As I’ve done before, I’m passing along part of our
J&E Productions 2012-2013 Ski Season Summary, which focuses on the
Northern Greens. Long story short, it was a subpar season, but not horribly so. Powder outings still comprised ~77% of the total as detailed in the list of reports below, which is essentially that same as it was for the previous couple of seasons. After tabulating that number across three seasons representing above average, below average, and well below average snowfall, it’s interesting how invariant that number has been; more details are included in the
Snow Quality section in this post or the
full report.
Snowfall: Compared to the snowfall-deficient
2011-2012 Ski Season, the
2012-2013 Ski Season was certainly a step up, but it was still generally below average for snowfall in the mountains of
Northern Vermont. It was
Bolton Valley that seemed to fare the worst of
the northern resorts along the spine of the
Green Mountains, perhaps due to their west slope location and this season’s dearth of
upslope snow; they reported just 78.5% of their average snowfall. Heading northward,
Stowe and
Smugg’s fared a bit better at around 85% of average, and
Jay Peak reported roughly average snowfall. Down at
our house in the
Winooski Valley, snowfall was 88.6% of average, so not too shabby by most accounts, but a bit below the mean like some of the local mountains. These past two seasons have actually been the first pair delivering back-to-back below average snowfall in our area since we started keeping track in 2006. Those numbers can be seen in both
our Waterbury Winter Weather Summary Table, and
the table of Bolton Valley annual snowfall below; this past season’s snowfall is highlighted in blue:
One item of note this season was the lack of big storms targeting
Northern New England – two of the largest storms to hit the
Northeast dropped the bulk of their payloads south of
Vermont while exiting stage right toward the
Atlantic. The first of those, nicknamed “
Nemo”, hit in the second week of February, and pounded
Southern New England with
up to 40 inches of snow. The
Green Mountains were on the northern fringe of that storm, but still wound up with
1 to 1.5 feet of snow up and down the spine.
The other storm of note was during the March 5th – 8th period, and it dropped
another 30 inches on some
Southern New England locations,
but nothing way up north. There were some periods of snowfall to highlight up in
Northern Vermont however. The second half of December alone dropped
almost 50” of snow down at our house, significantly more in the mountains, and produced
some fantastic skiing for the holidays and
into early January. Another period of note was the second half of March into April. Cold temperatures in the latter part of the season helped preserve wintry conditions on the slopes, and we received some decent snowfall as well –
the largest storm for the season in my valley records hit the area near the end of March, with
21.3” of snow down at the house, and
multiple feet for the mountains. The mountain snowpack finally responded during that late season stretch as well, and that’s detailed a bit more in the snowpack section below. Snowfall continued
right into mid April, and the season was capped off with
almost two feet of fresh snow on
Mt. Mansfield for
Memorial Day weekend. That was a sweet way to end the powder skiing for the season.
Snowpack: Aside from the spikes associated with a couple of early season storms, the mountain snowpack was below average going into mid December. That changed quickly though, with the onset of all that new snow during the second half of the month. The above average snowpack achieved during the holidays didn’t actually stay that way during January’s warmth and lack of storms. After consolidation, the snowpack generally trundled along at or below average through February’s continuation of relatively low snowfall. From mid February to mid March, the snowpack sat there essentially stagnant for an entire month; to wit, on February 21st, the snowpack was at 65”, and roughly a month later on March 18th, it was
still at 65”, without any notable consolidation of more than a few inches. The late season stretch from mid March to mid April represented a nice rebound for the mountains however, with some quick gains from
the big Northern New England March storm getting it above average, and the snow depth staying at least modestly above during the period.
