NNE Cold Season Thread 2022/2023

[J.Spin]

22 hours ago, EMontpelierWhiteout said:

I am thinking NWS needs to expand Winter Storm Warnings northward based on latest model guidance spinning this thing a little north of Provincetown.  With that evolution, can’t see how better dynamics don’t get thrown back further north and west.  Anyway, not a lot of NNE chatter, but maybe we should get some going on this. 

I just noticed that they pushed the Winter Storm Warnings farther north again, so that trend continued as you can see from the latest alerts map.  And, you can see the additional increases in the Event Total Snowfall maps pushing more of that 12-18” shading farther into the Northern Greens.  It’s actually been snowing pretty hard here at the house in Waterbury.  The snowflakes have been very large with diameters in the 3 to 4-inch range, and snowfall rates have been somewhere above 6”/hr.  We picked up 2 inches of accumulation in about 10 minutes, and roughly another half foot of snow came down in short order  Based on the local radar it appears it was from a band that came through.

[#NoPoles]

Nothing to write home about in Bretton Woods. Alex sent me a text earlier saying we have around 4 inches. Any time precip comes in from the SE we get shadowed. But pretty cool to see how others are just getting annihilated. The good thing about getting shadowed- less worry about power outtages. We are sitting right at that temp that is perfect for snow to stick to everything it comes in contact with.

Hope you all are able to enjoy the storm!

[mreaves]

Looks like 8” here at home. I’m sure there has been some compaction. Snow has stopped here. 89 was slow going. It was ok from S. Burlington through Richmond but got progressively worse from there. Some of the heaviest snowfall and largest snowflakes I’ve ever seen going through @J.Spin‘s neighborhood around 10:00. Giant cotton balls falling from the sky. 

[EMontpelierWhiteout]

1 hour ago, J.Spin said:

I just noticed that they pushed the Winter Storm Warnings farther north again, so that trend continued as you can see from the latest alerts map.  And, you can see the additional increases in the Event Total Snowfall maps pushing more of that 12-18” shading farther into the Northern Greens.  It’s actually been snowing pretty hard here at the house in Waterbury.  The snowflakes have been very large with diameters in the 3 to 4-inch range, and snowfall rates have been somewhere above 6”/hr.  We picked up 2 inches of accumulation in about 10 minutes, and roughly another half foot of snow came down in short order  Based on the local radar it appears it was from a band that came through.

I had great rates like that for a bit earlier this morning, pickin up 4 1/2” in about 2 hours.  Sadly, we seem to be between snow bans right now in E. Montpelier.  Pretty much stopped over last hour.  Hoping for better as afternoon wears on. 

[borderwx]

2 chair visibility this morning

Another 3” since sunrise at the house. A very good storm!


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[MRVexpat]

13 minutes ago, borderwx said:

2 chair visibility this morning

Another 3” since sunrise at the house. A very good storm!


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Heading there this weekend. Hoping temps can stay at or below freezing....at least at elevation. 

[J.Spin]

1 hour ago, EMontpelierWhiteout said:

I had great rates like that for a bit earlier this morning, pickin up 4 1/2” in about 2 hours.  Sadly, we seem to be between snow bans right now in E. Montpelier.  Pretty much stopped over last hour.  Hoping for better as afternoon wears on. 

The BTV NWS actually pushed the Winter Storm Warnings north again as one can see on the updated advisories map.  They also bumped the accumulations on the latest Event Total Snowfall map.  The point forecast here calls for another 8-16” through Wednesday night, so we’ll see how that plays out.

[dmcginvt]

I"m at 13 as of an hour ago and it's still crushing it.  Thats 10 inches since 7ish.  

[alex]

7” so far here and snowing harder than at any point today. Not a bad storm, especially given we don’t even have a WSW. Stake back up to 19”

[bwt3650]

12-15 at 1900’. Way over performer for this far north….Mountain is claiming 20 up top.


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[Redmorninglight]

Gore reporting 24” and likely more by now. My neighbor in Thurman area says he’s got 29” at about 1500’ elevation. I bet the snow pack is over 4 feet.
Wish I was up there. Snowless Cape May this week. Did manage a great surf session yesterday before the winds got silly.
Enjoy north country peeps.

