Laurentian Snow Report 2015/16

Anthony

New member
Another season and another slow start . This one is as bad as it gets. Temps have not changed since october . There has been no cold air , no freeze up ,no frozen lakes , no ice and you can forget about snow. Did 100 km 's this weekend with my road bike team in the middle of December with temps way above freezing. OK there are a handful of WRODS out there on machine snow but that is it. Long range forecast does not look good ,more rain and fog etc. This year December is joining the usual month of November as a write off. Frustrating, as some additional natural snow alpine touring ski areas (no lifts) were about to kick into gear this year. Have to wait it out.
 
Record heat continues to hammer the region. We have a summer boat tour operator offering rides on the unfrozen lakes in the centre of the Laurentian snow belt. We have had years with little snow but never this prolonged stretch of warm air day after day. All kinds of high temperature records will be set today. A few snow gun trails are hanging on for survival.
 
Light snow is currently falling ,accumulation so far about 2 inches . On December 24th ,guys were doing cannonballs into the unfrozen Laurentian lakes (mind you the water was 38 F) an now its snowing with a good freeze tonight. The big story posted by Environment Canada is a decent storm on the way tomorrow night into Tuesday.

DETAILS Statements
10:45 AM EST Sunday 27 December 2015
Special weather statement in effect for:

Mont-Tremblant - Sainte-Agathe area
Sainte-Adèle - Saint-Sauveur area
Significant snowfall amounts expected Tuesday.

At last, Southern Quebec areas will see their first significant snowfall expected on Tuesday.

The snow should begin overnight Monday to Tuesday and end early in the morning on Wednesday. Generally, nearly 25 centimeters of snow is expected.

A low pressure system developing over Texas will move to lie over Northeastern United States Tuesday. North of this system, a band of heavy snow will develop over Quebec and Northern Ontario.

Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada. To report severe weather, send an email to tempsviolent.quebec@ec.gc.ca or tweet reports to #meteoqc.
 
Well,it finally snowed !!! . 10 cm on Sunday and 45 cm yesterday with no rain or ice. Measured the settled snowpack at just under 2 feet where 5 days ago it was bare ground. With the new snow, finally made it out as the easy natural snow trails skied very well . Will take a few more feet to open up the the good stuff but at least we have started.
 
After the fire,it was concluded that the repair or replacement of the lift and infrastructure would be financially prohibitive and would not turn a profit on the investment. This past fall the lift and the remaining buildings were torn down. The plan this year is to offer a alpine touring centre using skins. For this season a rental trailer is in the works to be installed as a warming hut. The trails have been maintained and insurance is in place. Currently waiting for the snowpack to build up and receive a announcement for the opening day. Alpine touring with skins is growing in the area. Have been doing this for years as it is great way to make use of the low elevation Laurentian shield hills with under a 1000' of vertical.
 
Third day out on Natural snow, as the first snow only fell on Dec 29th. Powder day today but you had to hike for it.
 

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Great deal ,vertical is almost 600 feet , believe the average is about 5 runs a day . We now have a few Alpine touring centres in the Laurentians where you can alpine ski without lifts. The fact that the sites are official is a improvement as it gives you a place to park and ski on maintained trails and not worry about trespassing .
 
Like other eastern regions ,the natural snow base continues to be a problem. Heavy rain on January 10th washed out 12 inches of snow reducing the snow pack to just a foot. This week a few inches of new snow made some improvements but general lack of snow has held up the natural snow trails. Did a tour yesterday with ok skiing but nothing great.
 
Lack of snow still a issue as the snow pack stuck at 2 feet . With a low snow pack and wanting fresh tracks we went back to touring yesterday . Skied 2000' of vertical thru the 4 inches that fell during the week over a mixed granular base. Rain in the forecast this week followed by a freeze up .
 
Rain Sunday into Monday and rain on Wednesday with some wet snow drove a another nail into the coffin of the 2015/16 ski season . The rain knocked the snow pack which was already at a historic low down another few inches . The current snow pack is only about 18 inches . This will freeze up solid with the drop in temps making natural snow trail skiing brutal . Easily the worst season in decades with only a handful of decent days to date.
 
The northern Laurentians picked up over a foot of new snow ( with no rain ) yesterday as the the snow /rain line stretched north east from Ottawa into Quebec's Laurentian region . The much needed snow came on top of the 4 inches that fell last week. Meanwhile south of Tremblant the snow changed to mixed precipitation and rain . So the current place to be is the Tremblant area for probably the best snow this season . The current Snow pack now checking in at close to 3 feet . The next two days will be prime as rain is in the forecast for Saturday which will once again change the conditions.

Snow totals in the Tremblant area . Amounts would be higher with elevation gain .

24 hrs : 36 cm
48 hrs : 40 cm
On the ground: 79 cm
 
To say that this has been a frustrating year for the East Coast has got to be the ultimate understatement!
 
Admin":2di27txb said:
To say that this has been a frustrating year for the East Coast has got to be the ultimate understatement!
Truer words have never been written! Worst Winter I can remember (unless you like warm temps and bare ground) in over 50 years of skiing on the East coast (although I admit my memory may be faulty). Just a brutal stretch of weather the past two months for almost all of the Northeast. No real snow storms and a few bouts of cold weather followed by warmer weather and rain (in most of the Northeast). This past long holiday weekend, it was minus 16 on Sunday, with wind chills 30 to 50 below zero - too cold to ski; minus 12 on Monday morning and then 52 and heavy rain 30 hours later on Tuesday afternoon. A warm up of 64 degrees! Just crazy. I think it will be an early end to the ski season out here.
 
Great line from today's Sugarbush conditions report:
Ungroomed terrain remains extra crispy, make sure your skills and gear are ready for it.
 
Marc_C":1cer180c said:
Great line from today's Sugarbush conditions report:
Ungroomed terrain remains extra crispy, make sure your skills and gear are ready for it.
LOL, yea, like you're going to be skiing on frozen leaves.
 
Admin":3mkxrpis said:
To say that this has been a frustrating year for the East Coast has got to be the ultimate understatement!
At the current rate, 2015-16 is going to make 2011-12 look good. On each of my season progress reports all season so far percents of terrain open are record low for about half of the eastern areas I track. As for snowfall it's running 52% of normal overall and a shocking 27% of normal at Killington.

There have been seasons like 2007 where the snow kicked in for late season. And 2012 had that March meltdown. But it won't take much of a warmup this spring to take out the meager eastern snowpack.
 
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