Wind hold immunity

[Bumpsis]

Which ski areas in NH are least affected by wind holds, assuming NW, NE winds?

 

[drjeff]

Which ski areas in NH are least affected by wind holds, assuming NW, NE winds?

Brettonwoods makes that one of their advertising points, that they've only been affected by wind holds on something like 10 of their couple of thousand operating days since they originally opened

 

[Edd]

Cranmore is very resistant to wind holds.

 

[pepperdawg]

Magic Red Chair <----VT not NH tho....(just re-read the post)

 

[bvibert]

Magic Red Chair <----VT not NH tho....(just re-read the post)

First thing that I thought of too, then I saw the NH stipulation...

 

[rtibbs4]

As said, Bretton Woods markets itself as "no wind hold". I ski there often and have never experienced high winds. Now, that may also be because they don't have some of the vertical that other areas have.

 

[Bumpsis]

OK, let's expend this to VT as well. For epic snow, I'm willing to travel.

Bretton Woods?? I'm glad to hear that they are not affected much by wind. No offense to those who like that area but somebody would have to pay me to ski there. That's the most boring and flat terrain that I know of that's actually serviced by lifts.
Maybe I'd do it on my XC skis, but then, who needs a lift.

 

[kingdom-tele]

NH - Black Mtn seems to face the right way

VT- When the winds descend from NNW and riding the lift is paramount, we go to Burke

 

[rtibbs4]

Bretton Woods?? I'm glad to hear that they are not affected much by wind. No offense to those who like that area but somebody would have to pay me to ski there. That's the most boring and flat terrain that I know of that's actually serviced by lifts.

Like I said, they don't have the vertical that other areas have which is one reason they don't have a wind problem.

 

[Edd]

OK, let's expend this to VT as well. For epic snow, I'm willing to travel.

Bretton Woods?? I'm glad to hear that they are not affected much by wind. No offense to those who like that area but somebody would have to pay me to ski there. That's the most boring and flat terrain that I know of that's actually serviced by lifts.
Maybe I'd do it on my XC skis, but then, who needs a lift.

Most here would agree with you about the lack of pitch. I primarily use my New England pass but I've have a Threedom as a backup for 3 years now and I've learned to find the fun spots there. A week ago I spent 3 hours in the morning skiing strictly ungroomed trails with a dusting on top and had a blast. The Rosebrook Canyon glades were open and I noticed a trail with a sign that STARTS in the woods that I'd always missed (Roz, I think). It was super cool. Bretton Woods has a bit of a dual personality.

 

[riverc0il]

A lot of it depends upon which direction the wind is blowing. For example, Cannon ran all lifts today open until close... a mountain most people associate with being really windy (and it was today). But the direction of the wind did not interfere with lift ops. From certain other directions, it would have shut the lifts down with half as much wind speed.

Bretton Woods has the bragging rights here and they are definitely the best major resort concerning lift holds. I would suspect Wildcat is the most susceptible to wind holds with their HSQ.

 

[Bumpsis]

Most here would agree with you about the lack of pitch. I primarily use my New England pass but I've have a Threedom as a backup for 3 years now and I've learned to find the fun spots there. A week ago I spent 3 hours in the morning skiing strictly ungroomed trails with a dusting on top and had a blast. The Rosebrook Canyon glades were open and I noticed a trail with a sign that STARTS in the woods that I'd always missed (Roz, I think). It was super cool. Bretton Woods has a bit of a dual personality.

Sorry about sounding harsh about Bretton Woods. I'm sure that with powder conditions and uncrowded slopes the place shines. I guess I just hit at the wrong time when I visited it a couple years back. On the other hand, my kids did have blast.

 

[polski]

Sorry about sounding harsh about Bretton Woods. I'm sure that with powder conditions and uncrowded slopes the place shines. I guess I just hit at the wrong time when I visited it a couple years back. On the other hand, my kids did have blast.

