NNE Cold Season Thread 2023/2024

[wxeyeNH]

The Mt Washington Observatory has added a webcam feed from the top of Cannon.  They have 2 cams on the summit but the 3rd cam that looks north is old and offline quite a bit.  I contacted them and offered to buy them a new cam setup.  They accepted my offer and will be doing that.  The cam will be inside but they plan to replace the window with better glass and perhaps heat the cam lens area so rime will not buildup quite as fast.

Mt Washington also received a grant to greatly expand it's mesonet weather stations.  They will be adding 17 new sites starting this summer.  I think that is super as it will aid hikers to weather conditions at elevations.  It would also be nice to have a station at the top of Mt Lafeyette but they do have the Cannon station at 4000 feet.

[powderfreak]

2 hours ago, mreaves said:

We came down to Hanover for the Dartmouth/Clarkson hockey game and there was a constant line of headlights heading north on 89. 

This new snow at the ski areas is going to make things go nuclear for visitation.  With a couple days left of snow showers possible from SVT to NVT… I’d expect heavy inbound traffic to the state and ski towns.  Presidents Weekend is the apex of ski vacations. 

[bwt3650]

This new snow at the ski areas is going to make things go nuclear for visitation.  With a couple days left of snow showers possible from SVT to NVT… I’d expect heavy inbound traffic to the state and ski towns.  Presidents Weekend is the apex of ski vacations. 

Do you really see an increase from locals? I figured the people that booked are there no matter what and locals stay the f away this weekend. 10-15 though after 10 days of icy hardback prob gets people itching.

Should be pretty big gradient north to south w/ the winners north of sugarbush. Still think Monday/Tuesday will be the gems if we do well Sunday night. What’s your thoughts on Sunday? Looks like it may be loosing some punch and shut off sooner.


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[powderfreak]

17 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Do you really see an increase from locals? I figured the people that booked are there no matter what and locals stay the f away this weekend. 10-15 though after 10 days of icy hardback prob gets people itching.

Should be pretty big gradient north to south w/ the winners north of sugarbush. Still think Monday/Tuesday will be the gems if we do well Sunday night. What’s your thoughts on Sunday? Looks like it may be loosing some punch and shut off sooner.

Everyone is starving.  Winter hasn’t been great.  There is food to eat following a long dry spell.  It’s a holiday weekend.  It’s going to be a busy period, as it should be for these businesses.

There’s definitely chances of fluffers, as a few rounds of lift attempt to move through.

[dmcginvt]

Unless one of my servers dies I'm not going to Stowe for ANYTHING for the next 10 days.  Getting on rt 100 will be hard enough!  I hate this upcoming week.  

[mcglups]

52 minutes ago, dmcginvt said:

Unless one of my servers dies I'm not going to Stowe for ANYTHING for the next 10 days.  Getting on rt 100 will be hard enough!  I hate this upcoming week.  

I don't like missing snow, but I also can find enjoyment in doing something else this weekend through next week with more of a coastal flare. We have snow on the coast, so it makes outside walks feel like northern new england, good stuff!

[bwt3650]

Still snowing….



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[bwt3650]

Unless one of my servers dies I'm not going to Stowe for ANYTHING for the next 10 days.  Getting on rt 100 will be hard enough!  I hate this upcoming week.  

We usually stay away this weekend and rent our place, but someone cancelled about a month ago and we just said f it just go up. I’m glad the snow came because without it, shoving all those people onto 50 percent open, icy terrain would have been a nightmare. Jay can usually avoid the crazy lift lines you see on social media even on this weekend and stick with 10 minute lines, but when the wind kicks up later and the tram and flyer go on hold, it will get bad. To pfs point though, when you’re starving and there’s food on the table, I guess you gotta eat.


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[backedgeapproaching]

This weekend is up there was Columbus Day weekend...total zoo on the mtns and in town.  It's a pain, but in all honesty it's what keeps these tourists towns going.

[backedgeapproaching]

3.5" the other night and looks like a couple more this morning. 

[bwt3650]

Crusty bottom underneath anything with pitch, but overall, pretty damn good out there…





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[borderwx]

Lift lines aren’t always busy
Good winter’s day


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[powderfreak]

21” storm total at Mansfield’s High Road Plot over 48 hours.  I’ll make a pictogram later of the 3 measurements.

