NNE Cold Season Thread 2023/2024

[Jebman]

20 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Factual, unemotional and with an incredible understanding of this area’s micro-climate. I’ve learned so much from him and PF in the last 6 years of being up here regularly. Just need to get out and ski with them at some point.

The regular forums are fun, but I really enjoy coming in here when a break from the drama is needed and to get a little grounded from the roller coaster that winter in the north east is.


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I love reading J Spin too!

[Jebman]

On 3/15/2024 at 7:32 AM, Ginx snewx said:

Sunday River dumping

I am so happy for Sunday River getting good snows!

[bwt3650]

White rain at 1850’ but dumping snow above 2300’.

Cannot stress how good the snow is. Dense, but not slushy at all. I could see un-skied backcountry being less than ideal, but anything groomed or even glades with skier traffic is surprisingly really good. This week should be terrific with the incoming upslope.




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[powderfreak]

Yeah it was just hammering snow.  Very heavy squalls and even into town.

Lookout Snow Cam got like 1.5” in 20 minutes.

Had another healthy 2” at 3000ft this morning, probably another 2” already.

[J.Spin]

I’d seen that the potential for more snowfall was in forecast today based on the weather modeling, and it looked like the afternoon period might be the best bet for catching some turns in fresh snow. The BTV NWS forecast discussions have been noting that there’s no large, defined system in our area today though, we’re just moving into a general period of unsettled weather. With nothing really going on at the house other than cloudy conditions around midday today, I was surprised when I checked the Bolton Valley Base Area Webcam and saw that the there was very low visibility up there due to heavy snowfall. It was surprising to see such a disparity between the weather on the mountain and the weather at our house, but then I checked the radar and saw what was going on. The precipitation was very convective/cellular in nature, so the mountain happened to be under one of those rather localized, intense areas of snowfall. In another 10 minutes or so, the snowfall began to wind down, but the radar of to the east was riddled with similar pockets of precipitation all across the North Country that were heading toward the spine of the Northern Greens. I suspected the mountain would see additional episodes of snowfall throughout the afternoon, so I decided I’d head up for turns once I finished up some work I had to get done.

Later in the afternoon when I was getting ready to pop up to the mountain, I checked the webcam again and they were getting hit by another round of snowfall. The early morning snow report from the resort indicated that they’d picked up a fresh inch of snow before opening, and with the way the afternoon had gone, I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d picked up another inch or two. We were even getting some rain in the valley with that round of snow, and as I headed up the Bolton Valley Access Road, the precipitation switched over to snow a bit below 1,500’. When I’d headed up to the mountain on Friday, the snow level was around 2,000’, so it was definitely lower today.

I can’t say what the snow was like earlier in the day today, but what I found in the later afternoon was a very fun mix of different conditions that all skied quite well. The mountains have been in that temperate March/April mode over the last few days where we’ve got some fresh snow accumulations, temperatures in the upper 20s to 30s F, some sun, some clouds, semi-cycled snow depending on elevation, and probably whatever else you can think of that this time of year has to offer in the higher elevations. Descending from above 3,000’ on Wilderness, I found wintry conditions with some dense powder that was blended into the old snowpack in untouched areas, with wintry wet pack on the groomed/traveled areas that had firmed up somewhat with temperatures below freezing. By the time I descended to 2,000’ I encountered areas of semi-corn, soft packed snow on piste, and denser wet snow off piste. I didn’t ski down below 2,000’ to Timberline, but the conditions would likely have transitioned to even more spring-like. Areas that had direct sun definitely had the softest snow. In any event, it all skied really well, with nothing overly sticky or firm. I had waxed my skis in preparation for any potentially sticky conditions, so that probably helped keep things extra smooth for me, but I didn’t see anyone else struggling with apparent stickiness either. Temperatures did seem to be dropping as the afternoon came to a close, so the sub-freezing conditions were falling to 2,000’ and below.

Being later on a Sunday afternoon in March, skier traffic was quite low when I was on the mountain, and I was coming upon trail areas where there were literally just two or three tracks in the fresh snow and I’d basically have the run of it with respect to laying down my own tracks. I see that the mountain is indicating 3 inches of new snow in the past 48 hours, so that seems about right based on the untouched areas I skied, and it’s generally dense so it does a great job of providing floatation above the base. The weather models are still suggesting that we’ve got more snow chances continuing right through to the end of the month, so we’ll look forward to what are hopefully additional days of these fun winter/spring conditions atop a snowpack that is probably slightly below average, but not bad. Average snowpack this time of year is nearing peak anyway, so even if we’re off from that a bit, it’s still quite plentiful.

