Tag: Snow

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Stowe, VT 27MAR2011

Image of the Chin of Mt. Mansfield and the Stowe gondola
Looking back toward the Chin of Mt. Mansfield and the Stowe gondola from the Nosedive Glades

It was ski program day at Stowe today, and since Johannes and Helena are done with their programs at Bolton, Stephen and the kids tagged along with our group.  I had to drop off Ty at the Stowe Shaw’s to be picked up for a birthday party, but I eventually caught up with Claire, Stephen, and all the kids just as they were heading up the gondola for their first Mansfield run.

Off piste conditions were fantastic, since the upslope pattern was delivering well and Stowe had seen a foot and a half of snow since the Monday event.  I added some of the totals into my update at Americanwx.com, and it showed quite the north to south trend with Jay Peak cashing in nicely:

Jay Peak: 30” (359”)  Stowe: 18” (311”)  Bolton Valley: 14” (316”)  Killington: 4” (251”)

In one of our traverses we stumbled onto a gully in the Lower Goat woods that everyone skied – it had some really steep walls and reminded me of one of those Jackson Hole gullies.  To see the full text and pictures, head to the Stowe trip report from today.

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Good powder in the local mountains

Jay in the powder at Bolton valley
Jay skiing the powder at Bolton valley yesterday

Waterbury event totals: 2.8” Snow/0.06” L.E.

After that quick inch of snow we picked up yesterday, that was it for snowfall down here at the house as far as I can tell.  We were back up at Bolton for some more turns starting around midday, and it was snowing pretty hard for the first part of the afternoon.  Friends that we met up there said that it had snowed like that all morning.  It’s nice to see what’s going on up at Jay, because they were a bit left out of the pattern earlier in the season with so much activity focused to the south.  I’ve added the 7-day and seasonal snowfall totals for some of the VT resorts below:

Jay Peak: 30” (359”)
Stowe: 18” (311”)
Bolton Valley: 14” (316”)
Killington: 4” (251”)

Right now the snowpack is 98 inches at the Mt. Mansfield stake, and if one looks at the SkiVT-L plot for the snow depths, this is right around the date for the typical maximum.  The historical data suggests a small dip after the end of March, but the snowpack really seems to hang around at this level until roughly mid April before it actually starts to fall off., so I could see the peak snowpack depth being anywhere in that range, especially with the current weather pattern.

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Bolton Valley, VT 26MAR2011

Image of Jay skiing in powder
Jay comes into view skiing some of the beautiful powder in the Villager Trees at Bolton Valley.

The upslope snow has been rolling in, and although we haven’t had a ton of snow from this event yet, snow surfaces are getting a nice freshening.  This morning down at the house we were on our way toward picking up a quick additional inch of snow to put us at 2.8 inches for this end of the week event, and 9 inches for the week.  Bolton was reporting 13 inches over that span, with the snow continuing to fall.  Today we were back up at the mountain again for an afternoon session with Stephen and his kids, and for the first half of the afternoon it was snowing at a good clip.  Everyone joined in for a run on Spell Binder, and using the knowledge about the aspects with best snow that the boys and I had learned yesterday, there were some really awesome bottomless turns available on the skier’s left.  Even with just a few inches of additional snow, the skiing took quite a jump up in quality.  We found the same snow setup on Tattle Tale, and all three boys had fun ripping up the powder in their own way.  We gave Johannes first tracks on one line, and he decided that a figure 11 was the way to go, while Ty and Dylan accented his line with some curves.  We’re starting to nickname Johannes “11”.  For the full text and all the pictures, click through to the Bolton Valley trip report from today.

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Bolton Valley, VT 25MAR2011

Ty skiing powder in the Villager Trees
Ty gets ready to dodge a tree as he rips up the powder in the Villager Trees at Bolton Valley

The boys and I hit the powder up at Bolton Valley today and found some great conditions.  The snow continues to fall as indicated in the weather updates in the blog and the skiing just keeps improving.  For all the details and powdery pictures, go to my March 25th report from Bolton Valley.

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1.4 inches of snow here in the valley

Radar image from BTV
Last night the snowfall was fairly scattered, but then it started to explode along the western slopes of the Greens. Click on the image to see the animation.

The upslope snow picked up last night and gave us a nice new coating of a bit over an inch down here, while up at Bolton they picked up a couple of inches.  I added the radar image from yesterday evening showing how the snowfall exploded along the western slopes of the Greens.  More details are in my morning post at Americanwx.com.

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A little upslope tonight

Radar image from BTV
Some light upslope snow showers are passing through the area this evening

There’s a bit of snow falling and accumulating here, so presumably the mountains are getting some as well.  It’s all small flakes that I’ve seen falling in the past 15 minutes, but I guess some larger flakes fell earlier because there are some huge globs on the snowboard and a couple tenths of an inch of accumulation.  I’ve added the latest radar shot with this post.

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Bolton Valley, VT 23MAR2011

Ski tracks on Spell Binder
Some of my tracks left in the delicate powder present on Spell Binder this morning

I headed up to the mountain for some turns this morning and got in my first powder of the week, with more powder likely to come as the upslope snow continues to fall.  I skinned up at Timberline and found 3 to 5 inches of powder at 1,500′, and about 6 inches at 2,500′.  The full details and pictures are in my Bolton Valley report from this morning.

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5.3 inches at the house, 8 inches for the mountain

BTV Radar Image
The streamers of moisture heading into our area at around 10:45 P.M. last night

We picked up 5.3 inches of total snow with this event down in the valley thanks to the second burst of snowfall that came through last night, and up at Bolton Valley as well as Stowe, they picked up a total of 8 inches of snow.  I’ve added a picture of the radar image from around 10:45 P.M. last night that shows the snow still streaming into the area.  I’ve added the north to south list of storm accumulations for the Vermont ski areas below, and additional details can be found in my morning update in the Northern New England thread at Americanwx.com.

Jay Peak: 6″
Burke: 5”
Smuggler’s Notch: 5”
Stowe: 8”
Bolton Valley: 8”
Mad River Glen: 5”
Sugarbush: 5”
Pico: 4”
Killington: 4”
Okemo: 5”
Bromley: 2”
Stratton: 4”
Mount Snow: 3”

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Four inches and counting…

BTV Radar Image
The second round of precipitation approaching the area this evening

As of 8:00 P.M. we’ve had about 4 inches of snow here at the house, and it looks like there’s still a bit of snow to go.  We got a surprisingly good shot of snow this evening after the main round earlier today; I’ve added a radar shot of the evening snowfall as it was coming into the area.  More information can be found in my evening update at Americanwx.com.