J.Spin
New member
Larger versions of the pictures and data plots from the day can be found through the links at the bottom of the report.
Temperatures in the mid to upper 30s F and mixed precipitation meant that the bulk of the April 14th and 15th weekend provided little accumulating snow for the deeper valleys of the Green Mountains. However, on Sunday afternoon, that began to change as some colder air moved in. Here?s the Sunday?s evening snowfall and weather update from the house in Waterbury:
Sunday, April 15th, 2007: 10:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT.
New snow since previous measurement: 3.1 inches
Temperature: 33.3 F
Humidity 98%
Wind: Calm
Sky: Snow
Cumulative storm total: 3.1 inches
Current snow at stake: 17 inches
Season snowfall total: 153.4 inches
"We had a mix of snow and rain all day at the house in Waterbury. In the morning the precipitation changed over to all snow for a while, but it was too warm for any accumulation. We warmed a bit more during the day and the precipitation went back to a mix of rain and wet snow for the rest of the afternoon. The big changeover came in the late afternoon. We were in Williston at the Shaw?s supermarket getting a few groceries, and I when I went into the store the precipitation was the same sort of moderate, mixed stuff we?d seen all day. But, when I came out about 15 minutes later (~4:30 P.M.), it was intense, driving snow composed of big flakes with sleet mixed in. It was very loud on the windshield of the car. The temperature dropped from 36 F in Williston to 33 F in Waterbury, and a bit past Richmond, everything became quiet as the sleet disappeared. It was amazing how quiet it suddenly felt when the precipitation changed to all snow. By the time we?d made the 15-20 minute drive home, the roads had already accumulated a new inch and it was snowing quite intensely. The power went out around 9:00 P.M., and at around 10:30 P.M., we got the word that my wife?s school up in Morrisville was cancelled for Monday. Based on the clocks, it looks like our power came back on around midnight. There?s been an additional small accumulation of snow on the snowboard since the 10:00 P.M. reading, but there doesn?t appear to be much going on at the moment so our total accumulation is still between 3 and 4 inches of heavy wet snow."
The 3.1 inches we picked up from that event turned out to be our final accumulation of the season at the house, leaving us with a total of 153.4 inches of recorded snow for 2006-2007. Up in the mountains, Jay Peak Resort reported 16 inches of new snow the following morning, and the hydrologic report indicated that 14 inches fell at the Jay Peak station, which sits at around 1,800? near the base of the mountain. At the Mt. Mansfield stake (elevation 3,950?), 7.5 new inches were recorded on Monday, bringing the stake to an even 100 inches. That was the greatest snow depth that I saw recorded at the Mansfield stake for the season.
I didn?t have time to ski on Monday morning, so I decided to stop by Bolton Valley for some turns after work. It had gotten quite warm in the valleys during the day, so I suspected that unfortunately, even the mountain temperatures had gone above freezing. At the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road (elevation 340?), the temperature was a whopping 50 degrees F, and although climbing up to the elevation of the village (~2,150?) did shave off nine degrees from the air temperature, 41 F was still pretty darned warm. I wasn?t optimistic about the state of the snow surface.
