NNE Cold Season Thread 2023/2024

[bwt3650]

I’m hearing 10-12” Mansfield.  Only ski on the top 4” of it though.  Given QPF of 1.00-1.20” if you get into the 10:1 ratio zone it’s probably a foot.
Did not expect 6-7” down at 750ft.

Just what we wanted to fill things in..jay now says 15 up top. Certainly possible as there’s close to a foot at 1850’

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Just what we wanted to fill things in..jay now says 15 up top. Certainly possible as there’s close to a foot at 1850’

Gonna call it 10” here I think as I can’t prove a foot or more… though with this heavy wet snow you could say any number up to 16” and it would probably past the “feel” test.

I just cannot estimate a snowfall number, it goes against my weather morals… much to the chagrin of people who think it’s 12-14” on Mansfield lol.

Nice trenches up high (friend photo when they opened Upper Hayride).

 

[mreaves]

25 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Gonna call it 10” here I think as I can’t prove a foot or more… though with this heavy wet snow you could say any number up to 16” and it would probably past the “feel” test.

I just cannot estimate a snowfall number, it goes against my weather morals… much to the chagrin of people who think it’s 12-14” on Mansfield lol.

Nice trenches up high (friend photo when they opened Upper Hayride).

 

A colleague who lives in Wolcott says they got 12"-14".  I asked his elevation and he said 500' higher than Morrisville.  I will say he's a counselor and social worker not a meteorologist, though he is a longtime Smuggs skier.

[powderfreak]

32 minutes ago, mreaves said:

A colleague who lives in Wolcott says they got 12"-14".  I asked his elevation and he said 500' higher than Morrisville.  I will say he's a counselor and social worker not a meteorologist, though he is a longtime Smuggs skier.

Yeah I’m not saying that’s impossible but in my experience heavy wet snows are over estimated if no one measured them.

BTV didn’t get any inhabited reports over 12”… even up at 1800ft spotters were in the 9-11” range it looked like.  That fits with bwt’s “almost a foot” at 1850ft too.

Personally I think it was probably 8-12” at most higher elevations with 1-1.25” of water.

Plenty of folks today at Stowe were saying the 8-9” of dense at base was a foot.  I think just the dense snow type makes it seem like so much more.  Step into it and it’s like wow, this is a foot of real deal snow!

[mreaves]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah I’m not saying that’s impossible but in my experience heavy wet snows are over estimated if no one measured them.

BTV didn’t get any inhabited reports over 12”… even up at 1800ft spotters were in the 9-11” range it looked like.  That fits with bwt’s “almost a foot” at 1850ft too.

Personally I think it was probably 8-12” at most higher elevations with 1-1.25” of water.

Plenty of folks today at Stowe were saying the 8-9” of dense at base was a foot.  I think just the dense snow type makes it seem like so much more.  Step into it and it’s like wow, this is a foot of real deal snow!

That 7.3 in the lower right corner of Washington County is from an NWS employee who lives on the other side of the hill from me.  Our measurements nearly always track.  I didn't measure that early today and there was surely some compaction.  I measured 6" 

[powderfreak]

33 minutes ago, mreaves said:

That 7.3 in the lower right corner of Washington County is from an NWS employee who lives on the other side of the hill from me.  Our measurements nearly always track.  I didn't measure that early today and there was surely some compaction.  I measured 6" 

That map looks exactly like the HRRR and Canadian HRDPS did for like 24 hours prior to the event.

They nailed it on the clown maps.  I saw  BTV mentioned they’d do a local study on the bust (fairly high impact event that didn’t even have an Advisory until 6pm), which will be interesting to read.

[Ginx snewx]

4 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

That map looks exactly like the HRRR and Canadian HRDPS did for like 24 hours prior to the event.

They nailed it on the clown maps.  I saw  BTV mentioned they’d do a local study on the bust (fairly high impact event that didn’t even have an Advisory until 6pm), which will be interesting to read.

