NNE Cold Season Thread 2023/2024

[Prismshine Productions]

The main January thread has gone to absolute shit.

Yep and I hate it, to be perfectly honest it is worse than the Southeast thread getting skunked on a storm

Sent from my SM-S146VL using Tapatalk

[J.Spin]

On 1/14/2024 at 12:29 PM, borderwx said:

Back to the regular Jan program apparently

Mountain absorbed the past week well, somehow skiing is the best of the season

Did not expect that. Looks like a good week of winter ahead.

I’d been meaning to follow up on this mention of things getting back to reality when I had a chance. The snowfall data from here at our site say that’s precisely the case. On Tuesday, we caught back up to average snowfall for the first time since mid-December. That dramatic flat area on the plot below is a great visual representation of just how long the snowfall was languishing around here, and shows how far behind things were. On the recovery point though, we’re current bang-on average to the tenth of an inch with 73.3” for season snowfall, although that will likely change since we’re continuing to get snow from the current system. The current snowpack here is also within an inch of average, so for both snowfall and snow depth parameters, things are currently back to something quite “normal”. As you can see from the plot, over the past week we’ve pretty much been back and forth flirting with the line for average snowfall pace.

With over 40 inches of snow for the month here in the valley and 60 inches being reported from up on the hill at Bolton, January has thus far been an extremely helpful period around here for making up the deficiencies from that slow second half of December. The contributions from Winter Storm Ember, Winter Storm Finn, and Winter Storm Heather were extremely important and are shown by those dramatic January jumps on the cumulative snowfall plot.

[bwt3650]

The main January thread has gone to absolute shit. Time to retreat to the NNE thread. Down to 2°, I think that’s my lowest of the season so far. Thats the one thing that bugs me about my Ambient weather station, it will give weekly, monthly and yearly highs and lows but I can’t go back month to month. It doesn’t keep that type of record. I don’t think it got any colder in November or December but I’m not 100% sure. 

Yeah, it’s winter here so no need to post about snow and cold in there and get people fired up. So many good posters, but a few people know how to bring the whole thing down. I don’t want to take the bait and turn into a d bag like it’s easy to do sometimes. Anyway, 1 degree, light snow all day and a 3 foot pack. Blustery, deep winter day.


.

[mreaves]

Spent the entire day outside opening snowmobile trails. The high at my place was 7.3° but we were cutting so many trees and branches that I was actually sweating a good portion of the day. Snowed all day too, which I didn’t expect. This was my favorite type of winter day, cold and a little snow in the air all day. 

[eyewall]

19 hours ago, Prismshine Productions said:

 

 

Yep and I hate it, to be perfectly honest it is worse than the Southeast thread getting skunked on a storm

Sent from my SM-S146VL using Tapatalk
 

Which is why I went to the NC Mountains today where it was in the single digits (3F on Beech Mountain) and after a second upslope event with 20:1 ratios they had 18+ inches on the summit. Banner Elk had around 10 inches or so. Drifting made it hard to gauge exact numbers. A few aerials from the day trip.

[mreaves]

5 hours ago, mreaves said:

Spent the entire day outside opening snowmobile trails. The high at my place was 7.3° but we were cutting so many trees and branches that I was actually sweating a good portion of the day. Snowed all day too, which I didn’t expect. This was my favorite type of winter day, cold and a little snow in the air all day. 

@TheMaineryhis is our groomer with the roller. 

[TheMainer]

8 hours ago, mreaves said:

@TheMaineryhis is our groomer with the roller. 

Looks like a good setup! Did you guys build that yourselves or have someone make it for you? My next big want is a brush bar for the drag to help trim face slappers as you groom since I haven't met a club that doesn't like theirs

[mreaves]

1 minute ago, TheMainer said:

Looks like a good setup! Did you guys build that yourselves or have someone make it for you? My next big want is a brush bar for the drag to help trim face slappers as you groom since I haven't met a club that doesn't like theirs

I believe we built that ourselves but it was before my time. I’ve heard good things about the brush bars too. A number of our clubs have them. 