[powderfreak]

Nice, J.  Here are the observations from Mansfield.  Zero accumulations below 2000-2500ft, but some periods of huge aggregates and convective snow making it down through 1500ft (base area) and even town (750ft).

3,000ft had two, 2-inch observations today, morning and last run of the Gondola.  4-inches past 24 hrs.  Enough to be decent net gains in SWE up high.

Been a sneaky snowy stretch for 3,000ft…and 3,500-4,000ft has done even better at the top of the lifts and into the alpine zone.

[borderwx]

Elevation for the win indeed. Above 2K the surf is fine, dramatic switch to gradually freezing slop below.

Felt like skiing Burke this morning, alone on each run:)



Ski season survives another resuscitation


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[bwt3650]

Elevation for the win indeed. Above 2K the surf is fine, dramatic switch to gradually freezing slop below.

Felt like skiing Burke this morning, alone on each run:)



Ski season survives another resuscitation


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Gonna go from good to great this week. Costco size bread and butter looks like it’s on tap. That’s an impressive upslope pattern into this weekend. Hope it holds together.

Currently dumping snow again.


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[powderfreak]

3 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Gonna go from good to great this week. Costco size bread and butter looks like it’s on tap. That’s an impressive upslope pattern into this weekend. Hope it holds together.

Currently dumping snow again.


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Yeah we’ve seen a quick 4” at 3,000ft this afternoon.  1”/hr.

[powderfreak]

Bread and Butter, from WFO BTV:

NEAR TERM /THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT/... As of 643 PM EDT Monday...The locals like to call this pattern bread n butter, where conditions are favorable for upslope accumulating snow showers every 6 to 12 hours, and produce free refills daily. Crnt radar is showing the areal coverage of mtn snow showers and mix rain/snow in the valleys increasing this evening associated with a sfc cold frnt and weak embedded s/w. As flow continues to shift back to the west/northwest in the 925mb to 850mb layer, expect upslope snow showers to prevail most of the night acrs the northern Dacks and central/northern Greens. A sharp and highly elevational snowfall gradient is anticipated from a dusting to an inch possible valleys to 2 to 6 inches mtns by morning. Temps have cooled quicker than expected acrs the SLV this evening, so have made the hrly temp adjustment and added more snow than rain. Otherwise, precip type should be mostly snow at all levels by 02z this evening, which is covered in fcst. No additional changes made attm.

 

[J.Spin]

On 3/15/2024 at 8:26 PM, Froude said:

All respect to High Road but I gotta say J.Spin always delivers the most accurate and detailed local snow report right here on the forum. It's much appreciated and always helps me make good skiing choices for the coming days.

Stowe and MRG get the nod for runners up hah

 

On 3/15/2024 at 9:48 PM, powderfreak said:

He does, and JSpin has been doing it for over 30 years now online.  Legend.  I remember his detailed trip reports back on the SkiVT-Listserve on the UVM servers in the 1990s.  Those were the days.  Think I had just discovered the skiing internet in High School.

 

On 3/16/2024 at 6:16 PM, Jebman said:

I love reading J Spin too!

I’m glad folks are enjoying the reports! Being able to quickly get out and experience the winter weather and recreation that’s going on here in the Northern Greens is obviously fun on my end, but it’s also a chance to help others make optimal use of our local resources. Ideally, I’d like to always get the reports out as soon as I get back from the mountain to give people the most timely updates possible for their decisions about heading out for their own turns or other snow activities, but work, family, etc. slow it down sometimes. I figure every little bit helps though.

With the temperatures dropping this evening, the snow is actually accumulating better down here in the valley now, so the higher elevations are likely getting another good round of these bread and butter accumulations.

[Jebman]

JSpin on the U VT listservers - back in the day he had a memorable account about there being so much snow that he was breathing snow because of severe face shots. There was so much pow and it was still pouring, the maelstrom had dragged on all night and all the instructors were going crazy about the skiing conditions. 

I wubbed that listserver with all my heart! I got in trouble at work, damn near lost my job from being way too obsessed with the deep pow lmfao!

OCD about pow in ski resorts has been a serious problem for me for decades. I just don't care. Never will. 5G and modern devices plus modern ultra high resolution webcams at resorts are making my worship of snow far worse, by a factor of 986 decillion.

I worship snow to the utter exclusion of everything and everyone else. I am back to my high school crazies lol. No, WORSE!