Mega upslope incoming?

[J.Spin]

5 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Gonna call it 10” here I think as I can’t prove a foot or more… though with this heavy wet snow you could say any number up to 16” and it would probably past the “feel” test.

I just cannot estimate a snowfall number, it goes against my weather morals… much to the chagrin of people who think it’s 12-14” on Mansfield lol.

 

4 hours ago, mreaves said:

A colleague who lives in Wolcott says they got 12"-14".  I asked his elevation and he said 500' higher than Morrisville.  I will say he's a counselor and social worker not a meteorologist, though he is a longtime Smuggs skier.

 

4 hours ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah I’m not saying that’s impossible but in my experience heavy wet snows are over estimated if no one measured them.

BTV didn’t get any inhabited reports over 12”… even up at 1800ft spotters were in the 9-11” range it looked like.  That fits with bwt’s “almost a foot” at 1850ft too.

Personally I think it was probably 8-12” at most higher elevations with 1-1.25” of water.

Plenty of folks today at Stowe were saying the 8-9” of dense at base was a foot.  I think just the dense snow type makes it seem like so much more.  Step into it and it’s like wow, this is a foot of real deal snow!

Here’s the north to south listing of the snowfall totals that the Vermont ski areas along the spine are reporting. The totals reported in the north and north-central areas are definitely higher than in the south, and the distribution is actually reminiscent of the north to south gradient we see with a lot of more typical storms that have upslope added in.

Jay Peak: 15”

Smuggler’s Notch: 14”

Stowe: 10”

Bolton Valley: 12”

Mad River Glen: 14”

Sugarbush: 13”

Pico: 7”

Killington: 7”

Okemo: 8”

Magic Mountain: 2”

Stratton: 5”

Mount Snow: 3”

[mreaves]

5 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

 

 

Here’s the north to south listing of the snowfall totals that the Vermont ski areas along the spine are reporting. The totals reported in the north and north-central areas are definitely higher than in the south, and the distribution is actually reminiscent of the north to south gradient we see with a lot of more typical storms that have upslope added in.

Jay Peak: 15”

Smuggler’s Notch: 14”

Stowe: 10”

Bolton Valley: 12”

Mad River Glen: 14”

Sugarbush: 13”

Pico: 7”

Killington: 7”

Okemo: 8”

Magic Mountain: 2”

Stratton: 5”

Mount Snow: 3”

Seems like NVT made out better than NH and ME. 

[powderfreak]

9 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

 

 

Here’s the north to south listing of the snowfall totals that the Vermont ski areas along the spine are reporting. The totals reported in the north and north-central areas are definitely higher than in the south, and the distribution is actually reminiscent of the north to south gradient we see with a lot of more typical storms that have upslope added in.

Jay Peak: 15”

Smuggler’s Notch: 14”

Stowe: 10”

Bolton Valley: 12”

Mad River Glen: 14”

Sugarbush: 13”

Pico: 7”

Killington: 7”

Okemo: 8”

Magic Mountain: 2”

Stratton: 5”

Mount Snow: 3”

I would have put the jackpot in the Sugarbush/MRG area.  Maximized SE flow and cold/moisture combo.  I also know that before we became overly OCD about measuring, this would’ve been a 10-14” storm total.  So while standing out a bit there on the list, I do think Mansfield was in line with the others.

[mreaves]

Another inch of fluff overnight.

[tamarack]

Had a sun-flurry for a few minutes before the clouds caught up to the windblown flakes.  Dusted the leaves but no accum.

[powderfreak]

1” past hour at Mtn.

Getting blitzed.

[J.Spin]

4 hours ago, powderfreak said:

It is absolutely dumping silver dollar flakes of fluff.  What a wintry day.  2” new at the mountain this afternoon.

58 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Giggity.  What an end to November.  It’s snowing nicely in town with an inch down.

The mountain is getting absolutely throttled.  Near 2”/hr stuff.

