Vermont Snow Updates 2008-09

[Tony Crocker]

My question for JSpin relates to the timing and frequency of snowfall measurements. My understanding from the Mt. Baker world record was that NWS/NOAA requires snowfall to be measured either once or twice a day. Most ski areas measure ~6AM and some measure one other time.

The WCAX Mansfield Stake snowfall is measured once a day at 4PM. This is independent data, no motivation to fudge, covers a very long time period and averages something like 235 inches per season. Most of agree that by ski area standards Mt. Mansfield at 3,950 feet ought to be in the 300 inch range. So this strikes me as a huge variation due to reporting methodology.

So if JSpin is often measuring snowfall 4x per day, it does not surprise me that his numbers look high.

 

[J.Spin]

My question for JSpin relates to the timing and frequency of snowfall measurements. My understanding from the Mt. Baker world record was that NWS/NOAA requires snowfall to be measured either once or twice a day. Most ski areas measure ~6AM and some measure one other time.

Yes, I’ve always wondered why the regular NWS/NOAA CO-OP guidelines that allow for four measurements a day would not apply to that Mt. Baker record. Here’s a quote from the guidelines page:

“Measure and record the greatest amount of snowfall that has accumulated on your snowboard (wooden deck or ground if board is not available) since the previous snowfall observation. This measurement should be taken minimally once-a-day but can be taken up to four times a day, (every 6 hours) and should reflect the greatest accumulation of new snow observed (in inches and tenths, for example, 3.9 inches) since the last snowfall observation.”

Perhaps some stations are classified differently? Do the guidelines not apply to potential records? That Mt. Baker issue has seemed strange to me ever since I looked into the guidelines and began making my own measurements. Perhaps Powderfreak knows something about it.

The WCAX Mansfield Stake snowfall is measured once a day at 4PM. This is independent data, no motivation to fudge, covers a very long time period and averages something like 235 inches per season. Most of agree that by ski area standards Mt. Mansfield at 3,950 feet ought to be in the 300 inch range. So this strikes me as a huge variation due to reporting methodology.

Yeah, as we’ve discussed before, the snowfall numbers from the stake probably have a few factors depressing the totals relative that what they might be, or in terms of comparison to what other areas might be reporting:

1) They’re measuring only once a day.
2) They measure in the afternoon instead of the morning, essentially maximizing any heat-of-the-day-induced settling/melting.
3) I’m not even sure if they’re using a snowboard to measure snowfall, or if they’re simply reporting the snowfall as the difference on the gauge between days. The biggest way in which this would depress snowfall totals is that the new snow that falls may be compressing the snowfall below it, thus decreasing the difference recorded between readings. This effect would be most prominent when the snow at the stake is not consolidated, but wouldn’t be a problem if the snowpack is hardened. Also, I don’t believe the Mansfield stake has indicators for tenths of inches, so if measurements are being done in this manner, I’m not sure if they’re losing that information. If they’re rounding equally up or down to the nearest inch, it should essentially work out, but if they’re only rounding down to the nearest inch, then they would be losing up to an inch of snowfall at each measurement.

I’ve been up to the stake and had a look, and there was no obvious snowboard or anything else around. However, they do report liquid equivalent, so they must have some sort of rain gauge around somewhere. Perhaps they have a snowboard or other snow collection device in that area.

So if JSpin is often measuring snowfall 4x per day, it does not surprise me that his numbers look high.

Although I’d like to make four measurements a day, on most days I’m actually making two snowfall measurements, one in the morning at 6:00 A.M. before I head off to work, and then another at 6:00 P.M. once I’m home. To make a third measurement on those days I need to be up until midnight, which will sometimes happen if I’m working on something, or if we’re in the midst of a storm that is intriguing enough to do so, but often the post-6:00 P.M. snowfall won’t be measured until the morning. It’s really days that I’m out of my regular schedule when I get to make the full four measurements. So that will typically be weekends, holidays, or substantial storms that prompt me to change my schedule for skiing, having time to clear the driveway with the snow thrower, avoiding the worst travel periods etc. Obviously my snowfall numbers would be a bit higher if I could nail every six hour interval like the NWS, but I suspect my numbers are pretty close. One of these seasons I really want to track 24-hour snowfall accumulations along with my intermediate ones to see how they differ, but it’s already enough work to get the data I do have. I’ve got another couple of snowboards, I’d just have to get rigorous about maintaining another one for 24-hour measurements. Even with our upslope snowfall, which seems to show the most settling in my experience, I wonder if the difference between 6 and 24-hour measurements would be more than 10-20%, but I won’t know for sure until I try it.

-J

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 3.8” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:30 A.M. EST

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009: 7:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 3.2 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.08 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 40.0
Snow Density: 2.5%
Temperature: 31.6 F
Humidity: 90%
Dew Point: 28.0 F
Barometer: 30.33 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light Snow
Storm snow total: 3.2 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.08 inches
Current snow at the stake: 11 inches
Season snowfall total: 176.3 inches

The BTV NWS had certainly been indicating that there would be some snow with this frontal passage, but their numbers suggested it would be rather inconsequential, especially for the valleys. Nobody else in the community seemed to be talking about snow, and with the NWS discussion suggesting the following (even as of the 4:02 A.M. update this morning):

“LOOKING FOR WESTERN SLOPES/HIR ELEV TO SEE BEST CHANCES FOR ACCUM (UP TO 2 INCHES)...W/ VALLEY LOCALES SEEING A DUSTING AT MOST.”

…I didn’t expect we’d see much of anything down at the house. I got a little more encouraged yesterday up at Bolton Valley when Stephen said he’d been talking with one of the lift operators about some overnight snow, but I left it at that, figuring I’d see what happened in the morning.

After almost two weeks without fresh snow, I’d nearly forgotten what a fresh snow morning looked, sounded, and felt like, but even before opening the blinds this morning, I could tell that the outside light had that snowy morning appearance due to the color and intensity of the light, and sounds were a bit muffled. I was really surprised to see so much snow outside though; there was far more than just a dusting, and it was still snowing. I could tell that there were at least a couple inches on the snowboard, and with no wind the new snow had really settled on the trees. The new snow even helped bolster the ailing snowpack in the yard, which had been dropping by about an inch per day over the past week or so. Despite temperatures just below the freezing mark, this new snow settled in with very low density, and it looks like it’s going to get topped off with some more fluff because since clearing the snowboard the snowfall has increased in flake size (diameters greater than 0.5”) and been borderline moderate in intensity at times. There was already another 0.6 inches of snow on the board when I checked it around 7:30 A.M.