Especially after the EPIC 2022-2023 snow season at Palisades Tahoe !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And after seeing 125 mph winds blowing snow off a lodge roof THIS WINTER at Mammoth!!!!!!!!!! THAT PARTICULAR STORM really fanned my intense worship of cordilleran blizzards with 190 MPH WINDS!!!!!! There is nothing on earth like a Sierran Blizzard! You haven't LIVED, until you see what a good decent Sierran Blizzard does with snow! After the 2022-2023 Season at Tahoe when they got 700 inches, and after the recent Tahoe and Mammoth Blizzard where Tahoe got 39 inches and Tahoe got 8 FEET of snow, and Donner got annihilated by ELEVEN FEET of snow, I absolutely WORSHIP the Sierran snows!

[Ginx snewx]

Another 6 inch refill overnight at Stowe more at Sugarbush and still dumping . Go go go

[powderfreak]

It’s very deep.  Snow report 6 is low.  Mountain got smoked last night.

[backedgeapproaching]

 Surprise 4" fell here overnight.

[powderfreak]

9” overnight at High Road.  13” storm total.

[powderfreak]

Stake now up to 75”, which might be above normal by a few inches now.

[borderwx]

Heavy on the butter up this way



Even had 3” at the house. 21F at sunrise was a fine way to start NNE Spring


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[mreaves]

The flow must be blocked.  We had .25 - .50 but there were quite few people at the work meeting I'm at in Waterbury who were late because of the roads coming in from the other side of the spine.

[Froude]

Just a fantastic day out on the hill. Not the deepest ever.. but light dry snow, sunshine, and empty lift corrals made it one of the best days this year for me.

 

My wife and I bought ebikes a couple weeks ago so you can all thank us for the late winter resurgence.

[powderfreak]

Enjoyed it immensely today.  The snow felt like it had a decent shot of SWE included in it.  Wasn’t total upslope fluff.  I would’ve guessed 0.75-1.00” QPF was added to the snowpack on Mansfield up high.  It was cold but had some body to it.

We triggered a slab, you can see the fracture line here.  Looked like it was the rapid overnight load falling on the fluff yesterday afternoon that failed.

 

[Ginx snewx]

9 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Enjoyed it immensely today.  The snow felt like it had a decent shot of SWE included in it.  Wasn’t total upslope fluff.  I would’ve guessed 0.75-1.00” QPF was added to the snowpack on Mansfield up high.  It was cold but had some body to it.

 

We triggered a slab, you can see the fracture line here.  Looked like it was the rapid overnight load falling on the fluff yesterday afternoon that failed.

Yea normal is 72. Amazing looking back thru Matt Parillas historical years how many had the rapid upgrowth in March. 

[powderfreak]

6 minutes ago, Ginx snewx said:

Yea normal is 72. Amazing looking back thru Matt Parillas historical years how many had the rapid upgrowth in March. 

It’s funny because it’s essentially snowless in the valleys.  The gradient from 1500-2500ft is the steepest.  Spring below, full deep winter above.  We had like 2-2.5” in town that just burned off immediately in the sun today except in the shade.

[Ginx snewx]

5 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

It’s funny because it’s essentially snowless in the valleys.  The gradient from 1500-2500ft is the steepest.  Spring below, full deep winter above.  We had like 2-2.5” in town that just burned off immediately in the sun today except in the shade.

March as we know it. Sitting on the deck at the base shirtless drinking Guiness then putting on a full face mask on the lift up.

[Ginx snewx]

[J.Spin]

The system that’s been affecting our area over the past day or so really started to crank up yesterday evening, delivering some periods of heavy snowfall up in the 1”/hr. range with large flakes. By this morning we’d picked up about a half foot of snow from the system here at our site in the valley, so that obviously called for a check on the Bolton Valley snow report, and I wasn’t surprised to learn that they were reporting 10 inches of accumulation.

I was busy in the morning, but I was able to head up to the resort in the afternoon for some turns. The precipitation was snow all the way down to the valley floors, but afternoon temperatures were in the 30s F, so it wasn’t really accumulating until up in the resort elevations where the temperatures were below freezing. Being a Tuesday, the Wilderness Chair wasn’t running, so I was torn between touring on Wilderness or in the Bryant Trail area. When I arrived up in the Village to find that people were parking even in the lower tiers of the main lot, it was obvious that a lot of folks were interested in getting out for afternoon and evening turns on the lift-served terrain, so I figured the backcountry network was the best bet.

Just as I was heading out toward the Bryant Trail on my tour, I saw a group of 6 to 8 skiers returning from a tour of their own, and one of the guys spoke to me as he passed. He said, “Have fun, it’s amazing out there!” That’s probably a good omen at the start of a tour, and of course, his words were 100% on point.

