J.Spin
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Larger versions of the pictures from the day are available through the link at the bottom of the report.
Well, we had yet another snowfall event in the valley, so I?ll begin with the snowfall/weather updates. For those that want to get right to the trip report, head to the ?Trip Report? section below.
Tuesday, December 19th, A.M. weather update
I woke up to 1.25 inches of fresh snow at our house this morning (elevation 495?), which constitutes the fourth snowfall of the season at our place, and brings our seasonal snowfall total to 11.5 inches. Based on the NWS and VPR Eye on the Sky forecasts, I suspected there was the chance for some accumulating snowfall last night in the Northern Greens, but I didn?t really think we?d see much of anything in the valley. Also, since Scott Braaten didn?t sound the upslope alarm, I didn?t give the snowfall potential too much regard. It seemed like such a minor snow event, that instead of prepping my ski gear last night, I decided to wait until the morning and check on how (if) the snow fell before getting stuff together. Peeking at the radar imagery last night before I went to bed, it also looked like the biggest stream of moisture was heading toward the Killington area, and that they were going to be the bull?s eye from this event. There was a little signal starting to fill in near our neck of the woods, but it wasn?t enough of anything to get me thinking we?d see accumulating snow.
However, I woke up to a white wintry world at our house this morning, as all the grass had been covered, and the trees were coated. We had a temperature of 29 degrees F, and I figured if we could build up more than an inch of snow, Bolton could do even better. While the snow down at our elevation wasn?t really dry (not too surprising based on the temperature), it was still quite fluffy. The term that immediately popped into my head to describe the snow was ?wet and fluffy?, which brought back a vivid SkiVT-L memory. I?ll never forget that terminology, because back on November 1st, 1995, Barry Thrash used it to describe a snowfall up at Bolton Valley (I think back when he lived up there), and then David Goodman proceeded to give him a hard time for using such a combination of terms:
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind95 ... &O=D&P=866
Well, that?s what described the snow at our house this morning, that?s all I can tell you. It was light and full of air, but I still don?t think I could have blown it off my measurement area because all the crystals were stuck together at their edges. It was quite interesting.
I guess we may be a bit of anomaly in terms of snowfall for this event, because the only other reports I could find in our range of accumulation on the Vermont hydrology report this morning were Northfield (a couple towns south of us right in Washington County) and Brookfield (the next town south of Northfield as you cross into Orange County), which were both reporting an inch of new snow. The only ski areas that seem to be reporting anything in terms of new snow this morning are Bolton (2 inches) and Stowe (1 inch), which is sort of unusual. I was pleasantly surprised to see 3 new inches of snow on Saturday at the Mt. Mansfield stake, but only Bolton (reporting a couple of inches) seemed to indicate any new snow in terms of ski areas. I did hear a report that Sugarbush had received some new snow from that event, but I didn?t catch it reported on SkiVermont.com.
Tuesday, December 19th, P.M. weather update
Scott Braaten provided some nice pictures and radar data to SkiVT-L of a squall that moved through Burlington on Tuesday:
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind06 ... 10140&I=-3
I was catching up on some Christmas shopping and happened to be on Church Street and vicinity during that great squall. There's nothing quite like Christmas shopping on Church Street with all the lights and decorations, and the addition of snowfall really completes the scene. It was dumping huge, fat, fluffy flakes with essentially no wind (at least on the Marketplace where I was), and you could see everyone's spirits rise with the snowfall. From Dave's report, it sounds like the Bolton Valley snowfall continued nicely up there after I left to produce the 4-5 inches he mentioned. The Mt. Mansfield station reported 4.5 inches of new snow as well. We picked up another 1/2 inch at our place in Waterbury today, for 1.75 inches from this event and an even 12 inches on the season. We've got roughly 2 inches on the ground now, and there's still some light snowfall coming down. I know this is supposedly not the greatest weather pattern for snow, but I'd certainly take another morning like I had at Bolton today over many other types of weather events.
