On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:00:02 -0500, Wesley A. Wright <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>952 AM EST WED NOV 30 2011
>STATION            PRECIP   TEMPERATURE   PRESENT         SNOW
>                   24 HRS   MAX MIN CUR   WEATHER     NEW TOTAL SWE
>JAY PEAK            0.28    59  50  50   CLOUDY       0.0   0

Wow has it been warm... this is absolutely incredible to have widespread
temperatures getting no lower than 50F in the mountains at the end of
November.  I was excited to be working the first two weeks of the season
straight, skiing everyday, and getting into the flow of another
7-days-a-week-ski-schedule, but this has been more interesting than
expected.  I was really hoping for a good start to the season and things
looked promising last Wednesday... but the weather has gone downhill since
then.  

Here are my last 5 mornings worth of 6am temperatures at Stowe mountain
operations center at 1,550ft:

44F
39F
55F
47F
53F today

We have not touched freezing (or been anywhere close to it for that matter)
in over 120 hours and getting close to 132 hours.  Luckily as of 2pm the
temperature at the Nose on Mansfield is 33F so hopefully the big melt will
be over soon.  The problem is that 33F is running warmer than progged as
models had us down to 28-30F up there at noon.  If this next stretch of
weather is a few degrees warmer than expected most ski resorts are going to
have a big problem.

Speaking of problems, Stowe's snow is just about gone but we are piecing it
together however possible.  I cannot imagine where other ski areas stand
that had less snow to begin...but its Killington, Stowe, and Okemo still
standing right now (but Okemo requires a bus ride to a lift that you
upload/download to get to the skiing).  And given the weather pattern in the
near future, terrain availability is basically going to come down to
snowmaking capacity as natural snow is going to be very hard to come by. 
Christmas is going to be rough for the VT ski industry this year the way the
long range pattern is setting up.  

Its so bleak that yesterday I was out shoveling snow onto Lord with about 8
other employees (ski patrol supervisors, risk managment, operations
coordinators, etc).  We were shoveling Mad River Glen style to keep a
skiable path down Lord below Sunrise...and then also shoveled an area of
North Slope below the sunspot.  

This morning when I came in I knew we had problems as soon as I saw the base
around the Quad.  No snow.  Nothing.  When I called the Mansfield groomers
on the radio at 5am they honestly didn't think we could open today. We told
them to take their time and do whatever they can to put it together.  They
were winching snow from hundreds of yards away from some spots to get at
least one cat-width wide swath of white through the bare areas.  Well after
a heroic effort by Donny and Ed we opened at 9:30am... and guess what?  It
was actually real fun skiing.  The snow was buttery soft and I enjoy those
springtime-like days of playing connect the white dots on skis.  The only
problem is tomorrow will be December 1st, not May 1st.  

Tomorrow looks to be another problem waiting to happen as now we really have
no "stashes" of snow left and what is there is so thin that putting a
groomer on it is barely possible... but it'll freeze solid tonight so we
have to groom to avoid the moonscape conditions.  No one can say we don't
try, haha.  I think most skivittlers would be impressed that this place
opened with what we had today...pretty much a top-to-bottom stripe of snow
like 10-20 feet wide.  Never surrender has been the motto lately, haha.  

Here's to hoping for something good in the weather department happens and it
gets colder than progged for the next 72 hours.  Lastly, for anyone thinking
about skinning for a dawn patrol (I have gotten some inquiries about this),
I would recommend staying away as the groomers are winching on that route
between 3-8am.  If you still choose to skin (there were some folks early
this morning), there'll be two snowcats on the hill and the top one will be
the anchor cat, with the winch cat below... so definitely keep your eye out
as hitting or getting hit by a winch cable would ruin your day.

-Scott

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