Vermont Snow Updates 2009-10

[Tony Crocker]

Pictures as expected.

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.

[Powderqueen]

Awesome pix Jay!

[Marc_C]

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

Tony, it's Vermont - there's grass and moss and ferns and rotting stuff everywhere. They have to truck in gravel for their roads.

[icelanticskier]

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

Tony, it's Vermont - They have to truck in gravel for their roads.

ya, from new hampshire!

rog

[jamesdeluxe]

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?

[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?

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??? 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??? 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.