EAST COAST ROLL CALL #8 14/15 A NEW HOPE

[east or bust]

Thoughts on higher elevations in N. central VT later this week? Think Friday afternoon. I do see some white in the forecast.

^Nice shots as always NEK

[neufox47]

Thoughts on higher elevations in N. central VT later this week? Think Friday afternoon. I do see some white in the forecast.

^Nice shots as always NEK

I think that the mountains see every possible type of precip capped with a few inches of snow.

[Doremite]

Unfortunately see a lot of the wrong type of precip w these temps.

[t-the-east]

To counterbalance the Slides spam, thought I would post a few pics.

Yesterday and today have been some incredible spring skiing in the slides. Perfect temps, perfect snow.

Me, Dropping


My wife pondering a drop in slide 4


looking up from the bottom


Get it while its still good!

[Harvey44]

Oh yea

Shot of Four from another Gore guy, taken today:

[Vt-Freeheel]

38.7` bob this am, received 3/4" of snow last evening as the front quickly passed through. Then the freight train south wind hit, still blowing though not quite as hard. Few inches of snow loss overnight. Bush opening at 10:15 today due to power curtailment by GMP, lifts will run to 5.

[gpcharles]

Dang. Power curtailment?

Outcome is nice though...always wish lifts stayed open later in spring (and opened later too)

[strawjack]

What's the issue with opening those wf slides? Lack of snow or are they just scared to open to the masses?

No pic Greg?

[BushwackerinPA]

Thoughts on higher elevations in N. central VT later this week? Think Friday afternoon. I do see some white in the forecast.

^Nice shots as always NEK

Stowe was still packed powder on north facing stuff yeterday afternoon. I am going to up to ski powder in the morning, and slush bumps when its start to rain assuming its not to sticky.

[neufox47]

Dang. Power curtailment?

Outcome is nice though...always wish lifts stayed open later in spring (and opened later too)

No kidding. It's especially dumb on those boiler plate mornings that don't soften until noon and then the lifts close at 330.

[Harvey44]

What's the issue with opening those wf slides? Lack of snow or are they just scared to open to the masses?

They need a lot of snow to cover and they slide pretty easily.

While snow preservation has been good this season Whiteface is only reporting something like 140 inches.

If they do open, it's often in spring conditions when the snowpack is stable.

The new GM seems like he wants to open them more. Was in on Saturday with very marginal vis.

[FussyDutchman]

^

I have always been amazed at how much less snow WF gets compared to across the lake, easily 100"+ less each year...crazy how 35-40 miles further west makes such a huge difference.

Slides look like great fun regardless!

[Jonathan S.]

TR 2015-03-25 West Side avy tour

Had been planning for a tour based out of the West Side to focus on avy practice with some students who had previously taken courses with me.

March 18 & 19 seemed like a good time slot.
Weather forecast began to look cold and windy - but hey, that’s what the weather is supposed to be like on Mount Washington in the winter!
Then colder, and windier ... and even colder and windier ... until out of curiosity I entered the combination of forecasted temperature and wind *gust* speeds into an on-line calculator: incalculable!

Or as one potential partner put it:
“Unfortunately I couldn't make the childcare work for that one. As in, childcare for the next 12 years to help my widowed wife...”

So how about March 25 & 26?
Wednesday looked great, and Thursday looked good too ... until it no longer did.
So we rallied for an earlier start yesterday, actually skinning up at 7:45 ... in temps that were something like 7, 4, or 5 degrees.
But as forecast, the temps rose as the sun rose above the ridgelines, and the weather was absolutely glorious as we rose above treeline on the ART:






Dug a pit on a little rollover below the Lakes hut:






Or rather, attempted to: ~25cm of K-hardness wind slab, above P-hardness wind slab.
Had to be hardest non-crusted snow I’ve ever encountered.
Even just excavating enough snow to conduct a single CT would have taken far too long, and results were obviously predictable anyway.

Skipped the Monroe summit but still had a ~1,030' to the Dry River crossing: firm and chalky above treeline, a bit manky in places below treeline, and Goldilocks at treeline.

ctsmith:






A.S.:












Skinned up to other side, focusing on safe routefinding along the edges of the Halfpipe Gully runout and across the Airplane Bowl runout.

Looking back on where we had just been:






Artistic view from ctsmith:






Dug a pit along the side near the top of Airplane Bowl, with similar structure, though the snow was ever so slightly softer – or perhaps just marginally less hard.

A surprising CT22.
Q2 in terms of smooth surface, yet definitely Q3 in terms of not wanting to go anywhere.
[EDIT: Hence Q2 RP]
Hmm, was that an almost imperceptible and inconsistent I layer in between the K and P layers?

After much upper-body exertion and unprecedented pain in this context to my hand, I persevered through an ECTX into a nonstandardized ECTN40.
(I think my hand still hurts from that...)
No ice layer this time.

