Vermont Snow Updates 2008-09

[flyover]

I'm getting to the point where the Telemark skiing is a big enough part of my life that more than one pair (or at least a "more modern" pair) seems practical

Two things.

First, thanks for the updates. You are performing a valuable public service. I grew up skiing VT and most years I make an annual trip out east to ski because I have family 10 minutes from MRG/Sugarbush. It’s nice to know what’s going on.

Second, beware of upgrading your tele equipment. I’m sure you have already heard this from other tele skiers, but if you are like me (and based on your link to the description of your first tele day, I think you just might be) you might just find it’s a slippery slope (no comments please) away from your alpine gear.

Unlike many of my pinhead friends, I’m no televangelist; IMO there is nothing inherently more virtuous about the dropped-knee turn. I do think, however, that there is a personality type that can find itself very quickly addicted to the free heel.

Several years after I settled in the upper Midwest, I pieced together my first tele rig with ski-swap gear figuring it would make the local hills more interesting and the old-growth, lake-effect, slack and backcountry of the U.P.’s Porcupine “Mountains” more accessible. The plan was to keep skiing the alpine gear on my eastern and western trips. Problem was, I began to resent not having the tele turn in my bag of tricks every time I skied alpine. Pretty soon, I was taking two pairs of gear with me every time I flew east or west. I saved the alpine gear for days when I really wanted to rip (or at least try to rip) Paradise or Rumble or High Rustler or Gun Sight. Pretty soon I started wondering if I really needed alpine gear for the steep and technical. A little experimentation revealed that I did not. As my tele gear wore out or otherwise needed to be replaced, I found it difficult not to succumb to the allure of beefier boots, more active bindings, more “modern” skis, etc. As I did so, I quickly found myself feeling more and more all-terrain and less and less inclined to click into an alpine binding. Pretty soon it was hard to justify the expense of keeping two whole sets of gear. Before I knew it, I was strictly free heel, despite my best intentions to keep skiing the way I had grown up skiing. I think it’s been about a decade at this point. Now that I think about it, most, but not all, of my pinhead friends who transitioned from alpine haven’t gone back either.

Because I live in the Midwest and have not for a long time averaged more than 20 days a season, I have always skied a righteous quiver-of-one since going strictly free heel. At least once or twice a season, I go ass-over-teakettle after hooking a tip in deep powder or crud and think to myself: “that wouldn’t have happened if I had a fixed heel.” But, just as quickly I think to myself, “no, all I really need is a pair of fatties for conditions like this.” Despite my best intentions, I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before I again succumb.

Like I said, beware. :wink:

 

[Tony Crocker]

have not for a long time averaged more than 20 days a season

It's easy to see how JSpin does it, skiing an hour or two practically every day. But how does flyover stay in condition to ski tele at such a high level only 20 days a season?

 

[flyover]

The gym that we belong to has free child care and a running track that’s 6 laps to the mile. I generally get there around 3x a week. About October, I start doing more leg presses and “telewalking” around the track as part of every workout (I’ve talked to a fair number of cyclists that do these too). We bike around the city a lot in the spring, summer, and fall and I also run a couple of times a week in the warmer months.

In the winter, I generally manage to x-country ski at least a couple hours a week and often more. Minneapolis Parks and Rec tracks the city’s three golf courses for skiing during the winter. The nearest option is just blocks from our house and easily skied after dark on weeknights. A 20 minute drive on the weekends gets me to numerous regional parks with hills and woods and well-groomed trails.

To date, I always done relatively well adjusting to altitude. I have no idea why.

The older I get, the more conscientious I have to be about preparing for the ski season. Last year was a little rough. This year I was pleasantly surprised when my legs held up for full days of skiing at MRG on 12/22 (16-20 inches of variable fresh and windslab), 12/23, and 12/24/08 (packed pow and leftovers) and at Sugarbush on 12/26/08 (icy with a few surprising sweet spots).