Wednesday, December 20th, A.M. weather update
I didn?t actually expect much snow accumulation overnight, but we picked up another fluffy ½ inch at our place in Waterbury. At a temperature of around 20 F, this stuff is notably drier than what I found yesterday morning. This brings our locale to 2.25 inches from this event, and 12.5 inches on the season. The fluffy snow has now settled a bit so that we have 1.5 inches on the ground. E said there was no accumulation out in Morrisville yesterday, although it did snow all day out there. She was out there this morning as well and said that there is still just a dusting. So, this event has certainly shown some interesting variability in snow accumulations. For readings outside the ski areas, the highest total I saw in the Vermont hydrological reports was 2.0 inches of 5% H2O snow at Waitsfield, which had a low temperature of 16 F. Diamond Pond in northern New Hampshire also reported 3.0 inches of new snow.
We?ve got a spectacular view at our place today with clear blue skies and the sparkling fresh snow. I bet there?s some excellent skiing out there this morning in the areas that picked up snow in the ½-foot range (see the accumulations list below). Today?s skiing may not feature much of the loose powder of yesterday, as any open terrain was probably groomed overnight. But, I bet there is some great cruising in the sunshine after the groomers incorporated this nice light natural snow into the rest of the base.
Here?s a rundown of what the local areas seem to be reporting from this event:
Jay Peak: 3?
Smuggler?s: 4?
Stowe: 2? to 5?
Bolton Valley: 5? to 7?
MRG: 4? to 6?
Sugarbush: 6?
Middlebury: 1? to 2?
Pico: 1?
Killington: 1?
I didn?t head any further south than that, as it looks like the accumulations are tapering off and this is another Northern Green Mountains event.
Trip Report
With having to prepare my gear in the morning, as well as take care of a few holiday odds and ends, I was a little later than usual arriving up at Bolton Valley. But, I still had plenty of time to earn a run before the lifts started turning at 9:00 A.M. There were just a couple inches of fresh snow at the base area, but it was very nice to watch the puff of fresh powder as I set each of my skis down in the snow. It had been over a week since I?d enjoyed that ritual, and it was a very nice fix.
The trails were deserted as I took my usual route up Sprig O? Pine, but both the Mid-Mountain Lift and the Vista Quad were running as part of the resort?s early morning procedures. I was really happy to see that the trails had been groomed before the snow fell, which meant that I would have plenty of fresh powder all over the trails, instead of just the edges. All the way up, all I could see were trails of fresh white snow, occasionally marked by a snowmobile track. It was pleasant skinning in the shallow powder, and after a couple of quick stops for photos, I had reached the top of the Mid-Mountain Lift. I could see that snow was being made above this point, so I decided to stop there and ski down.
Although it may not be quite like skiing deep powder, there?s nothing like cruising with a couple inches of fresh powder on top of a nicely groomed surface. That?s what I was faced with, and on the CMH fats, even those couple of inches were sufficient for some nice floaty turns on the mellow terrain. I have to admit that I was a bit of a powder hog lacking in powder conservation etiquette, but oh well. The skiing was already very good, and the continued snowfall suggested it was only going to get better. It wasn?t a blue sky day, but there was little if any wind, and the temperature was comfortable at somewhere in the 20s F.
I finished my run, and with only 5-10 minutes to go before the lifts opened, I decided to wait and catch a few ?unearned? bonus runs. I suddenly made the funny connection between the terms ?earned? and ?unearned? runs in both skiing and baseball, and it made me chuckle a bit (at least on the inside). After a few minutes I was on my way back up to Mid Mountain. A few other skiers had shown up around the bottom of the lift, but nobody seemed to be in too much of a hurry to get up the mountain. Bolton is running their $9 deal for all-day skiing, which was definitely a steal for what you got to ski on Tuesday in my opinion.
For my first bonus run, I considered heading down Beech Seal. I wondered if the steep pitch on the first half of the trail would bit too much to keep me floating in the modest snowfall, but I figured having the whole trail to myself to crank out some big high-speed turns would make the trip worth it. And it definitely WAS worth it. I do recall touching down on the base during that run, but the groomed surface below was surprisingly soft. I thought it would have been a scratchy mess without much new snow lately, but perhaps they?ve recently made snow and nicely manicured it into the slope. Whatever the case, the smooth, high-speed arcs felt really good.
