Is the East Coast season finished? (powder-wise, that is)

[RailingK]

Hi, longtime reader, first-time writer here.

I had the bad luck to get laid off last week, so I figure I might as well get some turns while there are turns to get! Was thinking about heading to Stowe, Jay etc midweek, but it's not looking too promising from what I can tell. Do you guys think the East is finished for freshies this season? Is there any good stuff left in the trees?Should I be looking for a cheapo flight out west at this point?

Thanks for any insight.

-K

 

[jasoncapecod]

after today's 50deg blue bird day at belleayre. i'm done waiting around for a powder day. soft bumps , good company it doesn't get much better

 

[rfarren]

after today's 50deg blue bird day at belleayre. i'm done waiting around for a powder day. soft bumps , good company it doesn't get much better

I'm with you there, but I wouldn't count out a few more powder days. Personally, I'm ready for spring, but it's going to cool down a bit for a while.

Do you guys think the East is finished for freshies this season? Is there any good stuff left in the trees?Should I be looking for a cheapo flight out west at this point?

My guess is that you won't find any powder in the trees right now unless another storm hits.

I wouldn't rule out another reasonable sized storm hitting in the next 2-4 weeks. If you are flexible just keep an open eye. As I said before, it is going to cool down for a while.

However, if powder is your priority, I would buy a last minute plane ticket to wherever it is going to snow.

 

[Harvey]

after today's 50deg blue bird day at belleayre. .... soft bumps , good company it doesn't get much better

:worthless:

 

[Patrick]

I wouldn't rule out another reasonable sized storm hitting in the next 2-4 weeks. If you are flexible just keep an open eye. As I said before, it is going to cool down for a while.

Agree.

 

[jasoncapecod]

1st Railingk .. that avitar makes me uncomfortable :shock:

Mark (harvey) i'm waiting for James to post a TR .. He's better at than me..

 

[J.Spin]

Do you guys think the East is finished for freshies this season?

This is definitely early to even be thinking about the end of winter in these parts, considering that it's the first week of March and we can often have powder days right through April and even into May. Actually, it's currently 35.2 degrees F down here at our house in Waterbury (elevation 495'), we've got steady rain outside, and the forecast is calling for snow in the local mountains tonight. Northern New Hampshire even has winter weather advisories up. Based on the latest discussion from the Burlington National Weather Service, the freezing level was at 3,000' as of about 9:00 P.M., so it should already be snowing in the higher elevations. There could even be some fresh snow as early as tomorrow morning.

-J

 

[Geoff]

after today's 50deg blue bird day at belleayre. i'm done waiting around for a powder day. soft bumps , good company it doesn't get much better

I just go out and ski. It's March. There will be spring days. There will be powder days. There will be bullet-proof days.

 

[jasoncapecod]

I just go out and ski. It's March. There will be spring days. There will be powder days. There will be bullet-proof days.

well said

 

[RailingK]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the thoughts. I think keeping an eye on what the National Weather Svc says as far as elevation in the northern Green Mountains is the way to go. Waterbury is nice town to live in, J.Spin, congratulations.

BTW my avatar even makes me uncomfortable. But the value of a good one-piece from the '80s can't be overestimated.

-K

 

[J.Spin]

Hey everyone, thanks for all the thoughts. I think keeping an eye on what the National Weather Svc says as far as elevation in the northern Green Mountains is the way to go.

Saturday night's snow levels were pretty high (3,000') as the NWS indicated at around 9:00 P.M., and it doesn't look like they ever really came down much around here based on accumulations. From what I could tell, it looked like Jay Peak picked up about an inch, Mt. Mansfield picked up an inch or so at the stake, and Mt. Washington picked up a couple of inches. There were also some reports of up to 4 inches in the New Hampshire and Maine hydrologic reports. Today’s system isn’t a huge one, but snow levels are down to the valleys in the more northern areas. As of this morning’s Vermont snow reports the highest total I’ve seen is actually for Prospect XC down in Woodford (just east of Bennington) where they had 5 inches as of their 7:00 A.M. report. There certainly will be some powder out there for skiing today, even if it's a relatively minor dump.