Here are the snow totals I’ve seen so far this morning from some of the Northern Vermont ski areas along the spine; the list is north to south as usual. I can tell that some of the resorts have already been updating their totals this morning on SkiVermont.com because I’ve been watching their numbers increase since the earliest measurements:

Jay Peak: 4”
Smugg’s: 6”
Stowe: 5”
Bolton: 3”
Mad River: 1”
Sugarbush: 1”

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 4.7” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 11:00 A.M. EST

It’s been snowing pretty steadily around here so I figured a mid morning weather update was in order. By the time I left the house (495’) this morning at around 8:00 A.M., the temperature had already crept above freezing to around 33 F, but it was still snowing lightly. However, up on the mountain in the Bolton Valley Village area (~2,100’) the snowfall rate was moderate to heavy and the temperature was 27 F. I headed straight up to the Vista Summit (3,150’) where the snow accumulations had been affected somewhat by the wind. It didn’t look like the winds had been too strong, but enough to push snow off the hardened spring snow in exposed areas. I checked a couple of my usual sheltered spots for snow accumulation and found in the range of 6 to 9 inches, although clearly some had settled in there from the wind. I then descended all the way down to the Timberline Base (~1,500’) and noted the snow accumulations along the way. It turned out that Timberline was the place to be, as the accumulations almost appeared to go up as I descended, presumably due to sheltering from the wind. There were a good 4 to 5 inches of new snow at roughly the 2,000’ elevation, and whether due to flake structure of wind, its density was not the same airy stuff we had picked up down at the house. In places with no obvious wind affect, the snow came across as being in the medium to light range of density, probably 6 to 8% H2O. As far as snowfall went, it was always at least light to moderate, and sometimes it was moderate to heavy. They definitely picked up more snow in the hour or two that I was on the mountain, and it was tough to pull myself away because when I was leaving at around 10:00 A.M. it was dumping in the 1 to 2 inch/hour range. The temperature was still at 27 F in the village when I left, and at the base of the access road (340’) it was at 29 F. I was surprised to find that a few miles to the east it was actually in the mid 30s at the house according to my outdoor thermometer, but as of 11:00 A.M. we’ve got steady moderate snow here comprised of big flakes in the ~0.5” diameter range. The temperature here is probably slowing down our accumulation compared to what the mountains are getting, but the event accumulation is up to 4.7 inches in this location. I’ll be up at Stowe this afternoon and I’ll be able to provide some info from there; if they’re getting hammered anywhere near as hard as Bolton was this morning, the skiing should be pretty decent. Some updated accumulations for the local resorts are listed (north to south)below:

Jay Peak: 7”
Smugg’s: 6”
Stowe: 5”
Bolton: 5”
Mad River: 1”
Sugarbush: 1”

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Waterbury Event Summary: 4.7” snow/0.14” liquid equivalent

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009: 7:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 1.5 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.06 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 25.0
Snow Density: 4.0%
Temperature: 27.9 F
Humidity: 41%
Dew Point: 6.7 F
Barometer: 30.36 in. Hg
Wind: <5 MPH
Sky: Clear
Storm snow total: 4.7 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.14 inches
Current snow at the stake: 11 inches
Season snowfall total: 177.8 inches

Around midday today we headed up to Stowe, and it whereas yesterday the lower elevation valleys from Waterbury through Morrisville were probably about 50/50 on snow coverage, this morning they were all white again. The snowfall and clouds were already clearing out in the valleys as we were driving to Stowe, but at the mountain one could see that there was some sun combined with a bit of snowfall as the terrain and moisture tried to battle it out. It was 27 F when we arrived at the Spruce Peak base area (~1,500’) around 12:30 P.M. There were some periods of gusty wind, but it wasn’t too much of a hassle because with the March sun and fairly mild temperatures it seemed like the wind was only half-heartedly try to chill you down. I’d say there were about 4 inches or so of new accumulation at the Spruce Peak base elevations. Up on Mansfield we found about 6 to 8 inches of fresh powder in the Perry Merrill area around the 3,000’ elevation. We hung out at the lodge for a while with some friends after the lifts shut down, and did a little more hiking/sledding/skiing etc. and when we finally left at around 6:30 P.M. or so you could see that much of the new snow in the lower-elevation mountain valleys had melted in the sun. In sunny places that had no base the snow was completely gone, although in shadier places some of the new snow was still present atop the spring snowpack. I’m not sure if we accumulated any more than the 1.5 inches of snow at the house since the snowboard clearing this morning, but everything was settled down to about a half inch or so due to the warming of the day. I still took a couple of core samples for analysis, which revealed that we picked up an additional 0.06 inches of liquid equivalent during the day to bring the storm total to 0.14 inches of liquid in this location. I also melted down the contents of my rain gauge, which was able to capture 0.13 inches of liquid from the event, so that was pretty close to what the snow cores indicated. I’ve updated the storm totals reported by the local mountains, which are listed below in the order of north to south along the spine:

Jay Peak: 7”
Smugg’s: 6”
Stowe: 8”
Bolton: 5”
Mad River: 5”
Sugarbush: 5”
Killington: 3”

