Vermont Snow Updates 2009-10

[J.Spin]

Hayride has a nice intermediate pitch IIRC. Is it grass underneath? If gravel that would be tough on the skis judging by the picture of the run.

Upper Hayride and Middle Hayride (or "Hayride" on the Stowe interactive map) are listed as most difficult, and Lower Hayride is listed as intermediate. My travels on Thursday were on Middle Hayride based on what I can see from my GPS trace (image below), and that certainly had an advanced pitch for most of what I descended. I had to make switchbacks to varying degrees to be able to manage that part of my decent. In the Google Earth image you can make out one big switchback in the GPS trace just to the left of the Hayride thumbnail, where I cut from skier's right to skier's left on the trail. I continued with several smaller switchbacks below that. I guess I'd forgotten how steep and wide that part of Hayride actually was, because for much of the Hayride descent I thought I must have somehow found my way to National. It wasn't until I saw the sign for Hayride Loop that I could really confirm where I was. In terms of what was under my feet, there was grass throughout the trail, but under the grass it was often very rocky (rock diameters in the 0.5 to 1-foot range based on the ones I saw) and were it not for the support of my ski poles the descent there would have been extremely difficult. Skiing down that section would also have been very difficult with the available snow cover.

-J

 

[J.Spin]

I've got a couple more snow updates from Mt. Mansfield that I hadn't had time to post yet. On Friday, the clouds began to break away from the summit and we were finally able to see the snow accumulations from afar. Also, I was up at the resort yesterday and got some additional pictures. There was no snow visible from the base area, and it did appear as though there was a subtle change in the foliage since I'd last been up there on Thursday. It seemed like things might be getting a touch past peak for the deciduous trees in the higher elevations.

J.Spin

 

[icelanticskier]

i rode the 30 miles each way to the event plus rode a nice 23 mile singletrack loop while i was there. 80+ miles on the full suspension carbon scott with the landscape on fire.

I get annoyed riding even a mile of blacktop to connect trails... 60 miles of blacktop on a full-suspension bike? :shock:

it's all a journey my friend. the festival was the destination and i didn't want to be lazy and drive the 30 miles each way in my car. good workout pure and simple. sorry j vermont. no more hijak.

rog

 

[J.Spin]

Yesterday I experience some sleet falling in the back yard when I was installing my snowboard for the season, and up on Mt. Mansfield, we actually found that there was some new snow. Temperatures were certainly chilly, with 40s F in the valley and breezes at times, so I was curious to see what the higher elevations had experienced. Even with the thought that there might be some snow up high, from afar it was really hard to tell if anything had fallen. It wasn’t until we were riding up in the Stowe Gondola that we could confirm the presence of snow on the grass above 3,000’. We hiked the Cliff Trail up to the Mansfield summit ridge at around 4,100’, and saw various accumulations of snow in that elevation range. Generally, the snow was present just in sheltered areas and there was perhaps up to an inch of accumulation, but it made for some nice scenes while hiking. In terms of skiing, these accumulations were more minimal than what we saw at the end of September/beginning of October, but I’m sure the junkboarders could make use of some of the grassy slopes. A more substantial snowfall is on the way tonight however. Not much is expected in terms of snow accumulations for the lower valleys (elevations <1,000’), although it sounds like those valley bottoms could experience their first flakes of the season with this event.

Some pictures from yesterday have been added below.

J.Spin

 

[Anthony]

Observed the same type of snow/sleet combo Saturday morning across the lake in the ADK'S on Giant mountain at a elevation of 4600' . Chances are good for snow this week .

 

[Geoff]

Observed the same type of snow/sleet combo Saturday morning across the lake in the ADK'S on Giant mountain at a elevation of 4600' . Chances are good for snow this week .

I have an inch of wet slop in my yard at Kmart @ 2000' this morning. You probably don't have to go too far north or too much uphill to have a lot more snow.

 

[J.Spin]

In the 5:00 A.M. to 5:30 A.M. period this morning, the temperature at the house (495’) was fluctuating in the 36-37 F range, and around 5:30 A.M. when I checked out back, the precipitation was just some sprinkles of rain. Things didn’t seem all that exciting in terms of snow, so I decided to just catch the early bus into Burlington. A bit after 6:00 A.M. though, probably less than a minute after I’d started to drive toward the center of Waterbury, the precipitation became much harder and started mixing with snow. Soon it was literally pouring rain and snow, and knowing what was probably going on in the mountains, I decided that things were just a bit too interesting to head right to work. I headed back to the house for a bit, saw E and the boys off, then threw my camera, skiing, and hiking gear into the car and headed out myself. The precipitation at the house was mostly over to snow by the time I’d left (~7:15 A.M.), but the temperature was 36 F and the snow still wasn’t accumulating. Driving through the Winooski Valley, I could see that the snow line appeared to be around 1,000’, but (presumably in colder spots) it was occasionally sneaking a bit lower. I stopped off a mile or two west of the Chittenden County/Washington County line and got a cool shot of the snow line sneaking down into a gully in the Bamforth Ridge area. The snowfall quickly mixed out as I headed toward Richmond, and it was just rain from there on into Burlington where the temperature was 38 F at around 7:45 A.M. I’ve attached one image from this morning for now, but if I have time I may stop off up at Bolton on the way home to see how things are going up there.