[LaGrangewx]

1 hour ago, Redmorninglight said:

Gore reporting 24” and likely more by now. My neighbor in Thurman area says he’s got 29” at about 1500’ elevation. I bet the snow pack is over 4 feet.
Wish I was up there. Snowless Cape May this week. Did manage a great surf session yesterday before the winds got silly.
Enjoy north country peeps.

Uncle has a place off mountain road west side of number nine mountain at 1425’. He’s must’ve got around 2ft+ as well I would guess. Up around north river and gore was in better banding and probably has ~30”. That’s now 3 storms above 18” this year up there. Pretty solid.

[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, Redmorninglight said:

Gore reporting 24” and likely more by now. My neighbor in Thurman area says he’s got 29” at about 1500’ elevation. I bet the snow pack is over 4 feet.
Wish I was up there. Snowless Cape May this week. Did manage a great surf session yesterday before the winds got silly.
Enjoy north country peeps.

This was a big storm for the interior northeast.  All mountain zones got smoked.  Great storm.

[powderfreak]

Finally an above average snowpack reading on Mount Mansfield.  A 15-inch gain today in the depth (62" to 77") and a 16-inch stack at the High Road Stake.

This was a big day on the hill.

[bwt3650]

Finally an above average snowpack reading on Mount Mansfield.  A 15-inch gain today in the depth (62" to 77") and a 16-inch stack at the High Road Stake.
This was a big day on the hill.

Pounding snow right now and even the globals have it really going strong through tmrw as this pulls away. Hard to believe how we are finishing the season after how it started. Might see another 10 on the stake tomorrow. We just need to dodge any big rains for the next couple weeks.


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[J.Spin]

In Bolton’s early morning report they were indicating 3 to 4 inches of new snow from Winter Storm Sage, but little did they know, by the afternoon the storm would already have dropped several times that amount.  The Winter Storm Warnings from the National Weather Service in Burlington started including counties farther and father to the northern part of Vermont, and that was definitely a sign that the storm was going to have a bit more impact in the Northern Greens than the weather models had initially suggested.  Here at our house in Waterbury, the snowfall really started to pick up in the midmorning period.  We began to get very large snowflakes with diameters in the 3 to 4-inch range, and those flakes were accompanied by very heavy snowfall rates; over the course about 30 minutes, we picked up roughly half a foot of new snow.

Bolton had clearly been hit with similar snowfall rates, and it was obvious that there was far more than the initial few inches when I headed up to Timberline for a tour this afternoon.  My depth checks from the Timberline Base at 1,500 feet were indicating 12 to 16 inches of new snow.  I wasn’t sure if there was going to be much additional accumulation with elevation, but by the time I hit 2,500 feet, my measurements were in the 15 to 18-inch range.  Bolton’s snow report update from later in the day had their accumulations topping out at 18 inches, so that fit well with my observations.

The actual skiing itself was rather interesting.  On my ascent it was already obvious that the snow wasn’t at all wet at elevation.  It was fairly dense though, with small flakes falling during my tour.  With those small flakes falling atop the accumulation of the larger ones that would have fallen during that midmorning, the powder wasn’t perfectly right-side-up.  It wasn’t exactly upside-down either, but there was an element of that in the powder, and combined with a foot and a half of new depth, it added some extra challenge.  When you’re on 115 mm boards and you’re feeling like they might not be wide enough, that’s saying something.  While I didn’t personally see anything slide or even slough when I was out on my tour today, I did feel tinges of spookiness of steeper slopes, with part of that coming from the slightly imperfect density profile.  It didn’t come as a complete surprise when I saw the following in Bolton’s updated snow report:

Urgent Message From Patrol: Avalanche hazard present at this time. If travelling on terrain (especially uphill routes and backcountry) follow appropriate avalanche precautions and gear up accordingly.

