NNE Cold Season Thread 2024-2025

[bwt3650]

Thanks for being our boots on the ground. No doubt it's a nice start to the season up there but really wish we could rely on their numbers. I feel like we should crowdfund you to run a covert high road plot in some hidden thicket at 3000'.

Ha..I would do it in a minute; I’m just not up there full time yet. In a few years, I’ll at least try to do something at 1900’ where my spot is. I think it’s important for what is the snowiest spot in the East.

Yeah, I’m not sure why they went 10-14. They catch a lot of crap for their totals and honesty, it’s pretty close most of the time, but this is a bit of a head scratcher. People that don’t spend a lot of time there can’t comprehend the amount of snow they get and the fact that the angle of that mountain and lack of anything blocking the moisture feed makes it so much better for upslope. Probably only Stowe in the same league in that area and jay def gets more…how much more is debatable, but it’s more.

The skiing is really incredible right now. They don’t need 10-14 to convince anyone.


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[bwt3650]

Let’s do it.  Jay took a bit of a hit today on the webs for that snow report.
Multiple reports of about 5” from people.  I mean 10-14” overnight is like 35dbz snow ripping for 10 hours.
Snowing hard in town in Stowe now.  Lookout Cam averaging 1”/hr past 3 hours.
A lot of convective graupel in this too.

It’s ripping and models have the look of a northern greens upslope special tonight…Jay should clean up…would be ironic if tonight they actually do pull off a foot.


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[bwt3650]

Just don’t cut any trees. Big fines for that. 

Yeah, That guy that got fined cut an actual trail..it was pretty visible so I can’t say he wasn’t asking for it.


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[powderfreak]

5 minutes ago, bwt3650 said:

It’s ripping and models have the look of a northern greens upslope special tonight…Jay shouldn’t clean up…would be ironic if tonight they actually do pull off a foot.


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Been a minute since I’ve experienced Thundersnow… that was awesome.  That band is a beast down near Bolton now.

[Froude]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

Ha..I would do it in a minute; I’m just not up there full time yet. In a few years, I’ll at least try to do something at 1900’ where my spot is. I think it’s important for what is the snowiest spot in the East.

Yeah, I’m not sure why they went 10-14. They catch a lot of crap for their totals and honesty, it’s pretty close most of the time, but this is a bit of a head scratcher. People that don’t spend a lot of time there can’t comprehend the amount of snow they get and the fact that the angle of that mountain and lack of anything blocking the moisture feed makes it so much better for upslope. Probably only Stowe in the same league in that area and jay def gets more…how much more is debatable, but it’s more.

The skiing is really incredible right now. They don’t need 10-14 to convince anyone.


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Yeah I def don't want to kick off the Jay snow debate again cause it's clear they come out on top over the course of each season. This one just seemed pretty blatant based off the obs I saw. Just wish I could rely on their reports to know when it's truly worth the extra drive. Honestly 10-14" tonight wouldn't surprise me!

[powderfreak]

@J.Spin has to be getting crushed based on radar.

Snowing good here in town.  Mountain must be doing well.

[borderwx]

Woke up to 4”, home to clear 6”, another 4” since 5pm. Officially looks like December, add in some wind and 0 degree windchill tomorrow and it is complete:)


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[J.Spin]

35 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

@J.Spin has to be getting crushed based on radar.

It’s solid, but nothing outrageous for around here based on eyeballing the snowboards out back – if I had to guess it’s in the 0.5-1.0”/hr. range. I cleared the boards around 6:00 P.M. and there’s 1.5-2.0” on there now, so that would average in the ~0.5”/hr. range overall, but much of it has fallen in the past hour or so since things have picked up, so the current snowfall rate is above that.

The radar has had some of that good look though where the echoes don’t push through the spine but instead keep regenerating along the western slopes.

[powderfreak]

24 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

It’s solid, but nothing outrageous for around here based on eyeballing the snowboards out back – if I had to guess it’s in the 0.5-1.0”/hr. range. I cleared the boards around 6:00 P.M. and there’s 1.5-2.0” on there now, so that would average in the ~0.5”/hr. range overall, but much of it has fallen in the past hour or so since things have picked up, so the current snowfall rate is above that.

The radar has had some of that good look though where the echoes don’t push through the spine but instead keep regenerating along the western slopes.

Interesting, I was going to guess you were 1”/hr.  Still 0.5”/hr is a nice steady snow.

What’s got me stoked is that radar image is classic.  Just feeding cold moist air into the Spine behind the FROPA.  Duration will eventually limit this but it’s been quite the upslope pulse.

Over 7” between 3pm and 9:30pm is a nice sustained snowfall up high. This NW flow also seems to load the middle of the mountain more too, compared with the Lookout knob shown here.  It’s probably pretty damn snowy up in the elevations right now.

On top of the current natural snowpack this will feel deep.  All the snowfalls start blending together on the ground and it skis twice as deep with the supportive base.