J.Spin

 

[Admin]

And K-Mart's making snow and plans to for much of the week:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/News/2 ... king-Snow/

 

[Patrick]

And K-Mart's making snow and plans to for much of the week:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/News/2 ... king-Snow/

What does that mean??? :shock: Is Killington going to back to the days of, "We'll open when we have a window, regardless if it's melts afterward" attitude from the 80s and 90s?

 

[Mike Bernstein]

And K-Mart's making snow and plans to for much of the week:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/News/2 ... king-Snow/

What does that mean??? :shock: Is Killington going to back to the days of, "We'll open when we have a window, regardless if it's melts afterward" attitude from the 80s and 90s?

That's what the claim to be doing. "Beast of the East" and all that. We shall see if their actions match their words.

 

[Anthony]

The MRG website also posting pictures of what appears to be a few inches of snow . Enough to make those October turns for the record books

 

[Admin]

The MRG website also posting pictures of what appears to be a few inches of snow . Enough to make those October turns for the record books

It was done elsewhere in New England today:

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/News/2 ... o-Gallery/

 

[icelanticskier]

wildcat had 2 inches base, 4 inches mid, and 6 inches at summit today. i went up on foot while a friend skied T2B. it was snowing like heck while on our way down. glad i left my skis in the car though as i'm not into skiing on grass. tomorrow, i'll head up onto mt washingtons upper reaches tomorrow on the xc gear to tour.

rog

 

[J.Spin]

On the way home to Waterbury today, I could see that the snow level had certainly risen from where it was early this morning. It was clearing out in Burlington with a good amount of blue sky showing, and to some extent this clearing process was even going on in the Winooski Valley. Despite the clearing trend revealing a bit more of the mountains, there was no sign of any snow at all right through to the town of Bolton, with clouds still hanging around on the mountains from about 1,500’ on up. The temperature at the bottom of the Bolton Valley access road (340’) was around 40 F, and it wasn’t until around 1,500’ near the Timberline Base that there was any snow along the road. Clearing skies in the valley turned to clouds and spitting rain a few hundred feet up the access road, which mixed with sleet and intensified around 1,000’ and then became snow at around 1,500’. Up at the village (~2,100’), there were 1-2 inches of snow still remaining on most surfaces, and the temperature was 34 F. It wasn’t quite enough snow to entice me to ski, but I did go for a short hike up to the top of the Snowflake Lift (2,400’). It was quite fun taking a jaunt through the new snow, and as Powderfreak mentioned in his report from Stowe today, there was a notable difference between the accumulations on grassy areas and what was on the service roads. By the time I was up there, whatever snow had been on the service roads had mostly melted on the bottom half of the mountain, but the snow on the grassy surfaces was still going strong. There was a nice even accumulation of snow on the unloading platform at the top of the Snowflake lift, and the depth there was 3 inches. The skiing on the grassy surfaces looked like it would have been decent, and I’d imagine things were even better if one ascended higher on the mountain into deeper snow and colder temperatures. It snowed on and off while I was up there, and looks like there’s still a bit more precipitation coming in on a northwest flow this evening. Our temperature is 37-38 F down here in the valley, so the snow line shouldn’t be too far up the mountainsides. A few pictures from today’s trip have been added below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

I haven't been up into the higher elevations since Tuesday, but there's been a lot of skiing going on around here so I figured I'd pass on a few reports for those that are interested in the conditions. Based on the Monday reports from Powderfreak and The Famous Internet Skiers, it sounds like accumulations on Mt. Mansfield topped out around 5-6 inches on some surfaces. Since then there has been some consolidation of the snow, but also some additional snow showers to add a bit more.

Stowe 13OCT2009 (Powderfreak) Text/Images/Images

Mad River Glen 13OCT2009 (Jumpin' Jimmy) Text

Bolton Valley 14OCT2009 (Powderfreak) Text & Images

Mad River Glen 15OCT2009 (Jonathan Shefftz) Text

Yesterday with some clearing in the Champlain Valley, it was easy to see a well defined snow line out in the mountains that was probably a bit under the 2,000' level. With the way the temperatures have been staying cold, it looks like skiing should be around right through the weekend for those that are interested.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Bolton Valley Timberline area - 15OCT2009