The actual scene that I encountered up in the village was pretty surreal. Everything was covered in the wettest snow I?d seen all season up at Bolton. We?re not even talking about the Sierra Cement/Cascade Concrete type of stuff that I?d skied with Dave and Ty a couple days prior; this stuff was way beyond that. This snow was actually a saturated mass of dripping, slushy, goo. In places where a little more melting had occurred, the color of the material was more clear than white! It didn?t take a genius to realize that the snow surface wasn?t going to be optimal for skiing. Relative to the typical view one sees in the village, it looked somewhat like an abandoned war zone. Where the snow had been plowed, dense piles up brown tainted sludge were apparent. Where the snow hadn?t been plowed, there were saturated-looking, runnel-filled masses of white. There was absolutely nobody around, and the village was deathly quiet. Everyone else had probably realized that it was not the place to be. As if the picture on the ground wasn?t enough, the sky couldn?t help but contribute to the dramatic scene. Everywhere I looked, the late afternoon light combined with the thick shield of clouds to produce an ominous dark gray color. It was the color not of snow clouds, but of rain clouds. They appeared to loom even darker over Ricker Mountain to create quite a dramatic look. Then there was the wind. I hadn?t left the car yet at that point to really gauge its full force, but by the way it was shaking my vehicle, I knew it meant business
There had been such a surfeit of snowfall in the week or so since Bolton had stopped running the lifts, that it was really hard to gauge how much of it had actually fallen in the previous 24 hours. There had been no grooming to provide an accumulation estimate off the trials, and everywhere else I looked, the new snow seemed to be melded to whatever snow lay beneath it. If I had to hazard I guess on that latest round of accumulation based on what I saw at the village though, I?d probably estimate something like 6-12 inches, in line with what the Stowe/Mt. Mansfield area had received.
Since the village was so utterly deserted, I parked in the upper lot near the Snowflake Lift. I sat in the car for what must have been several minutes, trying to decide if it was even worth pulling out my ski gear and skinning up the hill. Ultimately, I figured I was sitting right below the slopes, so why not at least head uphill. Of course, as soon as I got out of the car, I was buffeted with wind that was gusting as high as 30-40 MPH, which actually made me reconsider my choice. Could the weather and snow conditions be any less appealing than what I was seeing? I guess it was possible, in that it could have been frigid cold, and the snow could have turned to ice. I hardened my resolve, ducked my head against the wind, and decided to try a run. Skinning up the hill seemed as good an option as anything in terms of getting a workout, even if I?d be atop piles of sludge.
As I started up and approached Beech Seal, I snapped a picture of the signs that the resort had placed at the bottom of the slopes. An orange sign read ?SKIING + RIDING CLOSED? in large letters was the most visible and dramatic, but a pink one next to it indicated that skiing and riding could be done at your own risk. I?d actually seen the signs on one of my previous trips. The orange one, which is visible from a greater distance and was the one I?d seen first, had me worried that the mountain was looking to close the slopes off to those hiking for turns. Fortunately, the pink sign alleviated those fears. I think that the fact that the mountain was closed was pretty obvious, so presumably the signs were a way of providing the mountain a bit of legal protection.
A snowcat/groomer had made a single swath up Sprig O? Pine, so I was able to follow its path and didn?t need to break trail through the sloppy snow. The ?ungroomed? snow all around me was very interesting. I actually hesitate to use a term such as ungroomed, or anything that might suggest that the snow was pristine, because while it may not have been modified by man, Mother Nature had really done a number on it. Apparently the rain and/or meltwater had run through and under the snow with some vigor, because the surface of the snowpack was heavily dimpled and sunken throughout. The look was somewhat reminiscent of wind effects on the snowpack, but it was certainly unique and prompted me to snap a bunch of photos. Based on the state of the snow surface, there must have been some serious rain along with the most recent batch of snowfall.
I made my way up to Mid Mountain, and based on the snow conditions I was seeing, I didn?t feel the need to go any higher. I somehow managed to fold up my skins in the nasty wind, stowed my gear, and started my run. Well, the skiing was about as good as I thought it would be. I?m not sure if I actually made many turns, as I had to straight line Beech Seal for the most part. The snow was so sticky, wet, and thick, that turns were hardly required? or even possible in the some places. At times it felt like water skiing. This was one of those outings where the hike was probably the high point, and the trip down on skis was more a convenient and quick way to get back to the car without walking. I can certainly say it was one of my more ?interesting? runs of the season. I didn?t even try to take any shots of my tracks, because there weren?t really any tracks to see. From the bottom, the enhanced transparency of the snow and its wet nature meant that all I could see of my tracks were a few wet clumps to mark where I?d been. The altimeters experienced their largest disparity of the season in terms of recorded vertical descent, with the Avocet counting 475 vertical feet and the Suunto counting 413 feet. Those values equate to a 14.0% difference, which is twice as high as any other difference I recorded during the season. Other days with notable differences observed between the two instruments were also outings with very low vertical drops. Looking back upon my season?s worth of altimeter data, it appears as though the trend is that the ?absolute? amount of difference between the two instruments lies in a fairly small range, regardless of the amount of vertical skied. Since I report the differences as percentages, this number is higher on days with small vertical descents.
