Harv's NY/VT Pictures Thread

[Harvey]

@jamesdeluxe suggested I post a few pics or link from our coverage of the recent snow in the East. Maybe some cheer to distract from the washout.

Anyone please feel free to post NY/VT pics in this thread!

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On Tuesday, I posted my pictures from Friday and Saturday at Gore, which was in the bullseye for the last storm...

Gore Mountain 730 am Friday. It snowed for 24 hours after this picture was taken

Close to First on Uncas Friday

Killkare Saturday. All glades served by an open trail or pod were open Sat am

Story...

Gore Mountain December Thump

The mountain is even bigger when you add a foot or two of snow.

nyskiblog.com

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On Weds we posted my buddy's Scott's day at Plattekill, opening day...

Bestill my heart

Scottski63 on Plunge. It was sort of like lift served sidecountry, but inbounds.

Story here...

Plattekill Opening Day 2022

I set my alarm for 4:30 Sunday am with plans for Magic or Plattekill.

nyskiblog.com

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Yesterday we posted a tale by KT about Plattekill and Magic. A cool story where he skinned Plattekill on Saturday, historic as it was the first day covered Plattekill's first official uphill policy.

Photos from Plattekill were really fun...

Forum TR here:

Plattekill Powder Day: 12/17/22

There’s nothing better than being alone with the mountain and a friend or two. When we heard that Plattekill’s double chair wouldn’t be operational in time to serve us the goods this past weekend, it was both sad to hear but also a blessing. There aren’t many opportunities to catch runs as pure...

nyskiblog.com

And then Magic the next day...

Black Line

Chasing Magic on Opening Day 2022

I could push as hard as I wanted without touching bottom.

nyskiblog.com

Anyone please feel free to post NY/VT pics in this thread!

 

[jimk]

Just when we thought global warming was bringing an end to the world, North American skiing is having an all-time great December!

 

[jamesdeluxe]

The NYSB pix demonstrate Tony's longtime point about the northeast -- it's not that there aren't any powder days; it's that you have to be opportunistic and ready to move at a moment's notice because who knows how long it'll last. Props to @Harvey for setting up his website and ski life to make that happen as much as possible.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Gore has 28 of 108 trails open today. Sugarbush, Killington, Okemo and Stratton are over half open. Northern Vermont is much worse. So I guess Gore and central Vermont did best with that storm last weekend.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Gore has 28 of 108 trails open today. Sugarbush, Killington, Okemo and Stratton are over half open. Northern Vermont is much worse. So I guess Gore and central Vermont did best with that storm last weekend.

@Harvey can confirm but I believe those trail counts are mainly due to yesterday's hideous deluge/refreeze -- the snow report of Magic Mountain in southern VT tells the story:
We received 5″ of snow at the base by 1am last night but then over 3″ of rain since then.

 

[flyover]

Sugarbush . . over half open. Northern Vermont is much worse.

Here in the Mad River Valley, at least, yesterday’s storm was not as bad as predicted. 4-6 inches of snow (think sponge) fell before about only an inch of rain, followed by a very quick, very cold freeze and another 3-5 inches of snow. The winds were not as bad as predicted and were actually pretty mellow during the warmest part of the day. I won’t speak for NY or northern VT, but it has been my experience that not many people ski around here on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and I would therefore not be surprised if resorts are keeping stuff closed to preserve snow for the impending arrival of the thundering hoards from the south and trail counts miraculously improve by the 26th or 27th.

Here’s the front terrace at 1500 feet:

 

[Harvey]

I've been tracking my ski days specific ski days (beyond just a total count) since 16/17. Each day gets a short description to help me remember it.

This year I've added a wrinkle classifying three kinds of days with regard to snowfall:

NEW SNOW
POW
POW*

NEW SNOW, for example two weeks ago, I skied Belleayre on a Sunday. It snowed 5 inches from opening to close. Because it snowed all day, there were few tracks" to be had (occasionally a spot here and there with 1 or 2 inches) I'm not calling it a "powder day." Great new snow, that really improved conditions, but that's it.

POW is a powder day.

