J.Spin
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Larger versions of the picture and data plots from the day are available through the link at the bottom of the report.
Here?s a brief weather update from the morning of this report as posted to SkiVT-L
?We've been fluctuating between sleet and rain here in Waterbury (elevation 495,) for the past 1.5 hours that we know of. As of 6:00 A.M. we've got a slushy 1/10 of an inch of accumulation on the snowboard, and we're at a temperature of 36.3 degrees F.?
That accumulation brought us to 22.2 inches of snow/frozen precipitation for the season at our house, and represented the 9th accumulating event so far. So, with a bit of accumulation at the house, I decided to see what was going on up at Bolton Valley. When I drove up the access road, the temperature was 39 F at the bottom (elevation ~340'). The first visible accumulation of white was at around 900', and then continuous coverage started at around 1,400'. In the lower village area (~2,200') the temperature was 34 F and there was a thick 2 inches of accumulation that looked to be made up of a combination of snow and sleet. As I started my trip up the mountain, I noticed that all the chair lifts were already running, but they were moving very slowly. I had even seen the Timberline lift running this way as I passed in on the drive up to the village. I assume the mountain was running these lifts due to the potential for ice build up with the weather conditions.
The skin up the mountain was easy, since the new snow was very thick and they had apparently groomed after it had fallen. The new snow/sleet combination was so thick, and it was also covered with a bit of a crust, that I was happy to be skinning on groomed snow instead of that stuff. I reached mid mountain, and since I had the time, I kept heading up Lower Vermont 200. I stopped just at the point where Sherman?s Pass starts to flatten out, since going beyond that point would have meant a lot more distance that vertical gain. There are steeper options than Sherman?s Pass to get to the top of the Vista Quad, but I?m not sure what their coverage was like at that point. One of these days, I?ll have to leave enough time to head all the way to the top. I wasn?t all that enthusiastic about the ski conditions based on what I?d just skinned over, but the skiing turned out to be great. The groomers had nicely churned the new precipitation into a sweet layer of packed powder. It was thick enough that I didn?t cut through to any hard snow (if it was even there). The temperature was relatively mild, so the underlying snow may not have tightened up too badly anyway at that point. Monday was actually my first Bolton hike/ski trip of the season where I didn?t ski some powder, but the groomed conditions were so nice it was hard to care.
There wasn't really any precipitation while I was there, but when I left at around 8:45 A.M. the temperature in the village was 33 F and it was just starting to rain. The Avocet recorded a run of 540 vertical feet, and the Suunto recorded a run of 541 vertical feet, for a difference of 0.2%. This was the closest I?ve seen the altimeters come in my recent tests, and it was also the first time the Suunto recorded more vertical that the Avocet. To create my Google Earth/GPS tracking plot from this trip, I tried out the technique I learned from BigJay on the First Tracks!! Discussion Forums and it worked great. Many thanks to BigJay for that technique because I think it really improves the visualization of the tracks.
Larger versions of the picture and data plots from the day are at:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2007/08JAN07.html
J.Spin
Here?s a brief weather update from the morning of this report as posted to SkiVT-L
?We've been fluctuating between sleet and rain here in Waterbury (elevation 495,) for the past 1.5 hours that we know of. As of 6:00 A.M. we've got a slushy 1/10 of an inch of accumulation on the snowboard, and we're at a temperature of 36.3 degrees F.?
That accumulation brought us to 22.2 inches of snow/frozen precipitation for the season at our house, and represented the 9th accumulating event so far. So, with a bit of accumulation at the house, I decided to see what was going on up at Bolton Valley. When I drove up the access road, the temperature was 39 F at the bottom (elevation ~340'). The first visible accumulation of white was at around 900', and then continuous coverage started at around 1,400'. In the lower village area (~2,200') the temperature was 34 F and there was a thick 2 inches of accumulation that looked to be made up of a combination of snow and sleet. As I started my trip up the mountain, I noticed that all the chair lifts were already running, but they were moving very slowly. I had even seen the Timberline lift running this way as I passed in on the drive up to the village. I assume the mountain was running these lifts due to the potential for ice build up with the weather conditions.
The skin up the mountain was easy, since the new snow was very thick and they had apparently groomed after it had fallen. The new snow/sleet combination was so thick, and it was also covered with a bit of a crust, that I was happy to be skinning on groomed snow instead of that stuff. I reached mid mountain, and since I had the time, I kept heading up Lower Vermont 200. I stopped just at the point where Sherman?s Pass starts to flatten out, since going beyond that point would have meant a lot more distance that vertical gain. There are steeper options than Sherman?s Pass to get to the top of the Vista Quad, but I?m not sure what their coverage was like at that point. One of these days, I?ll have to leave enough time to head all the way to the top. I wasn?t all that enthusiastic about the ski conditions based on what I?d just skinned over, but the skiing turned out to be great. The groomers had nicely churned the new precipitation into a sweet layer of packed powder. It was thick enough that I didn?t cut through to any hard snow (if it was even there). The temperature was relatively mild, so the underlying snow may not have tightened up too badly anyway at that point. Monday was actually my first Bolton hike/ski trip of the season where I didn?t ski some powder, but the groomed conditions were so nice it was hard to care.
There wasn't really any precipitation while I was there, but when I left at around 8:45 A.M. the temperature in the village was 33 F and it was just starting to rain. The Avocet recorded a run of 540 vertical feet, and the Suunto recorded a run of 541 vertical feet, for a difference of 0.2%. This was the closest I?ve seen the altimeters come in my recent tests, and it was also the first time the Suunto recorded more vertical that the Avocet. To create my Google Earth/GPS tracking plot from this trip, I tried out the technique I learned from BigJay on the First Tracks!! Discussion Forums and it worked great. Many thanks to BigJay for that technique because I think it really improves the visualization of the tracks.
Larger versions of the picture and data plots from the day are at:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2007/08JAN07.html
J.Spin