[J.Spin]

Since yesterday’s forecast was in the single digits F, and there was the possibility of wind as well, ski touring seemed like the natural choice vs. riding the lifts. In addition, yesterday’s weather system, while certainly enough to freshen up surfaces, wasn’t expected to be large enough to really reset the powder in areas that had been recently skied.

With the cold temperatures, and the way the depth and quality of the snowpack has been improving over the past week or two, I decided that I’d tour in some lower elevations around here to see what potential they held. I started my tour at the Catamount Trail access area at roughly 1,200’ on the Bolton Valley Access Road, and did a ski tour up to the Buchanan Shelter up near the 2,200’ elevation. That’s not a heavily used part of the Bolton Valley Backcountry Network, so I suspected that untracked powder would be relatively plentiful.

While I was out touring in the afternoon, light snow fell continuously, and throughout the tour I checked powder depths above the highest detectable subsurface layer in the snowpack. The powder depth profile I found with respect to elevation was as follows:

1,200’: 6-8”

1,500:  6-8”

1,800’: 7-8”

2,000’: 7-8”

2,200’: 8-9”

Even with cold temperatures, powder of the 3-4% H2O variety that we recently received can’t sustain that level of loft forever. Indeed the powder I encountered yesterday had settled down to something more in the 6-8% H2O range, so the numbers above are the depths to which the surface snow has currently settled. Obviously all these recent storms continue to push the useful snowpack to lower and lower elevations, so overall snowpack depth wasn’t an issue even down to the 1,200’ mark. It’s hard to get estimates of the total snowpack depth because the lower layers are so settled and thick, but the snowpack is maybe a couple feet deep down at 1,200’? It’s hard to say, but even if there was only a foot of base below the powder, it’s so consolidated and flush with liquid equivalent that it would easily do the job.

In terms of the skiing, the best turns were certainly up in the slopes below the Buchanan Shelter where there is some solid pitch up into the black diamond realm. The approach portions of the tour have enough pitch to make a nice glide out and grab a few low-angle turns in certain spots, but with the current depths and density of the powder, it’s on the slower side right now. Also, cold temperatures like these reduce ski glide somewhat due to less melting, so that factors in as well. In the slopes up by the Buchanan Shelter I had the run of the area though in terms of fresh tracks. One person had recently skied back down the Beaver Pond Access Trail, but that was even a bit old, so it must have been from a couple of storms ago. Off in the trees, there were no prior tracks of any kind, so I had my pick of the most open lines, streambeds, chutes, etc. Fat skis were the call, and turns were definitely bottomless, but the best turns came from hitting those correct areas that appropriately accommodated the pitch, powder depth, cold snow, tree spacing, and all that.  There were some excellent powder turns on the tour though, so even down to the lower elevations in the ~1,000’ range, the current snowpack is really delivering

[powderfreak]

On 1/19/2024 at 4:19 PM, Boston Bulldog said:

You nailed it earlier this week regarding the upslope look. Looks like the spine from Stowe to Jay got blitzed last night

That was some all-time type of runs on Friday AM.  Every once in a while it happens, some fluffer just goes huge on the upper mountain with very little evidence elsewhere.  Only 2" at 1,500ft plot, 6" at 3,000ft but it felt like another 12"+ in some areas fell overnight.

10 days and 49" at 3,000ft plot, but it just kept going and going.  You'd just stop and the snow would be at like mid-thigh.

Also... talk about sleeper days.  Look at the FourRunner Quad.  Thing is empty.  With so. much. fluff.

[dryslot]

Great weekend, And plenty of snow to be had, 221 miles on my new sled.

 

[#NoPoles]

I actually saw a Yeti in Crawford Notch about a month ago.

[wxeyeNH]

Eat all the grapevines you want but don't mess up my snow stake!