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 7.4” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 5:00 P.M. EST

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009: 4:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 6.5 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.71 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 9.2
Snow Density: 10.9% H2O
Temperature: 20.7 F
Humidity: 89%
Dew Point: 16.7 F
Barometer: 29.80 in. Hg
Wind: 5-10 MPH
Sky: Snow/Heavy Snow
Storm snow total: 6.5 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.71 inches
Current snow at the stake: 23 inches
Season snowfall total: 122.1 inches

There was very light snow in Burlington when I arrived there this morning around 7:00 A.M., and it certainly increased in intensity throughout the day. I left Burlington at about 2:30 P.M., and checked the accumulation on a car in the parking lot and found just about 3 inches. It didn’t seem like much snow for how long it had been snowing at decent intensity, but it appears to be an issue of flake size and loft. The flakes that were falling were only up to a couple of mm in diameter, and there were needles in there as well. With the small flakes, the snowfall just didn’t look that intense, but as I was leaving I had to wait at a stoplight and in the minute or so that I sat there, the amount of snow that accumulated on my windshield was impressive. It was clearly snowing hard at that point, even if the flakes were rather small. The driving wasn’t too bad; I-89 had clear asphalt in the standard lane, with packed snow in the passing lane. Route 2 was snow packed, with a few inches on the road by the time I got to Washington County. There was some wind, and minor whiteout conditions in the windier parts of the drive. The temperature when I left Burlington was 25 F, and when I arrived in Waterbury around 3:00 P.M. it was around 20 F. I couldn’t believe the amount of water in just the 6.5 inches of snow that collected on the board: 0.71 inches of liquid! It’s hard to imagine us not getting at least an inch of liquid out of this event, even down here in the valley.

I’ll try to make some hourly measurements off the snowboard to get an idea of our snowfall rates this evening.

Time - Storm Total
3:30 P.M.: 6.0”
4:00 P.M.: 6.5”
5:00 P.M.: 7.4”

I added a few images below, the first one was our Waterbury forecast from earlier today; it’s always nice to see two forecast periods with substantial accumulations. The second one was the BTV “Storm Total Forecast” from earlier today, and the third one is a shot of the snowboard before the 4:00 P.M. clearing.

J.Spin

 

[Anthony]

Thanks for the report as will be busting out of the Laurentian hills to ski MRG next Friday . Just hope this winter pattern continues .

 

[rfarren]

Whiteface is getting plastered, and I can't go!!! #-o #-o #-o #-o

 

[icelanticskier]

Thanks for the report as will be busting out of the Laurentian hills to ski MRG next Friday . Just hope this winter pattern continues .

bring yer rock skis. not much base at mrg even after the 20 inches that will fall.
rog

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 11.7” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 11:00 P.M. EST

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009: 10:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 4.2 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.47 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 8.9
Snow Density: 11.2% H2O
Temperature: 23.2 F
Humidity: 94%
Dew Point: 21.0 F
Barometer: 29.44 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Moderate Snow
Storm snow total: 10.7 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 1.18 inches
Current snow at the stake: 26 inches
Season snowfall total: 127.3 inches

Time / Storm Total
3:30 P.M.: 6.0”
4:00 P.M.: 6.5”
5:00 P.M.: 7.4”
6:00 P.M.: 8.7”
7:00 P.M.: 9.3”
8:00 P.M.: 9.6”
9:00 P.M.: 10.1”
10:00 P.M.: 10.7”
11:00 P.M.: 11.7”

Not long after I took the 10:00 P.M. measurements, the snowfall jumped up from moderate to heavy, and we’ve had heavy snow for the past hour as some banding has hit the area. We’ve also got much bigger flakes now, up to 1.5 cm in diameter. We’re well past and inch of liquid from this event, with 1.18 inches down as of the 10:00 P.M. observations, and we’ve also reached our highest snowpack level of the season, with approximately 26 inches at the stake. Our previous high for snowpack was in the 22-inch range reached back on during the December 21-22 event. A couple of 10:00 P.M. images are below:

J.Spin

 

[Patrick]

Thanks for the report as will be busting out of the Laurentian hills to ski MRG next Friday . Just hope this winter pattern continues .

bring yer rock skis. not much base at mrg even after the 20 inches that will fall.
rog

Yeah, MRG conditions really sucked before the storm. :wink: :mrgreen:

 

[flyover]

From the MRG website this morning:

The great snowmaker in the sky has blessed us with 10-12" of fluffy snow from Wednesday’s storm. That amount may change as Patrol gets out and really has a good look. For now, we’ll stick with 10-12” as our total from the storm.

