J.Spin Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 9 hours ago, powderfreak said: Snorkeling tours go out daily during vacation week. Hasn’t been a great winter by any means. It’s had a few periods of fun though. I guess the Mansfield Stake sitting at exactly average for this date and this graph is pretty normal. 9 hours ago, NW_of_GYX said: Northern greens doing northern greens things. Love it. Indeed, hard not to love that - the Northern Greens went from a settled snowpack to snorkel deep snow and we never even had a big storm, just… 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 Another fine morning…. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 I was too busy to get out for turns yesterday, but I had some time this afternoon and was able to head up to Bolton. Thanks to the arctic front that came through overnight, they picked up another 4-6” of snow, bringing their recent totals to 16” in the last 48 hours and 36” in the past week. I was definitely interested in checking out the new snow, but between still being in the holiday period, temperatures a bit on the chilly side, and the typical consistency of the subsurface I’ve observed in areas with skier traffic, touring on the Nordic and Backcountry Network seemed like the best option. Based on my experience out there today though, issues with the subsurface snow quality are rapidly disappearing. While we’re not typically looking for the champagne powder on the slopes to settle, it eventually does, and in this case the compaction of the lower levels of the surface snow is really starting to pay dividends with respect to the overall quality of the skiing. When we first began to get these latest rounds of fluff, it was just dry powder atop the old firm base. There was no bonding between the old and new snow, and if you weren’t in bottomless snow, you were hitting a very hard subsurface. Whether due to the new overnight snow, the settling of the lower layers in the surface snow, or more likely a combination of both, I noticed a dramatic change in that surface/subsurface interface today. There’s a substantial, denser layer of snow above the subsurface now, and contact with the old subsurface is far less frequent. Even when it comes to very dry powder, if you get enough of it, you will eventually get to the level of a resurfacing, and apparently, snorkel-deep levels of champagne are enough. In any event, powder turns were absolutely fantastic out there today. With the lower levels of the powder getting crushed into denser snow, in undisturbed areas you’ve got a right-side-up snowpack that is reaching very high quality. The powder is so good that it’s now supporting great turns on low-angle, mid-angle, and even high-angle terrain. The addition of the new snow combined with settling seems to have held powder depths in the range of what I found on Saturday, with probably 12+” at 2,000’ and 17-18” around 3,000’. I’m amazed that the powder still works for low angle terrain with how deep it is, but it’s so dry in the upper layers that it just does – at least on 115 mm fat skis. With the powder hitting the depth for even high-angle terrain, I opted for exploring some steeper lines today. On my tour, I started up Heavenly Highway and set in a skin track out toward Devil’s Drop to get in some turns there, and also put in a track to get me out to some of the steeper terrain above North Slope. All the terrain out there is really good right now. The clouds pulled away today to leave us with a brilliant, sunny, midwinter afternoon. Anyone out there touring in the backcountry was definitely getting a top 10-20% day, and the snow quality should stay great with these cold temperatures, so tomorrow should be just as good. As a bonus, I was surprised to see that despite the holiday weekend, traffic on the Nordic and Backcountry Network has actually been fairly light the past couple of days – I’d say 75% of the glades I saw had in the range of zero to three tracks in them when I was out this afternoon. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bwt3650 Posted February 20 Author Share Posted February 20 Unexpected mood flakes..started the day at 5.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Was supposed to be sunny today, instead we've seen an inch of snow so far at the upper mountain snow plots. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstronomyEnjoyer Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Lake Sunapee in the foreground and Killington 44.3 miles distant. Was hoping for better clarity today although it wasn't bad by any means. Did notice clouds off to the north. I suspected you guys up there were busy getting fake snow again. I waltz in here and my suspicions are confirmed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoCORH4L Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Getting thin in central NH, they need snow bad to connect the highland riding areas. Was impassable over near Lincoln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRVexpat Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 10 minutes ago, AstronomyEnjoyer said: Lake Sunapee in the foreground and Killington 44.3 miles distant. Was hoping for better clarity today although it wasn't bad by any means. Did notice clouds off to the north. I suspected you guys up there were busy getting fake snow again. I waltz in here and my suspicions are confirmed. Sweet vantage. Is that bear peak and south ridge chair? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AstronomyEnjoyer Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 2 minutes ago, MRVexpat said: Sweet vantage. Is that bear peak and south ridge chair? It is indeed! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 I was fairly busy yesterday, but I did have a chance to get out for a sunset ski tour up on the Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Network. I’d say powder depths were roughly similar to what I found on my Monday tour, with perhaps a touch of settling. The powder in the backcountry just seems to get better each day though as the lower layers of the surface powder settle and bond to the subsurface. This is one of the more impressive progressions I’ve seen in the improvement of the powder skiing over time, and as I was gearing up for my tour yesterday, I heard other skiers talking about it as well. I didn’t have a ton of time before dinner, so I did a quick loop up Brant to Coyote and on to Gotham City with a descent of Gun Sight and subsequent glades. As mentioned, the powder was simply fantastic, and by the time I was descending the sun had gone down and I was skiing by the light of the moon (with headlamp assistance at times). There are still plenty of untracked lines throughout the lesser used glades, although you have to work a bit more to get untracked lines in the more popular glades since it’s now been a couple of days since the last substantial snowfall. Since it’s a big vacation week, the night skiing was going full tilt when I got back to my car, and it seems like the resort is getting some solid visitation. For those who are on school vacation this week, they certainly got a doozy in terms of both snow conditions and weather. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MRVexpat Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 HRRR looking at least slightly intriguing for a light refresh in the northern Greens tomorrow. Here's to hoping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boston Bulldog Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 1 hour ago, MRVexpat said: HRRR looking at least slightly intriguing for a light refresh in the northern Greens tomorrow. Here's to hoping! GFS and EURO backing off from 18z yesterday has been a bit of a bummer, hoping the mesos are onto something! The dense nature of any snow that falls should bind well with the base and provide some relief. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.Spin Posted February 22 Share Posted February 22 On 2/18/2024 at 9:22 PM, powderfreak said: Snorkeling tours go out daily during vacation week. Hasn’t been a great winter by any means. It’s had a few periods of fun though. I guess the Mansfield Stake sitting at exactly average for this date and this graph is pretty normal. I see that the stake had even pushed back above average a bit with Monday and Tuesday’s snowfall, so that’s consistent with the ups and downs the snowpack has had. Our recent stretch of roughly a week brought almost 20 inches of snow to our site in the valley, and another double-digit storm to add to the season, so it’s not too surprising that the snorkels came out in the high country. 2/12/2024 0.1 Frontal boundary across southern Quebec 2/13/2024 4.3 Potent shortwave passing through upper-level flow 2/15/2024 10.4 Quick moving moisture-ridden clipper 2/17/2024 2.7 Shortwave swinging through the BTV NWS forecast area 2/18/2024 0.2 Lake effect snow with south/southwest flow 2/18/2024 1.6 Arctic boundary with snow showers and embedded heavier snow squalls 2/20/2024 0.4 Light snow showers on northwest flow Sum 19.7 It wasn’t enough to quite catch us back up to average pace at our site, but it was another nice jump on the seasonal snowfall progression plot, and it did get us to 92.6% of average Monday’s snow even pushed Bolton Valley’s season snowfall total just above average for the first time in a while: their 217” season total put them at 100.6% of average. A couple more of those bread and butter periods would be nice to keep things rolling, but it doesn’t look like we’re quite going to get a stretch like the past week in the immediate future. The GFS does show those three systems coming up in the next few days, but they don’t seem as potent as the recent ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wxeyeNH Posted February 23 Share Posted February 23 7:30am Light snow 30.3F 1" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Time to think about dusting off the Warm Season thread. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted February 24 Share Posted February 24 Two choice type of ski dayEdges or hip pads.cold wind but warm sun, pretty nice day to be out. Took a walk up ranch brook. Pretty nice place to have down there PF. Not sure I can live anywhere else.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
powderfreak Posted February 25 Share Posted February 25 4 hours ago, borderwx said: Two choice type of ski day Edges or hip pads. cold wind but warm sun, pretty nice day to be out. Took a walk up ranch brook. Pretty nice place to have down there PF. Not sure I can live anywhere else. . Today felt warmer than the temps, that late-Feb sun is more like an October angle now. Instead of a November/December/January darkness and weak solar minimum. Derby Day tomorrow should be interesting. Fast conditions on XC skis down 2,000+ vertical feet… Every day I try to put a little reflection into the afternoon update. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmcginvt Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 52 to 36 in an hour Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmcginvt Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Big drop here too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Snowmobiling season is over, Looking at the trail reports, A lot of clubs have halted grooming operations and have closed the trails as the warm temps have taken there toll on what little base there was, Sad for Feb. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 1 hour ago, dryslot said: Snowmobiling season is over, Looking at the trail reports, A lot of clubs have halted grooming operations and have closed the trails as the warm temps have taken there toll on what little base there was, Sad for Feb. As bad as it was, it was much better than the Upper Midwest. MN, MI and WI. Even the UP never really got going. I suppose there is still Quebec but a guy I know was supposed to be in the Gaspe this week and cancelled. New Brunswick shut down or will be soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 1 minute ago, mreaves said: As bad as it was, it was much better than the Upper Midwest. MN, MI and WI. Even the UP never really got going. I suppose there is still Quebec but a guy I know was supposed to be in the Gaspe this week and cancelled. New Brunswick shut down or will be soon. For as bad as it was, I rode 1,280 mi or so this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 2 minutes ago, dryslot said: For as bad as it was, I rode 1,280 mi or so this year. Nice. I could have ridden more but I let work get in the way. Still, I had 3 or 4 decent but short rides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dryslot Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 6 minutes ago, mreaves said: Nice. I could have ridden more but I let work get in the way. Still, I had 3 or 4 decent but short rides. For the last 5 weeks, I took Thurs-Friday off and rode both days, Pretty much trails to ourselves during the week and i will continue that in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJonesWX Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 my snowmobile has been in the trailer since last March. never even bothered to register it this year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mreaves Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 1 hour ago, dryslot said: For the last 5 weeks, I took Thurs-Friday off and rode both days, Pretty much trails to ourselves during the week and i will continue that in the future. I actually may do that with Fridays next year. The issue is that most of my friends don't have that option. 32 minutes ago, SJonesWX said: my snowmobile has been in the trailer since last March. never even bothered to register it this year. I know it's hard when the snow is low but there were still trails to set up, bridges re-decked and equipment that needed repairing. It's a gamble at times but the work goes on anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SJonesWX Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 2 hours ago, mreaves said: I actually may do that with Fridays next year. The issue is that most of my friends don't have that option. I know it's hard when the snow is low but there were still trails to set up, bridges re-decked and equipment that needed repairing. It's a gamble at times but the work goes on anyway. oh believe me, I get it. I used to be very active in my local club Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
#NoPoles Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Mud season is here,and the Carroll PD put up a post on FB saying the bears are awake and active. We've had a late start to the warm season the prior 2 years. It would be nice to have it start on time or maybe a little early this year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
borderwx Posted March 3 Share Posted March 3 Not much to look at down, but looking up continues to pay off . 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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