So, be careful if you are riding in potentially hazardous spots in the near future with this current snowpack.  And unfortunately, the best skiing really is on the steepest terrain right now.  I could tell on my ascent that I was going to need some serious pitch to get a quality descent, so I dropped in on the Tattle Tale Headwall, and it certainly delivered.  We’ll see what the back side of this storm cycle does for the snow profile, but for now, you’re going to want at least black diamond pitches for the best turns in undisturbed snow.  Indeed, if you’re planning to head out for turns tomorrow on anything that hasn’t been tracked, bring your fattest boards and hit the steepest terrain you can find. Conditions should be great though, because we’re in the process of getting another massive resurfacing of the slopes, and its already atop a surface that didn’t really even need it.

[klw]

2.5 of fluff overnight, 14.1 for the storm, 29-30 on the ground, 104.8 for the season.

[NW_of_GYX]

80” for the season after yesterdays 5”. One more advisory event will get me to average more or less. 

[borderwx]

3” overnight. 12” total.

Heavy snow.

Deepest snowbanks in the yard in a few years


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[NW_of_GYX]

Wow, wildcat reporting 29”

[alex]

Managed 15" here out of an Advisory. Sweet. Bizarre storm for the area though - my kids school in Whitefield, less than 15 miles away, has maybe 3". 

[LaGrangewx]

Hermit lake and Carter Notch hut at 73” depth. Interested to see the Lake Colden ADK report tomorrow. Turning out to be the best winter in the Whites since at least 2019. Would love to try and come back east and ski Tuckerman later this spring. It seems like Wildcat might have had the best season of any eastern ski area relative to snowfall this year at around ~200 already. 

[SchrnLker]

15 hours ago, powderfreak said:

This was a big storm for the interior northeast.  All mountain zones got smoked.  Great storm.

Essex County NY got crushed. Biggest storm for us since Valentines Day '07

[tamarack]

Forecast here was 5-9 and by 4 yesterday we'd had only a trace.  Then the band arrived from the SE, and we finished with 6" even, with 2/3 of that coming in 90 minutes, 5:30-7 PM.  Pack was 28" at 9 last night, settled back to 25" now.  Tomorrow may be the best remaining chance to put on the snowshoes and prune apple trees while I can be 8 feet tall.

[borderwx]

A fitting sunset for a memorable storm



Another 2” through the day at the house


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[NW_of_GYX]

6 hours ago, LaGrangewx said:

Hermit lake and Carter Notch hut at 73” depth. Interested to see the Lake Colden ADK report tomorrow. Turning out to be the best winter in the Whites since at least 2019. Would love to try and come back east and ski Tuckerman later this spring. It seems like Wildcat might have had the best season of any eastern ski area relative to snowfall this year at around ~200 already. 

There are ski descents happening this year in the whites that haven’t happened since 2019 or earlier. Yale Gully for instance, which we were lucky enough to ski this weekend. As is typical though a lot depends on wind, and there’s been no shortage of crazy wind this season. Dodges did not look filled in at all for some reason and I’m not hearing of many folks skiing ammo or the west side. Wildcat valley trail was as good as I’ve ever skied it two weeks ago, but on that same day the skiing on the frontside was wind blown and not good. 

[LaGrangewx]

5 minutes ago, NW_of_GYX said:

There are ski descents happening this year in the whites that haven’t happened since 2019 or earlier. Yale Gully for instance, which we were lucky enough to ski this weekend. As is typical though a lot depends on wind, and there’s been no shortage of crazy wind this season. Dodges did not look filled in at all for some reason and I’m not hearing of many folks skiing ammo or the west side. Wildcat valley trail was as good as I’ve ever skied it two weeks ago, but on that same day the skiing on the frontside was wind blown and not good. 

Interesting. It seems like the east side of Washington has done better this year. I’ve also seen some sweet shots of Landslide Gully on Webster tho.

[mcglups]

I've enjoyed wildcat this season, it's lots of fun with all the natural snow but I'm equally glad to have started on opening day because ice is naturally occurring and just knowing the spots help all season long.  Now shopping for new skis for next season! Hope you are having fun out there!

[NW_of_GYX]

16 hours ago, LaGrangewx said:

Interesting. It seems like the east side of Washington has done better this year. I’ve also seen some sweet shots of Landslide Gully on Webster tho.

