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  1. #1
    Hawk's Avatar
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    Winter 16/17 Thoughts and Reports****

    Time for a topic to change. I am hoping with Today's storm, things really kick into full speed for the rest for the season.

    Wednesday was hard and fast. It did snow anywhere from 1-3" overnight and it was nice a a few places. This did open Castlerock for hiking. it was probably the best skiing on the hill. No snow yet at 8:20 as I head out the door. Radar looks like snow starting in about an hour. See you on the hill.
    Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
    Got two good eyes but we still don’t see!

  2. #2
    Hawk's Avatar
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    Woops Sorry NHSkier1969. I wasn't paying attention and didn't see your lower post. Use either one.
    Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
    Got two good eyes but we still don’t see!

  3. #3
    How much snow is needed to run Slide Brook? Really surprised that lift isn't running...figured 168" of snow on the season would be enough to get it open. Maybe when we get to 200"?

    Although I guess it gets to a lower elevation in the middle of the drainage?. Will be up with the family tomorrow but thinking we'll just stay at Ellen. Anyone know how crowded it normally is New Year's Day? I'm assuming not very crowded if everyone is hung over.

    Went to Stowe on Thursday and it was an absolute madhouse though no one rides that slow double on Mansfield side so just lapped that. Ripped the woods all day long, I will say despite the snow total differences that place has a lot of snow on the ground. Maybe not as fluffy snow or something . Had to be two feet of solid snowpack right at the parking lot level whatever elevation that is and it was before this last storm .

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Sugarbushskier9 View Post
    How much snow is needed to run Slide Brook? Really surprised that lift isn't running...figured 168" of snow on the season would be enough to get it open. Maybe when we get to 200"?
    How much total snow fell is really irrelevant since you have thaws/rain that impact that number. What matters is simply the snowpack coverage and depth.

    The base of Sugarbush has only had 59" of snow. Most of Slide Brook is much lower than the elevation levels of the summit, so keep that in mind too. The service roads leading into Slide Brook are probably what is a bit lacking in cover...although I would think we should be getting close (but I also haven't seen how lower elevation snow levels look since before Christmas).

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by cdskier View Post
    How much total snow fell is really irrelevant since you have thaws/rain that impact that number. What matters is simply the snowpack coverage and depth.

    The base of Sugarbush has only had 59" of snow. Most of Slide Brook is much lower than the elevation levels of the summit, so keep that in mind too. The service roads leading into Slide Brook are probably what is a bit lacking in cover...although I would think we should be getting close (but I also haven't seen how lower elevation snow levels look since before Christmas).
    True very good point. I haven't been to SB since before the holiday so forget that we had that rain in there last weekend.

    I was just curious if there's a number of snow they need to open it. Like once we hit 24" of depth, etc.

  6. #6

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    Mt Ellen was a zoo on Friday, but was an average Saturday today. Pretty nice overall today, but some trails got skiied off by mid day.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Spartan82 View Post
    Mt Ellen was a zoo on Friday.
    I have never heard anyone describe Mt. Ellen that way, though I will take your word on it.

  8. #8

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    One of the ambassadors told me there were 3,100 skiers on Friday. All of the lots were full, and there were cars parked on the access road, which I have never seen.

  9. #9
    Well I guess that settles it, the stake does drift. 8-10" at the snow cam with the morning report claiming 8" of new snow overnight. Then the 7:15 update takes it to 2"...with thousands of people in town.

    Heading to Mount Ellen now. Should be nice with 1-2" on the groomers.8" is a full on powder day. Gotta be careful before going out with those numbers. You'd assume a grooming driver could tell you if 8" fell or not.that's dumping all night long to get that amount of snow.

  10. #10
    I guess this proves if it is windy enough, anything will drift. I watched the replay last night before I went to sleep when I noticed it had 8" on it and was pretty sure most of it was wind blown since I wasn't seeing many flakes actually falling.