POW* to me means that all the requirements were met for a powder day, EXCEPT the snow itself wasn't powder. I'm not talking about by a Utah definition either. By my own EC thinking.

Gore last weekend got 24 inches of new snow. Both Friday and Saturday there were PLENTY of tracks to be had. It was fun as hell, but exhausting. Nobody skied all day. Hard not to call it a Powder Day, but it gets an asterisk from me.

Just when we thought global warming was bringing an end to the world, North American skiing is having an all-time great December!

Yesterday's nuclear meltdown forces a rethink on this.

Props to @Harvey for setting up his website and ski life to make that happen as much as possible.

I humbly submit that a motivated skier, who knows how to use our Weather Center, can really improve the odds of scoring in NY and/or VT. It was built for me, and it works for me.

National Page:

US Ski Weather Forecasts, Radar and Maps

We've got the weather data, radar, NWS point forecasts and webcams. Come and get it.

nyskiblog.com

NY Page:

NY Ski Weather: Forecasts, Radar and Maps

If you're craving NY ski weather, come and get it.

nyskiblog.com

NWS Regional Page(s):

NWS Albany Weather Forecasts, Radar and Maps

NYSkiBlog's Albany weather page: point forecasts, radar, temp and precip reports, webcams and ski reports from the Eastern NY and Southern VT.

nyskiblog.com

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Yesterday's nuclear meltdown forces a rethink on this.

It would be interesting to know if anyone done has a one- or two-decade survey of whenever the northeast received a foot or two dump -- how many times it was followed shortly afterward by a rain event with a hard freeze. Anecdotally, it seems like the majority of the time.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Just when we thought global warming was bringing an end to the world, North American skiing is having an all-time great December!

Not really. The bounty is fairly concentrated in Utah, California and the northern Rockies. The Northwest is about average but terrible right now after a widespread freezing rain event, likely to get buried in snow next week though. Whistler and Banff are well below average. I-70 Colorado is slightly below average. Aside from Wolf Creek, base depths in the Southwest are barely two feet, and with the ongoing La Nina it could be a lean season there. The Northeast was awful until last weekend and it's still below average. Collectively I have ski area snowfall at 104% now. I just updated the Progress Report today.

By comparison see the all time great Christmases of 1996 and 2010.

a foot or two dump -- how many times it was followed shortly afterward by a rain event with a hard freeze. Anecdotally, it seems like the majority of the time.

I'm going to hazard a negative answer to that conjecture. There is some persistence to weather. Some Northeast seasons are persistently cold and some seem to get one rainstorm after another, like this season until last weekend.

 

[flyover]

Sugarbush . . . over half open. Northern Vermont is much worse.

Here in the Mad River Valley, at least, yesterday’s storm was not as bad as predicted. . . . I would therefore not be surprised if trail counts miraculously improve by the 26th or 27th.

Sugarbush is reporting 93/111 trails open (77%), including Castlerock.

MRG is reporting 59/60 trails open.

 

[Harvey]

A sweet little chase, that ended well...

Early start

Lost Trail

Decamp

McCauley To The Rescue

I continue to find myself in awe.

nyskiblog.com

 

[EMSC]

Harvey, If I recall your place by Gore is a true tiny home style cabin in the woods correct?

Just curious how many Sq Ft and what the configuration is (any separate bedroom or just a bathroom plus main room or etc...).

 

[Harvey]

Our place is 12x18 with a woodstove, built in 2002.

Headquarters in the Adirondacks

The cabin is NYSkiBlog headquarters. It's our Adirondack base camp for the stoke, trip reports and photos we crank out each ski season.

nyskiblog.com

In 2006 when my daughter was born we drilled a well, added a septic and built another small building as a utility head. Shower, sink, fridge, tankless hotwater, easy to drain the pipes.

In the long run the cabin will be an outbuilding to a home we are going to build. The long run is almost here. We cleared the land last summer, building a garage next spring, and the house the year after that.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

McCauley To The Rescue

Nice score. You've got those upstate molehills dialed in.

I've asked a variation of this question on the NYSB forum but can't remember the answer -- approximately how many roundtrips do you make between the NJ flatlands and NYS every season?