So MRG is calling it 10-12" but reserving the right to call it more later.

Sugarbush is calling it 21" over the last 24 hrs.

Any thoughts?

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Heard through the grapevine that we should all get out and ski over the next three days, because we may have some very unpleasant Wx on Mon and Tues.

Grapevine, are you ready to provide details?

 

[Patrick]

Heard through the grapevine that we should all get out and ski over the next three days, because we may have some very unpleasant Wx on Mon and Tues.

Something big...maybe. Looking how many vacation days I have left and see on the homefront. :-k

 

[J.Spin]

Waterbury Storm Totals: 11.8” snow/1.24” L.E.

Thursday, January 29th, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 1.1 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.06 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 18.3
Snow Density: 5.5% H2O
Temperature: 18.7 F
Humidity: 67%
Dew Point: 6.8 F
Barometer: 29.85 in. Hg
Wind: 0-5 MPH
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Storm snow total: 11.8 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 1.24 inches
Current snow at the stake: 27 inches
Season snowfall total: 127.4 inches

The snowfall shut off pretty quickly last night, with just 1.1 additional inches after the 10:00 P.M. clearing of the snowboard, but the snow came down hard (over 1”/hr) for a while as a band came through. Also, those flakes were notably larger than what I’d seen for much of the rest of the storm, and they built up with better loft as indicated by the 5.5% water content. At 11.8 inches, this was only our 3rd largest snowfall event of the season, but the 1.24 inches of liquid puts it 1st in water content for all-snow/frozen events this season.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 1.5” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 9:00 P.M. EST

Friday, January 30th, 2009: 8:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 1.1 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.03 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 36.7
Snow Density: 2.7% H2O
Temperature: 26.2 F
Humidity: 85%
Dew Point: 20.8 F
Barometer: 29.83 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Flurries
Storm snow total: 1.1 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.03 inches
Current snow at the stake: 26 inches
Season snowfall total: 128.5 inches

I was in my office at UVM finishing up some work and getting ready to catch the 5:22 P.M. bus to Waterbury, when I looked out my window and saw something that seemed strange. There was still a bit of light in the sky, except to the northwest where the sky had gone very black. I could clearly see the black mass of clouds creeping toward our area, and it literally looked like a thunderstorm was approaching. I thought to myself, “What the heck is going to come out of that thing?” It looked so much like a thunderstorm that it was hard to imagine anything but rain coming out of it, but fortunately it was January and it was cold. It was going to be snow. I took a quick peek at the radar and saw a colorful wall approaching us:

I was a little disappointed with the timing of the snow, partially because it might slow down the vehicles on the evening commute, but also because I was going to miss the chance to see what it was like at home when that moisture tried to squeeze its way through and over the wall of the Green Mountains. The snow came in a bit before my bus left, and boy was it coming down; it was probably in the 2 inch per hour range as Scott indicated in his report at Eastern, and there was some wind blowing it around. The intense snowfall slowed down the drive a bit, but there was no previous accumulation on the road and Buddy, our driver, did a great job. I thought the snow might stay right with us as we headed east into the mountains, but by the time we got to Richmond it was totally gone. I couldn’t imagine we’d beaten the squall line to Richmond, so I figured it had died out.

I got to Waterbury and there was nothing at all falling from the sky. I could see the moon and stars as well. However, there was the faintest indication that the moon was starting to disappear as I drove to the house. When I got home, I took another look at the radar, and low and behold the squall line had not died out, it was somehow moving so slowly that it hadn’t even made it to the Chittenden/Washington county line. It didn’t look quite as intense at it had appeared on the radar when it was in the Burlington area, but there were still returns in the 35 db range and it looked like we were due to get hit with it in short order:

I found it amusing that I was going to get dumped on by the same squall line twice!

