Pierogi. Pivo. Pow.

April 28, 2014 1:20 pm | Category: Skiing, WebiGNARs | 8 Comments | Permalink

We went to Slovakia. We had a lot of fun. We skied some. We saw a lot of cool things. We met a lot of great people. The Curmudgeon (remember him from here and here?) made a movie.cover

If you’re in a hurry, the skiing starts at about 4:16.

Thanks for watching!
The F.I.S.


We Went to Canada

April 21, 2014 8:55 am | Category: Skiing, WebiGNARs | 4 Comments | Permalink

Again.

The Province of Québec.
thumbnail

Again.

We walked a LOT.

We skied a little.

Thanks for watching.


ADK the Hard Way

By: Peter
April 1, 2014 7:52 am | Category: Quick Update, Skiing | 3 Comments | Permalink

Not to be outdone by the 4hr approach that Greg and the Curmudgeon did getting into A Hole;   Jake, Hutz, and I woke up at zero dark:30 and drove to Gnarville together.  We had a plan for a ski tour that might require even MOAR approach for fewer turns, ha-HA!

Jake and I didn’t really know what we were getting into, but AJ is an expert because he spends a lot of time with old men hanging out in the ADK backbush, or reading online forums about the backbush with other old men.

With this foolproof plan and knowing that we weren’t missing anything good back in VT we got out of the smelly car just after daybreak and started skinning.

Giant_Dix-3142

We continued for many hours

We passed hottubs that looked so good Jake started to take his pants off to get in

Giant_Dix-3145

I was getting really tired, but AJ assured us it was only, “5 miles to the summit”.

6.5miles of trailbreaking later we were almost at the base of the mountain, and our butts were tired.

Giant_Dix-3150

 

We had finally arrived at the schuss-goal for the day, and that was when AJ suggested we do an about-face and go skin some more over to some other thing.  Why not?  We’d gotten pretty good at the “approach” thing, might as well keep doing it.

Giant_Dix-3164

 


Happy Effin Spring.

March 28, 2014 11:17 am | Category: Weather | 2 Comments | Permalink

Spring. A season of renewal. The birds start to chirp. The sun stays out a little longer. The sap starts to run. The pow starts to fly. Oh, you thought spring meant warm weather, jorts and “halter-top” day? Move back to NYC/Boston/Jerz you flatlander. (yes, I’m speaking to myself right now.) Spring in Vermont is about the Powz.

And we’re possibly looking a much more as the clock rolls on torwards April.

Currently a low pressure system is passing to our north along the international border. The warm front ahead of the system produced a very enjoyable 2-3″ inches early this morning. That snow will begin to taper off and transition to rain as warm air slides into the region today. A weak cold front will push into the region.

By Saturday morning the front will be draped along through northern NY and far Northern VT.

nam_namer_036_850_temp_mslp_precip

Down to our souteast, a shortwave piece of energy will eject out of the midwest and interact with Gulf of Mexico moisture. During the day Saturday a surface low pressure system will develop as the shortwave interacts with the front. The surface low will then ride up and along that cold front.

This is where shit gets really interesting. Models were fairly consistent until a few days ago that the surface feature would be suppressed to the south of us by a strong high pressure to the north. That’s changed.

Current model data suggests that the storm will in fact rapidly deepen once it reaches the DelMarVa and deliver a signifgicant late season snow event.

The result by sunday AM is impressive:

gfs_namer_060_850_temp_mslp_precip

The low then begins to slow down and meanders over the next 18 or so hours out to the N/E, finally exiting the region later Monday AM.

A storm in this location, with this slow forwad motion, brings substantial moisture to Vermont, NH and NH.

I mean, jeebus, just look at the storm total moisture:

jeebus

The trick with this storm is going to be whether there exists enough cold air to make all the moisture snow. As I said above, this storm is going to be riding juuuuust along a cold front draped over us. Models have much of the VT mountains right on the line between snow and rain through the column. Current thinking now is that areas above 2500ft will stay cold enough for this to remain all snow.

Though you can see the spread in model solutions in the bufkit analysis for a place like Jay:

3.28 storm bufkit spread

Looking at this square, I’d say its looking very likely that from Saturday night through Monday AM, the mountains of VT, NE NY and parts of NH will see a substantial snowfall. Currently I’m leaning towards a very wet and heavy 6-12″ of snow above 2500′ with ratios in the 10-1 range (or lower). However, that thinking could change as this storm develops.

One neat feature I’d watch for: as the storm pulls out on monday am, it appears dynamic forcing and orographic developmetns could center around the Killington region. That would make Monday AM particularly snowy down that way.


A Hole

By: Greg
March 23, 2014 7:01 am | Category: Quick Update, Skiing, WebiGNARs | 7 Comments | Permalink

Two years ago while we were wandering around one summer day, we found a hole in the backbush.
a hole in the backbush

a hole in the backbush

We were pretty sure it was the shortcut in the Stowe Derby we missed 4 years ago.

Yesterday we finally got the courage up to go through the hole. With schuss gear. And some tears. And frozen fingies.
hole with schuss

back with schuss gear

We needed some other toys too.
other toys

But once we were done playing with those toys, the rest was pretty “Easy.”
easy

The Curmudgeon was a little nervous…
pretty easy

… but found his rhythm quickly.
pretty easy

Four hours of approach… five minutes of schuss. Maybe less. Definitely worth it.
pretty easy

Exiting the run, and looking back at what we did. Hard to believe snow ever packs up in there.
easy

Thanks for stopping by.

-The F.I.S.

ADD ON: Here’s a video of the hole:


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