 

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

1” past hour at Mtn.

Getting blitzed.

The snow around here today was persistent, but generally light. This evening though, it’s been ramping up to another level. Even on the basic BTV NWS radar you can see much of the spine lit up from with that WNW flow coming in. The snowfall is 1-2”/hr. at times with visibility maybe a couple hundred feet.

[bwt3650]

Burlington to Waterbury about to get crushed in that band..whole spine really lit up too.


.

[mreaves]

So this screenshot shows how I end up with lake effect/upslope. The winds line up just right and shoot through @J.Spin’s gap in the mountains aimed right at the blue dot. It’s not reaching me right now but was earlier. 

[Ginx snewx]

On 11/27/2023 at 6:53 PM, Ginx snewx said:

Mega upslope incoming?

Congrats guys

[J.Spin]

On 11/27/2023 at 9:39 AM, powderfreak said:

I’m hearing 10-12” Mansfield.  Only ski on the top 4” of it though.  Given QPF of 1.00-1.20” if you get into the 10:1 ratio zone it’s probably a foot.

Did not expect 6-7” down at 750ft.

 

On 11/27/2023 at 1:24 PM, bwt3650 said:

Just what we wanted to fill things in..jay now says 15 up top. Certainly possible as there’s close to a foot at 1850’

When I checked the Bolton Valley snow report today in anticipation of heading up for a ski tour, I saw that they had updated their Monday morning total to 15” up top as well, so they must have reassessed what fell:

Tuesday: We are still reeling from the season's first big snowstorm that smothered the northern Green Mountains in a heavy blanket of prime base building snow Sunday night to Monday morning. In addition to the 12-15" we woke up to Monday morning, it appears we're in for another 1-3" today here in the upper elevations and - perhaps even more importantly - the return of cold temperatures on the ol' "wet bulb" to fire up snowmaking efforts again. As we get closer to Friday we'll keep you posted on trails and lifts for this weekend, but perhaps needless to say, we will definitely be expanding terrain this weekend, including Snowflake Lift, a small buildout in the HIde Away Terrain Park and several trails making their season debut. Stay tuned on that front.

No lift service today, but we've gone ahead and opened the Wilderness Designated Uphill Route so you can get some fresh pow laps in if your schedule allows.

Based on PF’s comment about skiing on just the top 4”, and the density of the snow down here at our house, I brought mid-fats for today’s tour. I figured I’d be riding Sierra Cement, but that wasn’t at all what I experienced. I’ll mention more about the snow density after covering the storm accumulations and snowpack depths.

There’s a very impressive elevation gradient with respect to the snow accumulations from this storm. Down at the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road at 340’, there isn’t even complete coverage on all aspects – I’d call the snowpack there T – 2”. I didn’t monitor the snowpack too closely on my ascent to the Village, but coverage was certainly continuous by 1,000’. Up in the Village around 2,000’ or so, I found 10-12” of snow, and here are some measurements at elevations during my tour:

2,000’: 10-12”

2,500’: 15-16”

3,000’: 18-20”

As the numbers reveal, there’s a huge snow depth gradient above 2,000’ – you’re basically looking at the depth going up about an inch every 100’ of vertical. Now those numbers are for total snowpack depth because I’m not sure if I’d be able to distinguish exactly what portion came from this most recent storm, but much of it was from this storm (as Bolton’s summit storm total of 15” would suggest).

The Wilderness Uphill Route has a beautifully packed skin track in place at this point, so travel on the snow is easy. And getting back to that discussion of snow density, it’s not Sierra Cement. In the higher elevations, the density going several inches down into the snowpack is sub-10% H2O powder – I’d put it somewhere in the 6 to 8% H2O range if I had to guess. You sink well down into it, I’d say a good foot, and it’s nicely right-side-up. As I mentioned, I brought mid-fats, but fat skis are actually the tool you want (or a snowboard, etc.).