That outing pretty much marked the end of the series of big April snowstorms in the area. The trend of the snow for my ski days had gone from decent powder on Friday, to a still-fun cement-style surface on Saturday, to all out glop on Monday. I?m not sure what would have followed next in that trend, except for perhaps actual water skiing. Fortunately, corn season was on the way, but a few freeze-thaw cycles would definitely be needed to convert that glop over to an enjoyable skiing surface.
With the end of that storm on the 17th of April, I believe the Vermont ski areas had received their final substantial snow accumulations of the season. Below are some of the season snowfall totals I found for the areas that seem to report them in the northern half of Vermont. Ultimately, despite the extremely slow start to the season, the reported totals still came out a bit (10-20%) above the stated averages for the resorts. As far as I know, the numbers don?t include any of the October snowfall, which was a couple of feet depending on the resort. Bolton Valley closed before recording the last week or so worth of snowfall, so their accumulation isn?t as far above their average as the other resorts. Adding the few more feet that fell after their closing would probably put them in line with the others.
The numbers listed below are the total snowfall reported by the resorts for the 2006-2007 season, followed by the average annual snowfall numbers that that the resorts seem to use, followed by the percent difference in this year?s total from the average.
Jay Peak (410"/355") (+15.5%)
Stowe: (374"/333") (+12.3%)
Bolton: (303"/300") (+1.0%)
Sugarbush (314"/262") (+19.8%)
Killington (294"/250") (+17.6%)
Larger pictures and data plots associated with the report can be found at the temporary link below, or the permanent link when the temporary link stops working:
http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/2007/16APR07.html
If the temporary link is no longer available, try the permanent link:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2007/16APR07.html
J.Spin
Temperatures in the mid to upper 30s F and mixed precipitation meant that the bulk of the April 14th and 15th weekend provided little accumulating snow for the deeper valleys of the Green Mountains. However, on Sunday afternoon, that began to change as some colder air moved in. Here?s the Sunday?s evening snowfall and weather update from the house in Waterbury:
Sunday, April 15th, 2007: 10:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT.
New snow since previous measurement: 3.1 inches
Temperature: 33.3 F
Humidity 98%
Wind: Calm
Sky: Snow
Cumulative storm total: 3.1 inches
Current snow at stake: 17 inches
Season snowfall total: 153.4 inches
"We had a mix of snow and rain all day at the house in Waterbury. In the morning the precipitation changed over to all snow for a while, but it was too warm for any accumulation. We warmed a bit more during the day and the precipitation went back to a mix of rain and wet snow for the rest of the afternoon. The big changeover came in the late afternoon. We were in Williston at the Shaw?s supermarket getting a few groceries, and I when I went into the store the precipitation was the same sort of moderate, mixed stuff we?d seen all day. But, when I came out about 15 minutes later (~4:30 P.M.), it was intense, driving snow composed of big flakes with sleet mixed in. It was very loud on the windshield of the car. The temperature dropped from 36 F in Williston to 33 F in Waterbury, and a bit past Richmond, everything became quiet as the sleet disappeared. It was amazing how quiet it suddenly felt when the precipitation changed to all snow. By the time we?d made the 15-20 minute drive home, the roads had already accumulated a new inch and it was snowing quite intensely. The power went out around 9:00 P.M., and at around 10:30 P.M., we got the word that my wife?s school up in Morrisville was cancelled for Monday. Based on the clocks, it looks like our power came back on around midnight. There?s been an additional small accumulation of snow on the snowboard since the 10:00 P.M. reading, but there doesn?t appear to be much going on at the moment so our total accumulation is still between 3 and 4 inches of heavy wet snow."
