Bolton Valley, VT 03DEC2024

An image of snow on tables and railings during early December in the Village area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The views of the snow were gorgeous in the Bolton Valley Village today; we’ve been getting hit with rounds and rounds of continued light snow as impulses come into the area and help push along moisture streaming over from the Great Lakes.

I hadn’t been up to the mountain since Saturday, so I was eager to get out for a ski tour when I had time today. There’s been no specific synoptic storms in the area, but the snow has been piling up the thanks to the continuous feed of moisture off the Great Lakes and the upper-level low pressure to our north. Seeing the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake quickly jump up to near 20 inches is a strong sign that it’s been snowing around here. Having that closed upper low over Hudson Bay with broad upper level troughing is a great setup when you have a 4,000’ wall of mountains sitting downwind of a moisture source like the Great Lakes.

A plot showing the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield Snow Stake in Vermont on December 3rd, 2024
The snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake has been shooting right up above average over the past few days thanks to the continuous parade of smaller weather impulses affecting the area as well as the moisture pushing into the area from the Great Lakes.
An image from the Wilderness Summit during a ski tour in early December at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Up at the snowy Wilderness Summit above 3,000′ on today’s ski tour

Even without data from the Mt. Mansfield stake to go on, I know it’s been snowing because we’ve recently had several inches of new snow down at our place in the valley, so the snow is hitting all elevations with the current temperature regime. Indeed, I found that snow depths were up substantially at all elevations during today’s ski tour. I toured again using the Wilderness Uphill Route, so I was able to check snowpack depths from the valley on up and compare them to what I’d last seen on Saturday. The updated snow depths are below, with Saturday’s depths listed first, then today’s depths following in bold. The depths I found up at 3,000’ and above are certainly consistent with what is being reported for the snowpack depths at the Mt. Mansfield stake.

340’: T-1: –> 1-2”
500’: 1” –> 2”
1,000’: 2” –> 3-4”
1,200’: 2-3” –> 4-5”
1,500’: 3” –> 6-8”
2,000’: 6-8” –> 8-12”
2,250’: 8-10” –> 10-14”
2,500’: 10-12” –> 12-16”
2,750’: 11-13” –> 14-17”
3,000’: 12-14” –> 16-18”

Concomitant with the increasing depths, the quality of the powder skiing even jumped another notch relative to the already great conditions we experienced on Saturday. In fact, even though the surface snowpack is excellent right-side-up powder that is beautifully dry, it’s getting deep enough that it’s starting to be a bit too much for the lowest angle slopes if you’re in fully untracked snow. I’d brought my 115 mm fat skis for today’s tour because they had already been a good choice on Saturday, but I was glad to have them for planing more efficiently on the lowest angle slopes today.

An image of a fence with fresh snow and a snow gun generating manmade snow in early December at the base of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Along with all the natural snow they are picking up, the resort in blowing lots of snow as well in anticipation of opening in a few days.

Indeed, it was snowing today during my tour akin to what’s been happening for the past several days, but today’s snowfall was lighter and less consistent than what I experience on Friday or Saturday. Our next Clipper system is now coming into the area though, so snowfall should pick up with that. We’re under a Winter Weather Advisory here along the spine of the Northern Greens, and the latest BTV NWS Event Total Snowfall map currently has some areas of 8-12” and 12-18” shading.

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