It was quickly obvious on my ascent that some decent pitch would be required for turns, so I toured all the way to the top of Wilderness.  I checked out Bolton Outlaw, and it had seen enough traffic to track it up pretty thoroughly, so I continued on to Upper Fanny Hill and put the third set of tracks down there. I continued on to Fanny Hill proper and got probably the fourth set of tracks there. The powder skiing is fantastic as long as you’ve got at least intermediate pitch. Shallower than that and the powder is just too deep to keep decent momentum (and that’s another reason to bring fat skis because you can make use of that extra floatation).

In terms of snow quality, it’s as I described at elevation, and of course the overall depth decreases as you descend, but the quality stays high right down to 2,000’. Only just as you approach 2,000’ do you encounter any sort of snow quality issues, and there’s a slight crème brûlée crust in there a couple of inches below the surface where there must have been a bit of warming. At that elevation it’s still quite subtle and you can essentially ignore it.

As Bolton’s snow report indicates, the resort is considering expanding terrain, and moving to some of the natural snow terrain is pretty obvious at this point. We’ll have to see which terrain can hold up to lift-served traffic, but I can’t believe there’s not more talk about this storm and what it could do for the start of the season. This storm was a total liquid equivalent bomb, and not only that, the snow is good to go. This storm was an absolute season-starter. Sometimes storms like this come in so dense or warm, that the tenor will be “This is going to be a great base as soon as we get some good snow on top of it”. Well, there’s no need to wait, the snow is already good to go, and it’s currently getting covered more with the snow from today. It’s not every day you get such a base-building storm that immediately offers up fantastic midwinter skiing. We didn’t even have to wait until December for this one – it somehow snuck in during November, which is another great bonus.

[bwt3650]

Congrats guys

It’s getting good out there real quick…hopefully, we can hold it through December.


.

[powderfreak]

Absolutely nuked last night.  Plots had 6-8” overnight that skied like 14”.

[bwt3650]

9 hours ago, J.Spin said:

 

When I checked the Bolton Valley snow report today in anticipation of heading up for a ski tour, I saw that they had updated their Monday morning total to 15” up top as well, so they must have reassessed what fell:

Tuesday: We are still reeling from the season's first big snowstorm that smothered the northern Green Mountains in a heavy blanket of prime base building snow Sunday night to Monday morning. In addition to the 12-15" we woke up to Monday morning, it appears we're in for another 1-3" today here in the upper elevations and - perhaps even more importantly - the return of cold temperatures on the ol' "wet bulb" to fire up snowmaking efforts again. As we get closer to Friday we'll keep you posted on trails and lifts for this weekend, but perhaps needless to say, we will definitely be expanding terrain this weekend, including Snowflake Lift, a small buildout in the HIde Away Terrain Park and several trails making their season debut. Stay tuned on that front.

No lift service today, but we've gone ahead and opened the Wilderness Designated Uphill Route so you can get some fresh pow laps in if your schedule allows.

Based on PF’s comment about skiing on just the top 4”, and the density of the snow down here at our house, I brought mid-fats for today’s tour. I figured I’d be riding Sierra Cement, but that wasn’t at all what I experienced. I’ll mention more about the snow density after covering the storm accumulations and snowpack depths.

There’s a very impressive elevation gradient with respect to the snow accumulations from this storm. Down at the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road at 340’, there isn’t even complete coverage on all aspects – I’d call the snowpack there T – 2”. I didn’t monitor the snowpack too closely on my ascent to the Village, but coverage was certainly continuous by 1,000’. Up in the Village around 2,000’ or so, I found 10-12” of snow, and here are some measurements at elevations during my tour:

2,000’: 10-12”

2,500’: 15-16”

3,000’: 18-20”

As the numbers reveal, there’s a huge snow depth gradient above 2,000’ – you’re basically looking at the depth going up about an inch every 100’ of vertical. Now those numbers are for total snowpack depth because I’m not sure if I’d be able to distinguish exactly what portion came from this most recent storm, but much of it was from this storm (as Bolton’s summit storm total of 15” would suggest).