It’s so deep out there.  The photos and videos on social media in the woods off the Gondola is just snorkeling stuff.

[bwt3650]

21” storm total at Mansfield’s High Road Plot over 48 hours.  I’ll make a pictogram later of the 3 measurements.
It’s so deep out there.  The photos and videos on social media in the woods off the Gondola is just snorkeling stuff.

Woods are better than the naturals right now. I was hitting bottom in better bumps on some til I figured out it was better to ski right through the bump. Snowed most of the day here. Nice over performer. Now to be greedy I want to see Sunday night surprise high so Monday and Tuesday when everybody bails it’s good.


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[powderfreak]

58 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Woods are better than the naturals right now. I was hitting bottom in better bumps on some til I figured out it was better to ski right through the bump. Snowed most of the day here. Nice over performer. Now to be greedy I want to see Sunday night surprise high so Monday and Tuesday when everybody bails it’s good.


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It was so ridiculously deep today in the woods.  Just thigh deep fluff blowing overhead every turn.  Picked up another 6” after 8:30am.  Folks talking about the deepest day of their lives into the Notch.  Was even deeper out that way, probably legit two feet.

Just a screenshot of one friends photo but this is what 21” looks like.  Just thigh deep trenches around the hill.

 

[CoastalWx]

4 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

It was so ridiculously deep today in the woods.  Just thigh deep fluff blowing overhead every turn.  Picked up another 6” after 8:30am.  Folks talking about the deepest day of their lives into the Notch.  Was even deeper out that way, probably legit two feet.

You guys get like 60” in 3 days. How could that be deepest?

[powderfreak]

1 minute ago, CoastalWx said:

You guys get like 60” in 3 days. How could that be deepest?

It wasn’t the deepest for me, ha.  Just some of the youngsters.  But there’s just a certain feel when the snow is like washing over your head on every turn.  Could get 100” but if it’s dense snow it doesn’t feel the same as 20+ blower.

Wildest part was it even really snow a ridge over today.  Sterling Ridge was in the sun today.  Mansfield was getting smoked in the low topped fluff.

[mreaves]

24 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

It wasn’t the deepest for me, ha.  Just some of the youngsters.  But there’s just a certain feel when the snow is like washing over your head on every turn.  Could get 100” but if it’s dense snow it doesn’t feel the same as 20+ blower.

Wildest part was it even really snow a ridge over today.  Sterling Ridge was in the sun today.  Mansfield was getting smoked in the low topped fluff.

Went up to Williston today. The spine was clouded in snow but like you said, it was low topped. It didn’t even seem like it was hitting the ground at times on 89. 

[bwt3650]

It wasn’t the deepest for me, ha.  Just some of the youngsters.  But there’s just a certain feel when the snow is like washing over your head on every turn.  Could get 100” but if it’s dense snow it doesn’t feel the same as 20+ blower.
Wildest part was it even really snow a ridge over today.  Sterling Ridge was in the sun today.  Mansfield was getting smoked in the low topped fluff.

Yep, at one point it was sunny on stateside and snowing on tramside. Real high ratio stuff. I think you guys might have beat up here during this cycle. Either way, snowed almost straight through last chair today.

Early march 2020 beats it though. 36” down liftline after it opens midday. Best I remember in the past 5.


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[powderfreak]

The observations leading to the 21" total.  It's important to be transparent.

[J.Spin]

The clipper that began affecting the area Thursday evening was definitely potent – by the time I headed up to the mountain early Friday morning, we’d already picked up 7 inches of new snow at the house. I couldn’t really get a sense for accumulations heading up the Bolton Valley Access Road, but up in the Bolton Valley Village elevations around 2000’ I was measuring 8 inches of new snow. That was definitely a transient number though, because it was snowing at least an inch an hour. Visibility was so low in the heavy snowfall that you could only see about a dozen chairs on the Mid Mountain Lift – beyond that it simply disappeared.

I started off my session with a quick tour up to about 2,500’ using the Wilderness Uphill Route. Powder depths didn’t seem to increase drastically with elevation, as I measured about 9 inches at the 2,500’ level. Being a weekday morning, it was very quiet and I don’t recall seeing another soul until a lone rider appeared as he descended the Wilderness Liftline off in the distance. The Vista Quad had started loading, and the appearance of the rider meant that people were starting their first descents. It was a good sign that it was time for me to descend as well. I descended on Lower Turnpike, which hadn’t seen much skier traffic, so there were plenty of fresh turns to be had. I’d brought my 115 mm fat skis, and they were definitely the right tool for the terrain, keeping me surfing at a nice pace on the lower angle slopes. My analyses from down at the house indicated that we’d picked up about a third of an inch of liquid at that point, and assuming something similar for the mountain that meant the powder was somewhere in the 3 to 4% H2O range. It offered little resistance with respect to slowing my descent, and fat skis were more than enough to keep the turns bottomless.

