I don’t have much experience skiing from the longer distances like NYC, so I’ll leave most of the advice to the guys that are familiar with that, but I can provide information on a couple of things such as powder and Vermont roads/automobiles.
moresnowplease":6d17r01k said:
Hello everyone. Im relocating to NYC from Mammoth Lakes CA. Before I lived in mammoth (3 years) I used to drive up from LA for the 5 hour journey so I am sorta used to that. How often do we get powder days in the east?
In terms of access to powder, I think the biggest change associated with your relocation will be due to the fact that you won’t be right at the mountain(s). I suspect that being in NYC will be a lot more like when you were in LA. One upside to the location change is that in the Northeast you could have access to more “powder days” than you would if you were just restricting yourself to Mammoth. There are so many ski areas scattered among the different climates and storm tracks of the region, that one can probably get in on 500 inches of powder in an average season if they play it like icelantic and simply visit a resort or backcountry spot in the region that was in the bull’s-eye for snowfall. Also, from what I understand of Mammoth’s climate, the snow can come in relatively large dumps (several feet), but there are a lot more sunny days and the storms are less frequent. In the Northeast the tendency is for more moderate (1-2 foot) storms at greater frequency, but that sort of setup can give you a greater number of powder days (depending on what you consider a “powder day”). Tony can probably provide some numbers/impressions when he gets back to his computer.
You mentioned that you won’t have a car at first, and it sounds like you might check out the various train/bus/carpool options to the resorts. Unfortunately if that’s the case it’s going to make options for untracked powder more limited, unless you spend a lot of time in the backcountry. Fortunately there are still the chances for powder on the weekends/holidays, so the best thing to do is get familiar with all the great weather resources we have in the Northeast and choose your battles accordingly. Unfortunately, Powderfreak (Scott Braaten) doesn’t really frequent this forum anymore, but I strongly recommend monitoring
the SkiVT-L discussion forum for his ski weather updates if you are thinking of skiing in the northern half of Vermont (and to some extent the rest of the Northeast). Scott works as a forecaster/snow reporter for Stowe Mountain Resort and has a good handle on reading the various weather models with respect to the Northeast’s ski county. He does a nice job giving overviews of what skiers can expect for many of the big synoptic systems that affect our region, but he also has a keen understanding of the special mesoscale weather phenomena (lake effect, upslope, convergence, etc.) that affect our mountains and valleys.
Here’s an example of the type of detailed ski weather updates that he provides on SkiVT-L. Another good resource for ski weather in Northern Vermont is
Josh Fox’s Single Chair Weather Blog. Like Scott’s forecasts, Josh’s are very specific to skiing, although Josh generally focuses on just the Mad River Glen area and may not say as much about how the snowfall is going to vary north and south of that point. He also doesn’t update as frequently as Scott does.
The Burlington office of the National Weather Service is also very good. They don’t focus on skiing the way that Scott and Josh do, but the professional meteorologists there are very aware of the upslope events that hit the Northern Green Mountains and are great about discussing them when conditions are coming together. A great place to learn about the weather models, and get a potentially longer distance heads up on big storms on the horizon is at
easternusweather.com. Along with various weather professionals, plenty of amateurs frequent those forums, and you’ll find more people willing to stick their necks out about forecasting storms with longer lead times (which can be quite useful if one has to plan farther ahead due to their schedule). Sometimes their long distance shots will be a flop, but many of the forum participants watch every run of the weather models with fanatical devotion in the winter, and they will start to mention storm possibilities long before the weather service and others with professional responsibilities are willing to do so. At times, I’ve been able to get a fairly reliable heads up on storms from a week out, such as our third October storm from this season, which I discussed a few paragraphs down in
my Stowe report from October 30th. With these resources,
I will often pencil in potential powder days for the upcoming week and try to plan my schedule accordingly. Sometimes the storm might fizzle, or sometimes the potential will disappear and reappear, but the more you follow the local weather trends and models, the better understanding you’ll have of which predicted events have the most staying power and are actually likely to materialize. With the continual advancement of the weather models and the explosion of weather resources on the web, it’s a totally different world in terms of planning powder days than what it used to be just 15 years ago.
Although I don’t do much in terms of forecasting,
I do track the weather and record the snowfall that we get here at our location in Waterbury, and I post those observations along with what I observe in the local mountains as soon as I can (this ranges from minutes to hours). Although we live in the valley and are a couple thousand feet below a lot of the resort elevations, we’re in
a somewhat special spot that gets in on part of the upslope snow that the local resorts receive. These snowfall reports aren’t very useful for long-term planning, but they can be helpful if you are actually in Northern Vermont or en route and want information on where north/south/elevation snow lines are located for those events that aren’t snow at all latitudes and altitudes. Others have contributed their Vermont snowfall observations as well, and last season we had a “
Vermont Snow Updates” thread here are First Tracks with timely snowfall updates. I’ll try to cross-post my snowfall/weather observations in a similar format again this season, although I also put them on SkiVT-L and Easteruswx.com. Following along in
the Northern New England-specific threads at easternuswx.com can also be very useful for monitoring precipitation types and valley snowfall amounts in ME/NH/VT.
moresnowplease":6d17r01k said:
I dont know what the roads are like in VT or if you need chains ever. I drove a 4wd but recently sold it. Id like to take advantage of the Ski train this season as i wont have a car.
You won’t have to worry about any chain regulations, although we do keep our chains in the car. They can come in handy in a pinch (they have for us) or if you spend a lot of time in the backcountry and have to travel more back roads or forest service roads etc. However, for major roads and everyday resort travel in the Northeast, you won’t need them. I was going to discuss the car stuff a bit more, but since it sounds like you will be using other options for a while, the car stuff can wait until it’s needed.
-J