Continued with the tour, skinning almost continuously to the summit, switching over a brief on-trail hike when that seemed more efficient:






NH-mandated summit selfie:






Nice visibility (except for all that concrete getting in the way):






A.S. pausing at the top of the NE Snowfield, perhaps contemplating that he could have just been riding the lifts at Wildcat instead:






Chalky, but nice:












Wrapped around to near the top of Right Gully, then wrapped up and around on foot:






Tried to put us exactly at the top of the half-pipe that leads directly into AR Central, but alas I got us too high up.
That seemed like another good spot for a snow pit, but it was just more of the same from what we found at the Lakes hut.
(Looking back at it now, the elevations at all three of our snow pits were too high, but even adjusting for that factor, what we found was still very striking.)
Followed some snow ribbons around until we eventually intercepted that half-pipe almost at its top.

This is from just after that usual discontinuity in the half-pipe:






Conditions were very chalky and slippery up high, but fortunately the ice bulges were both obvious and limited.
Down lower was very nice, and also very photogenic.
But alas, my phone was temporarily glitchy, so this is the closest we got to a picture of the most interesting terrain of the day:





Saw a few tracks ahead of us, but their makers had already left the parking lot by the time we arrived – what, L.G. wasn’t waiting there for us with beers?
Phone recovered on the drive home to find a text from L.G.: drinking beer in Central, just having barely missed us!

[strawjack]

Dug a pit on a little rollover below the Lakes hut:

Looks like a state job

[neufox47]

Calling all Pats fans the the Padded Room NFL thread... I think Jfost's head may explode. - "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

YOU WON FUCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STFUYFM'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS SSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"We are so sorry that the non-story lead to nothing and no issues were ultimately raised which allowed (or rather didn't NOT allow) the Patriots to take their rightful place as NFL Champs" Gee, you're right, an apology ISN'T enough!"

[neufox47]

Nice tour Jonathan. I was wondering about your pit placement as I was reading it. I wasn't sure if you were looking for representational snow or just snow geeking. Those pits seemed prime to give stable results. Other than the possible ice layer, did you get any other information that you felt was relevant to the conditions in the lee areas further down? Also, I'm not sure if I missed something, but other than a CT22Q2 in that pencil to knife hardness snow, what else was striking?

[BushwackerinPA]

Stowe was still packed powder on north facing stuff yeterday afternoon. I am going to up to ski powder in the morning, and slush bumps when its start to rain assuming its not to sticky.

Stowe report. Corn Snow in the morning most places, its now currently snowing on top fairly hard. Should be a decent morning tomorrow.

[danmelon]

Good spring conditions in the townships yesterday. Made it to the hill as the sun was still out and before the rain/snow/ other precip started. Super warm out. 8C (46F) Got a few excellent sunny slush laps in. Left the good camera in the car, so only crappy iphone reporting available:

Storm rollin in over vt


warm sunny laps




Then all sorts of sky juice down below and flakes up top


Interested to see how the last night boarding sesh on saturday will turn out with all of the forecasted weather in the next couple of days.

[clubhousebmx]

Looks like a state job

Looks like aliens can ski now.

Hmm NOAA calling for 3-5 at Cannon and Manny, wonder if that will pan out?

Gotta say I love the Burke and Cannon shots btw.

[east or bust]

Stowe report. Corn Snow in the morning most places, its now currently snowing on top fairly hard. Should be a decent morning tomorrow.

Dammit why must you tempt me! Contemplating getting out before my 11:45 class tomorrow.

[Magicsnowboard]

I've already posted this on the Magic thread. However, I thought some of you might enjoy it. I took a bunch of video from the last four years (all Magic and Timber Ridge) and made one video recapping the four years since I bought my first season pass there. Footage from Rusty Groomer, RadAm, PearlJam, and myself.

[therudeness]

Yo Melonman, I was up on mont brome last night also, did you happen to see 4 dudes on monoskis ?

[t-the-east]

did you happen to see 4 dudes on monoskis ?

Thats a - roll up the windows and lock the doors type of situation right there...

[danmelon]

Yo Melonman, I was up on mont brome last night also, did you happen to see 4 dudes on monoskis ?

Ahh, sadly I did not. Bummer! I had to leave somewhat early. It was very quiet up there... really not a lot of people around.

Holler at me if you're there Saturday though, I'll keep an eye out for the one plankin crew

[clubhousebmx]

I've already posted this on the Magic thread. However, I thought some of you might enjoy it. I took a bunch of video from the last four years (all Magic and Timber Ridge) and made one video recapping the four years since I bought my first season pass there. Footage from Rusty Groomer, RadAm, PearlJam, and myself.

Watched that a couple weeks back and meant to say awesome stuff, almost makes skiing and riding look fun or something!