The skiing was just way too good to convince myself to leave just yet, so I hit the Mid-Mountain lift for another run. This time I headed over toward Sprig O? Pine, and wouldn?t you know it, the tracks from my earned run were still the only ones there. I was happy to add another set. For a change of pace, I headed down through he Kid?s Park area, and he underlying surface there was FIRM! I guess they haven?t manicured the park area like they have for the other slopes because it was notably harder.
I reluctantly decided that a couple of bonus runs were enough, and was skiing back down to the car when I happened to pass by the base of the Snowflake Lift. ?Oh, what?s this? The Snowflake Lift is running. I can?t let an untracked trail go to waste!? So, up I went. The liftie told me that I was actually the second person on the lift for the day, but I figured I could manage. I finagled another nice fluffy run, and was finally able to convince myself to head to the car.
Aside from the skiing, another great part of the day was watching the expressions on everyone?s faces due to the new snow and the good conditions. As I was heading down to Sprig O? Pine on my third run, there were a couple of kids behind me that were somewhat surprised and definitely giddy from the conditions they had just discovered. While I was chatting with one of the lifties, he commented on how great it would be if the snow (which was falling only lightly at the time) would keep up all day. I remember thinking how that would be a real treat, but I was kind of skeptical because this wasn?t supposed to be a major upslope event, and it was supposed to wind down. If only I could have known that Bolton was going to pull 7 inches of snow out of the sky from this little uneventful event, it would have been really nice to tell him.
As I was packing up my gear at the car to leave, the snow really started to come down in earnest. I remember thinking that if it decided to keep on dumping the way it was going when I left; it really WOULD accumulate into a moderate powder day. It turns out that the snowfall kept up, and later in the afternoon I found out that the skiing was excellent throughout the day. Dave Bouchard of SkiVT-L was up on the mountain taking advantage of the $9 skiing, and reported 4-5 inches of accumulation. I liked his comment about taking 10 ?last runs?.
My Avocet logged 4 runs for 1,365 feet vertical, and I must have inadvertently stopped my Suunto when I checked the time because it only recorded my first ?earned? run of 392 feet. So, I can?t do any comparisons of the instruments this time. I did plot the usual Suunto and GPS data for my earned run, which can be seen with the larger versions of the pictures at:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2006/19DEC06.html
J.Spin
Well, we had yet another snowfall event in the valley, so I?ll begin with the snowfall/weather updates. For those that want to get right to the trip report, head to the ?Trip Report? section below.
Tuesday, December 19th, A.M. weather update
I woke up to 1.25 inches of fresh snow at our house this morning (elevation 495?), which constitutes the fourth snowfall of the season at our place, and brings our seasonal snowfall total to 11.5 inches. Based on the NWS and VPR Eye on the Sky forecasts, I suspected there was the chance for some accumulating snowfall last night in the Northern Greens, but I didn?t really think we?d see much of anything in the valley. Also, since Scott Braaten didn?t sound the upslope alarm, I didn?t give the snowfall potential too much regard. It seemed like such a minor snow event, that instead of prepping my ski gear last night, I decided to wait until the morning and check on how (if) the snow fell before getting stuff together. Peeking at the radar imagery last night before I went to bed, it also looked like the biggest stream of moisture was heading toward the Killington area, and that they were going to be the bull?s eye from this event. There was a little signal starting to fill in near our neck of the woods, but it wasn?t enough of anything to get me thinking we?d see accumulating snow.
However, I woke up to a white wintry world at our house this morning, as all the grass had been covered, and the trees were coated. We had a temperature of 29 degrees F, and I figured if we could build up more than an inch of snow, Bolton could do even better. While the snow down at our elevation wasn?t really dry (not too surprising based on the temperature), it was still quite fluffy. The term that immediately popped into my head to describe the snow was ?wet and fluffy?, which brought back a vivid SkiVT-L memory. I?ll never forget that terminology, because back on November 1st, 1995, Barry Thrash used it to describe a snowfall up at Bolton Valley (I think back when he lived up there), and then David Goodman proceeded to give him a hard time for using such a combination of terms:
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind95 ... &O=D&P=866
Well, that?s what described the snow at our house this morning, that?s all I can tell you. It was light and full of air, but I still don?t think I could have blown it off my measurement area because all the crystals were stuck together at their edges. It was quite interesting.