The 3.1 inches we picked up from that event turned out to be our final accumulation of the season at the house, leaving us with a total of 153.4 inches of recorded snow for 2006-2007. Up in the mountains, Jay Peak Resort reported 16 inches of new snow the following morning, and the hydrologic report indicated that 14 inches fell at the Jay Peak station, which sits at around 1,800? near the base of the mountain. At the Mt. Mansfield stake (elevation 3,950?), 7.5 new inches were recorded on Monday, bringing the stake to an even 100 inches. That was the greatest snow depth that I saw recorded at the Mansfield stake for the season.
I didn?t have time to ski on Monday morning, so I decided to stop by Bolton Valley for some turns after work. It had gotten quite warm in the valleys during the day, so I suspected that unfortunately, even the mountain temperatures had gone above freezing. At the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road (elevation 340?), the temperature was a whopping 50 degrees F, and although climbing up to the elevation of the village (~2,150?) did shave off nine degrees from the air temperature, 41 F was still pretty darned warm. I wasn?t optimistic about the state of the snow surface.
The actual scene that I encountered up in the village was pretty surreal. Everything was covered in the wettest snow I?d seen all season up at Bolton. We?re not even talking about the Sierra Cement/Cascade Concrete type of stuff that I?d skied with Dave and Ty a couple days prior; this stuff was way beyond that. This snow was actually a saturated mass of dripping, slushy, goo. In places where a little more melting had occurred, the color of the material was more clear than white! It didn?t take a genius to realize that the snow surface wasn?t going to be optimal for skiing. Relative to the typical view one sees in the village, it looked somewhat like an abandoned war zone. Where the snow had been plowed, dense piles up brown tainted sludge were apparent. Where the snow hadn?t been plowed, there were saturated-looking, runnel-filled masses of white. There was absolutely nobody around, and the village was deathly quiet. Everyone else had probably realized that it was not the place to be. As if the picture on the ground wasn?t enough, the sky couldn?t help but contribute to the dramatic scene. Everywhere I looked, the late afternoon light combined with the thick shield of clouds to produce an ominous dark gray color. It was the color not of snow clouds, but of rain clouds. They appeared to loom even darker over Ricker Mountain to create quite a dramatic look. Then there was the wind. I hadn?t left the car yet at that point to really gauge its full force, but by the way it was shaking my vehicle, I knew it meant business
There had been such a surfeit of snowfall in the week or so since Bolton had stopped running the lifts, that it was really hard to gauge how much of it had actually fallen in the previous 24 hours. There had been no grooming to provide an accumulation estimate off the trials, and everywhere else I looked, the new snow seemed to be melded to whatever snow lay beneath it. If I had to hazard I guess on that latest round of accumulation based on what I saw at the village though, I?d probably estimate something like 6-12 inches, in line with what the Stowe/Mt. Mansfield area had received.
Since the village was so utterly deserted, I parked in the upper lot near the Snowflake Lift. I sat in the car for what must have been several minutes, trying to decide if it was even worth pulling out my ski gear and skinning up the hill. Ultimately, I figured I was sitting right below the slopes, so why not at least head uphill. Of course, as soon as I got out of the car, I was buffeted with wind that was gusting as high as 30-40 MPH, which actually made me reconsider my choice. Could the weather and snow conditions be any less appealing than what I was seeing? I guess it was possible, in that it could have been frigid cold, and the snow could have turned to ice. I hardened my resolve, ducked my head against the wind, and decided to try a run. Skinning up the hill seemed as good an option as anything in terms of getting a workout, even if I?d be atop piles of sludge.
As I started up and approached Beech Seal, I snapped a picture of the signs that the resort had placed at the bottom of the slopes. An orange sign read ?SKIING + RIDING CLOSED? in large letters was the most visible and dramatic, but a pink one next to it indicated that skiing and riding could be done at your own risk. I?d actually seen the signs on one of my previous trips. The orange one, which is visible from a greater distance and was the one I?d seen first, had me worried that the mountain was looking to close the slopes off to those hiking for turns. Fortunately, the pink sign alleviated those fears. I think that the fact that the mountain was closed was pretty obvious, so presumably the signs were a way of providing the mountain a bit of legal protection.