While we were eating dinner the snow came in, and I noted that it was 6:38 P.M. when it began. The snow came in hard just as it had in Burlington, although we didn’t really have any wind since we’re in a sheltered location. It wasn’t long before it seemed to be tapering off so I popped on my boots to get a measurement. E laughed at me and said “You’re going to measure? It’s only been snowing for 10 minutes!” Actually, it had been 17 minutes, but that’s how hard it had been coming down, there was already plenty of snow to measure. It turned out that we’d picked up 0.7 inches in 17 minutes, which comes in at about 2.5”/hr


The snow stopped after accumulating another few tenths of an inch, but while I was out to finish up clearing the driveway from the midweek storm, it started snowing again. We picked up another four tenths of an inch with light to moderate snow from that episode, and I checked the radar to find that another small band of snow had set up over us in the I-89 area:

Hopefully the mountains will pick up a few inches from this activity to put a fluffy coating on top of the more dense stuff we picked up during the midweek storm, although either way, it looks like the skiing will be fantastic this weekend with all the new snow and comfortable temperatures in the forecast. The intermediate snowfall observations I recorded this evening are listed below:

Time / Storm Total
6:38 P.M.: 0.0”
6:55 P.M.: 0.7”
7:00 P.M.: 1.0”
7:10 P.M.: 1.1”
9:00 P.M.: 1.5”

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

We picked up a fairly impressive amount of water from Wednesday’s storm, with 1.24 inches of liquid equivalent falling even at our place in the Winooski Valley (495’). However, as Powderfreak nicely discussed in one of his SkiVT-L posts, conditions in the upper atmosphere weren’t all that conducive to the growth of fantastic, loft-producing dendrites, and our 1.24 inches of liquid in Waterbury only equated to 11.8 inches of snow. Those numbers indicate an average snow density of 10.5% H2O for the storm, which isn’t all that dense as snow goes, but it’s notably denser than what I’ve typically seen around here in Northern Vermont in the middle of winter, especially in the case of a storm that didn’t involve and mixed precipitation. Temperatures were cold enough that the snow was quite dry, but it was clearly dense. The upshot of this type of snow is that it is fantastic for building base, even if it isn’t the Champlain™ Powder that many people crave.

With the snow density in mind, I headed up to the mountain with my alpine fats, figuring the powder skiing might be tricky in the dense snow. I arrived up at the Bolton Valley Village area (2,100’) to a temperature of 13 F, and there was still a little wind around. At first glance I had to ask myself if there had even been a significant storm on the mountain, as everywhere I looked I could see what appeared to be old snowbanks with no new snow on them, trees devoid of any sort of coating, and slopes that didn’t look anything like powder.

I strapped on my skis and started skinning up Beech Seal under the Mid Mountain Lift, and couldn’t believe the condition of the snow. The usual trails were groomed of course, but even the groomed snow seemed like it was more dense that after a fresh snowfall. Off piste I could see that all the new snow had been blasted into some sort of sculpted Styrofoam stuff that really didn’t resemble powder. The snow was packed down so thoroughly that I skinned straight up Beech Seal instead of taking my usual powder day route around on Sprig O’ Pine. I was beginning to wonder if the skiing was really going to be much fun, but once I got to mid mountain and found places that were out of the wind, things were looking up. The snow was clearly more dense than usual, but where the wind hadn’t affected the snow there was plenty of powder. The mountain was reporting an 18-inch storm total, which seemed in line with what other resorts around the area were indicating. I decided to head to a nicely sheltered area and opted for a trip to the Villager Woods. I found that coverage was excellent – a chute that drops into the area had had barely enough coverage when Ty and I visited it a couple of weeks ago, and now it was filled wall to wall. There were very few spots in the Villager Woods area that had caught much wind, so the skiing was undisturbed in that regard. I was glad I’d brought my fat skis however, since I think they helped in the dense snow. Overall I’d say this was more of a base-building storm than a fantastic powder storm based on local standards, but the skiing should be great this weekend. We picked up a bit of fluff down in the valley this evening, and if the mountains got a few inches out of it that will make a nice covering over the great base. A few shots from yesterday are below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 1.5” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:00 A.M. EST