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Yesterday was yet another clear one in our surprisingly long stretch of sunny March days. The forecast suggested that afternoon highs would be around 40, so I was hoping that it would be enough to get the snow softened up to corn. My mom had been hoping to ski with the boys at some point this season, so when it looked like the warming would be decent enough, we called her up and she came over to the house. Between ticket vouchers and a surprisingly good fit with some of E’s alpine equipment, she was good to hit the mountain without too much hassle. The temperature was 40 F at house when we headed up to the mountain around 1:00 P.M., and in terms of conditions it turned out to be an amazing copy of the previous Saturday (March 15th). The temperatures weren’t quite warm enough to corn up everything, but fortunately enough areas went over to corn to make for some good turns. In the areas that weren’t corn the snow surface was of course whatever state it had been in overnight, which wasn’t all that soft. We joined up with Stephen and Johannes for several runs, and had a relaxing break in the lodge during the middle of the afternoon. All in all it was pretty quiet, and there were just a few folks in the Timberline Lodge. Ty was on his Telemark skis again, and we did a lot of drifting drills working on his balance in the Telemark stance. He shows improvement in his Telemark technique each outing, and it seems like the drifting is working; perhaps because he has so much fun with it. As the afternoon wore on the sun began to get a little hazy as clouds started to build in with the front that was expected to bring a bit of snow, and some spots on the trails started to firm up as the sun faded. In the evening we headed up to a Tapas pot luck party put on by some friends up in Hyde Park, and I got to see the general state of the snowpack on the route from Waterbury. For the most part the valley areas like Stowe and Morrisville seemed to have a similar snowpack to what I’ve seen in Waterbury, with probably 50/50 coverage or so. However, once we rose up into the heights of Hyde Park the snowpack increased. Up at our friend’s place, which seems to be somewhere over 1,400’ in elevation, there were a few bare areas, but still a boatload of snow. Snow is still halfway up some of the windows on the house, and I snapped a picture of their van that they said had just recently become visible again from under the snow. The temperature was already down to 32 F when we were leaving Hyde Park after dinner, and 29.8 F when we got back at house in Waterbury. At that point I wasn’t expecting much snow with the coming front, but at least it looked like the temperatures were going to be getting down enough to give us a shot at some even in the valleys. A few pictures from the day are below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

The temperatures warmed up enough on Saturday that we were able to find some decent corn snow up at Bolton Valley, but as I continued to monitor the forecast discussion from the National Weather Service in Burlington, the potential for finding some soft surfaces for skiing on Sunday was looking rather dubious. The forecast was calling for perhaps a couple inches of snow in the local mountains, and just a dusting in the valleys as a front moved through. More importantly, the weather was going to feature substantial cloudiness, and temperatures were expected to even drop in the afternoon. With overnight temperatures below freezing hardening up the snowpack at all elevations, it was not a good recipe for soft snow surfaces in the morning. We had to be up at Stowe for skiing in the afternoon, but I wasn’t really looking forward to what the snow was going to be like, and I certainly didn’t have any motivation to hit the slopes early.

But then Sunday morning came, and things went a little differently than planned. I woke up sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 A.M., and even with the windows covered I could tell that at least a little new snow had fallen. The world outside had that lighting associated with fresh snowfall, and the dead giveaway was the way exterior sounds were muffled. I figured that we’d perhaps picked up more than our dusting, and when I looked at the snowboard it was obvious. I measured the new accumulation on the snowboard, which indicated that we’d already picked up over 3 inches of new snow in the valley, and it was still snowing. I checked the snow reports and found that some of the local resorts were already approaching a half foot of fresh powder, and after our recent dry spell that amount of accumulation was more than enough to get me invigorated to head up to the slopes.

The boys hadn’t been up too long, but I at least checked in with them about coming out for some early powder turns with me. Dylan was pretty quick with a no, and Ty soon followed suit; they just couldn’t be pulled away from their Wii. Even though they knew they’d be doing some skiing in the afternoon at Stowe, I still say those guys still need to get their priorities straight on a powder day after a dry spell. E had to get some stuff done at the house, but the boys had no excuse. So, up I headed to the mountain alone. It was a bit before 8:30 A.M. as I passed by the Timberline Lift, sitting there spinning by itself with nobody in sight. I was tempted to just stop right in there and hop on, but I couldn’t remember if they were opening it at 8:30 or 9:00 A.M. that morning. I have to remember to check that carefully in the morning snow report. I decided that I’d hit the main mountain and head up to the Vista Summit to see how the snow had accumulated in the highest elevations, and then make my decisions from there. From light snow and a temperature of 33 F down at the house (495’), the temperature had dropped down to 27 F in the Bolton Valley Village (2,100’) and moderate to heavy snow was falling.

Up at the Vista Summit (3,150’) it was clear that there had been some wind to affect the snow deposition, but I checked a couple of my usual wind sheltered spots and found in the range of 6 to 9 inches of new snow. I suspect those accumulations were a little drifted, but it gave me the idea of what was out there. It didn’t look like the snow accumulations were overly elevation dependent, so I decided to descend all the way down to Timberline and check out the snow in that area. The depth of the new powder almost seemed to increase as I descended, mostly due to the fact that it was less and less affected by the wind. By the time I’d reached sure shot in the ~2,000’ elevation range, the snow was looking really good. I’d found a consistent 4 to 5 inches of undisturbed powder, and compared to what I’d seen off Vista it was obvious that Timberline was the place to be. As I cruised to the lift I saw a couple of tracks on Spellbinder, and the snow was looking really good. Based on my experiences from Saturday, I knew Spellbinder had a nice flat base layer so I decided to make it my destination. The Timberline area was deserted, as in there was just me and Cameron, my lift operator. I did see a couple of cars in the Timberline parking lot, so I guess there had to be a couple other people skiing, but I didn’t know where they were at that point. The storm was definitely a sleeper that snuck up on most folks, and that probably kept the early morning visitors to even lower levels than usual.

At the top of Spellbinder there was a bit of wind, but not much drifting. I dove into the steep headwall and let loose with some big long Tele GS turns in the powder. It wasn’t quite deep enough to be totally bottomless on the pitch, but it was pretty darned sweet. Once I got into the more intermediate pitches in the middle of the trail I shortened up my turns and it was definitely some “Yee Haa!” snow, as I think I heard myself shout out something to that effect at times. The powder was reasonably dry, but feeling in the 6 to 8% H2O range it wasn’t ultra light and was certainly enough to get me floating for a lot of the time on the intermediate pitches. I knew the snow was decent when I started to feel it up above my knee pads on my dropped knee for turn after turn after turn. My quads were starting to get cooked by the bottom of the run but I couldn’t wait to do it again. I stopped in at the lift, gave Cameron the thumbs up, and said “Spellbinder”. He knew, and said that that was exactly where he was going when he had his break. I told him there were only three tracks on it and I’d do my best to conserve a bunch of snow for him. Back up I went, and while I hadn’t gotten first tracks on Spellbinder (perhaps it was patrol that got there first) I did manage third… and fourth… and fifth… before a snowboarder finally arrived and decided to give it a go. I figured that was my signal to check out something else, and when I boarded the lift there was a new operator, so I hoped that Cameron was getting his tracks. I checked out Tattle Tale from the top of Timberline, and it was decent, but had caught a little more wind up top and couldn’t quite match what Spellbinder had.

