2016 game on

[cdskier]

Yup, even right now it is getting icy in many spots with the snow being scraped off. Tomorrow might be a 1 or 2 run and done day. Starting to think next weekend could be my last. Won't pay to make a 5 hour drive just to ski steins. Maybe if they were predicting a sunny warm weekend I would make an exception though.

[Looking_for_the_Bush]

Thank goodness we got on to snow reporting late in the season. This blog has been way too positive this season ��. Always love and appreciate
the passion. Thursday was day 100 for me so signing off for the season but hopefully will see many of you on the slopes in the weeks ahead and
even May1st.

Ha hopefully it doesn't completely fall on deaf ears.

Some of it is over-obsession by many a skier & snowboarder but some of it (like just getting the 24/48/72 hour totals correct with the time the snow falls) would also be very easy fixes.

[Looking_for_the_Bush]

Today was better than expected...well I went expecting the absolute worst. Snow softened up on the lower mountain but upper mountain was quite firm with a free foot massage on the side. It poured in Montpelier yesterday and im sure it was the same on the mountain if not more rain there.

Holy snow loss though. Huge difference from middle of the week like wow. Primary snowmaking routes are still well covered though. One thing while riding on wednesday was that the snow was so slow when the fresh powder warmed up. The slog to Spring Fling and Steins was painful on a board. Made me really wish the Valley House was running but obviously wouldnt expect them to run another lift this time of year.

[cdskier]

I was pleasantly surprised today. The groomed trails were really nice this morning. It seemed like I had the mountain to myself. There were runs where I didn't see a single person. Even at 10am I was still finding untracked corduroy.

As for the snow report, I think the 1 inch at the summit counting for the season total is a stretch. Drop a couple hundred feet below the summit and you were down to a dusting. The accuracy of the trail status is questionable too. Lower snowball is groomed yet not listed that way on the report. Racers edge is open and groomed but listed as closed. If that was closed you wouldn't be able to get down from lower snowball since spring road is bare and closed as well. These might be somewhat minor things, but it is little things like this that drive people like me crazy.

[winjr]

I was pleasantly surprised today. The groomed trails were really nice this morning. It seemed like I had the mountain to myself. There were runs where I didn't see a single person. Even at 10am I was still finding untracked corduroy.

As for the snow report, I think the 1 inch at the summit counting for the season total is a stretch. Drop a couple hundred feet below the summit and you were down to a dusting. The accuracy of the trail status is questionable too. Lower snowball is groomed yet not listed that way on the report. Racers edge is open and groomed but listed as closed. If that was closed you wouldn't be able to get down from lower snowball since spring road is bare and closed as well. These might be somewhat minor things, but it is little things like this that drive people like me crazy.

Snow is measured at summit stake, mid and base. Stake showed 1". Trails may be opened after snow report goes out. It a trail has areas not groomed we would be conservative in listing it as groomed so one does not get sucked in. The groomer did an outstanding job Saturday night. Too bad only a few showed up.

[Benski]

If trails could potentially open between when the eeport is sent out and the next one, it should mention the possibility of opening trails to get people excited and so they can take advantage of the trail opening if it does open.

[cdskier]

You could always use the partially groomed icon that is in the legend of the trail report to show that a trail wasn't fully groomed (although lower snowball seemed completely groomed other than the bare spots from what I saw). The racers edge thing still bothers me though and is where I have a bigger issue than being conservative with whether a trail was groomed. Listing racers edge as closed could cause more confusion as someone looking at the map might think they have no way down if they ski lower snowball. I just assumed it was a mistake. I'm almost thinking what happened is they wanted to mark it closed during pond skimming to keep people from having to cut through the starting point and then just never went back and marked it as open again.

Completely agree with the kudos to the groomers though Saturday night. They don't have much to work with but put out a great product Sunday morning. Probably one of the emptiest I've ever seen the mountain though including weekdays that I've skied. My first run down jester top to bottom was almost eerie since I didn't see a single other person that entire run.

[Looking_for_the_Bush]

I was pleasantly surprised today. The groomed trails were really nice this morning. It seemed like I had the mountain to myself. There were runs where I didn't see a single person. Even at 10am I was still finding untracked corduroy.

As for the snow report, I think the 1 inch at the summit counting for the season total is a stretch. Drop a couple hundred feet below the summit and you were down to a dusting. The accuracy of the trail status is questionable too. Lower snowball is groomed yet not listed that way on the report. Racers edge is open and groomed but listed as closed. If that was closed you wouldn't be able to get down from lower snowball since spring road is bare and closed as well. These might be somewhat minor things, but it is little things like this that drive people like me crazy.

I can't blame them for measuring directly at the summit, as it is what it is. From a rider standpoint I usually find the mid-mountain measurement more indicative of what you'll actually find when riding. It can be misleading but I've found to use the mid-mountain one for actual riding conditions and the summit stake as more of a marketing gimmick.

The only reason that really bothers me is when the snow report is touting 7" of snowfall (with no mention of the fact that there's only 3" at mid and 0" at the base or something). You read the report and its says "we grabbed 6 inches overnight" but then get to the top of Super Bravo to find like 3-4". There's a lot of terrain that doesn't see the snowfall that is mentioned in the written portion of the snow report. Seems like a lot of other resorts (even Jay) will give the base to summit range on the written report.

All this reminds me of this video I found on the meathead films SkiTheEast site about snow reporting at Stowe while googlign about Sugarbush snow report haa. Seems like its a few years old now but interesting none the less. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siyrmCUixQM It was interesting to find out they report snowfall at only 3,000ft for their higher elevation snowfall numbers. Thats like the top of Bravo. It doesn't say why they don't do it at the summit but interesting to remember when comparing snowfall. Given the difference between mid and smummit values at Sugarbush I wonder if Stowe is missing out on marketing not going to the summit. Would love to see that same video but from Jay to see how its done there.