Saturday, January 31st, 2009: 7:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.4 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.01 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 40.0
Snow Density: 2.5% H2O
Temperature: 26.2 F
Humidity: 85%
Dew Point: 20.6 F
Barometer: 29.85 in. Hg
Wind: 0-5 MPH
Sky: Cloudy
Storm snow total: 1.5 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.04 inches
Current snow at the stake: 26 inches
Season snowfall total: 128.9 inches

We didn’t appear to pick up anything beyond the 1.5 inches from last nights snow down here in the valley, but the higher elevations look to have done well and it sounds there’s still decent snow coming down in some of the mountains. At around 7:20 A.M., light snow even started up down here in the valley, so perhaps I’ll have a bit more accumulation to report later. Here are the overnight totals reported by the local resorts, north to south:

Jay Peak: 6”
Smuggler’s: 6”
Stowe: 7”
Bolton: 6”
Mad River: 8”
Sugarbush: 7”
Killington: 5”
Okemo: 0”
Bromley: 0”
Magic: 0”
Stratton: 4”
Mount Snow: 2”

This event seemed to be concentrated in the north, but there are some accumulations reported in the southern half of the state, the highest at this point appears to be 4 inches down at Stratton. This powder is the more typical Northern Vermont fluff based on my liquid analyses, so it should be a nice topping on Wednesday’s snow. I’m planning to head up to the mountain and I’ll have a conditions report later.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 1.6” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 12:00 P.M. EST

Saturday, January 31st, 2009: 12:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.1 inches
Liquid Equivalent: N.D.
Snow/Water Ratio: N.D.
Snow Density: N.D.
Temperature: 19.9 F
Humidity: 52%
Dew Point: 2.6 F
Barometer: 29.88 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Partly Cloudy
Storm snow total: 1.6 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.04 inches
Current snow at the stake: 26 inches
Season snowfall total: 129.0 inches

We picked up just a tenth of an inch of new snow from this morning’s snow shower activity, to bring this event to 1.6 inches of accumulation. I was initially expecting this day to be in the 20s F, and fairly mild on the mountain, but that wasn’t the case. Ty and I got up to the Bolton Valley Village (~2,100’) between 8:30 and 9:00 A.M., and it was still cold – at around 9:30 A.M. the thermometer at the bottom of the Mid Mountain Lift (~2,150’) was reading just 11 F. It never really warmed up much during the day, but the new snow was great. The mountain was reporting 6 inches at the summit (3,150’) and when I checked with my measurement pole I found about 4-5 new inches in the mid mountain area (2,500’). It was fairly easy to tell which snow was new because last night’s snow was feather light, and it sat on top of the more dense stuff from the midweek system. With the new snowfall overnight, the snow depth at the stake on Mt. Mansfield hit 74 inches today, which is its highest level this season. The overnight snow also brought us to over 50 inches of snowfall for the month at our location in Waterbury, and unless we get any snow this evening, the current January total of 50.9 inches will be where we end up for the month. I’ve added updated snowfall and snowpack plots below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Friday night’s 6 inches of fluff on top of Wednesday’s 18 inches of ~10% H2O denser snow set the table for at least some decent powder skiing, even if it wasn’t likely to be epic. With that in mind, Ty and I headed up to the mountain fairly early and got to the village in the 8:30 to 9:00 A.M. time range. I hadn’t paid extremely close attention to the forecast for a couple of days, but last I’d seen it looked like the temperatures were going to be as high as the 20s F. I suspect the forecast changed at some point, because it was notably colder than that. The sun was often out, but a brisk wind in the open areas of the higher elevations seemed to counteract much of its warmth.