The Wilderness Uphill Route has a beautifully packed skin track in place at this point, so travel on the snow is easy. And getting back to that discussion of snow density, it’s not Sierra Cement. In the higher elevations, the density going several inches down into the snowpack is sub-10% H2O powder – I’d put it somewhere in the 6 to 8% H2O range if I had to guess. You sink well down into it, I’d say a good foot, and it’s nicely right-side-up. As I mentioned, I brought mid-fats, but fat skis are actually the tool you want (or a snowboard, etc.).

It was quickly obvious on my ascent that some decent pitch would be required for turns, so I toured all the way to the top of Wilderness.  I checked out Bolton Outlaw, and it had seen enough traffic to track it up pretty thoroughly, so I continued on to Upper Fanny Hill and put the third set of tracks down there. I continued on to Fanny Hill proper and got probably the fourth set of tracks there. The powder skiing is fantastic as long as you’ve got at least intermediate pitch. Shallower than that and the powder is just too deep to keep decent momentum (and that’s another reason to bring fat skis because you can make use of that extra floatation).

In terms of snow quality, it’s as I described at elevation, and of course the overall depth decreases as you descend, but the quality stays high right down to 2,000’. Only just as you approach 2,000’ do you encounter any sort of snow quality issues, and there’s a slight crème brûlée crust in there a couple of inches below the surface where there must have been a bit of warming. At that elevation it’s still quite subtle and you can essentially ignore it.

As Bolton’s snow report indicates, the resort is considering expanding terrain, and moving to some of the natural snow terrain is pretty obvious at this point. We’ll have to see which terrain can hold up to lift-served traffic, but I can’t believe there’s not more talk about this storm and what it could do for the start of the season. This storm was a total liquid equivalent bomb, and not only that, the snow is good to go. This storm was an absolute season-starter. Sometimes storms like this come in so dense or warm, that the tenor will be “This is going to be a great base as soon as we get some good snow on top of it”. Well, there’s no need to wait, the snow is already good to go, and it’s currently getting covered more with the snow from today. It’s not every day you get such a base-building storm that immediately offers up fantastic midwinter skiing. We didn’t even have to wait until December for this one – it somehow snuck in during November, which is another great bonus.

Didn't see the Mansfield Stake update yet after last night but I would have to guess we are above average now for the month of November?  Certainly an above average base that is right side up as we head into a milder week.  Nice early season set up right now.

[J.Spin]

Last night we picked up another 4 to 5 inches of snow here in the valley from the weak cold front swinging through the region, and not surprisingly, the mountains picked up twice that amount. Bolton Valley was reporting 10 inches of new snow atop the 15+ inches they’d received from the storm at the beginning of the week, and this new snow came in around 5% H2O according my morning liquid analyses. The new drier snow atop the base was a recipe for some great skiing.

My older son was off from work this afternoon, so we popped up to the mountain for a ski tour on Wilderness. The Winooski Valley down by the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road did better with this event, and whereas the coverage was somewhat patchy after the last storm, it was generally continuous with a few inches present this morning. I checked snowpack depths during the tour as usual, and it’s getting tougher to get measurements as the snowpack gets deeper, but with settling through the afternoon, depth increases seemed to be as follows relative to what I found yesterday:

2,000’: 10-12” --> 15-16”

2,500’: 15-16” --> 18-20”

3,000’: 18-20” --> 20-24”

So essentially, the snowpack depths I found today were about 500 feet lower in elevation than equivalent depths I found yesterday.

The Wilderness Uphill Route had seen plenty of skier traffic, and there was a dual skin track all the way to the Wilderness Summit that made conversation easy while we ascended. I was hoping to bring my son over toward Fanny Hill again in line with the tour I’d done yesterday, but ski patrol had fenced off Upper Crossover.  They really want touring to be confined to Wilderness, and I guess that’s not too surprising with the amount of operations they have going on Vista. With the amount of activity we saw going on all around the resort, it’s obvious that they’re going full tilt in preparation for re-opening on Friday. I’m not sure how much of the mountain they’re going to open, but with the amount of natural snow out there, they’re going to have a lot of options.

