No pics, left the camera at home in CT (oops). Stowe had 1 top to bottom run open, two distinct named trails. It was upper Lord to North Slope.
Throughout the day on Saturday, they skied like different trails. By mid-morning, Lord was exposed to the sun and the snow varied from fairly decent man made / loose granular to spring time mashed potatoes, but at least the snow was soft and fairly skiable. In the afternoon, a nice set of bumps developed on the left side of Lord, starting below center line and going till the top of North Slope. This is typically a bumped up area on skiers left as grooming isn't done much in that particular location. As the day progressed, though, cover became more and more thin and rocks were plentiful on the pitch starting after Sunrise.
Northslope was hard like a rock, as it's North facing and also was hidden in the trees quite well so it gets very little sun. It wasn't boiler plate, but I would certainly say that some sections were bulletproof. The iciest section (the second main pitch) became deteriorated to ice-bump-rock-rock-rock-rock by mid afternoon and the entire pitch was generally spent shouting out "**** that didn't sound good".
There was not continuous snow down to the lodge (the quad is about 50 vertical feet above the lodge). The "snow" at the base was more like a mud-slush-pie. It was brown and nasty.
Overnight, mountain ops did not blow any snow, which was a big mistake. I am certain that it was cold enough, at least to blow some marginal quality snow. Around 10pm it was about 34F in the valley, so it should have been mid 20s at the summit and low 30s at the base. My dad came up with us on this trip, but did not ski on Saturday. Sunday morning I drove him up to the mountain to show him how pathetic the snow situation was, and also point out all of the building that's going on. At this point, I decided not to ski for the day because the snowpack was brown from the base to mid way up North Slope, and rocks were clearly visible from Spruce Peak. Around noon the mountain was overtaken by a huge cloud and was no longer visible from town; it's possible that it was raining on the mountain -- rain showers were forcasted for Sunday.
With rain showers and persistent above freezing temps in in the forecast until Thursday http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreati ... earch_vert I would not be surprised if Stowe was forced to suspend operations until more favorable weather conditions are present.
Notably, there was no natural snow anywhere in sight on Saturday; including the Presidential mountains, which were visible from the summit on Saturday. The Chin was also lacking any consistent snow coverage - there were a few nooks and crannies that were snow covered, but 99% of the visible terrain was snow free. The only other man-made snow visible anywhere was some left over snow on Big Spruce, apparently from earlier in the month. I could also see that some snow had recently been blown on ridgeview, but it was nowhere near skiable.
On the ride home, temps were consistently in the high 40s and low 50s throughout all of Vermont. I can only imagine that all other ski mountains are hurting just as badly as Stowe is, if not worse.
Throughout the day on Saturday, they skied like different trails. By mid-morning, Lord was exposed to the sun and the snow varied from fairly decent man made / loose granular to spring time mashed potatoes, but at least the snow was soft and fairly skiable. In the afternoon, a nice set of bumps developed on the left side of Lord, starting below center line and going till the top of North Slope. This is typically a bumped up area on skiers left as grooming isn't done much in that particular location. As the day progressed, though, cover became more and more thin and rocks were plentiful on the pitch starting after Sunrise.
Northslope was hard like a rock, as it's North facing and also was hidden in the trees quite well so it gets very little sun. It wasn't boiler plate, but I would certainly say that some sections were bulletproof. The iciest section (the second main pitch) became deteriorated to ice-bump-rock-rock-rock-rock by mid afternoon and the entire pitch was generally spent shouting out "**** that didn't sound good".
There was not continuous snow down to the lodge (the quad is about 50 vertical feet above the lodge). The "snow" at the base was more like a mud-slush-pie. It was brown and nasty.
Overnight, mountain ops did not blow any snow, which was a big mistake. I am certain that it was cold enough, at least to blow some marginal quality snow. Around 10pm it was about 34F in the valley, so it should have been mid 20s at the summit and low 30s at the base. My dad came up with us on this trip, but did not ski on Saturday. Sunday morning I drove him up to the mountain to show him how pathetic the snow situation was, and also point out all of the building that's going on. At this point, I decided not to ski for the day because the snowpack was brown from the base to mid way up North Slope, and rocks were clearly visible from Spruce Peak. Around noon the mountain was overtaken by a huge cloud and was no longer visible from town; it's possible that it was raining on the mountain -- rain showers were forcasted for Sunday.
With rain showers and persistent above freezing temps in in the forecast until Thursday http://www.weather.com/outlook/recreati ... earch_vert I would not be surprised if Stowe was forced to suspend operations until more favorable weather conditions are present.
Notably, there was no natural snow anywhere in sight on Saturday; including the Presidential mountains, which were visible from the summit on Saturday. The Chin was also lacking any consistent snow coverage - there were a few nooks and crannies that were snow covered, but 99% of the visible terrain was snow free. The only other man-made snow visible anywhere was some left over snow on Big Spruce, apparently from earlier in the month. I could also see that some snow had recently been blown on ridgeview, but it was nowhere near skiable.
On the ride home, temps were consistently in the high 40s and low 50s throughout all of Vermont. I can only imagine that all other ski mountains are hurting just as badly as Stowe is, if not worse.