After my descent I caught up on texting with my colleague Stephen about getting together for some turns. He and his son were just finishing up in the lodge and met up with me a few minutes later. We rode the Vista Quad and hit Alta Vista followed by Fanny Hill. The subsurface out there is really firm due to the extended period we recently went through without much snowfall. Aside from the areas of powder along the trail edges, Alta Vista was really firm. Fanny Hill was much better – after the initial steep chute area, the rest of the trail was out of the wind and had seen little skier traffic. It had a mid-angle pitch that skied perfectly for bottomless turns in the available powder. I couldn’t stay too long at the mountain, but from what I was able to sample, that mid-angle terrain was great. You really wanted to be getting fresh tracks though for quality turns – there just wasn’t enough liquid equivalent down at that point to really hold up to multiple skiers before you’d be contacting the base. A third of an inch of liquid can’t go too far in that regard, but thankfully it was midweek so there were plenty of opportunities for untracked snow.

[J.Spin]

On Friday, my wife wanted to catch up with some friends who were doing some night skiing, so on top of my morning session, I ended up right back up at the mountain in the evening. It was very busy for a Bolton night skiing session, and we ended up parking in the lower tennis court lot because the others were so full. It’s very dark down there, but it does provide some neat views of the resort at night. It’s also right along the Nordic trails, so it makes for a fun evening ski to get back to the car. With so many visitors on Friday night, I assume all the new snow and the kickoff to the holiday weekend came together to really ramp up people’s interest for getting out for turns.

I doubt I would have headed up for the evening session were in not for getting out to make some turns with friends, because I would only have expected the on piste conditions to deteriorate further after a full day of traffic. And at night, only the most popular trails are open, so that means extra traffic in the high-traffic areas. One thing about the end of a long day though, especially when there’s been new snow, is that you do get those terrain areas where the snow collects due to traffic. Directly under the Mid Mountain Chair was one of those spots on Friday night. Patrol has set up marking poles right beneath the chair because the snowpack is deep enough that you might run into people’s skis, and even after the caution area, people never return to skiing the center near the lift towers and just push a lot of snow there. So, that held some of the best snow we found in the Beech Seal area.

Areas with traffic-related accumulations, and low-angle terrain were definitely the best bets when we were out Friday evening, but when possible, I’d recommend just heading out in the day and venturing off piste if you can. The off piste conditions are just so much better right now, especially on moderate-angle terrain and anywhere that is untracked. The subsurface is definitely firm, so do watch out for places where the wind has scoured the powder or evergreens are dense enough that it’s reduced accumulations – those areas can leave you bottoming out on some unforgiving snow.

[J.Spin]

19 hours ago, powderfreak said:

21” storm total at Mansfield’s High Road Plot over 48 hours. It’s so deep out there.  The photos and videos on social media in the woods off the Gondola is just snorkeling stuff.

That seems right in line with what Bolton had in their snow report yesterday afternoon, so it’s been a nice couple of days along the spine up here:

“Saturday, February 17, 2024, 5:15pm Update: With 20" of snowfall in the last 48 hours we are thrilled to have 100% of the mountain open with all 6 lifts and 71 trails across our 3 summits expected to have another go of it for Sunday Funday tomorrow with lifts from 9am to 4pm - night skiing is Tuesday to Saturday.”

Today’s update says well over two feet in the past few days, and indeed it’s great out there. I’ll put together some Saturday photos when I get a chance.

I see that Bolton is reporting 211” on the season now, which is right where they should be based on average pace, so the past few days have allowed them to catch back up after that February lull.

[J.Spin]

With the off piste conditions being so much better than the trails right now, my older son and I had plans to take a ski tour up to Stowe View yesterday and hit some of the Moose Glen terrain at Bolton Valley. I was just up there a couple of weeks ago, and there are many acres of high elevation glades that I’d expect to have fantastic snow with the way the spine has recently been getting round after round of heavy snowfall.