After that run I figured it was time to think about heading back to the main mountain to head home, but as I was descending toward the village the snowfall started to really come on again in the inch per hour range. It had been heavy at times throughout the morning, but it seemed to mean business at that point. It was enough to convince me to stay for another run off the Snowflake Lift. I caught some nice turns in the Foxy and Bentley areas and finally ran it out to the car. The snowfall picked up even more when I was back at the car and was somewhere in the 1 to 2 inch per hour range. It was tough to leave as I watched the car next to mine get pummeled, but at least I was leaving for more skiing. I hoped that Stowe was getting hit with snow as hard as Bolton, because it was going to make for a fun afternoon. A couple pictures from the morning have been added below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

After catching some morning powder runs up at Bolton Valley, I came back down to the house a bit before 11:00 A.M. and filled E and the boys in on what was going on up on the mountain. It had been absolutely dumping snow in the 1 to 2 inch per hour range at the village (2,100’) when I’d left, and since we were heading to Stowe in the afternoon we were hoping that Mt. Mansfield and Spruce Peak were getting in on the action. In the late morning it was actually still snowing moderately at the house with some nice fat flakes coming down, but it wasn’t accumulating very quickly since the temperature was in the mid 30s F. We had still picked up another 1.5 inches of snow on the snowboard though, bringing our valley accumulation to 4.7 inches.

E was giving one of the BJAMS students his first snowboarding lesson in the afternoon, which meant that she wouldn’t be able to have either Ty or Dylan in her group, and with their differing abilities there wasn’t any group that would really be a good fit for both of them. We’ve been pretty good about getting Ty to ski with a variety of groups up to this point in the season, so it seemed like a good day for me to just take the two boys out together by myself. Knowing that it was going to be a powder day, I was surprised that Ty indicated strongly that he wanted to be on his Telemark gear. I was actually contemplating letting the boys hike up a bit above the gondola and ski some of the climbing gully for a taste of what was up there, and I was thinking his alpine gear would be the way to go. But Ty knew what he was doing in choosing his Telemark gear for the day. Although I didn’t know it (and apparently he did), his past couple of sessions on his Tele gear were really setting him up for a breakout day on free heels.

We got to Spruce and found a temperature of 27 F along with a mixture of sun and snowfall as we spent our first several runs there. The new snow, which was probably in the range of 4 inches or so at the Spruce Base, had been enough to set up a nice packed powder surface on many of the groomed runs. There were still some areas where the hard spring snow was evident because of traffic or wind, but I was very impressed with how nicely many of the surfaces had been coated by a relatively minor snowfall event.

We caught some good packed powder and powder turns on some of the mid mountain trails off the Sunny Spruce Quad, but some of the most exciting turns of the day turned out to be right down on Easy Street. Ty started to really get grooving and began to connect some bona fide Telemark turns that were much deeper than the paramark turns that he often makes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, or how quickly it just started to click for him. He certainly wasn’t nailing every turn, especially when he was on some double fall line terrain where he would favor one side, but he was clearly putting angulation, ski placement, edging, and weight distribution into a workable package. E said that she didn’t expect him to get to that stage until next season, and not having a clue about how younger kids progress on Telemark gear, I had no idea how long it was going to take him to get there. But as I saw the initial turns start to flow, I realized that for Ty it was now inevitable that he was going to be linking Telemark turns in the near future. He wasn’t going to be waiting until next season… he was doing it this season. I’m not sure exactly what he though was going to happen on Sunday in terms of his progression, but I now understand why he insisted on going Tele instead of Alpine. We hung out for several runs off the Easy Street Double Chair, and managed to do a couple runs with E and her snowboarding student so that Ty could show her what he was doing on his skis and get some pointers. I almost hated to pull Ty away from Easy Street the way things were going, but we wanted to catch some powder over on Mansfield and I figured he’d still be able to work on his turns over there.

Over on Mansfield I took the boys all around in the Perry Merrill, Gondolier and Switchback areas. Up around 3,000’ there were a nice 6 to 8 inches of fresh powder, and with the sun out it was simply amazing to think about the dust on crust that would have been there if the mountains hadn’t grabbed all that moisture. I took the boys through lots of trees, and even into the Chin Clip streambed, although I brought them back out above the big roped off drop because I wasn’t sure what it was going to be like down in that area. Ty even began to hit some deeper Telemark turns in the powder, which was really fun to watch. Dylan was enjoying the powder as well, and was looking more and more comfortable with his poles. It’s really nice to see how much more mobile Dylan can be with the aid of his poles.

Eventually we headed back to the Spruce Peak Base area, and I had enough time to head up with Ty for one more run and get some video as he worked on his Telemark turns. One of the most enjoyable parts of the afternoon was watching how much fun he was having as he played with the turns. After the lifts closed, we hung out and had dinner upstairs at the Great Room Grill with some of the other families. It was pretty much just our group in the Spruce Camp Bar area, and the facilities felt very homey even if they’re a bit snazzier than some of the other lodges. Most of the kids went up and hiked/sledded/skied on West Slope, and I even joined Ty for a couple of runs up there. Thanks in part to the new snow, it was a really great afternoon where Stowe delivered on many fronts once again. Some pictures from the day and a bit of video with Ty working on his Telemark turns have been added below:

[video]vimeo.com/3842862[/video]

J.Spin

 

[Tony Crocker]

More amazing kid pictures, leaving the rest of us ski parents farther in the dust every season. The tele video was interesting. I see Ty doing the same kind of "telepine" turns I was doing in that lesson at Crested Butte during NASJA 2007. But he's much more confident and skiing way faster. And as we all marvel at Ty's already near-expert ski skills, let's not forget that Dylan is skiing with poles and in powder before his 4th birthday.

