others are stuck blocking the road.  So many guests are driving their 2 wheel drive vehicles with bald tires...they have no chance.  Also, taking traction control 'off' is the key to get momentum up these switchbacks....

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1 minute ago, mdhokie said:

Hows Wisp? we are planning to head up in the next hour.

Probably 12-16" so far with off and on heavy snow. Just shoveled the driveway and its already white again.

I just parked. Eating a sandwich and then I’ll hit the slopes.

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11 minutes ago, psuhoffman said:

It’s ok. It happens. Can’t control the weather. I might try to get some turns tomorrow since we decided to stay another night. The road is awful right now. Took me an hour to go 500 yards from condo to the top. Problem is all the people getting stuck and blocking the road. Maybe I could get home today if I tried but with 2 little kids it’s just not worth the risk. It’s bad out there and would be for about 75 miles until you clear east of the high ridges to the Shenandoah Valley. And I’m not even sure how good they got those roads there yet but at least there is no upslope snow there. 

Wise decision to not try to dive home today. Those back road heading out of there can be extremely treacherous. Tomorrow looks like a bluebird day with fresh powder from today's uplsope snow.

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3 hours ago, WinterWxLuvr said:

Hey all. Happy that many of you enjoyed the snow. 
 

Measurement is proving difficult. I have a measurement from about 15 minutes after the sleet started. Didn’t take another. Went out this morning to try and get another. Didn’t work out. 
 

I weigh 212 pounds. Yes I’ve lost 20 since October thank you very much lol. My weight won’t break through this crust completely. That’s amazing. Anyway, broke a plastic ruler trying to get it through. We had heavy sleet for about 2 hours. I’m gonna go with 1/2” of sleet on top of this measurement, but I’m gonna also wait and collaborate with @clskinsfan, @EastCoast NPZ and @notvirga! to try and get as accurate of a measurement as possible. As you can see from the photo the sleet had already started.

 

AB1A4280-2285-4E72-9722-407D652B2EA3.jpeg

Are you measuring the angle of the snow??  Lol.

 

I had 6 before the flip.  It snowed more early this morning, but it is sooo windy it's impossible to measure.  I don't know how much sleet fell, how much compaction....anything.

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4 minutes ago, nj2va said:

Curious how it is too - we’re on the fence about skiing today with these insane conditions.  

I think as long as you stick to the main roads and take reasonable precautions you should be fine. Looks amazing here and I can’t wait to head up on the lifts.

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On 1/16/2022 at 10:19 AM, Herb@MAWS said:

My bar for this event in Columbia, even if snow gets washed away in the end:
Less than 3" total snowfall = BUST
3"- 4" -- Decent, all things considered
4"- 6" -- Better than I would have expected, all things considered
> 6"   -- BOOM

Ground coated/covered white after storm ends and it looks like winter outside:  That's all I really ever hoped for.

Morning low 10.3 around dawn.  Up to 16.6 at 10:15am.  Need clouds to hold tough and need snow to roll in quickly today.

I got 3” and the ground is more white than green. I’m good. 

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