Ascending the Bryant Trail, it was immediately obvious that the powder was in fantastic shape. The only blemishes I could really detect were a couple of areas with a bit of sun crust that must have been in very exposed spots. Other than that, it was hard to find any fault with the quality of the powder or its ability to cover the subsurface. The snow is midwinter dry, but indeed as PF mentioned, there’s enough substance to it to provide a nice resurfacing. I toured up to about 2,800’ on Heavenly Highway, and here are the depths of new, settled powder that I measured above the old base:

2,000’: 7-9”

2,400’: 8-10”

2,800’: 10-12”

The powder skiing was fantastic, with a very good right-side-up deposition, and bottomless turns aside from the occasional touch of the subsurface in a few spots. Temperatures were probably in the upper 20s F, so it was very comfortable. I’d describe the powder as “fast”, because it just was. I hadn’t waxed my skis or anything, but either the structure of the crystals, or the temperature close to freezing, just seemed to produce less resistance than usual. This was great for turns, but it was a little frustrating in any rolling terrain where I’d be traversing slightly uphill to another line. I would have loved a bit of stickiness in the snow for those section, but it was super slick and you had to earn every step you took without skins. Most glades had only a couple of tracks in them, even Big Blue, which is very popular, so I took a run through that area and had 100% untracked powder turns throughout the descent.

I see that with today’s additional snowfall, the resort is now reporting 13 inches in the past 48 hours. The next system in the queue is right on our doorstep this evening though, so we’ll see if this one can bring us anything like what the last one did.

[Ginx snewx]

[J.Spin]

As I see Ginx noted above - the BTV NWS has a Snow Squall Warning out for the Champlain Valley out toward the western slopes – we’ve definitely been getting hit by heavy snowfall here in BTV. Unless this fades when it hits the mountains, the spine will probably get crushed with more heavy snowfall.

[wxeyeNH]

42F  Lots of virga.  Actually it looks like the snow is almost making it to the ground.  It will take no time at all for heavy snow squalls with fropa.  Last time the NWS issued a snow squall warning all the phones went off.  Too early to know what will happen to the line locally in my hood.

[J.Spin]

In Bolton Valley’s lift rotation schedule, today was the first time the Wilderness Chair would be running since the weekend, so it was a good place to be to get in on all the snow that’s fallen in the past couple of days. So, after ski touring yesterday, today seemed like a good opportunity for some lift-served turns with Wilderness thrown in.

It was snowing all the way down to the valleys this morning, but not necessarily accumulating too efficiently in the lower elevations. Up above 2,000’ in the Village though, snow was accumulating easily. Snowfall was moderate and steady in roughly the ½” to 1”/hr. range when I first arrived, but by the time I’d made my first run and worked my way over to Wilderness, it had picked up substantially to somewhere in the 2”/hr. range. It was the type of snowfall that covers you in white flakes in mere moments if you aren’t moving around on the lift enough to shake it off.

As might be expected with substantial snow falling day after day, the ski conditions are excellent out there right now. There’s still firm snow that you can find on piste in high traffic areas and steeper slopes, but just head off to untracked or lightly tracked areas, and you won’t really be interacting at all with the old base. I found that even well-groomed areas could be really nice – my first run down Alta Vista was on the groomed surface, but it hadn’t seen much skier traffic at all, and there had been at least another couple of inches of snow since it was groomed, so the turns were all silky smooth with no noise anywhere. Off piste I found about a foot of powder up in the 3,000’ range, and slightly less down around 2,000’, but there’s enough liquid equivalent in all the new snow now that it will support bottomless turns throughout that elevation range.

Wilderness was skiing really well thanks to the especially low skier traffic in recent days, and they had Bolton Outlaw open, which I hadn’t skied in quite a while. It’s steep enough and has probably seen enough traffic from ski touring that I was still contacting the old base, but I was able to cut over to the steep terrain of the Wilderness Liftline Headwall, and that was nearly untracked and yielded excellent turns. The Wilderness Chair stopped three times in fairly short order when I was nearing the Wilderness Summit on one of my runs, and I thought that it might be due to wind issues, but the lift operator at the base let me know that it was just issues with people loading – apparently they were still working out the shape of the loading ramp there. All that new snow can bring about complications as well I guess.

The snowpack in the Northern Greens is in good shape – the depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake passed 80 inches today, so these recent storms have helped it cruise right above average for this time of year. There’s still more snow in the forecast right through the weekend, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the snowpack depth increased further in the coming days.