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 0.8” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:30 A.M. EST

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.10 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 6.0
Snow Density: 16.7%
Temperature: 33.6 F
Humidity: 98%
Dew Point: 32.9 F
Barometer: 30.21 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light/Moderate Snow
Storm snow total: 0.6 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.10 inches
Current snow at the stake: <1 inch
Season snowfall total: 178.4 inches

I happened to take a look outside last night between 10:00 and 11:00 P.M. and noticed that it was raining moderately, but snow was starting to mix in even down at this elevation. It was in the mid 30s F at the time, but I figured if the temperature kept coming down there might be some accumulation. That was the case this morning as the whole yard has a new white coating instead of the just the leftover spring snow areas. Mt. Washington picked up 5 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, but I haven’t seen any reports out of the local Vermont mountains yet this morning.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

I’ll put together some pictures later, but here’s a quick mountain weather update from this morning. With 0.8 inches of snow this morning at the house (495’), I headed up to the mountain to see how things had gone up there. At the base of the Bolton Valley access road (340’) there was just an irregular coating of snow on parts of the ground and nothing on the trees. However, only about 100-150 feet higher (elevation ~500’), as soon as I topped the first steep pitch of the road… BAM! Everything, the ground, the trees, it all turned white. It was one of the more tight snow lines I’ve seen recently. Consistent with that tight snow line, the depths of the new snow increased rapidly as I went up in elevation. I initially wasn’t sure how much snow there would be up high, but as I started seeing cars come down the access road with what looked like a half foot of snow on them, I figured that the mountain had received a good shot of the white stuff. Up at the Bolton Valley Village area (2,100’) the temperature was 29 F and I found 5 new inches on the ground at around 7:30 A.M. Then up at the mid mountain elevation (2,500’) I measured 6 inches of snow. There had been some wind up above that level, but in undisturbed areas I found about 6 to 8 inches above that point up to around 3,000’. Bolton Valley’s snow report from today says 8 new inches, so that seems pretty consistent with what I observed. The new snow was dense at those elevations, but not wet. It was probably in the 10-12% range, sort of like freshly-fallen Sierra cement stuff, and it did a nice job of covering up the old spring snow base. When I was leaving the mountain, at around 10:00 A.M. the temperature in the village was 31 F, about 34 F at the bottom of the access road, and then 39 F in Burlington. The low, tight, snow line was really cool driving through the Winooski Valley this morning, and I got a few pictures of that as well. I didn’t have a chance to see any of the local Vermont ski resort totals before I headed up early to the mountain, but here are some that I’ve seen as of this afternoon, listed north to south along the spine:

Jay Peak: 2”
Smugg’s: 6”
Stowe: 5”
Bolton: 8”
Mad River: 3”
Sugarbush: 2”
Killington: 2”
Okemo: 3”

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Based on earlier forecasts, this week’s Monday/Tuesday period had shown promise for some snow, so I’d mentally penciled it in as something to watch. It didn’t look like anything too outrageous, but with the way this March has been unusually warm and dry, it would have to suffice. However, as time went on, the idea of a snow event seemed to diminish, and even the Burlington NWS was making little mention of snow as of Monday. It wasn’t until Monday evening at some point between 10 and 11 P.M. when I realized that the snow might actually be coming. I happened to look outside before heading off to bed, and saw that we were receiving a steady, moderate rain. More importantly though, I noticed that big fat snowflakes were starting to mix in with the rain. I checked the outdoor temperature, which indicated that we were at 35.8 F. That certainly wasn’t all that cold for accumulating snow, but if snow was already mixing in all the way down to our location in the Winooski Valley (495’) then it was likely that the mountains had been getting snow for a while. I popped on the BTV composite radar and saw a big mass of moisture smashed up against the spine of the Green Mountains in the Bolton/Mansfield area. It had that look that said powder could be coming.

In the morning I awoke and wondered if we were in for another valley surprise like we’d had back on the 22nd, where we ended up getting 4.7 inches of snow at the house. I lay there and listened to what I could hear. The sounds from outside didn’t seem too muffled, so it didn’t appear as though we’d had too big a dump in the valley. Eventually I had to get up and have a look. I could see that the ground was white, even beyond the areas where the spring snowpack was holding on. I could also see that the new accumulation of snow was quite wet, but at least we’d picked up something. At 6:00 A.M. I went out and made some snowfall observations:

Summary: 0.8” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 6:30 A.M. EST

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.10 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 6.0
Snow Density: 16.7%
Temperature: 33.6 F
Humidity: 98%
Dew Point: 32.9 F
Barometer: 30.21 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light/Moderate Snow
Storm snow total: 0.6 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.10 inches
Current snow at the stake: <1 inch
Season snowfall total: 178.4 inches

“I happened to take a look outside last night between 10:00 and 11:00 P.M. and noticed that it was raining moderately, but snow was starting to mix in even down at this elevation. It was in the mid 30s F at the time, but I figured if the temperature kept coming down there might be some accumulation. That was the case this morning as the whole yard has a new white coating instead of the just the leftover spring snow areas. Mt. Washington picked up 5 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, but I haven’t seen any reports out of the local Vermont mountains yet this morning.”

The snowfall slowed down by around 7:00 A.M., and before leaving the house I gave the snowboard one last check to reveal that we were still at 0.8 inches of snow accumulation. Based on the forecast for warm temperatures, I suspected that’s all we’d be able to accumulate in the valley. Unfortunately I still had no idea what had gone on in the higher elevations, but if it was snowing all the way down to the house elevation, I was certainly going to stop in at the mountain and see what they’d picked up. The snow accumulations tapered off a bit as I headed west a few miles to the Bolton Valley access road, so that at the base of the road (340’) there was just an irregular coating of snow on parts of the ground and nothing on the trees. Any decrease in new snow accumulation from the house elevation to the base of the access road hadn’t been that obvious over the course of a few miles, but I was about to get a dramatic presentation of just where the snow line was located for this storm. The only mildly snowy scene I’d encountered at the base of the access road was instantly transformed into a winter wonderland as soon as I crested the road’s first steep pitch and hit an elevation of roughly 500’. My surroundings immediately became white, as the trees, the ground, and every other object was well covered with fresh snow. It was one of the more tight snow lines I’ve seen recently. Consistent with that tight snow line, the depths of the new snow increased rapidly as I went up in elevation. I initially wasn’t sure how much snow there would be up high, but as I started seeing cars come down the access road with what looked like a half foot of snow on them, I figured that the mountain had received a good shot of the white stuff. Seeing how elevation dependent the snowfall was, I drove right past the Timberline Base (elevation ~1,500’) and up to the main mountain.