A snowcat/groomer had made a single swath up Sprig O? Pine, so I was able to follow its path and didn?t need to break trail through the sloppy snow. The ?ungroomed? snow all around me was very interesting. I actually hesitate to use a term such as ungroomed, or anything that might suggest that the snow was pristine, because while it may not have been modified by man, Mother Nature had really done a number on it. Apparently the rain and/or meltwater had run through and under the snow with some vigor, because the surface of the snowpack was heavily dimpled and sunken throughout. The look was somewhat reminiscent of wind effects on the snowpack, but it was certainly unique and prompted me to snap a bunch of photos. Based on the state of the snow surface, there must have been some serious rain along with the most recent batch of snowfall.
I made my way up to Mid Mountain, and based on the snow conditions I was seeing, I didn?t feel the need to go any higher. I somehow managed to fold up my skins in the nasty wind, stowed my gear, and started my run. Well, the skiing was about as good as I thought it would be. I?m not sure if I actually made many turns, as I had to straight line Beech Seal for the most part. The snow was so sticky, wet, and thick, that turns were hardly required? or even possible in the some places. At times it felt like water skiing. This was one of those outings where the hike was probably the high point, and the trip down on skis was more a convenient and quick way to get back to the car without walking. I can certainly say it was one of my more ?interesting? runs of the season. I didn?t even try to take any shots of my tracks, because there weren?t really any tracks to see. From the bottom, the enhanced transparency of the snow and its wet nature meant that all I could see of my tracks were a few wet clumps to mark where I?d been. The altimeters experienced their largest disparity of the season in terms of recorded vertical descent, with the Avocet counting 475 vertical feet and the Suunto counting 413 feet. Those values equate to a 14.0% difference, which is twice as high as any other difference I recorded during the season. Other days with notable differences observed between the two instruments were also outings with very low vertical drops. Looking back upon my season?s worth of altimeter data, it appears as though the trend is that the ?absolute? amount of difference between the two instruments lies in a fairly small range, regardless of the amount of vertical skied. Since I report the differences as percentages, this number is higher on days with small vertical descents.
That outing pretty much marked the end of the series of big April snowstorms in the area. The trend of the snow for my ski days had gone from decent powder on Friday, to a still-fun cement-style surface on Saturday, to all out glop on Monday. I?m not sure what would have followed next in that trend, except for perhaps actual water skiing. Fortunately, corn season was on the way, but a few freeze-thaw cycles would definitely be needed to convert that glop over to an enjoyable skiing surface.
With the end of that storm on the 17th of April, I believe the Vermont ski areas had received their final substantial snow accumulations of the season. Below are some of the season snowfall totals I found for the areas that seem to report them in the northern half of Vermont. Ultimately, despite the extremely slow start to the season, the reported totals still came out a bit (10-20%) above the stated averages for the resorts. As far as I know, the numbers don?t include any of the October snowfall, which was a couple of feet depending on the resort. Bolton Valley closed before recording the last week or so worth of snowfall, so their accumulation isn?t as far above their average as the other resorts. Adding the few more feet that fell after their closing would probably put them in line with the others.
The numbers listed below are the total snowfall reported by the resorts for the 2006-2007 season, followed by the average annual snowfall numbers that that the resorts seem to use, followed by the percent difference in this year?s total from the average.
Jay Peak (410"/355") (+15.5%)
Stowe: (374"/333") (+12.3%)
Bolton: (303"/300") (+1.0%)
Sugarbush (314"/262") (+19.8%)
Killington (294"/250") (+17.6%)
Larger pictures and data plots associated with the report can be found at the temporary link below, or the permanent link when the temporary link stops working:
http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/2007/16APR07.html
If the temporary link is no longer available, try the permanent link:
http://www.jandeproductions.com/2007/16APR07.html
J.Spin
