Stowe 3/12: Powder's Back

P

powderfreak

New member
I set my expectations low and rolled into the Midway lot with Dave at the early hour of 11. Looked like the AIG crowd was in town which meant crowded parking lots, lodges, and increased gondola traffic. Sometimes they act like they own the place...

Dave had skied Bolton on Monday and reported pretty horrific woods conditions and actually convinced me not to go to the Bench first run. He said groomers would probably be the way to go...and I believed him after seeing the talk on this list about the woods being done for a while. So we cruised Perry Merrill. Good, not earth-shattering though. Ice damage looked impressive above 3,000ft but below didn't look like anything we haven't seen earlier this season. There was a distinct line between destruction and just a couple twigs here and there.

That line was right around the Bench traverse.
Upper Chin Clip. Got ice?
http://tinyurl.com/yw6u6c
http://tinyurl.com/29cfa7

Main Angel Food line. Untracked and smooth. This was good.
http://tinyurl.com/2ajj8t

Oh yeah, it was snowing. Steadily. We then decided the Ridge was in order. The Ridge bowls were ever-so-sweet.
http://tinyurl.com/223ll6
Somehow, Dave managed a face shot in 8" of snow and started sporting the powder beard.
http://tinyurl.com/246vft

But this was 8" of dense-but-not-too-dense snow on top of an edge-able, supportable base layer...not bad. It actually inspired confidence. The woods are coming back, baby!
What to do with acres of untracked?
http://tinyurl.com/2ev6ek
Shred it.
http://tinyurl.com/2g2j4c

After skiing a few runs into the notch, we wanted to explore the ice zone.
Nosedive glades were ever so creepy but with plenty of new snow filling in the gaps, it was like skiing through an ice palace back here. I know Jack Frost is here somewhere...
http://tinyurl.com/2znt87
http://tinyurl.com/yvpz93
On the way down, Dave aired the Nosedive/Midway race shack.
http://tinyurl.com/yu49ud
Then we got first tracks down the Midway shots.
http://tinyurl.com/2dssfy
With more fresh down through the Tower 10 glades.
http://tinyurl.com/2e282r

A Bypass Woods to Nosedive run was in order. The trees were decimated up here.
http://tinyurl.com/26hpzj
Normal route to the traverse was blocked.
http://tinyurl.com/yrh4dp
But further down, cut left and into the open spaces. Wander throughout the ice.
http://tinyurl.com/223e3v
Chew the lines.
http://tinyurl.com/25pn2u

But amid the destruction, there is powder. Powder that is slowly filling in the gaps. Its still scratchy in spots but the lines were untracked...and the untracked stuff skied like it should. The ice has still presented some danger in the higher elevations, but its enhanced the experience by throwing us into a new environment. Most of the stuff we skied today was business-as-usual.

Mansfield is still serving it up.
http://tinyurl.com/24w8fq

Yeah, it was good.
-Scott
 
Well, I didn't get a chance to get up into the high country to ski today, but I'll supplement Scott's great report with some valley observations from the area to help fill out the local picture. This report is from earlier this evening, although now we're up to 2.4 of inches of new snow in the valley and we've still got a little light stuff falling.

March 12th, 2008: 6:00 P.M. update from Waterbury, VT.

New Snow: 1.6 inches
Liquid Equivalent: 0.10 inches
Ratio: 16.0 to 1
Snow Density: 6.3% H2O
Temperature: 32.7 F
Humidity: 80%
Barometer: 29.80 in Hg
Wind: Calm
Sky: Moderate Snow
Cumulative storm snow total: 1.6 inches
Cumulative storm liquid total: 0.10 inches
Current snow at the stake: 26 inches
Season snowfall total: 183.0 inches