It was 29 F when I arrived up at the Bolton Valley Village area (2,100’) at around 7:30 A.M. I found 5 new inches on the ground in the parking lot and it was still snowing lightly. It was very quiet as I started skinning up the mountain, and all I saw was one lone groomer that appeared to be making a pass here and there in the new snow. I was able to use his freshly-groomed track on Beech Seal for my skin up to mid mountain. The depth of new snow had increased slightly at the mid mountain elevation (2,500’) to 6 inches, and I was starting to see some nice accumulations on the trees in leeward areas. I skinned up New Sherman’s Pass and then Sherman’s Pass, exchanging greeting with one of the lift operators that I usually see as he powered his way up hill on his snowmobile.

Up around 2,800’ after I’d ascended the Sherman’s Pass switchback, I started to see signs that there had been some wind near the Vista Summit. By that point I was measuring new snow depths in the range of 8 inches in protected areas. I skinned along above the steep trails of the main face, and could see that some of them had been affected by wind, so I kept going and decided to hit Cobrass. It didn’t seem like the wind had been a problem over there. It appeared that Cobrass had been groomed before the new snow, so I found a nice deep layer of untracked snow covering its smooth surface. Once I’d removed my skins I was quickly ripping up some nice big Telemark carves on the first big pitch. Even with only about 8 inches of new snow, the turns were easily bottomless because the snow was quite dense. The snow was probably in the 10-12% H2O range, sort of like freshly-fallen Sierra cement stuff. It was dense but not wet, and it did a really nice job of covering up the old spring snow base. There had been a little drifting and scouring in the middle sections of Cobrass as I turned more westward, but the turns were still decent. I then cut back north and hit the Glades trail for the lower half of the mountain. There was a bit less snow than up high, but the powder was still plenty deep and I was able to cut some dreamy first tracks across the trail.

I wasn’t initially sure if I was going to stick around for any lift-served skiing, but that run had definitely sealed the deal. I still had a few minutes before the Vista Quad started loading, so I hung out in the lift queue… which consisted of me. I gave myself cuts because I didn’t want to be one of those “No friends on a powder day” sorts. One of the patrollers asked me what the snow was like, and I gave him the rundown on how it was in the league of Sierra cement, providing a nice covering to the slopes. He was glad to hear that the snow had dried out, because he said that on Monday afternoon it had been wet and slow. I was surprised to hear that it had already been snowing at the end of the day on Monday. Ultimately a snowboarder showed up at the lift and I let her have fist chair as we were loading. Unfortunately, there was some rime ice on the safety bar of her chair and she barely got on before the bar closed down on her. Noticing this, I was wary of my own chair, and barely had time to jump out of the way as my bar closed down as the chair rounded the bull wheel. The operators stopped the lift and then ran it slowly so they could break off enough rime before loading chairs. Fortunately, they were quickly away from the most coated chairs (which had presumably sat at the top of the mountain overnight) and we were back to full speed.

I opted to check out Spillway for my next run. I could see that it was bit wind scoured at the top, but it would connect me over to Show Off, which looked really nice. I was enjoying some nice turns at the bottom of the Spillway Chute when I ran into patroller Quinn on his snowmobile at Sherman’s Pass. I’d seen him earlier and we’d chatted about the nice little dump that Mother Nature had given us as I filled him in on the conditions I’d encountered. Quinn was just about to open up Vermont 200 and said I could guinea pig it if I wanted, since he was on the sled and wouldn’t be able to do it himself, but I figured I’d let him go for it if he wanted and stuck with my original plan. Spillway was scoured in some spots as I’d seen, but there was some protected snow along the skier’s right that offered up nice steep turns. Show Off was protected and much better all around. To switch things up I skied Beech Seal on the lower mountain, and I found some surprisingly deep snow off to the skier’s left.

I headed out after that run, and my car thermometer indicated that the temperature in the village was 31 F, rising to about 34 F at the bottom of the access road. As I cruised along through the Winooski Valley, I was treated to some really great views to the sharp snow line hovering just a couple hundred feet above the valley floor. The contrast of brown grass and dark trees on the valley floor with the low snow line was dramatic, so I stopped to grab a few photos. As I headed toward the Richmond area the precipitation was mostly snow, but the temperature rose a bit and I could see that the snow line was elevated a couple hundred more feet as I headed west. When I’d reached Burlington the temperature was 39 F and there was no sign of snow.

Later in the afternoon I finally had a few minutes to check on the local snow totals for the event, and as the evening’s radar had suggested, the accumulations seemed to peak in the Bolton/Mansfield/Smugg’s area and fell off to the north and south. Here are the reported accumulations in the usual north to south order:

Jay Peak: 2”
Smugg’s: 6”
Stowe: 5”
Bolton: 8”
Mad River: 3”
Sugarbush: 2”
Killington: 2”
Okemo: 3”

With 8 fairly dense inches of snow picked up at Bolton, I was curious how much new moisture had been added to the snowpack. When the Mt. Mansfield stake report came in that evening, it indicated 1.0 inches of liquid equivalent and 6 inches of snow had fallen, with a maximum temperature of 29 F. The snow depth at the stake had reached 84 inches, which due to the weather this March was actually the highest it had been since back in February. With March complete I was able to total my Waterbury snowfall for the month, and at just 12.6 inches it was by far the lowest we’ve received in March in the three years I’ve kept snowfall records at my location. It was roughly a third of what we received in March of 2007 (40.2 inches) and March of 2008 (33.3 inches). Now I guess we’ll see what April will bring.

On the way home from Burlington in the afternoon, the sun had come out in some areas and there were some nice views as I traveled westward through the Winooski Valley. The area between Richmond and Jonesville was particularly nice with the way it was lit up.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Summary: 0.5” snow total in Waterbury (495’) as of 7:30 A.M. EST

Sunday, April 5th, 2009: 6:00 A.M. update from Waterbury, VT

New Snow: 0.2 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.06 inches
Snow/Water Ratio: 3.3
Snow Density: 30.0%
Temperature: 33.8 F
Humidity: 98%
Dew Point: 33.1 F
Barometer: 29.71 in. Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Light/Moderate Snow
Storm snow total: 0.2 inches
Storm liquid equivalent total: 0.06 inches
Current snow at the stake: Trace
Season snowfall total: 178.8 inches

As of about midnight here in Waterbury the precipitation was still a mix of rain and snow, and I don’t know when it switched over to fully snow, but it only started accumulating at around 6:30 A.M. or so. It’s coming down in the form of moderately-sized flakes, at light to sometimes moderate intensity. Up on the mountain they’ve already received 7 inches of new powder as of the 6:40 A.M. report and it continues to snow. The snow seems to have been distributed throughout the resorts of the Green Mountain spine; here are the reports I’ve seen so far in the northern half of the state, listed north to south:

