Harv's NY/VT Pictures Thread
- Thread starter Harvey
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Northeast snowfall is above average. December was set back by a few major rain events but it's been all good so far in January.
jasoncapecod
Well-known member
yes and no....Most of the snow has fallen from Lake Effect or Orographic flow..Thus being fairly isolated. Even though we haven't had a major melting events since the holidays, we had a very prolonged wind event. That really scoured the slopes.
I wouldn't call this the best season at all.
If you are judging based on my pics, I've got more flexibility now. That's the difference.
I'm chasing lake effect. The last few events were concentrated on a few places, and I went there.
Gore is having a tough season. Part of it is operational issues, but some of it is snowfall too.
As mentioned many times, Harv has always been the poster boy for @Tony Crocker's "you have to be an opportunist in the northeast" maxim. He was that way to a healthy extent while working and is now unleashed to do it fulltime.
Titus is open to anything that will bring people to their out of the way destination. They like the Indy Pass.
Skiology Matt is pushing this thing: Give every one of my subscribers a free day!
Titus: Yes.
Plattekill: WTF no way. What do I get from that?
Plattekill's relentless defense of their revenue per skier visits is something that seems to drive Matt crazy.
Luckily FTO is off the beaten path, so Matt won't find this comment and make a fuss.
EMSC
Well-known member
But plenty cold enough to blow snow which is so critical in the East. I'm pretty surprised at the low snowfall for Gore. 123 avg inches seems low for the ADK's. Greek peak used to claim 120 and I would have believed them back in the 70's and 80's. I suspect GP is down to an average of 100 or less in the past decade though.
Like I said, operational issues.
This year: three crews of snowmakers, 3,3 and 4.
Normal or ideal: three or four crews of snowmakers: 8,8,8 and 8.
Gore's number is legit. No other mountain is advertising their true snowfall totals. For years Gore claimed 150, but they lowered that number two years ago. What other mountain does that?
This is what OnTheSnow has for Greek Peak:
Greek Peak Snow History | OnTheSnow
How much did it snow at Greek Peak last season? Compare season-over-season snow totals and snow stats for Greek Peak.
www.onthesnow.com
EMSC
Well-known member
I know some data gets messed up on aggregation sites (missed or duplicated for example), but probably pretty accurate for a place like GP. I can recall getting 6" of lake effect every single friday night for 2 months one year in the 80's, etc... Multiple blizzards of ~2-3 feet (maybe one per 3-4 years) back then too. Those memories alone would lead me to believe over 100" back in the day was a likely average. Sad to see it's down to 95" being a 'good' snow year these past 10+ years.
edit to add: to answer my own question with that data set - GP had 95" in 19-20 which is decent for recent history. They have reported 50" season to date which is already above or nearly at the annual totals reported for the past 4 years since then.
edit to add: to answer my own question with that data set - GP had 95" in 19-20 which is decent for recent history. They have reported 50" season to date which is already above or nearly at the annual totals reported for the past 4 years since then.
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The OpenSnow narrative guy mentioned that the January snowfall was accompanied by heavy winds. And since there was a lot of snow mostly in northern/central Vermont (where most of my data collection is) the net effect elsewhere may not have been positive. Percents of open terrain outside the Greens reflect that. I do not track anywhere in NY State other than Whiteface, which was 50% open on January 10. I've put Gore's snowfall numbers into my end of season data but do not track Gore in-season.
berkshireskier
Member
Frankly, in the part of New England where I live, it has been a terrible winter so far, in terms of snowfall. We had one minor storm in mid-December with, maybe, 4 to 5 inches of snow but that lasted for only a week or so and then we had some mild weather (in the mid-50's (F) along with a lot of rain, so all the snow on the ground got wiped out. We had a very few minor, Alberta Clipper of lake effect snow showers since Christmas but nothing has really accumulated and the ground is now 50%, or so, bare with just a dusting of snow on the remainder of the ground. We have not had one real snowstorm (the proverbial "Noreaster") this Winter.
However, it has been cold (and also very windy) since the first of the year, so good snowmaking weather for most ski areas (other than a lot of the manmade snow has blown right off the trails before it can even be groomed out).
My daughter skied up at Mt. Tremblant in Canada last weekend and she said the skiing was very good with about a foot of real snow on the ground, so definitely better the farther north you go.
However, it has been cold (and also very windy) since the first of the year, so good snowmaking weather for most ski areas (other than a lot of the manmade snow has blown right off the trails before it can even be groomed out).
My daughter skied up at Mt. Tremblant in Canada last weekend and she said the skiing was very good with about a foot of real snow on the ground, so definitely better the farther north you go.
I'll confess to snobbish prejudice against areas with < about 150 inches snowfall average, which I do not bother to track. My attitude is that quality of skiing at those places is far more dependent upon temperatures for snowmaking than for natural snow. The only areas I track snowfall in-season that average under 200 inches are Stratton, Whiteface, Cannon and Sugarloaf, plus Sun Valley in the West.
I also track percent of terrain open for whatever I decided 20 years ago were "prominent" Northeast areas where snowfall is borderline: Okemo, Hunter, Sunday River, Tremblant, Mt. St. Anne.
So I will not routinely know what conditions are outside of northern Vermont plus the areas listed above.
berkshireskier
Member
This makes sense, Tony, for your purposes. And snowfall amounts can vary widely across the Northeast, with, usually, going farther north results in more natural snow.
But I've had some very good local ski days when, even a smallish (3 to 6 inches) new natural snowfall, on top of a manmade base, happens.
But I've had some very good local ski days when, even a smallish (3 to 6 inches) new natural snowfall, on top of a manmade base, happens.