Another good thing about BW from a few pow days I've had there is they leave pretty fair amounts of terrain ungroomed after a dump. Some wide boulevards for instance will get grooming down one side of the trail but the other half is untouched. I'd rather have that than a place with better terrain but edge-to-edge tilling.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Cannon is the least wind/lift affected of the big mountains...except:I've spent 35 years at 50+ days here and have lived right at the mountain for 15 so I have a little history here.Most wind holds in NE are from the north/northwest winds.Cannon almost never has windholds from these winds.It does however get slammed from south winds.If you see a storm track west of NH with winds from the south in the Whites,be assured it will be blowing bigtime at Cannon.Franconia Notch runs north-south with high mountain walls.The wind from the south gets funneled up the notch and squeezed and compressed because it has nowhere else to go.By the time it gets to the top of the notch(Cannon),its pretty wild.Last weekend was a classic example.It blew 50-60 mph Saterday night and Sunday.Hence,Sunday morning nothing was running.So,when most areas are on windhold from north winds,Cannon will not be effected.

 

[Bumpsis]

Cannon is the least wind/lift affected of the big mountains...except:I've spent 35 years at 50+ days here and have lived right at the mountain for 15 so I have a little history here.Most wind holds in NE are from the north/northwest winds.Cannon almost never has windholds from these winds.It does however get slammed from south winds.If you see a storm track west of NH with winds from the south in the Whites,be assured it will be blowing bigtime at Cannon.Franconia Notch runs north-south with high mountain walls.The wind from the south gets funneled up the notch and squeezed and compressed because it has nowhere else to go.By the time it gets to the top of the notch(Cannon),its pretty wild.Last weekend was a classic example.It blew 50-60 mph Saterday night and Sunday.Hence,Sunday morning nothing was running.So,when most areas are on windhold from north winds,Cannon will not be effected.

Good observations. I'd think though, that notherly winds can scour the mountain just as well as the southern ones. The Notch seqeeze effect works both ways. The lower slopes, off Zoomer chair probably stay OK when it blows hard from N (E and W variations) because they seem to be facing more towards SE.

 

[rtibbs4]

Cannon is the least wind/lift affected of the big mountains...except:I've spent 35 years at 50+ days here and have lived right at the mountain for 15 so I have a little history here.Most wind holds in NE are from the north/northwest winds.Cannon almost never has windholds from these winds.It does however get slammed from south winds.If you see a storm track west of NH with winds from the south in the Whites,be assured it will be blowing bigtime at Cannon.Franconia Notch runs north-south with high mountain walls.The wind from the south gets funneled up the notch and squeezed and compressed because it has nowhere else to go.By the time it gets to the top of the notch(Cannon),its pretty wild.Last weekend was a classic example.It blew 50-60 mph Saterday night and Sunday.Hence,Sunday morning nothing was running.So,when most areas are on windhold from north winds,Cannon will not be effected.
__________________
SIKSKIER

Very interesting SIKSKIER. I would have thought otherwise. Nicely detailed.

 

[SIKSKIER]

Good observations. I'd think though, that notherly winds can scour the mountain just as well as the southern ones. The Notch seqeeze effect works both ways. The lower slopes, off Zoomer chair probably stay OK when it blows hard from N (E and W variations) because they seem to be facing more towards SE.

Scouring the mountain is a different point.The thread was talking about windholds.North winds will blow upslope taking all the snow up and off Profile.The Notch squeeze effect does not work both ways except in that the wind speed will drop and the air will warm.I forgot to mention that the sqeeze effect is multiplied because the notch rizes 1000 ft in a couple miles.Downsloping air warms and dries and that's why you'll see big snow in the notch and an abrupt change in snow level right at and after Cannon as the elevation drops towards Franconia.

 

[polski]

Very interesting SIKSKIER. I would have thought otherwise. Nicely detailed.

Seconded. But: You did a great job describing why S winds are deadly to Cannon lift operations; can you describe why N/NW winds are NOT typically a problem there?

 

[millerm277]

Seconded. But: You did a great job describing why S winds are deadly to Cannon lift operations; can you describe why N/NW winds are NOT typically a problem there?

Because they're at the north end of the notch. Those winds haven't been "funneled" through the notch, if I'm understanding him correctly.