Jay Peak: 5”
Smugg’s: 2”
Stowe: 4”
Bolton: 7”
Mad River: 4”
Sugarbush: 4”
Killington: 7”
Okemo: 3”

J.Spin

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I’ve felt that trip reports have been sparse at First Tracks for a while, with the bulk of material in these forums coming from just a few regular posters. With Rivercoil and Powderfreak losing a level of interest here, that has dropped further. I’d say even SkiVT-L seems to have fewer trip reports than it used to. There appears to be the same level of activity there, but not necessarily a lot of trip reports. Powderfreak even brought that topic up in a post at SkiVT-L. I get the impression that the grand era of online ski trip reports has passed to some degree. The novelty of posting pictures and video (and even text) on the web isn’t really there anymore, so there may be less incentive for some folks to put in much effort to make reports. What I think has taken the biggest hit is the everyday reports of typical outings; perhaps people don’t feel there’s much interest in reading about everyday skiing when there are all kinds of trip reports from exotic locales available.

To be completely honest, I rarely if ever read the micro-detailed weather reports in your posts -- and I realize that it's more of a professional dear-diary thing for you -- but your photos are consistently \/... and I don't give a crap if they are or aren't representative of what may be going on elsewhere in the East. That's the same deal anywhere. Here's hoping you don't go away like the ECers you mention.

I try to post TRs every time I go out... even if they're usually from less snow-endowed places. That's why I often throw in pix of offhill stuff or cute girls. In my book, stoke is stoke.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Posting TR's here does work for me as a more detailed diary than the abbreviated records I've been keeping since I started skiing. I put the URL's of my FTO posts in a spreadsheet column of those records for easy reference. Let's hope Admin keeps it going, but even if he doesn't I presume I would get enough warning to copy and archive the pages myself.

JSpin has done a valuable service in getting the updates on FTO on a timely basis. I don't always read the micro-detail, but it's there when I'm interested and certainly wouldn't discourage it. The TR's, while not necessarily representative of much lift service, have filled at least some of the gap left by Riverc0il, powderfreak, etc.

your photos are consistently \/...

No doubt about that.

 

[J.Spin]

Here’s an update on today’s weather in the Bolton Valley area. We left the house (495’) in Waterbury at around 8:30 A.M. this morning, at which point we’d picked up 0.6 inches of snow, light snow was falling, and the temperature was a bit above freezing. This storm didn’t have quite the dramatically sharp snow line that the Monday/Tuesday system did, and in fact we could see a very interesting array of snow accumulations on the trees along various ridge lines as we traveled through the Winooski Valley, possibly due to wind associated with this event. In some hollows the snow was caked on the trees, while they’d been stripped on surrounding ridges. Overall, the snow line was probably similar to the previous system, being around 500’ or maybe a bit higher. Arriving up at the Bolton Valley Village (~2,100’), there were probably around 5 inches of new snow, and it was snowing lightly to moderately. There was also substantial wind up on the mountain, probably up to 20 MPH at times. That made estimates of snow depth a bit tough, but the mountain was reporting 7 inches of new on the high end, presumably up around 3,150’. I’d say they had even more than the 7 inches on a lot of the upper mountain, as I consistently found areas with 8 to 10 inches in the mid mountain area that didn’t appear to be due to drifting. During the morning it snowed generally lightly, and the snow was all needles. I’m not sure if the whole storm was needles, but it was certainly densely-accumulated stuff like the Monday/Tuesday system. In the afternoon we had another bout of snow that was a bit fluffier. It was still comprised of needles, but they were gathering together to make some larger flakes up to probably 1/3 of an inch in diameter. We finished off the day with a run down through the Timberline area, and the snow was certainly getting wet down below 2,000’. At the Timberline base (~1,500’) at around 4:00 P.M. the temperature was probably in the mid 30s F. Today was the last day of lift-served operation for Bolton Valley, and they finished off the season with 318” of snow, which is pretty close to average (~300’). There were definitely some updates today on the snowfall from the Vermont resorts, and it looks like the Sugarbush/Mad River area did much better than their preliminary reports suggested. Here’s the usual north to south list of storm totals along the Green Mountain spine:

Jay Peak: 7”
Smugg’s: 6”
Stowe: 6”
Bolton: 7”
Mad River: 8”
Sugarbush: 9”
Killington: 7”
Okemo: 1”

At the Mt. Mansfield stake (~3,700’) 7 inches of new snow were recorded today, and the snow depth is at 86 inches, only an inch off its high reading of the season back in February. It looks like the next system on tap is the big midweek one, and following that there may be another one for next weekend. It should be interesting to see where the snow depth at the stake ends up after those events.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Our weekend storm system looked like it had the potential to deliver another round of powder to the Green Mountains, but since the snowfall was going to be quite elevation dependent, it was going to be harder than usual to monitor it from the valley floor. As Saturday evening approached, I considered popping up to the mountain for a look at where the snow line was located and how accumulations were coming along, but the good folks at SkiVT-L were already on top of things. Scott Braaten had driven up to Bolton Valley in the early afternoon and indicated that the snow line was around 1,000’, with about an inch of accumulation in the village (2,100’). Dave had been thinking of coming up from Boston for some turns if it was going to be worth it, and while I told him Saturday didn’t appear to be anything worth driving for, Sunday held promise for a great day. Thanks to Scott’s early report on the snow level, and the Burlington composite radar showing a continuous stream of moisture crashing into the spine of the Greens, by late afternoon I felt confident that we’d have enough snow to warrant Dave making the trip and I gave him the word. Later that evening at around 10:00 P.M., Andrew Snow sent in another Bolton Valley snowfall report indicating a snow line at roughly the same level as what Scott had seen, but the accumulation in the village was up to 3 inches at that point. Down in the valley at our location (495’) snow had started to mix in with the rain at around 9:30 P.M., but the temperature was dropping slowly and the precipitation was still just a mix by the time I headed off to bed at some point after 11:00 P.M. Nonetheless, the radar continued to show plenty of moisture coming into the mountains and things were looking good for a powder day on Sunday.