In my area of the UVM campus in Burlington (elevation 380’) it snowed most of the day, generally lightly, but at times there were slightly heavier bouts. The consistent snowfall lasted until mid afternoon, and from that point on the weather consisted of breaks of sun interspersed with snow showers. I looked outside occasionally during the day, and I never saw any signs of obvious snow accumulation on the roads or elevated surfaces (such as cars) at any point. Based on that I figured it was just too warm for any snow accumulation in Burlington. However, when I was leaving UVM a bit after 5:00 P.M., I noticed that there was actually about ½ inch of snow accumulation on the ground out of the sun. I called my wife who was on her way back from Morrisville (elevation 650’), and she said that it had started snowing there at around 9:00 A.M., and had snowed continuously until about 4:00 P.M. or so. Accumulations there were also minimal as far as she could tell, at least on roads etc. However, the father of one of her students had been working up in Stowe, at a rather high elevation (probably above 1,000’), and he said they’d accumulated a good 3 inches by about 2:00 P.M. At about 5:00 P.M., my wife was driving through Waterbury Center (elevation 725’) and she said the sun was out at that point. She then called me around 5:15 P.M. after she had reached our house in Waterbury (elevation 495’) to say that it had started dumping snow there. There was initially no snow falling as I headed home on the bus from Burlington at around 5:25 P.M., and when we stopped at the Richmond park and ride, I recall seeing the grassy, south-facing slope on the north side of the parking lot, and thinking how spring-like it looked. I got back to reading on the bus, and about five minutes later it suddenly felt really dark. I looked up, and saw that we were driving through a maelstrom of huge snowflakes. It was really coming down, although it was still a bit warm for much accumulation. We were heading east on Interstate 89 at that point, and would have been in the Jonesville area. Thus, we were just entering the higher peaks of the Green Mountains, so I assumed the snowfall was terrain induced. Once we’d passed though the spine and reached Waterbury, the snowfall had tapered off to a lighter intensity; light snow comprised of large snowflakes. The intensity of the snowfall increased again as I headed to our house back toward the spine, and snow was accumulating on our road by then (~6:00 P.M.). My wife had already given me the heads up that the snow accumulation from the day had melted on the snowboard (my thermometer recorded a high temperature at the house of 40.3 F) so I had to get the day’s accumulation off the surface of the old snow. That worked out fine, because I checked around in a few spots in the yard, and there was a very consistent 1.6 inches of new accumulation. While I was making my measurements it was snowing pretty hard, and the temperature had dropped so snow was beginning to accumulate on the snowboard. So, I cleared what was there in preparation for the next reading (probably not until tomorrow morning unless I happen to be up until midnight tonight). There’s already been another 0.8 inches of accumulation since then, and it continues to snow. Looking at the Burlington composite radar, there seems to be a nice stream of moisture hitting the mountains from the NNW direction and working its usual upslope magic (although it does appear to be slowing down now). The afternoon reading from the Mt. Mansfield stake (elevation ~3,700’) indicated that they received 0.25 inches of liquid equivalent, with a 2-inch increase in the snowpack, so they must have received at least that much new snow today. A few of the local ski areas have provided afternoon snowfall updates, and I’ve pasted them below. It looks like the Sugarbush/MRG area had seen the highest accumulations as of this afternoon with ~3 inches.

Jay Peak: 2 inches (5:35 P.M.)
Burke: 1 inch (3:00 P.M.)
Smuggler’s Notch: 1 inch (4:00 P.M.)
Stowe: 1 inch (1:00 P.M.)
Mad River Glen: 3 inches (4:23 P.M.)
Sugarbush: 3 inches (1:51 P.M.)

J.Spin
 
I've skied the lines off of chin clip from the summit of mansfield but dont think i've skied angel food. Where is the entrance to angel food off of chin clip?
 
Cliffskier, no offense, but you'll have a hard time getting anyone to post beta like that in a public online forum. Best to have someone show you the way.
 
I was a first time touron in March 2003 and it wasn't that difficult. I was led there by admin's favorite Vermont weather forecaster :P .
 
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