NNE Cold Season Thread 2024-2025

[bwt3650]

Yeah it’s not warm.  It’s not really unusual for January in the north, but it’s still something you don’t want to be stuck out in.
Stowe Mountain Rescue had a long one yesterday in the Notch.  Three teens wandered off Spruce at the end of the day and got cliffed out.  Then it got dark and very cold.
SMR did a high angle rope rescue and got them down to the road at like 11:30pm.
This crew are certified badasses.

That’s some life or death stuff right there…those guys don’t get nearly the credit they deserve.


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[MBRI]

Shot from the Stub Hill trail  entrance on the NH  Maine Border  yesterday

[#NoPoles]

-23 or so at HIE this morning. And headed that way again to.orrow morning. Good for ice fishing. I think people got out on the the ice a bit too early this season

[J.Spin]

On 1/19/2025 at 8:22 PM, borderwx said:

Good living J! It has been a great week to be a skier in N VT.

There’s no doubt about that – I skied at both ends of the Northern Greens over the long weekend, and the off-piste conditions are excellent, just like you’d expect them to be at this time of year. Over the past couple of weeks I’ve found that the balance of snow accumulations and settling is generally yielding powder depths of 1 to 2 feet, and base depths at elevation are 40 inches or so. Snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake is at 56 inches, which is only a foot above average, but the consistent snowfall and cold temperatures have kept the conditions in prime form.

January’s snowfall has been decent thus far, helping to keep us on the high side of average pace as the updated plot for our site shows below. It looks like snowfall slows down a bit over the next couple of days, but the GFS has more of northern stream bread and butter look with Clippers as we head into the weekend and on into next week.

[DavisStraight]

Looks you guys will get the snow machine turned on again in a few days.

[#NoPoles]

Tues and weds morning lows hit-23 to -25, this morning we didn't radiate efficiently due to cloud cover. I love how the body adjusts to cold weather. It was 5 degrees last night when I took the dog out before bed. We were outside for almost 30 mins and I didn't wear a hat or mittens. It was so much "warmer" than the 2 prior nights where it was -12 when I took the dog out. But before this cold snap, 5 degrees felt like Antarctica

[tamarack]

Only -4 this morning after -14 and -15 lows.  Last evening looked to be headed for another minus-teens morning until the clouds arrived.  At 8:15 it was -6 here then popped up to zero by 8:30 and was locked into that temp thru 11 PM.

[DavisStraight]

15 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Only -4 this morning after -14 and -15 lows.  Last evening looked to be headed for another minus-teens morning until the clouds arrived.  At 8:15 it was -6 here then popped up to zero by 8:30 and was locked into that temp thru 11 PM.

I just missed below zero this morning, my low was 2, last two nights were -4 and -5, decent stretch of cold. Looks like we still have cold although not as extreme for a while. Winter in winter.

[backedgeapproaching]

This is great, Jspin with the old Northern Greens 120-1 ratios..ha.

 

[mreaves]

14 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

This is great, Jspin with the old Northern Greens 120-1 ratios..ha.

 

I'm at the office in Waterbury this morning.  It's been somewhat unexpectedly snowy.

[backedgeapproaching]

16 minutes ago, mreaves said:

I'm at the office in Waterbury this morning.  It's been somewhat unexpectedly snowy.

Yea, even down here had zero clue it was going to snow. 1.4" of pretty much air with some flakes around it 

[bwt3650]

Snowy week incoming…northern greens should clean up with the upslope machine back in action big time…




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[borderwx]

I’m casting a ballot for the best ski season in a couple years. Nice way to get back out for the day after a couple chilly ones.

Our low was -14, no real wind though, took a few for the burn to really set in on the face

Woke up to 8F. A dusting. Mountain had 5” of dust. Super beautiful in the sun light throughout the whole day.




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[powderfreak]

Yeah today had to have been the driest and fluffiest snow yet.

You can see the texture, all air.

[DavisStraight]

26 minutes ago, powderfreak said:

Yeah today had to have been the driest and fluffiest snow yet.

You can see the texture, all air.

What's the depth on top?

[powderfreak]

15 minutes ago, DavisStraight said:

What's the depth on top?

It was 55” yesterday evening.  Haven't seen it released by BTV yet tonight.

[bwt3650]

This cold seems to have the mountains way ahead of snow making schedule.  I know Jay has pretty much finished every trail they would blow, and has started going for round 2 on a few.  I would think the only hang up is for a trail like the jet that you want to go into may with, you would probably want to do the second round in late Feb, not late Jan.  But should have some great depths heading into spring this year.

[J.Spin]

On 1/22/2025 at 12:34 PM, DavisStraight said:

Looks you guys will get the snow machine turned on again in a few days.

 

19 hours ago, bwt3650 said:

Snowy week incoming…northern greens should clean up with the upslope machine back in action big time…

It’s nice to see January snowfall picking back up, in a month that has actually been pretty solid for snow anyway. It wasn’t until the 21^st of the month that we even had our first day without snowfall, and thanks to the resumption of the northern stream systems coming through and some tapping of Lake Ontario moisture, Tuesday through Thursday this week have been the only days so far this month without new snow.

Yesterday’s system seemed to be the first in this upcoming stretch, and a quick look at the GFS (and other modes are similar, which gives more confidence) suggests the following timing for storms:

1 Yesterday’s shortwave

2 Tomorrow into Monday

3 Tuesday

4 Wednesday/Thursday

The latter ones look a bit more robust, so we’ll see if the track/modeling changes and what the mountains do with them.

Whatever happens with snowfall for the rest of the January, it’s gravy from a monthly standpoint. We’d already attained average snowfall by mid-month, and the snow surfaces/snowpack are in decent shape, so these potential snows are just what’s needed to continue to build the snowpack and freshen things up.

[J.Spin]

The pace of snowfall slowed down a bit over the past few days here in the Northern Greens, so heading into the backcountry seemed like today’s call for good access to untracked powder. It was a sunny midwinter day, so my my wife and I went snowshoeing in Morrisville in the morning, but I had time to head up to the Bolton Valley area in the afternoon for some ski touring.

I haven’t really done any ski touring west of the Bryant Trail yet this season, so I decided to head out to the Prayer Flag area on today’s tour. Although the main lines of Prayer Flag had seen a decent amount of skier traffic, the natural glades surrounding the area were nearly untracked. As Prayer Flag began to narrow and dive down to Brook Run, I traversed to the right through the trees toward the Holden’s Hollow Glades. The main lines there were well tracked as I’d expected, so I continued on into the surrounding trees to finish my run down to the Joiner Brook bridge. I felt like extending my tour a bit, so I skinned back up and did a run down the Cup Runneth Over glade before heading back to the car.

Although we didn’t get a ton of new snow this week, what we did get over the past couple of days was incredibly dry, so it topped off the existing powder quite well. We’ve also had the type of cold, dry weather this week that has allowed the powder to settle and dry to enhance its right-side-up density gradient and improve with age. The quality of the powder out there today was excellent, and the density gradient was such that it skied well on any pitch. In terms of depths, my measurements at the 2,000’ level revealed 17 to 18 inches above the subsurface, and at 2,400’ I found 22 to 24 inches of depth. In general I found that the main lines of most glades had seen a decent amount of skier traffic, and that’s not surprising without much fresh snow this week, but snow is in the forecast in the coming days to hopefully help reset the powder in those areas.

[Prismshine Productions]

Yeah today had to have been the driest and fluffiest snow yet.
You can see the texture, all air.

Even you have to admit that "Diamond Dust" is pretty when it is falling at night looking at it in lights

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