Waterbury is nice town to live in, J.Spin, congratulations.

We chose our spot in a big part because it was central to work locations, so in that regard it was partly luck, but we’d always liked Waterbury so it wasn’t a hard decision over some other spots we looked at. The town is nice in general, but for skiers there are a lot of extra perks like the central location in terms of the Northern Vermont ski resorts, and relatively quick access to everything since Waterbury is a junction for I-89, Route 2, and Route 100. And, depending on one’s exact location there’s usually ample snowpack even in the valley and the potential to strap on the skins right at the door and head up into the backcountry. The snowfall and backcountry skiing from the house factors were definitely lucky perks in our case, since I hadn’t thought about them at all in choosing our exact location, but they’re certainly things that skiers can consider. I know that Powderfreak has been considering them as he’s been looking to move from the Burlington area out into the mountains.

-J

 

[J.Spin]

Was thinking about heading to Stowe, Jay etc midweek...

Thanks for any insight.

Looking at the reports, if I'd known how the day was going to turn out and had nothing to do, I think a nice trip to the 'bush would have been good option. I'm not sure how hard the powder got hit by skiers today, but tomorrow morning could still be quite good up there. I hit Bolton's Timberline area for some turns on the way home this afternoon and it was decent with the bit of new snow, but it looks like Sugarbush had substantially more snow so I'm sure turns were even better a bit to the south.

Jay Peak: 4”
Smugg’s: 3”
Stowe: 5”
Bolton: 3”
Mad River: 5”
Sugarbush: 8”
Pico: 4”
Killington: 6”
Okemo: 5”
Magic: 7”
Stratton: 7”
Mount Snow: 6”

J.Spin

 

[Vaportrails]

I think it's safe to say after the nice snowfall we got on March 2nd at places like Windham and Hunter in New York State... we are due for 1 or 2 more major storms this month. March historically is a pretty crappy/unpredictable month for weather in Northern NJ and New York State.

This year we have had an unusually cold and snowy winter ... so far. We could be shaping up for a snow storm on St. Patty's Day or later next week. It is going to get much colder after this up coming weekend and the weather folks are starting to talk about a major storm for next week.

I think the East Coast is not done as far as powda goes... I picked up an unlimited pass for Hunter Mountain, NY for $150.00 for the remainder of the ski season on March 1st. I will also be heading back to Stowe, Vermont March 27th-March 29th with my High School Ski Club (Myself and another staff member take 45 kids up from Passaic High School in Passaic. NJ each ski season!) Being a teacher is great... best part-time job in the World :-"


I welcome anyone's thoughts on this topic...

Vaportrails
a.k.a. Anthony Gagliano
Wayne, NJ

 

[Tony Crocker]

I just go out and ski. It's March. There will be spring days. There will be powder days. There will be bullet-proof days

.
Very true. Be flexible so you can hit the former and take a pass on the latter.

Northern Vermont by historical averages should produce some more worthy powder days before this season is done. Snowmaking dependent areas in southern New England and MASH are usually well on the downside of the season by now. We do still hear of the cheap SLC airfare offers in the slow economy, so if you have the time you shold be on the lookout for those.

 

[joegm]

Hi, longtime reader, first-time writer here.

I had the bad luck to get laid off last week, so I figure I might as well get some turns while there are turns to get! Was thinking about heading to Stowe, Jay etc midweek, but it's not looking too promising from what I can tell. Do you guys think the East is finished for freshies this season? Is there any good stuff left in the trees?Should I be looking for a cheapo flight out west at this point?

Thanks for any insight.