 

[bwt3650]

It’s solid, but nothing outrageous for around here based on eyeballing the snowboards out back – if I had to guess it’s in the 0.5-1.0”/hr. range. I cleared the boards around 6:00 P.M. and there’s 1.5-2.0” on there now, so that would average in the ~0.5”/hr. range overall, but much of it has fallen in the past hour or so since things have picked up, so the current snowfall rate is above that.
The radar has had some of that good look though where the echoes don’t push through the spine but instead keep regenerating along the western slopes.

Could you whip up some of your snowfall stats tmrw to see how we are doing compared to other years? I know the Mansfield stake is useful, but your stats are usually spot on to paint the picture.


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[mreaves]

53 minutes ago, J.Spin said:

It’s solid, but nothing outrageous for around here based on eyeballing the snowboards out back – if I had to guess it’s in the 0.5-1.0”/hr. range. I cleared the boards around 6:00 P.M. and there’s 1.5-2.0” on there now, so that would average in the ~0.5”/hr. range overall, but much of it has fallen in the past hour or so since things have picked up, so the current snowfall rate is above that.

The radar has had some of that good look though where the echoes don’t push through the spine but instead keep regenerating along the western slopes.

It’s even been reaching me. More snow in this late round than the earlier one. 

[dmcginvt]

Man Got pounded for a bit there, up to 6 inches at 820' on gregg hill.  Mtn passed 9 closing on 10.  Just nuking there. Classic upslope\\

[mreaves]

9 hours ago, mreaves said:

It’s even been reaching me. More snow in this late round than the earlier one. 

Ended up with about 3" overnight bringing my total to 4" for the entire event.  I figured we had underperformed initial expectations but it looks like the backside stuff got us to where the NWS first progged.  Pretty wintry out there, snow in the air , breezy and 16.7°

[timp]

Got crushed pretty good last night. 9” from the upslope and 1.5” from the clipper junk the night before. 10.5” total with over a foot on the ground. Would love to mute these warm ups and keep it! 

[bwt3650]

There’s that look again..




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[powderfreak]

1 hour ago, bwt3650 said:

There’s that look again..




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Looks sneaky snowy this weekend.

Patrol opened Nosedive top to bottom on natural and we are very close to going wide open.  If we can get another 6”+ over the weekend it would go a long way towards popping stuff open.

[borderwx]

Cleared another 5” this morning, skied knee deep in the wind blown woods, pole tips have frozen mud but the skiing was smooth.


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[powderfreak]

Man the mountain got smoked last night.  Impressive amount of snow even at 1500ft.

The spots where cars were parked last night and didn’t get plowed are like a good foot of snow.

[bwt3650]

Man the mountain got smoked last night.  Impressive amount of snow even at 1500ft.
The spots where cars were parked last night and didn’t get plowed are like a good foot of snow.

Might even be 10-14…
Joking aside, the upslope machine has been for real the last week and I’m with you that a lot of people will be surprised how snowy the next 4 days are for the northern greens…then it looks like we avoid the huge melt and do the rain to snow net gain thing. We just ride it while it stays good.


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[powderfreak]

4 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Might even be 10-14…
Joking aside, the upslope machine has been for real the last week and I’m with you that a lot of people will be surprised how snowy the next 4 days are for the northern greens…then it looks like we avoid the huge melt and do the rain to snow net gain thing. We just ride it while it stays good.

Lol just seeing a range of 4 inches triggers me.

[klw]

Movin on up:

 

https://matthewparrilla.com/mansfield-stake/

 

[Boston Bulldog]

Upslope starting to blossom over the spine again. What a stretch!

[Boston Bulldog]

This little impulse has scaled up slowly in recent days. The MRV area is really lighting up right now, perhaps a little consolation after missing out on last night’s bonanza north of I-89

[J.Spin]

My older son was off from work yesterday, so the two of us decided to head up to Bolton for some turns. With the generally unconsolidated snowpack, it was a bit tough to tell how much new snow fell from the Clipper, but based on the resort’s snow report, it seemed like they picked up a few inches, similar to what we received down here in the valley.

With today being their opening day, yesterday there was a lot of activity on the mountain as they made final preparations for opening. At the base, one of the patrollers asked if we could stay off Wilderness for touring and instead head over to the Nordic and backcountry network, so we were happy to oblige. Although there’s no snowmaking on Wilderness, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were going to potentially be doing some grooming and prep work like obstacle marking over there anyway, so I suspect they wanted to minimize skier traffic as much as they could.

I wouldn’t normally have defaulted to touring on the Nordic and backcountry network at this stage of the early snowpack, since the Wilderness trails are just a safer bet for quality turns; they have been mowed and have a more substantiated base due to some skier traffic packing it down. But since I’ve been out on Wilderness for a few ski tours now this season, getting out onto the nearby backcountry terrain gave me a nice opportunity to compare the quality of the turns in both places.