I guess we may be a bit of anomaly in terms of snowfall for this event, because the only other reports I could find in our range of accumulation on the Vermont hydrology report this morning were Northfield (a couple towns south of us right in Washington County) and Brookfield (the next town south of Northfield as you cross into Orange County), which were both reporting an inch of new snow. The only ski areas that seem to be reporting anything in terms of new snow this morning are Bolton (2 inches) and Stowe (1 inch), which is sort of unusual. I was pleasantly surprised to see 3 new inches of snow on Saturday at the Mt. Mansfield stake, but only Bolton (reporting a couple of inches) seemed to indicate any new snow in terms of ski areas. I did hear a report that Sugarbush had received some new snow from that event, but I didn?t catch it reported on SkiVermont.com.
Tuesday, December 19th, P.M. weather update
Scott Braaten provided some nice pictures and radar data to SkiVT-L of a squall that moved through Burlington on Tuesday:
http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind06 ... 10140&I=-3
I was catching up on some Christmas shopping and happened to be on Church Street and vicinity during that great squall. There's nothing quite like Christmas shopping on Church Street with all the lights and decorations, and the addition of snowfall really completes the scene. It was dumping huge, fat, fluffy flakes with essentially no wind (at least on the Marketplace where I was), and you could see everyone's spirits rise with the snowfall. From Dave's report, it sounds like the Bolton Valley snowfall continued nicely up there after I left to produce the 4-5 inches he mentioned. The Mt. Mansfield station reported 4.5 inches of new snow as well. We picked up another 1/2 inch at our place in Waterbury today, for 1.75 inches from this event and an even 12 inches on the season. We've got roughly 2 inches on the ground now, and there's still some light snowfall coming down. I know this is supposedly not the greatest weather pattern for snow, but I'd certainly take another morning like I had at Bolton today over many other types of weather events.
Wednesday, December 20th, A.M. weather update
I didn?t actually expect much snow accumulation overnight, but we picked up another fluffy ½ inch at our place in Waterbury. At a temperature of around 20 F, this stuff is notably drier than what I found yesterday morning. This brings our locale to 2.25 inches from this event, and 12.5 inches on the season. The fluffy snow has now settled a bit so that we have 1.5 inches on the ground. E said there was no accumulation out in Morrisville yesterday, although it did snow all day out there. She was out there this morning as well and said that there is still just a dusting. So, this event has certainly shown some interesting variability in snow accumulations. For readings outside the ski areas, the highest total I saw in the Vermont hydrological reports was 2.0 inches of 5% H2O snow at Waitsfield, which had a low temperature of 16 F. Diamond Pond in northern New Hampshire also reported 3.0 inches of new snow.
We?ve got a spectacular view at our place today with clear blue skies and the sparkling fresh snow. I bet there?s some excellent skiing out there this morning in the areas that picked up snow in the ½-foot range (see the accumulations list below). Today?s skiing may not feature much of the loose powder of yesterday, as any open terrain was probably groomed overnight. But, I bet there is some great cruising in the sunshine after the groomers incorporated this nice light natural snow into the rest of the base.
Here?s a rundown of what the local areas seem to be reporting from this event:
Jay Peak: 3?
Smuggler?s: 4?
Stowe: 2? to 5?
Bolton Valley: 5? to 7?
MRG: 4? to 6?
Sugarbush: 6?
Middlebury: 1? to 2?
Pico: 1?
Killington: 1?
I didn?t head any further south than that, as it looks like the accumulations are tapering off and this is another Northern Green Mountains event.
Trip Report
With having to prepare my gear in the morning, as well as take care of a few holiday odds and ends, I was a little later than usual arriving up at Bolton Valley. But, I still had plenty of time to earn a run before the lifts started turning at 9:00 A.M. There were just a couple inches of fresh snow at the base area, but it was very nice to watch the puff of fresh powder as I set each of my skis down in the snow. It had been over a week since I?d enjoyed that ritual, and it was a very nice fix.
The trails were deserted as I took my usual route up Sprig O? Pine, but both the Mid-Mountain Lift and the Vista Quad were running as part of the resort?s early morning procedures. I was really happy to see that the trails had been groomed before the snow fell, which meant that I would have plenty of fresh powder all over the trails, instead of just the edges. All the way up, all I could see were trails of fresh white snow, occasionally marked by a snowmobile track. It was pleasant skinning in the shallow powder, and after a couple of quick stops for photos, I had reached the top of the Mid-Mountain Lift. I could see that snow was being made above this point, so I decided to stop there and ski down.