In the morning I woke up to find that snow was just starting to accumulate in the valley, but early resort reports revealed that some of the mountains had already received more than a half foot of fresh with ongoing snowfall. The feed of moisture coming into the mountains was still visible on the radar and looked like it hadn’t skipped a beat all night.

With the Timberline quad no longer running for the season, we decided to take advantage of that fact and spotted Dave’s car down at the Timberline base on our way up to the village. We were hoping to cash in with some additional fresh tracks on our last run of the day. It was still snowing and blowing up on the main mountain as we started our day, and we made a couple runs off the Mid Mountain lift while the operators continued to monitor the Vista Quad in the winds. As I’d expected, the new snow was fairly dense (comprised of needles) like the Monday/Tuesday snowfall, but this storm had more wind so the powder wasn’t quite the quality of Tuesday morning. It took a bit more work to negotiate powder turns with the wind-affected snow, but the skiing was good.

We met up with Stephen and his posse of kids later in the morning and we quickly had quite a collection of little skiers willing to follow us through the powder. Plenty of face plants were managed, but the kids seemed to enjoy crashing in the powder as much as anything. The Snowflake Lift wasn’t running, but only the terrain park was closed off so we brought the kids over for some first tracks down Snowflake Bentley and they had a lot of fun tackling the fresh snow. The mountain had reported 7 inches of new snow in their early morning update, but I was often finding 8 to 10 inches of accumulation in undisturbed areas at the mid mountain elevations.

In the afternoon we took a break to watch some of the pond skimming from the accessible portion of the terrain park, and Ty, Dave, and I used Foxy to grab some additional first tracks on our way to a viewing spot above the pond. After taking in a bunch of the pond skimming, Ty, Dave and I hiked over to Timberline for a final run of untracked snow. Apparently due to a rather lengthy day of battling the powder, Dylan seemed a little too tired to make the trek to the Timberline Summit (and probably too tired to handle the skiing) so E took him down to Timberline in the car.

The hike over to the Timberline Summit area went pretty quickly, and although Ty brought up the rear, he seemed to be in good spirits and still had good stamina after a fairly long day on his Telemark skis. The Intro trail had been a bit blasted by the wind, but below the mid station the snow was more protected. We descended on Spell Binder as it didn’t have any tracks, and there were some great turns made even though the snow was gradually becoming more and more dense as we descended. Below 2,000’ the snow was certainly getting wetter, and I think some of the natural snow trails down there must have had a lot of bare areas before the storm. I’m sure we’ll make more use of early and late season Timberline turns now that Ty can easily do the hike over there, and it shouldn’t be too long before Dylan will be able to do it even after a day of skiing.

In terms of our current storm, it looks like the local mountains were getting into the snow as early as yesterday afternoon and it looks to continue. As of this afternoon we’ve got snow starting to fall in the valleys as well, and as of today’s report from the Mt. Mansfield stake, the snowpack is at 88 inches, which is actually the highest it’s been this season.

Some pictures from Sunday have been added below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

At UVM in Burlington today (elevation ~380’) it looked like snow started to mix in with the rain at some point between 2:00 and 3:00 P.M., but the precipitation was very showery in nature and seemed to stay mostly liquid. However, when I was outside later catching a bus back to Waterbury at around 5:20 P.M., the precipitation had changed over to entirely snow. It was still very light in nature and not accumulating, but the atmosphere was clearly cold enough to produce all snow. Later on the bus I working on something and had essentially forgotten about the snow until my peripheral vision caught a glimpse of something bright outside the window. I looked out to see pounding snow and accumulations on the ground. At that point I was in the slightly higher elevations of the Williston area along I-89 (600’-700’) and boy was it coming down hard. As we descended French Hill into Richmond, the snowfall stopped quickly and the land was back to bare grass. I expected it might pick up again as I headed farther into the mountains, but it only came back to light intensity and there were no accumulations all the way through to Waterbury. We’ve had some light snow here in Waterbury this evening, but nothing resulting in any accumulation.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

In Waterbury (495’) we had plenty of light snow and flurries in the air yesterday and overnight, but picked up just barely a coating on some surfaces. I did find a couple tenths of an inch on the snowboard this morning when I measured. Consistent with what I’d seen on the way home yesterday, and in a reversal of what often happens around here, I found that accumulations of snow actually increased a bit as I headed west toward Burlington this morning. At the bottom of the Bolton Valley access road (340’) there was a slightly more substantial dusting than what we’d picked up at the house, but that increased (quite slowly though) as I went up in elevation. Temperatures in the low to mid 30s in the Winooski Valley dropped to 25 F at the Bolton Valley Village (2,100’) and here’s what I found for new snow accumulations with regard to elevation.

2,100’: 1 - 2”
2,500’: 2 - 3”
2,600’: 3”
2,800’: 3 - 4”
3,150’: 4 - 5”

The accumulations were topped off with notably drier snow than our March/April storms of the past few weeks, with what I’d guess was 6-8% H2O fluff on top. When I headed back down the access road at around 8:30 A.M., the temperature at the base of the road was 34 F. There was light snow on and off on the route to Burlington, and through all the valleys the most notable accumulation was in that high elevation area of Williston (600-700’) where I’d seen heavy snowfall on Tuesday afternoon. There was about an inch of snow on the ground there. We had light snow at times in Burlington during the day and we’ve had the same stuff here in Waterbury this evening, but I haven’t seen any accumulation in either location.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

I could see from Burlington that additional snow was falling yesterday, so I stopped up at the mountain again this morning to check it out. There was no substantial accumulation that I could see in any of the valleys, but below is what I found this morning up at Bolton Valley. The first depth is what I found yesterday morning, and the updated depths follow:

2,100’: 1 - 2” --> 2 – 3”
2,500’: 2 - 3” --> 4”
2,600’: 3” --> 5”
2,800’: 3 - 4” --> 5 - 6”
3,150’: 4 - 5” --> 6”+

Overall it looks like about another inch or two fell, but it was again nearly mid-winter density fluff at probably 6-8% H2O and you can tell by the way it sparkles in the sunlight that it’s quality stuff. The temperature was around 30 F at the base when I arrived, and somewhere in the 20s F up at the top. The sun was out, with clearer skies off to the north and more overcast to the south. The turns are bottomless and dreamy up high thanks to the gradient of powder that has been set down, but I’m not sure if the snow will stay fluffy in the middle elevations with the sun and temperatures today, so it’s best to get at it sooner rather than later.

J.Spin