 

[Harvey]

Nice score. You've got those awesome upstate ski areas dialed in.

I've asked a variation of this question on the NYSB forum but can't remember the answer -- approximately how many roundtrips do you make between the NJ flatlands and NYS every season?

No idea, but here's a guess:

25-35 ski days, so let's say 30 average
MOST trips are one or two ski days, some 3-4
So average 1.75 days per drive.
30/1.75 = 17 trips?

Most of my trips to VT include a stay in NY.

 

[Tony Crocker]

I was pleased to find that Dry Hill, Snow Ridge and McCauley are all on my Google Earth kml file. It is possible that James is responsible for that. Snow Ridge is the only one I had heard about.

Dry Hill may be the one that's closest to Lake Ontario but it's the smallest, only 300 vertical and I question whether it has enough pitch to ski deep powder. Snow Ridge probably has the most acreage with some horizontal sprawl. It and McCauley are both 500 vertical. McCauley is on a small knob so some of its terrain looks steeper than Snow Ridge. I'd say Harvey made the right choice.

This is one more perversity of eastern skiing. In NY the areas that get the most snow are the molehills.

 

[Harvey]

I was pleased to find that Dry Hill, Snow Ridge and McCauley are all on my Google Earth kml file. It is possible that James is responsible for that. Snow Ridge is the only one I had heard about.

Dry Hill may be the one that's closest to Lake Ontario but it's the smallest, only 300 vertical and I question whether it has enough pitch to ski deep powder. Snow Ridge probably has the most acreage with some horizontal sprawl. It and McCauley are both 500 vertical. McCauley is on a small knob so some of its terrain looks steeper than Snow Ridge. I'd say Harvey made the right choice.

This is one more perversity of eastern skiing. In NY the areas that get the most snow are the molehills.

All of this is true. Still I disagree.

Dry Hill is 300 and undoubtedly not steep enought for 50 inches of pure blower. It seemed like the crew at DH was on it, grooming in the middle of the storm, to keep depths manageable. No question I asked Boo about this before considering the trip.

Snow Ridge has almost all day long untracked if you are willing to hike farther and farther from the lift. It's short (maybe 400' in the trees) but you can lap it over and over, moving farther out for fresh tracks. Grant I have a minimal western ski resume, but possibly my biggest powder day was 7000 feet of untracked in maybe 15 runs out there.

The Ridge at Snow Ridge

From my most recent piece about McCauley:

"This small but steep mountain, is in a very snowy spot, with legitimate black terrain that is strewn with boulders. Instead of trying to “improve” the trails, it’s tradition to blow deep on those boulders to make them skiable. Just as cool, McCauley maintains their trees well; the low angle stuff is often good-to-go when you wouldn’t expect it."

Tony seriously, thanks for reading. Would love to get a comment from you under the piece.

Anyone else too.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Snow Ridge has almost all day long untracked if you are willing to hike farther and farther from the lift.

Yes the horizontal sprawl is conducive to powder lasting longer. I look at the high horizontal to vertical spread at Snow Ridge and I'm reminded of Pajarito.

But there is the reality of East vs. West topography:

Both have consistent intermediate fall lines. But Pajarito is 1,100 vertical and it looks like the horizontal footprint is also at least double that of Snow Ridge. Pajarito looks a little bit steeper on Google Earth too. I'll concede that Snow Ridge gets more snow.

This is the type of area Harvey would love if he would ever travel West. James would tell Harvey to travel East, as you can get this low key ambience at Vail sized areas in the Alps.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

my Google Earth kml file

Are you planning to repost it or did you already and I wasn't aware?

 

[EMSC]

For my money McCauley isn't a ski trip until you stay in the town of Old Forge and listen to the hundreds and hundreds of sled-heads partying and doing obnoxiously endless circles out back of the motel until 2am.

Snow ridge is very aptly named though... It really is too bad there are no really decent sized hills in that part of NY (eg nearing 1K vert). I do have to say, never thought there would be a detailed discussion of tiny NY places like this on FTO! You can certainly add some more very similar places in NY: in the right snow location, but not very usable hills. Kissing Bridge for a near identical example to Snow Ridge but over S of Buffalo.