Although it may not be quite like skiing deep powder, there?s nothing like cruising with a couple inches of fresh powder on top of a nicely groomed surface. That?s what I was faced with, and on the CMH fats, even those couple of inches were sufficient for some nice floaty turns on the mellow terrain. I have to admit that I was a bit of a powder hog lacking in powder conservation etiquette, but oh well. The skiing was already very good, and the continued snowfall suggested it was only going to get better. It wasn?t a blue sky day, but there was little if any wind, and the temperature was comfortable at somewhere in the 20s F.
I finished my run, and with only 5-10 minutes to go before the lifts opened, I decided to wait and catch a few ?unearned? bonus runs. I suddenly made the funny connection between the terms ?earned? and ?unearned? runs in both skiing and baseball, and it made me chuckle a bit (at least on the inside). After a few minutes I was on my way back up to Mid Mountain. A few other skiers had shown up around the bottom of the lift, but nobody seemed to be in too much of a hurry to get up the mountain. Bolton is running their $9 deal for all-day skiing, which was definitely a steal for what you got to ski on Tuesday in my opinion.
For my first bonus run, I considered heading down Beech Seal. I wondered if the steep pitch on the first half of the trail would bit too much to keep me floating in the modest snowfall, but I figured having the whole trail to myself to crank out some big high-speed turns would make the trip worth it. And it definitely WAS worth it. I do recall touching down on the base during that run, but the groomed surface below was surprisingly soft. I thought it would have been a scratchy mess without much new snow lately, but perhaps they?ve recently made snow and nicely manicured it into the slope. Whatever the case, the smooth, high-speed arcs felt really good.
The skiing was just way too good to convince myself to leave just yet, so I hit the Mid-Mountain lift for another run. This time I headed over toward Sprig O? Pine, and wouldn?t you know it, the tracks from my earned run were still the only ones there. I was happy to add another set. For a change of pace, I headed down through he Kid?s Park area, and he underlying surface there was FIRM! I guess they haven?t manicured the park area like they have for the other slopes because it was notably harder.
I reluctantly decided that a couple of bonus runs were enough, and was skiing back down to the car when I happened to pass by the base of the Snowflake Lift. ?Oh, what?s this? The Snowflake Lift is running. I can?t let an untracked trail go to waste!? So, up I went. The liftie told me that I was actually the second person on the lift for the day, but I figured I could manage. I finagled another nice fluffy run, and was finally able to convince myself to head to the car.
Aside from the skiing, another great part of the day was watching the expressions on everyone?s faces due to the new snow and the good conditions. As I was heading down to Sprig O? Pine on my third run, there were a couple of kids behind me that were somewhat surprised and definitely giddy from the conditions they had just discovered. While I was chatting with one of the lifties, he commented on how great it would be if the snow (which was falling only lightly at the time) would keep up all day. I remember thinking how that would be a real treat, but I was kind of skeptical because this wasn?t supposed to be a major upslope event, and it was supposed to wind down. If only I could have known that Bolton was going to pull 7 inches of snow out of the sky from this little uneventful event, it would have been really nice to tell him.
As I was packing up my gear at the car to leave, the snow really started to come down in earnest. I remember thinking that if it decided to keep on dumping the way it was going when I left; it really WOULD accumulate into a moderate powder day. It turns out that the snowfall kept up, and later in the afternoon I found out that the skiing was excellent throughout the day. Dave Bouchard of SkiVT-L was up on the mountain taking advantage of the $9 skiing, and reported 4-5 inches of accumulation. I liked his comment about taking 10 ?last runs?.
My Avocet logged 4 runs for 1,365 feet vertical, and I must have inadvertently stopped my Suunto when I checked the time because it only recorded my first ?earned? run of 392 feet. So, I can?t do any comparisons of the instruments this time. I did plot the usual Suunto and GPS data for my earned run, which can be seen with the larger versions of the pictures at:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2006/19DEC06.html
J.Spin