[Looking_for_the_Bush]

If trails could potentially open between when the eeport is sent out and the next one, it should mention the possibility of opening trails to get people excited and so they can take advantage of the trail opening if it does open.

pretty standard to see on spring snow reports around the region that "some trails may see delayed openings until it softens" or something to that effect.

[Benski]

pretty standard to see on spring snow reports around the region that "some trails may see delayed openings until it softens" or something to that effect.

I have seen it before on powder days too. It seems like a no Brainier.

[cdskier]

All this reminds me of this video I found on the meathead films SkiTheEast site about snow reporting at Stowe while googlign about Sugarbush snow report haa. Seems like its a few years old now but interesting none the less. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siyrmCUixQM It was interesting to find out they report snowfall at only 3,000ft for their higher elevation snowfall numbers. Thats like the top of Bravo. It doesn't say why they don't do it at the summit but interesting to remember when comparing snowfall. Given the difference between mid and smummit values at Sugarbush I wonder if Stowe is missing out on marketing not going to the summit. Would love to see that same video but from Jay to see how its done there.

Not reporting a true summit value isn't that uncommon. I thought even at SB the official summit stake was in a more sheltered area on the cutover between jester, organgrinder, and spillsville somewhere. The stake in the new cam I thought was a brand new stake more for show. One problem at the summit is wind. It also as you pointed out isn't necessarily a good indicator of true conditions.

[Looking_for_the_Bush]

Not reporting a true summit value isn't that uncommon. I thought even at SB the official summit stake was in a more sheltered area on the cutover between jester, organgrinder, and spillsville somewhere. The stake in the new cam I thought was a brand new stake more for show. One problem at the summit is wind. It also as you pointed out isn't necessarily a good indicator of true conditions.

I see the 1:42 updte this afternoon says 7" of snowfall since 6am. The summit snow stake seems drifted over again at 4".

But holy sh*t at 7 inches since 6am this morning... can anyone verify that? Even the cam doesn't show that.

And as usual the snow fall tally still says 2-1-1. Who the hell knwos what goes on up there lol

[cdskier]

Now old man winter and Mother Nature are just giving us weekend skiers the middle finger...lol

[winjr]

I can verify it. One inch around 7:30 am and by time I skied there around 10:30 am at least 4 plus of light fluffy stuff. It was really nice on top of grooming. I was going to retire for the season but too much to respond to.

Our summit stake is now at top of Ripcord in a protected space by HG top terminal. First year it has been there. It was lower down on Spillsville cutover off Jester in past. Snow total is recorded in am between 6:30 and 7 am. It is updated at 1:30pm at snow plan. The increment from 6:30 am to 1:30pm counts towards tomorrow am's 24 hour total. Last week because of the winds the snow stake had a bad reading in the am and we did get up to see it in person until around noon. The snow total should have been retroactive to the am report but got inputted erroneously.

We do have a "P" when we partially groom a trail like lower Organgrinder when one section is groomed and another is not. I did not check the report the other day. Spring Road was closed not Racer's Edge. Maybe the wrong trail got marked. That usually gets picked up early if that happens.

The early trail reports list what the plan was the prior
evening and the reported radios the groomers to see if anything changed. Patrol in the am trail checks may open or close a trail for a variety of reasons. They call in to dispatch and this is uploaded to the web which feeds the App and there can be delays but it usually feeds fairly quickly.

[Looking_for_the_Bush]

I can verify it. One inch around 7:30 am and by time I skied there around 10:30 am at least 4 plus of light fluffy stuff. It was really nice on top of grooming. I was going to retire for the season but too much to respond to.

Our summit stake is now at top of Ripcord in a protected space by HG top terminal. First year it has been there. It was lower down on Spillsville cutover off Jester in past. Snow total is recorded in am between 6:30 and 7 am. It is updated at 1:30pm at snow plan. The increment from 6:30 am to 1:30pm counts towards tomorrow am's 24 hour total. Last week because of the winds the snow stake had a bad reading in the am and we did get up to see it in person until around noon. The snow total should have been retroactive to the am report but got inputted erroneously.

We do have a "P" when we partially groom a trail like lower Organgrinder when one section is groomed and another is not. I did not check the report the other day. Spring Road was closed not Racer's Edge. Maybe the wrong trail got marked. That usually gets picked up early if that happens.

The early trail reports list what the plan was the prior
evening and the reported radios the groomers to see if anything changed. Patrol in the am trail checks may open or close a trail for a variety of reasons. They call in to dispatch and this is uploaded to the web which feeds the App and there can be delays but it usually feeds fairly quickly.

Win thanks for the response. so was today's actually measured at the summit stake? So this is the first year of the new measuring location and that makes a lot of sense. I've been a pass holder for 8 seasons and this is the first year that the snow numbers have seemed higher in the past or at least a much larger base to summit difference. Also why does it say 7 inches in the written dialog but 6" in the snow tally? These are the things that are easy to fix.

we will have to agree to disagree on what a sheltered spot is...as every single snowfall I look at the snow cam there's a drift there. like right now, there's a 4in ridge running through the thing. there's no way you'd be able to count that officially.

and yes todays snowfall counts towards tomorrow morning's 24 hour total. however when they update at 1pm remember that snow should not be in the 24 hour total since 6-1 today is outside 24 hours.. we'll check tomorrow and see.

the only way to find out for sure is to come up there tomorrow, so see you on the slopes. actually might be an awesome marketing ploy, just confuse folks into needing to come see for themselves haaah.