Tree Skiing: One metric used as a rough guide for the start of off piste skiing in the
Northern Green Mountains is
the point at which the snow depth reaches 24” at the Mt. Mansfield stake. For those unfamiliar with how this metric was established, it’s described in some detail in
the 2011-2012 ski season summary. With the incorporation of this season’s data, the mean date remains at December 12th ± 19 days, with an average depth at the stake of 25.9 ± 2.7 inches. After the very slow start in
2011-2012, in which the 24” depth wasn’t attained until January 3rd (more than a standard deviation later than the mean), this past season was notably earlier. The plot below shows the date at which 24” was obtained for each season since 1954, with
2011-2012 shown in red, and
2012-2013 shown in green:
This past season, the date (December 22nd, Depth=28”, Green Star) was still later than average due in part to the slow first half of December, but unlike last season it was well within the 1 S.D. bars (thin vertical black lines). Note that the 24” mark is being used as an indicator of when the first forays into appropriate off piste/tree skiing terrain typically start in the
Central and
Northern Greens. In terms of empirical tree skiing observations, personal experience again lends some support to the use of 24” mark this season, as we began venturing into the trees the very next day on
December 23rd at Bolton Valley. It should be noted though, that while the 24” mark was attained on December 22nd this season, the 40” mark was attained the very next day on December 23rd. The
40-inch rule (i.e. reaching a depth of 40” at the stake), is used as an indicator of when most off piste/tree skiing around here is ready to go. Although I haven’t looked into the data, this season has got to represent one of the quickest ascents from 24” to 40” – it’s interesting to note however that after rising to 42” of depth on December 23rd and 24th, the snowpack settled back to 36” for a couple of days before rebounding to 45” on the 27th.
Snow Quality: As an monitor of snow quality for the season, the chronological list of our ski outings has once again been compiled, with those days in which we were skiing powder indicated by a
P, and those days in which powder skiing wasn’t available indicated by an
X. The availability of powder suggests a fairly high level of snow quality, and the absence of powder generally indicates that temperatures rose above freezing at all elevations. Each listing below represents a link to the full report where images and more information from the outing can be obtained. Outings with an
X may still be providing decent skiing such as wet snow, corn, etc. (or else skiing was typically avoided) but aside from the spring period, there’s going to be a price to pay in terms of snow quality associated with these episodes when temperatures eventually cool back down. The pattern of snow conditions in the
Northern Green Mountains was fairly typical this past winter, with those days lacking powder skiing showing up in three distinct periods: 1) the early season with its usual temperature fluctuations, up through mid December before the weather pattern changed and the cold weather stabilized, 2) a thaw period in mid January, and 3) the period starting in mid March where spring weather began to make inroads. However, with the way the weather patterns this past spring continued to provide cool temperatures and snowfall, powder skiing generally dominated until mid April. Having analyzed the skiing in this way for the past three seasons, a surprising level of consistency is noted, with an overall average of close to four out of five days providing powder, despite notable differences in the demeanor of these recent ski seasons. The
2010-2011 season, which was above average in snowfall, provided powder on 78% of outings, the
2011-2012 season, which was well below average in many ways, revealed the same 78%, and most recently the
2012-2013 season, which was slightly below average in this area, produced a very similar 77% of outings with powder. The percentages don’t take into account differences in the number of outings each season, but with all three seasons falling into the range of 50 to 60 ski outings, differences in the sample sizes aren’t huge. The list of categorized ski outings with links to their full reports follows below:
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 04NOV2012
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 11NOV2012
X Stowe, VT, Thursday 15NOV2012
P Stowe, VT, Friday 30NOV2012
P Stowe, VT, Saturday, 01DEC2012
X Stowe, VT, Saturday, 15DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Friday 21DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 22DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 23DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 27DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Friday 28DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 29DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 29DEC2012 (Night)
P Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 30DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Monday 31DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 01JAN2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 05JAN2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 06JAN2013
X Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 12JAN2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 13JAN2013
P Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 19JAN2013
P Stowe Sidecountry & Bruce Trail, VT, Monday 21JAN2013
P Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT, Sunday 27JAN2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 29JAN2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 03FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 09FEB2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 10FEB2013
P Stowe, VT, Thursday 14FEB2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 16FEB2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Monday 18FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday, 21FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 23FEB2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 24FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 26FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 28FEB2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 02MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 03MAR2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 09MAR2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 10MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 16MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 17MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Tuesday 19MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 21MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 21MAR2013 (Evening)
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 23MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 24MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 30MAR2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 31MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 02APR2013
P Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT, Saturday 06APR2013
X Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT, Sunday 07APR2013
P Stowe, VT, Saturday 13APR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 14APR2013
X Stowe, VT, Saturday 20APR2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 21APR2013
X Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 28APR2013
X Sugarbush, VT, Saturday 04MAY2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday, 05MAY2013
X Mt. Washington, NH, Saturday 18MAY2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 26MAY2013
Below I’m adding the monthly images used in the detailed month-by-month section of the summary. The detailed monthly text can be found along with some closing thoughts in the full report:
http://jandeproductions.com/2013/10/13/2012-2013-ski-season-summary/
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May