Ya people have been getting after it in the spots less prone to wind loading and associated instabilities. Before this last storm there was a really nice stable snowpack in many zones. Skiing is just getting started in the alpine. 

[J.Spin]

Winter Storm Sage continued on through Tuesday night, and a resurgence of heavy snowfall came into the area yesterday morning.  So, combined with somewhat limited lift service at Bolton on Tuesday due to power outages, yesterday was an obvious day to get out for turns.  My younger son was off from school for his second snow day in a row, and since it initially didn’t look like any of his friends would be able to join him for skiing, he and I headed up to the hill to catch the opening of the Vista Quad.  Snowfall was probably in the inch per hour range at that point, so the Bolton Valley Access Road was a bit slick, and we encountered a couple of vehicles having trouble on the ascent.

Areas up around the ridgeline of the resort were getting hit pretty hard by the wind, so the new snow was heavily wind packed up there, but once you were down a couple hundred feet, most areas were fine.  Surface snow depths I measured were generally around 20 inches on the low end, up toward 30 inches on the high end, and that seemed to fit pretty well with the resort’s reported 32” storm total.  While the initial forecasts for Winter Storm Sage looked fairly lean in the Northern Greens, accumulations ultimately approached 3 feet, and the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake took a healthy jump up to 90 inches.  Winter Storm Sage wound up being a solid storm cycle up and down the spine of the Green Mountains, with roughly 3 to 4 feet of accumulation.  The north to south listing of available storm totals from the Vermont ski areas tells the tale:

Jay Peak: 28”

Smuggler’s Notch: 34”

Stowe: 33”

Bolton Valley: 32”

Mad River Glen: 32”

Sugarbush: 29”

Middlebury: 24”

Pico: 22”

Killington: 22”

Okemo: 35”

Bromley: 36”

Magic Mountain: 36”

Stratton: 40”

Mount Snow: 48”

At times on the mountain yesterday, especially late morning, we were getting hit with larger flakes for increased loft in accumulations, but there was still plenty of dense snow present as well.  When you’re nearing 3 feet of dense snow like that, the name of the game was still to hit steep terrain for the best turns, so my son and I started off with a run of Vermont 200.  After only that one run, we ran into one of my son’s friends at the base of the Vista Quad, and the posse just continued to grow as the morning went on to include another one of my son’s friend, his dad, and then another friend.  We found excellent conditions on Cobrass, and Maria’s was outstanding – most specifically the initial steep section due to the pitch being a great fit for the substantial depth of the moderately dense snow.

The Wilderness Double Chair was schedule for a midmorning opening, but it wasn’t until midday or so that it actually opened.  Wilderness offered up the clear highlight of the day in the form of the headwall of the Wilderness Liftline.  That terrain isn’t usually open, because it’s very steep, so steep, ledgy, and exposed to the wind that it rarely holds snow.  I’m not even sure if it’s officially a trail.  Although the very top is usually roped off by patrol, you can access lower parts of it by traversing in from the surrounding trees.  As we passed over it on the lift, it was clear that coverage below the first several yards was excellent, so we traversed in below that point to check it out.  It delivered some classic steep and deep, and more than once I heard some of the boys proclaim that was the steepest powder they’d ever skied.  Ski patrol clearly felt that the entire slope was safely skiable, and by our next run, the rope was opened and everyone was diving in from the very top.  The energy and excitement of the folks on the slope, and those right above you on the lift (the snowpack is high enough that you actually had to appropriately time it to stay clear of people on the lift at the entry) was quite palpable.

Although the lower slopes of Wilderness are too shallow in pitch to support skiing in 2 plus feet of dense powder, they did offer another highlight of the day.  The parts of the Wilderness Liftline that had been groomed were substantially lower than the surrounding areas of the trail that had not been groomed, so it provided a kicker to use if you wanted to jump into the powder.  The boys started launching powder bombs as they threw themselves off the side of the trail, and eventually everyone got into it and was burying themselves silly.  It was great fun all around and made for lots of hilarious GoPro footage.  Action photography was definitely tough yesterday with the heavy snowfall, but we still our best to document the great outing in one of the top winter storms of the season thus far.