-K

Did it ever start?? :? :-k ](*,) :roll:


snowsource report from today :roll:



Friday, March 13, 2009

Space

VT | NH | ME Ski Areas
Funky weather (high winds, icing, sleet showers and rain showers) wreaked havoc on the slopes Wednesday and several mountains closed early or never opened. All ski areas will be in recovery mode heading into the weekend after a hard freeze Wednesday night. Sample snow reports: Mad River VT, Cannon NH, Sugarloaf ME.


personally, i have skied the best 2 days i have ever skied back to back, within what is turning out for me to be one of the worst seasons i can remember ](*,) :roll:

i give up

and if i hear one more person battle crocker or the admin about the merits of east vs west, i think i'm gonna throw up :roll:

 

[jamesdeluxe]

if i hear one more person battle crocker or the admin about the merits of east vs west, i think i'm gonna throw up :roll:

Now that icelantic has left the building, you'll have to find someone else to mudwrestle on this point.

 

[rfarren]

if i hear one more person battle crocker or the admin about the merits of east vs west, i think i'm gonna throw up :roll:

Now that icelantic has left the building, you'll have to find someone else to mudwrestle with on this point.

I miss that guy. He did at least make the East look awesome!

 

[sszycher]

OK, I'm getting really mad now. Had I had the time earlier this week, I would have sworn up & down that we're not done with powder skiing in the high elevations of the NorthEast. After all, March is typically a stormy month...

But now, with a 3 day wknd upcoming for me (i.e. 3/20 - 3/22) to head North, it seems that - at best - we may get some light snow, #-o , after another thaw freeze cycle

Which brings me to my point, which perhaps Tony C can elaborate on: is this the least-snowy 1st half of March in decades?? I mean, I know the mtns got a modest storm on 3/9/09, but many areas in VT & NY missed out on the 3/2/09 (or 3/1/09, whenever) storm, and it's not even like that was a blockbuster.

Anyone care to join me in cursing our bad luck? I know we had a really nice 1st 1/2 of the ski season, including no January thaw, but I'm really disappointed at what's occurred this month. Or hasn't occurred, I should say!

And if we get a storm next week/wknd, I'll be glad to issue multiple mea culpas on this board - the pleasure would be all mine!

 

[J.Spin]

Funky weather (high winds, icing, sleet showers and rain showers) wreaked havoc on the slopes Wednesday and several mountains closed early or never opened. All ski areas will be in recovery mode heading into the weekend after a hard freeze Wednesday night.

Joe, I don't see the vast majority of skiers out there focusing on conditions like those. I'm sure the skiing sucked for the folks who happened to have to ski these past three days, because they either work on the mountain or happened to choose this week for a vacation (although even then one could easily have done something else besides ski if at all possible). The more practical points in terms of recent skiing are that there's plenty of base, last weekend offered two sunny days with great spring snow, Monday was a powder day, Tuesday offered good leftovers, and this weekend is going to have sunny weather and corn snow again. I'm sure someone could consciously choose to ski the three midweek days of crappy conditions that just occurred, potentially at the expense of the surrounding days, but how many people are really going to do that? It's like Tony has talked about in the past, the bottom 25% of conditions (or something along those lines) in many places in the Northeast is going to be notably worse than the bottom 25% of conditions in places like the Rockies. But aside from people who are locked into trips and tickets, those that work on the mountain, or those who don't really care about conditions, who's going to be out there for those days in either location? It would be one thing if there was an entire season with nothing but conditions like those described at snowsource, but does that ever even happen? This season has been pretty average from what I've seen, and fortunately there are plenty of spots in the Northeast where average is really good in terms of skiing. I realize you're a glass half empty kind of guy for the most part in terms of the skiing you have to deal with, but I suspect you could find some decent skiing this weekend if you had to.

-J

 

[Anthony]

Being a few days away from St. Patrick's day we are into the Guinnness tonight after surviving another week of work without getting tossed out . The talk is what kind of season it has been . I give it a 5/10 average as not a bad December , great January and a average February ( missed out on the great February VT storm but still had good skiing at Bolton Valley the week after) . Now March is below average as cold dry air with periods of soaking rains in between . But the snow pack is still holding up so still time for good corn or maybe things will turn around and will have another powder day . As for this weekend , looks like " Bomb Proof " unless the winds let up and the sun can soften things up . I haven't given up