[mahk_webstah]

1 hour ago, dryslot said:

Great weekend, And plenty of snow to be had, 221 miles on my new sled.

 

Straight up gorgeous. 3’ on the ground?

[dryslot]

8 minutes ago, mahk_webstah said:

Straight up gorgeous. 3’ on the ground?

In spots, But 2'+ in many.

[NW_of_GYX]

Been a great stretch in NNE. After Wednesday system we relax a bit and then hopefully reload early Feb. Main thread is a dumpster fire 

[powderfreak]

32 minutes ago, NW_of_GYX said:

Been a great stretch in NNE. After Wednesday system we relax a bit and then hopefully reload early Feb. Main thread is a dumpster fire 

It’s been tough not being able to share in the good stretches we’ve seen this winter.  There have been some poor periods, but there have also been some damn good 2-3 week stretches.

One can see the two fun periods, and those both were seen in the mountain valleys as well.  Town has seemed about average and the mountain seems to be following a normal trajectory.

Average is plenty snowy up here.  It’s been hard to call it a bad season so far.  But the further SE one goes, the less satisfying winter has been it seems.

Average in the means… some great skiing in two periods of time, also a poor period mixed in between.  The east side valley (town), has mirrored this.

[bwt3650]

The actual jay cloud….

bitter, but not crazy abnormal, mid jan day. Wind had a bite.




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[dryslot]

10 hours ago, powderfreak said:

It’s been tough not being able to share in the good stretches we’ve seen this winter.  There have been some poor periods, but there have also been some damn good 2-3 week stretches.

One can see the two fun periods, and those both were seen in the mountain valleys as well.  Town has seemed about average and the mountain seems to be following a normal trajectory.

Average is plenty snowy up here.  It’s been hard to call it a bad season so far.  But the further SE one goes, the less satisfying winter has been it seems.

Average in the means… some great skiing in two periods of time, also a poor period mixed in between.  The east side valley (town), has mirrored this.

Locally were behind in my area but i have not ridden in several years here, Heading back north this coming weekend, But the conditions up there are good, Get thru this brief mild up and get some more additions to the pack in Feb.

[DavisStraight]

16 hours ago, #NoPoles said:

I actually saw a Yeti in Crawford Notch about a month ago.

Aren't the Yetis in Russia and the Sasquatches in North America?

[mreaves]

16 hours ago, #NoPoles said:

I actually saw a Yeti in Crawford Notch about a month ago.

Which one? This one

 

or this one?

 

[DavisStraight]

6 hours ago, mreaves said:

Which one? This one

 

or this one?

 

Lol, I was going to post the same thing, those are great coolers.

[powderfreak]

Serious snowmobile accident this evening in Stowe resulted DHART flying in.  Think it was in the Moscow area of Stowe.

”There’s not much good that can be said of a high speed snowmobile accident. The only redeeming factor in tonight’s incident is that it took place about 100ft from a helicopter landing zone. Stowe EMS did a fabulous job as first response and Dhart arrived very quickly. Thanks also to Snowmobile Vermont for quickly shuttling responders to the scene.  Speed can sometimes be a good thing.”

[alex]

13 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Serious snowmobile accident this evening in Stowe resulted DHART flying in.  Think it was in the Moscow area of Stowe.

”There’s not much good that can be said of a high speed snowmobile accident. The only redeeming factor in tonight’s incident is that it took place about 100ft from a helicopter landing zone. Stowe EMS did a fabulous job as first response and Dhart arrived very quickly. Thanks also to Snowmobile Vermont for quickly shuttling responders to the scene.  Speed can sometimes be a good thing.”

Sad. We had an helicopter land right in front of our parking lot at the office and we were wondering if it was someone famous or what else it could be… and then it turned out it was a search and rescue for a hiker who turned up dead. Awful

[powderfreak]

1 minute ago, alex said:

Sad. We had an helicopter land right in front of our parking lot at the office and we were wondering if it was someone famous or what else it could be… and then it turned out it was a search and rescue for a hiker who turned up dead. Awful

Was that the experienced hiker who died within the past week?