  11. #11
    Quote Originally Posted by cdskier View Post
    I guess this proves if it is windy enough, anything will drift. I watched the replay last night before I went to sleep when I noticed it had 8" on it and was pretty sure most of it was wind blown since I wasn't seeing many flakes actually falling.
    Yeah best not to take that as gospel. Who knows how many other other times it happens or if it's only adding a little here or there.

    Anyway skiing is awesome at Ellen today. Lunch break now but I'm already toast. Would guess there's around an inch of new snow give or take...hard to tell with the wind. But skiing real nice.

  12. #12
    We are eye balling it to make sure drifting is not misleading. It really believe our reporting has been quite accurate LTD but we will continue to monitor very closely. There can also be a material differance between LP and ME on any given day.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sugarbushskier9 View Post
    Yeah best not to take that as gospel. Who knows how many other other times it happens or if it's only adding a little here or there.

    Anyway skiing is awesome at Ellen today. Lunch break now but I'm already toast. Would guess there's around an inch of new snow give or take...hard to tell with the wind. But skiing real nice.

  13. #13
    A lot more. Third busiest day ever!
    Quote Originally Posted by Spartan82 View Post
    One of the ambassadors told me there were 3,100 skiers on Friday. All of the lots were full, and there were cars parked on the access road, which I have never seen.

  14. #14
    It really depends on whether of our lift mechanics are able to get their snowmobiles in safely. There are multiple roads and all need to be passable. Right snow the snow depth on the upper roads is fine but the lower roads still have water bars that do not allow safe travel. Mechanics have to be able to get in each am to check the towers and to deal with any mechanical issues during the day and we also have to be able to have safe roads in the unlikely event of a lift evacuation. Hope this helps. We want nothing more than to run the lift. It really helps spreading everyone out.
    Quote Originally Posted by cdskier View Post
    How much total snow fell is really irrelevant since you have thaws/rain that impact that number. What matters is simply the snowpack coverage and depth.

    The base of Sugarbush has only had 59" of snow. Most of Slide Brook is much lower than the elevation levels of the summit, so keep that in mind too. The service roads leading into Slide Brook are probably what is a bit lacking in cover...although I would think we should be getting close (but I also haven't seen how lower elevation snow levels look since before Christmas).

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by winjr View Post
    We are eye balling it to make sure drifting is not misleading. It really believe our reporting has been quite accurate LTD but we will continue to monitor very closely. There can also be a material differance between LP and ME on any given day.
    Taking snow measurements at that elevation seems hard in itself as it does seem logical or possible that wind can transport snow up there like a half mile away. The cam itself may not drift but it's possible some of the snow isn't coming from the sky anyway. When you get off Heavens Gate you stare at a couple hundred feet of higher terrain up to the tower. Sometimes it seems like the west wind fills in that area and even upper Ripcord and Paradise. That'd be my guess as to why there's such a huge difference from top of Bravo to top of Heavens Gate. Heavens Gate top has the benefit of wind loading from the west side like there's a reason a lot of the trees on the ridge and west side don't have any snow on them a lot of the time.

    However it leads to the question of if the snow lands there does it matter where it came from? If the top part of Ripcord is 10" and you can ski it, does it matter if 6" fell from the sky and another 4" blew in from a quarter mile away from the top slopes of the west side? At the end of the day you're still skiing through 10" of snow. But the more I ski off Heavens Gate I'm convinced some of it is blow in from the slight rise higher up the ridge. Sort of like Jay Peak's face chutes and the top stuff off the tram.

    Anyway that may be explaining the huge ranges in snow totals. Yesterday when you overruled the cam was actually one of the more uniform reports I saw of the season with 2-2-1" instead of the 7-2-1" type spreads the cam can give. Kudos for taking the approach that maybe we need to look at this a bit more and monitor its accuracy.
    Last edited by Sugarbushskier9; 01-02-2017 at 02:49 PM.

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