In terms of the skiing, it was great. Conditions were already excellent yesterday, and now Mother Nature threw another 10 inches on top of that, so it’s about what you’d expect – lots of bottomless powder. We hit the Wilderness Summit just as sunset was approaching, so the views to the west were stupendous on such a fine afternoon. With the snow remaining deep, you wanted to shoot for intermediate pitches and above for decent turns. Based on my experience from yesterday, we did have full fat skis today, so that helped a lot with floatation and the ability to turn on those lower-angle slopes a bit more.

[STILL N OF PIKE]

It’s wild to see 2 over performers to that degree within the same week (even for N VT) 

[J.Spin]

Just as we were headed up to the mountain this afternoon, I received a text alert that we’d been put under a Winter Weather Advisory. Related BTV NWS maps are below. The Event Total Snowfall map has us somewhere in the 6-8” or 8-12” range of accumulations through Tuesday, but we’ll have to see how things play out for the lower elevations during the warmer part of the storm.

[bwt3650]

Snowy week incoming for NNE…while SNE is mild and ready for panic, it looks like steady as she goes up here as long as the long range cutter doesn’t verify.


.

[Jebman]

On 11/29/2023 at 11:52 PM, J.Spin said:

Last night we picked up another 4 to 5 inches of snow here in the valley from the weak cold front swinging through the region, and not surprisingly, the mountains picked up twice that amount. Bolton Valley was reporting 10 inches of new snow atop the 15+ inches they’d received from the storm at the beginning of the week, and this new snow came in around 5% H2O according my morning liquid analyses. The new drier snow atop the base was a recipe for some great skiing.

My older son was off from work this afternoon, so we popped up to the mountain for a ski tour on Wilderness. The Winooski Valley down by the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road did better with this event, and whereas the coverage was somewhat patchy after the last storm, it was generally continuous with a few inches present this morning. I checked snowpack depths during the tour as usual, and it’s getting tougher to get measurements as the snowpack gets deeper, but with settling through the afternoon, depth increases seemed to be as follows relative to what I found yesterday:

2,000’: 10-12” --> 15-16”

2,500’: 15-16” --> 18-20”

3,000’: 18-20” --> 20-24”

So essentially, the snowpack depths I found today were about 500 feet lower in elevation than equivalent depths I found yesterday.

The Wilderness Uphill Route had seen plenty of skier traffic, and there was a dual skin track all the way to the Wilderness Summit that made conversation easy while we ascended. I was hoping to bring my son over toward Fanny Hill again in line with the tour I’d done yesterday, but ski patrol had fenced off Upper Crossover.  They really want touring to be confined to Wilderness, and I guess that’s not too surprising with the amount of operations they have going on Vista. With the amount of activity we saw going on all around the resort, it’s obvious that they’re going full tilt in preparation for re-opening on Friday. I’m not sure how much of the mountain they’re going to open, but with the amount of natural snow out there, they’re going to have a lot of options.

In terms of the skiing, it was great. Conditions were already excellent yesterday, and now Mother Nature threw another 10 inches on top of that, so it’s about what you’d expect – lots of bottomless powder. We hit the Wilderness Summit just as sunset was approaching, so the views to the west were stupendous on such a fine afternoon. With the snow remaining deep, you wanted to shoot for intermediate pitches and above for decent turns. Based on my experience from yesterday, we did have full fat skis today, so that helped a lot with floatation and the ability to turn on those lower-angle slopes a bit more.

Your posts, and several others in this topic are absolutely compulsive reading. Wow. Northeast is getting really good snows. I have placed a link directly to your posts and will be savoring them many a night as I deliver down here in south central Texas. I will soon have links directly to the posts of many in this topic. Just UNBELIEVABLE. Wish I could visit.