Ty and I strolled up to the Snowflake lift, and unlike the dense snow-covered, wind-blasted landscape I’d seen at the base area on Thursday morning, it was looking much more like a powder morning. It was interesting to note that we heard a couple of the lift operators discussing how people were complaining on Thursday that the mountain had groomed too much – and it seemed that they were making sure they were going to remedy things for this powder day. We immediately found several inches of beautiful champagne over the previously groomed surface of Sprig O’ Pine. We did another couple of runs with some lower mountain woods, and found nice powder conditions. I checked the depth of the overnight snow at mid mountain (2,500’) and found about 4 to 5 new inches there. We were meeting Dave at 10:00 A.M., so we decided to head into the lodge and warm up - the thermometer at the bottom of the Mid Mountain Lift was still reading 11 F as of about 9:30 A.M.

We met up with Dave and headed off to the Villager Woods, where the snow was untracked and bottomless. We did introduce him to the Wood’s Hole Glades as well before I had to get Ty back down to the house for a birthday party with his friends. Dave stayed up on the mountain, and in the afternoon I went back up for another session with him, and we spend the rest of the afternoon in the Villager Woods. We checked out a bunch of new lines that nobody had touched, and I’m sure we’ll get back in there again. Some pictures from the day are below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Yesterday the weather was expected to be relatively mild, and the snowpack is in nice shape (plenty of new snow and 70+ inches at the stake), so Dylan and I joined E and Ty at Stowe for some turns. We didn’t get around into the powder like we did on Saturday at Bolton, but I can say that the groomed and ungroomed surfaces at Spruce were excellent. The packed powder is super soft after over two feet from the Wednesday and Friday snowfall events, and finding signs of ice was pretty much impossible. I only skied the bottom half of Spruce, and I’m sure there’s some sort of hard snow somewhere out there, but darned if I could find it. The conditions were about as care free as one could want, and temperatures in the Spruce Base area were probably up around 30 F. The huge open expanse of terrain on the bottom half of Spruce really is great for learning (as I found out with Dylan); each run you can slowly work your way over a few feet to the next line and gradually build up from green circles all the way to black diamond pitch.

I wasn’t too surprised by the snow conditions, but I was not expecting what I found at Stowe’s new base lodge facility at Spruce. This was my first time over at Spruce since the Spruce Camp opened up, and I was blown away by what they’ve done there. It’s literally on a scale (both in terms of size and class), that is comparable with what I’ve seen in day or mid mountain lodges anywhere in the country, even places like Deer Valley, Whistler, or Moonlight Basin. They have a fantastic new changing area downstairs that has plenty of space to spread out, and rows upon rows of free day lockers with electronic key pad locks. It was a nice environment for all the kids and parents to gather and get changed. We had lunch upstairs in the cafeteria, and it’s quite snazzy, with real silverware and attendants bussing tables etc. There are several different stations for getting various types of food, but we’d already brought our own food and I didn’t have a chance to see them all. Like downstairs, another nice touch in the cafeteria is the fact that they didn’t try to crowd a million tables into a space that’s too small for them, there’s generally plenty of space to walk past any table, even if the person has their chair out. I wish other ski areas would take this approach sometimes. Stowe certainly seems to be putting in some big time destination-style facilities at Spruce; hopefully they can keep people visiting the mountain during this economic downturn. In terms of destination visitors, I did hear a lot of Brits around, which seems typical. They certainly were getting treated to some nice snow conditions on their holidays.

Dylan and I will probably be visiting Stowe more this season with Ty and E as long as the conditions are decent, so it will be interesting to find out more about the facilities. I know Mansfield is the big draw of Stowe, but I’d recommend a quick trip on the Easy Over to check out the Spruce Base area if you find yourself at the resort; it’s certainly worth a look.

I don’t really have any conditions-specific shots from the day, but I did get a few shots from around the Spruce base area:

J.Spin

 

[jamesdeluxe]

When I first scanned through your new photos, I didn't see the "Stowe" mention up top and I was thinking... wow, Bolton Valley has put some money into its base area!