It was dumping huge flakes at the house when we left in the morning, and 1”/hr. snows in the valley turned to 1-2”/hr. snows as we ascended the Bolton Valley Access Road. The snow was falling so hard and fast that the access road was absolutely covered. Even down by the Catamount Trail parking area before the big S-curve below Timberline, vehicles were already lined up due to some cars not being able to get enough traction on the grade. I’m not sure where they were in the plowing cycle for the road because there wasn’t a plow around that we saw, but with the rate the snow was falling, it almost wouldn’t have mattered. Cars were turning around to descend, and some were evening having to back down in the downhill lane because they couldn’t turn around. Descending cars were moving at an absolute crawl to avoid sliding, and some still struggled with sliding just due to the crown of the road. After about 15 minutes we made it up to the base of the S-curve and started the ascent there, and I saw that a line of cars were stopped about halfway down from the top of the grade. That’s one of the steepest parts of the access road, and you don’t want to have to restart there from a dead stop if you can help it.

I could see that the whole situation was going to be trouble, and there was no immediate sign of the next plow, so we made the split second decision to turn around and simply park at the Catamount Trail parking area about 100 yards below us. We were going to be ski touring anyway, so we figured we’d just start our tour from there instead. It does add a couple of extra miles to the route, but we had the time, and it was far better than sitting in traffic and risking an accident on the road. And as bad as it was at that point, the snow simply continued to pound down and make the road worse. While gearing up for our tour at the car, we met another couple of guys who had decided on the same plan.  They weren’t too familiar with the resort, but I assured them that the trail network connected right up to the Nordic Center and Village, and from that point they could head wherever they wanted on the network.

The ascent to the Village was beautiful, and the very heavy snowfall was with us for the first mile or so before it tapered down at least a bit. I’d actually never skied that full connection before, so it was great to be able to experience the route. We didn’t need to stop in at the Nordic Center, so we just cut right up to the Bryant Trail along with a couple of women who were out on a similar tour. From there, it was just the usual route on up to Stowe View with some water and snack breaks. My son hadn’t had any breakfast, so with the extra distance, he quickly made use of the snack he’d brought, and I dove heavily into the reserves in my pack to get him additional calories. It was about 4.5 miles and over 2,000’ vertical up to Stowe View by that route, so that’s about double the vertical and triple the distance relative to a typical tour to that area starting in the Village. That increase definitely required more calories.

We skied various parts of the Moose Glen glade areas as planned, and the powder was simply fantastic. Even down at 1,200’ there was a solid 12” of settled powder, and up around 3,000’ it was typically in the 17-18” range. It was champagne light, so it actually worked well on a variety of different slope angles. As long as you had first tracks, even steeper terrain was in play for bottomless turns. We had a long, long run, with glade after glade of powder, down through areas White Rabbit and Branches, and eventually we reached the Village where we could take a quick break and plan our next move.

We were on contact with my younger son, who had parked at Timberline and we decided that instead of heading back to the car via the Nordic and Backcountry Network, we’d complete our tour using the alpine trails. We got a lift assist off the Vista Quad, and made our way from Cobrass to Maria’s where there were still plenty of untracked lines to ski. Lower Tattle Tale was also still really good along the edges where we found untracked snow.

We met up with my younger son at the Timberline Base Lodge and caught up over some El Gato burritos. We’d planned to ski down to our car at the Catamount Trail parking area if necessary, but we just caught a ride with my son and it made for pleasant finish to a tour that was almost 10 miles in total and brought us literally from one end of the resort to the other using the Nordic, backcountry, and alpine trail networks. It was a great way to make use of all the recent snows and great conditions that have developed.

[J.Spin]

[bwt3650]

Dumping snow again..just measured 3.5” since last chair.


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[powderfreak]

27 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

Dumping snow again..just measured 3.5” since last chair.


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We had about an inch and it shut off, looks like it’s right along the border from west to east.

[NW_of_GYX]

Northern greens doing northern greens things. Love it. 

[NW_of_GYX]

38 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Snorkeling tours go out daily during vacation week.

Omg yes 

[bwt3650]

We had about an inch and it shut off, looks like it’s right along the border from west to east.

1.25” in last hour. Gonna be another stellar morning to get out early. Looks like heavier band coming through between 11-1 on 3k and swinging down toward Stowe for a bit.


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