[J.Spin]

With temperatures in the 30s F today, I was unsure if snow surfaces up at the mountain were going to soften. Our younger son was up at Bolton Valley with some friends though, and when we texted him for an update, he said that indeed the snow had softened up. With that news, my wife and I headed up for a few runs this afternoon. Visibility was near zero on the mountain with low clouds and fog, but it did give the mountain that low light solstice/holiday feel.

Indeed the snow surfaces were great. We’d waxed our skis pretty thoroughly just in case, but we didn’t encounter any areas of sticky snow, it was just buttery smooth spring-style snow that you could really sink an edge into. I’m not sure if the snow was stiffer up high, but we were just lapping the Mid Mountain Chair, and everything on the lower mountain was great. The Wilderness Lift was also open today, so the natural snow terrain that they’ve opened is still in decent shape. Those surfaces that have softened today will of course tighten up when temperatures drop back below freezing, but hopefully the storm coming in to the area tomorrow will do a decent job of covering up the current base. There certainly seems to be the potential for a decent resurfacing of the slopes with an inch or so of liquid equivalent in the forecast.

[J.Spin]

Down here in the valley at 500’ our precipitation has generally been snow, but the temperatures have been marginal, so thus far we’ve had less than an inch of accumulation. It’s been a different story at elevation though. We’d been watching the Bolton Valley Base Area Webcam since this morning, and more often than not it’s shown moderate to heavy snowfall with some big fat flakes. Even from the webcam you could tell it was accumulating, so I waited until the afternoon to let some of new snow build up, then I headed up to the mountain for some runs.

Coverage has mostly melted back at the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road at 340’, and the precipitation there was a mix of rain and wet snow, but cars coming down from the resort had at least a couple inches of fresh snow on them. As I ascended, somewhere in the 1,000’ to 1,500’ range, the precipitation instantly flipped to 100% snow, and you could tell that you’d hit a critical temperature threshold.  Up in the Village at 2,000’ it was pounding big flakes. There were visibility issues just like yesterday, but while yesterday was due to thick low clouds and fog, today it was due to the snowfall.

Liker yesterday, I skied again off the Mid Mountain Chair, and you could tell that the base snow had stiffened up where it had been groomed, at least up around 2,500’. From about 2,200’ and below, there was a notably softer base. At those higher elevations where the base was starting to tighten up, the new snow was definitely helping to take the edge off, but with on piste skier traffic, the fresh snow had been pushed around a lot, and you had to move off the groomed terrain to really take the best advantage of the new snow. In areas that hadn’t been groomed, there was no demarcation between the new snow and more recent layers below it, and my off piste adventures generally yielded turns in 12-14” of powder. The powder did get a bit denser as you dropped in elevation, but it was still quite manageable. I was on mid-fats and never even felt the need to switch to alpine turns; the snow was dry and consistent enough that Telemark turns were still comfortable all the way.

The freezing level was slowly dropping in elevation while I was out on the mountain, and by my last run it was only right down at base elevations where the groomed base still had that initial softness I’d encountered. Driving down the access road at closing time was a bit hairy with the pounding snow and fresh accumulations. The road accumulations finally started to abate around 1,500’, and road surfaces switched to just wet below that. The snowfall rate was easily an inch an hour at times, and even thought it occasionally slowed down for periods earlier in the afternoon, it looks like it averaged around that inch per hour mark because the resort was reporting 4 inches of new snow as of 4:00 P.M. closing. If the snowfall keeps up for a while this evening like it did this afternoon, they’ll have another great shot of snow to cover up the slopes by the morning.

[borderwx]

6” at the house, 12+ above 2500’.

Down right dangerous walking in the woods today with the amount of snow shedding from the trees


.

[wxeyeNH]

I ended up with 7.5"  from the storm but then light snow the past couple of hours added .5"

This brings my seasonal total to 16"