[alex]

16 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Was that the experienced hiker who died within the past week?

Yep

[mreaves]

1 hour ago, powderfreak said:

Serious snowmobile accident this evening in Stowe resulted DHART flying in.  Think it was in the Moscow area of Stowe.

”There’s not much good that can be said of a high speed snowmobile accident. The only redeeming factor in tonight’s incident is that it took place about 100ft from a helicopter landing zone. Stowe EMS did a fabulous job as first response and Dhart arrived very quickly. Thanks also to Snowmobile Vermont for quickly shuttling responders to the scene.  Speed can sometimes be a good thing.”

Ah crap. Hope they’re ok. I’m assuming it was in the Cotton Brook area. That’s where Snowmobile Vermont starts their tours from. The trails there are just about all forest roads so they are usually in decent shape in terms of width and trail surface. 

[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, mreaves said:

Ah crap. Hope they’re ok. I’m assuming it was in the Cotton Brook area. That’s where Snowmobile Vermont starts their tours from. The trails there are just about all forest roads so they are usually in decent shape in terms of width and trail surface. 

Thanks for the info, I was wondering the exact location but I think I know the field now.  Valley flats along the river.  Luckily easy access for first responders. 

[NW_of_GYX]

Just drove from western Maine to pico. State of the snow pack east to west is typical. My area to Conway is loaded, you can tell the CAD winners, Lincoln and CRV snow holes, central VT spine decent but less pack than in western Maine. 

[J.Spin]

Yesterday was still quite cold, so I again opted to stick to ski touring instead of riding the lifts, but it was a bit warmer than Saturday, and I decided to go a bit farther afield and higher in elevation. I set my sights on skiing in the Sterling Range, an area that has been on my list of ski touring spots for quite a while, but I just hadn’t gotten around to making the trip. A very convenient access point to the range is through the Sterling Forest area, and they have a really nice parking lot that’s maintained at the top of Sterling Valley Road.

I’d been up to the area in the warm season for mountain biking, but I haven’t been up there much in the winter. The snowpack around the houses up there is impressive, and you can tell that the area gets, and holds, a lot of snow. I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising with a number of houses that are well above 1,000’. Indeed there’s some good elevation there – the parking area is around 1,700’, which is 500’ higher than where I began my tour on Saturday.

Most people I’ve talked to, as well as reports and videos I’ve seen, use the Upper Gorge Loop trail area as their main thoroughfare for touring. It serves as the approach and as a collector trail if you’re skiing the north side of the basin. For my approach I followed the northerly section of the Upper Gorge Loop Trail, which seemed to be the most popular based on the packing of the snow. Following the trail, I began to see skin tracks branch off to head up the north side of the basin, but I continued on the loop trail until I hit its apex, just so I could get the lay of the land. I then skinned back a couple of minutes and took the highest skin track that was available. That brought me to the top of the ridge on the north side of the basin, and along the way I passed numerous open glades that had very few tracks and offered a lot of impressive skiing. I topped out around 2,900’ along the ridge, and descended through the glades back to the Upper Gorge Loop Trail.

Powder depths were very similar to what I found on Saturday with respect to similar elevations. I was curious if there might be a difference since I was about 12 miles farther north in the Northern Greens, but I didn’t.  I did ascend substantially higher on this tour though, so it let me add on to what I’d found on Saturday. The powder depth profile I found was as follows:

1,700’: 7-8”

2,000’: 7-8”

2,200’: 8-9”

2,500’: 10-11”

2,700’: 11-12”

2,900’: 12-13”

There are other options for nice touring out there, such as dropping down the back side of the ridge into the next drainage, but the approach to the slopes in the main basin is already a couple of miles even before you begin the main ascent through the glades, so I couldn’t really tack on more with the time I had. It was a gorgeous midwinter day though, with lots of sunshine, and that definitely helped to bring the temperature up that extra notch.