weather

[Benski]

noticed some frozen precip creeping into the area on the radar. whats it doing?

[shadyjay]

The report from elev 1750':
As of Midnight, 12/2/2010
33 deg F
No precip

The current weather on sugarbush.com is reporting SNOW. Hopefully there is some accumulation and that damage was minimal.


One thing is for sure: the snowmaking ponds are full!

[HowieT2]

for the first time this season, I'm feeling it. little snow on saturday and then upslope for the rest of the week FTW. I don't want jinx us with any specific predictions but lets hope we are talking about ' and not ".

[random_ski_guy]

Howie, I'm a born jinx.

As you probably already read; this afternoon's NWS forecast discussion:
http://forecast.weather.gov/product....&highlight=off


.LONG TERM /SUNDAY THROUGH THURSDAY/...
AS OF 255 PM EST THURSDAY...NO BIG CHANGE TO THE OVERALL FORECAST
SCENARIO FOR NEXT WEEK. IN SUMMARY, IT LOOKS LIKE AN UNSETTLED
PERIOD WITH SNOW SHOWERS AND PERHAPS PERIODS OF SNOW EACH AND
EVERY DAY. ALTHOUGH I DONT FORSEE ANY MAJOR SNOWSTORMS, I EXPECT
WE`LL GET NICKLED AND DIMED (ESPECIALLY ACROSS NORTHERN SECTIONS
AND HIGHER TERRAIN) WITH THE SNOW, BUT BY THE END OF THE NEXT
WEEK WE`LL LIKELY HAVE A PRETTY SIGNIFICANT SNOWPACK ON THE
GROUND, ESPECIALLY IN THE HIGHER MOUNTAINS WHERE WE`LL PROBABLY
MEASURE IN FEET. I SUSPECT THAT WILL BE GOOD NEWS TO WINTER
OUTDOOR ENTHUSIASTS.

[ski_resort_observer]

This is a forecast I can really get behind
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick...&FcstType=text

[gostan]

And 7 days of nearly perfect snow making weather!

[HowieT2]

yup and the reason the POPs are only 50% is because the valleys may not get much.

Let the wild rumpus begin.

[random_ski_guy]

anyone care to make predictions on snowmaking progress through this sunday and say the weekend of 12/11?

hopefully they will be able to move the guns to murphys and lower jester by tonight and perhaps open them on this sunday if weather cooperates.... and moreover, the champlain cloud gives the upper mtn 6 inches by sunday pm.

[summitchallenger]

anyone care to make predictions on snowmaking progress through this sunday and say the weekend of 12/11?

hopefully they will be able to move the guns to murphys and lower jester by tonight and perhaps open them on this sunday if weather cooperates.... and moreover, the champlain cloud gives the upper mtn 6 inches by sunday pm.

Not to be a naysayer, but I doubt that will happen. Their priority will shift to getting Lower Deathspout open to the bottom. I also think they are continuing to make snow on the trails that are open before moving on.

[teleo]

I would love to hear some educated speculation. I've personally given up on T2B this weekend given the web site still has snowmaking only up top. This is a bummer - it means we won't be there this weekend

For next weekend (12/11) I'll be solo w/ my 5 yr old, so I need green terrain or we won't make it up then either

Given the forecast I'm still hoping they get to some green, even if it is just off of the Village double, for 12/11. I'll surely be looking for updates!

They wouldn't celebrate the opening of the new Schoolhouse without beginner terrain open - would they? Oh how ironic that would be.

[HowieT2]

I would love to hear some educated speculation. I've personally given up on T2B this weekend given the web site still has snowmaking only up top. This is a bummer - it means we won't be there this weekend

For next weekend (12/11) I'll be solo w/ my 5 yr old, so I need green terrain or we won't make it up then either

Given the forecast I'm still hoping they get to some green, even if it is just off of the Village double, for 12/11. I'll surely be looking for updates!

They wouldn't celebrate the opening of the new Schoolhouse without beginner terrain open - would they? Oh how ironic that would be.

given the forecast both in terms of snow and temps, I would be guardedly optimistic they will be T2B next weekend and have greens.

[random_ski_guy]

anyone care to make predictions on snowmaking progress through this sunday and say the weekend of 12/11?

hopefully they will be able to move the guns to murphys and lower jester by tonight and perhaps open them on this sunday if weather cooperates.... and moreover, the champlain cloud gives the upper mtn 6 inches by sunday pm.

Not to be a naysayer, but I doubt that will happen. Their priority will shift to getting Lower Deathspout open to the bottom. I also think they are continuing to make snow on the trails that are open before moving on.

What can I say, I'm an hopeless optimist as times. I agree, the odds appear to be low. Temps at the base area arent low enough for efficient snowmaking either....

[shadyjay]

I have heard possible move of the guns to Ripcord and to Lower Downspout->LJ->Base

I don't think daytime base temps are going to be "great" for snowmaking in the next few days, but up higher will be better, hence Ripcord. A few cold nights of blasting a route T2B would be good, and daytime temps are looking to be in the 20s going into next week.

[slatham]

The issue with getting to the bottom right now is day time temps at the base are too warm (web site says 32). Temps will drop each and every day for the foreseable future so they will be able to make snow at the base 24x7, if not starting tomorrow, then Sunday. It is also forecast to snow basically everyday through mid week, and while not a blockbuster, the cumulative snow depth even at the base, could be significant.

The bigger question is what is the sequence of laying down the snow? I would expect (and recall from previous years) that after getting TTB, they move to lower Jester, but then to GateHouse, and often start with Pushover and Easy Rider, both of which are green. This makes sense as it opens another lift/pod, and offers beginner terrain. However, they could go for Birdland/Murphy/Snowball/Spring Fling before Gatehouse (and Win has made mention of wanting to try the new HKD guns on Spring Fling). In fact, do I recall some complaints (sorry, constructive criticism) last year about how late they moved to Gatehouse/Beginner terrain?

But then again, with the School House and new entry area, wouldn't you want that whole area covered in snow and open ASAP? I know that's somewhat cosmetic, but it makes sense.

Win, do tell.

THINK SNOW!!!

[shadyjay]

I do believe for the past 2 years, the GH/Village pods opened the same day as Mt Ellen, traditionally the 3rd Friday in December. But I believe the Welcome Mat and First Time opened a week or two earlier than that.

Last year, we opened for the season on the first Sunday of December, and 4 days later, everything off Super Bravo was essentially open thanks to a very nice dumping. I recall getting some powder shots down Spring Fling just an hour or two after the ropes were dropped, and taking a very nice run on Spillsville and Ripcord (though Ripcord was only open from the Spillsville cutover so you had to go down OG to the top of Spills). Castlerock I believe was open for the second weekend of December, one of its earliest openings. All this despite only open on 1 trail (Jester->Allyns->Downspout) a week earlier. All it takes is one good dump to get things in really good shape, then snowmaking to expand the depths on Middle Jester, Birdland, Murphy's, VHT->Snowball, Spring Fling.


Yesterday I heard that the skiing was really good, despite the 2-3" of rain the day before. THAT RIGHT THERE is why they stayed on Jester/Downspout for so long.