For overall skiing and powder turns, the experience was unquestionably better on piste at Wilderness. It’s not an issue of overall snow depth; snowpack depths were closing in on 20 inches when I was out for my ski tour on Tuesday, and that was before the Clipper and the cold front brought a lot more snow to the area over the past couple of day. The depth of the snowpack has gone up substantially at this point – as of today the depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake is at 30 inches. What’s needed off piste to really improve the quality of the skiing is some consolidation. There is some base snow in the snowpack below the fluff, and it’s a decent base for on piste turns, it’s just not enough to sufficiently cover the contours of your typical off-piste terrain yet. Although a storm with above-freezing temperatures isn’t going to be great for snow quality, it would help in that consolidation. Alternatively, a nice dense snowfall storm would also help, and of course that would be much better for snow surfaces in general. It would temporarily ruin the current dry powder and might give us a bit of an upside-down snowpack, but it would really help set things up long term. The only other alternative would be to continue to get the type of dry snow we’re getting and wait a while for settling over time as the lower layers get compressed. This just takes a lot longer and requires a lot of snow, going the route of a continental/Colorado type snowpack.

It's not that the off-piste skiing is horrible, it’s just that you need to stick to places that have seen a bit of skier traffic, or you know are well manicured with minimal hazards underfoot.

[J.Spin]

On 12/5/2024 at 9:58 PM, bwt3650 said:

Could you whip up some of your snowfall stats tmrw to see how we are doing compared to other years? I know the Mansfield stake is useful, but your stats are usually spot on to paint the picture.

I’ll try to find some time this weekend to put together my usual snowfall progression plot for our site – but it’s easier to get that done when the skiing isn’t as good.

With a quick look though, Bolton Valley should be at roughly 38 inches of total snowfall as of today (12/6), and they are reporting 40 inches on the season, so they seem to be right around average or just slightly ahead (105% of average).

Jay Peak should be at ~42 inches of total snowfall as of today, and their current season total is 83 inches, so they are way ahead of average pace. They’re essentially running at 200% of average snowfall, which is impressive for a place as snowy as Jay Peak. It really seems like it was that recent lake-effect period that hit them incredibly hard and pushed them so far ahead of the other resorts in the Northern Greens. The moisture stream just sat there for quite a while.

[mreaves]

BTV must have gotten their first inch. 

[J.Spin]

I didn’t receive the usual text announcement, but apparently, we’re under a Winter Weather Advisory for this next Clipper coming into the area. The BTV NWS maps for this event are below:

[J.Spin]

Bolton Valley started their lift-served ski season yesterday, and I headed up this afternoon for a few runs to check out the conditions and get some exercise. It’s becoming a bit hard to keep track of the snow that’s falling because it’s nearly continuous with all these bread-and-butter systems passing through the area, but the resort is reporting 14 inches of new snow in the past 48 hours.

They have a very interesting assortment of lifts and trails available right now that is atypical of what they usually have going at the start of the season. The Snowflake Chair isn’t running, and Sherman’s Pass isn’t open, and those are often early season staples. Instead, the Wilderness Chair is running, and they appear to have the entirety of the Wilderness terrain open on natural snow. With neither Sherman’s Pass nor Bear Run open, there’s no beginner terrain currently being served off the Vista Quad or the Mid Mountain Chair, so the only beginner terrain is off the Mighty Mite. And, the only way down from the Vista Summit is Hard Luck, which is a steep black diamond run. It’s a very unusual collection of early season terrain.

I decided to sample all the lifts that were available, and I started with a Beech Seal run off the Mid Mountain Chair. The skier’s left side had manmade snow, and the skier’s right was natural snow, and the quality was of course night and day. The right side was a little thin in a few spots, but the snow quality was excellent since it’s entirely natural snow that has never undergone a thaw-freeze cycle. I headed to Vista next, and Hard Luck was disastrous. Coverage was fantastic, but being all manmade snow, very steep, and the only way down from Vista such that it got all the skier traffic, the quality of the snow was horrible. I’m sure racers would love it, but that’s about it. I watched multiple people try to turn and simply kick out, fall, and begin to slide down the slope because there’s just nothing to hold onto with your skis. Thankfully, about halfway down you can cut over to the Show Off trail, which is currently all natural snow. The coverage is a little thin in spots, but easily manageable and all the snow there was excellent packed powder.

There was lots of snowmaking going on with temperatures in the 20s F, so I’m sure they’ll be opening more of the traditional early season terrain soon.

[powderfreak]

This is an awesome photo from someone at Saddleback, ME.  I saw several shots of this moose, looked like he camped out overnight near there but seemed like this was all seen from a chairlift.

[borderwx]

Beautiful! Moose doing moose things

The compaction has begun. Cleared another 3” this morning, temps rose to 33 at the lift and there was periods of freezing rain and snow

Low vis day, the powder ended up with a little extra sizzle to it, to much snow to ski anything low angled. Fun week.




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