I was hiking up at Bolton’s Timberline area yesterday and have a quick update on the mountain snowpack there. Down at the Timberline base (~1,500’) the scene was very much an autumn one, with fairly dry ground conditions and foliage that’s a bit past peak. At around 3:30 P.M. my car thermometers were both indicating a temperature of 36 F. Heading upward in elevation, I encountered the first clumps of snow around 1,700’, and ground conditions became a bit wetter. I hiked up to around 1,800’ – 1,900’, where snow coverage was starting to become a thin, continuous coating in sheltered areas. I believe the temperature was close to freezing up at that elevation when I’d arrived, but based on the way the snow set up after a while, it was below freezing as sunset approached. It wasn’t too far above me in elevation where the continuous, deeper snowpack was present even in open areas of the trails. It was a pretty dramatic snow line where that deeper snow started, and based on what I saw, I’d say that it was ~100’ below the elevation of the Timberline mid station (~2,250’). That would suggest an elevation of ~2,150’ for that snow line, which is right around the elevation of Bolton’s main base area. We often get these October snowfall events, but the snow typically doesn’t hang around with such tenacity, even in the mountains. It’s sort of strange to look at the scene from Burlington each day and see Bolton’s trails sitting there covered with white for so long. A couple images from yesterday afternoon are included below:

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Bolton Valley Timberline area - 17OCT2009

I was hiking up at Bolton Valley today with the boys and there’s been some change in the snow coverage since I was last there on Thursday. We started hiking at the base of the Timberline area (~1,500’) where the temperatures were in the 40s F. The elevation at which we saw the first saw patches of snow was at ~1,800’, up about 100’ since Thursday. There was an even bigger rise in the elevation where continuous snow started. Whereas that line was below the elevation of the Timberline mid station (~2,250’) on Thursday, it is now up above the mid station. We couldn’t see where it was, and didn’t head up to the main part of the mountain to check out how the snow is faring there, so that’s all I can report. In general though, the snow line has risen over the past couple of days, at least in open areas on the western slopes of the Greens.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

We haven't had much in terms of snowfall except a small event or two in the mountains since I last posted, but things have cooled in the valleys for this event and we picked up our first accumulating snowfall at the house, so here are a couple of updates:

November 4th - morning

The clouds have started lifting off the Green Mountains and I can see that we got some new snow last night; the snow line at this point looks to be in the 2,500'-3,000' range. It sounds like there could be more snow on the way in the next couple of days, possibly even down to the lower valleys again based on Roger Hill's comments in his broadcast this morning.


Thursday, November 05, 2009

This morning at 5:00 A.M. the temperature at the house was 32.2 F. When I checked outside for precipitation there was very light snow falling, but no obvious accumulation visible, and over the next hour the temperature fluctuated in the 31 – 33 F range. I was on my way out the door right around 6:00 A.M. and made a quick check on the snowboard – I found that the snow had accumulated to a bit more than a tenth of an inch, which actually resulted in our first accumulation of the season since we didn’t pick up anything from the October events. Accumulations seemed similar back toward the center of Waterbury, with a dusting on roofs of houses and cars, but I didn’t see any notable accumulations as I headed through the Winooski Valley to the Champlain Valley.

With regard to the dates of first accumulating snowfalls since we’ve been at our current location, this event seems to fall somewhere in the middle of the range:

‘06-‘07: 10/20/2006
‘07-‘08: 11/16/2007
‘08-‘09: 10/28/2008
‘09-‘10: 11/05/2009

Based on the forecast, it sounds like there’s the chance for a similar sort of accumulation tomorrow morning as well.

J.Spin

 

[J.Spin]

Here’s my update to Eastern from yesterday morning:

“There was nothing new as far as snow accumulation in Waterbury this morning, but it sounds like some parts of the state received a coating. Even in Burlington we’ve had some frozen precipitation – a little while ago we were watching some graupel pellets bounce off the windows here at UVM.”

I hadn’t seen anything regarding the skiing at that point, but I just caught Jonathan Shefftz’ update from Prospect and it looks like they did well in terms of accumulation there. Temperatures were quite cool yesterday so I suspect there’s still plenty of snow for turns where the snow did fall. I should be up in the mountains at some point this weekend, so I’ll add an update if I see anything in terms of snow.

-J

 

[J.Spin]

Saturday, November 07, 2009

I was hiking up at Bolton Valley today with E and the boys, so here’s a quick update on the snow cover. We started at the Timberline base area ~1,550’ and saw the first traces of snow at around 1,750’. We hiked as high as ~2,300’, but the snow coverage had increased very minimally up to that point and there were still just patches here and there. Looking off to the south one could see that the evergreens had a substantial white coating on the north side of Bone Mountain, probably from ~2,500’ on up.

It sounds like coverage was at least a little more consistent up on the top of Ricker Mountain (~3,400’) based on WM Walker’s report of snowboarding up there today, but he still said there was just a half inch of snow. Powderfreak provided a nice report with pictures from Stowe today. It sounds like there’s only about an inch of natural snow up top, but apparently there’s lots of great skiing (~1,800 vertical feet) thanks to their snowmaking.

-J