How much snow?

[midd]

I know there are likely a thousand variables, but how much natural snow does an area need to drop the ropes on an otherwise untouched trail?

Does 10" of the type of snow forecasted for Wednesday do it? More? Less?

 

[frozencorn]

Depends.

 

[4aprice]

Depends.

I think he means depends whats under that snow. 10" on a grassy slope might be enough but put some rocks and stumps under there and its a different story.


Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

 

[WJenness]

also depends on the steepness of the slope, the skier density, the density of the snow, the aggressiveness of the ski patrol / management to open new terrain.

frozencorn was very right by saying 'depends'.

And there's the entirely different question of what 'open' means. Many people will 'poach' closed trails for various reasons, and some resorts are more ok with that than others...

-w

 

[Greg]

I think he means depends whats under that snow. 10" on a grassy slope might be enough but put some rocks and stumps under there and its a different story.


Alex

Lake Hopatcong, NJ

Depends on trail pitch and snow density as the OP mentioned. 10" on bare grass regardless of snow density is pretty shallow and will get skied off quickly, regardless of pitch. So I guess there's no set number, but I would think 18" is probably a good rule of thumb at most places. I think what tomorrow's storm is going to do is prime the natural trails, especially if it's wet and then freezes up. These trails will probably be in play with as little as 4-6" after that.

 

[billski]

We have a winner.

I prefer the areas that are more "aggressive" in their words. They usually mark the trail as "thin cover".

Decisions also depend on the clientele. Based on that alone, I'd expect Stratton to have a vastly different strategy than, say, MRG. I think I've heard more whiners at Stratton than anywhere else.

 

[JD]

12-20"depending on moisture content.

 

[JPTracker]

Also depends on the water bars. When we skied Jay a week ago there was plenty of cover on the trails but if you didn't watch out for the water bars, some of which are actually trenches, things could turn deadly quickly.

 

[frozencorn]

See, lots of factors. So...depends.

 

[tylerjames]

depends how awesome you are

 

[polski]

Bretton Woods opened numerous trails the last weekend of Nov on 14-18" dense snow on top of zero base. (I verified 18" in numerous locations.) With that density it was not "thin" cover; didn't hit a rock all day. Water bars were a major issue on ungroomed trails though; some required sidestepping.

I realized after the fact that in some ways it was even better than true midwinter conditions, as at that point the base had never undergone a freeze/thaw cycle nor suffered any NCP. There was no such thing as "scraped off" even in higher-traffic points; it got scraped down to more fresh/dense snow.

 

[frozencorn]

depends how awesome you are

This too, of course.

 

[Geoff]

I have about a foot at 2000' at Killington. 27F, snowing, and very windy

 

[SpinmasterK]

Didn't make it on the hill today - work thing got in the way. But patrol reported 13". Over in NH though, in the Dartmouth area, we reported 18"!

 

[mtsnowfish]

I didn't get out either stupid work... But we picked up exactly a foot in the base area. Probably an inch or two more up top. Really windy today though. Above 2,000 feet it was a whole other world with southern winds pumping..

Weather forecast for the weekend looks primo....