The Official 12/10 - 12/12 Storm Discussion Thread

[loafer89]

We decided to stay home this weekend and buy a tree on saturday and go to my dad's birthday party in the evening. I might kayak on monday once some of the rivers come down. We have very high water and near flood/flood stage on alot of water around here.

 

[billski]

I'm just hoping the ice didn't ruin the BC and slack country lines. I suspect in S. VT it has ruined some. Any word on tree damage in Northern VT?

 

[JD]

Natural snow here is terrible. I won't be skiing until something major happens, or a bunch of minor things happen....

 

[kingslug]

Boo..so you guys won't ski groomed hardpack???

Might hit Hunter Monday...might soften up by then as temps are rising then.

 

[Greg]

Natural snow here is terrible. I won't be skiing until something major happens, or a bunch of minor things happen....

Sucks sometimes to be a powder snob, eh?

Seriously, the natural trails at Sugarbush were skiing just fine yesterday, especially lower elevations. The Mall was beautiful powder bumps. Castlerock is fine. We didn't venture into the woods, but it seemed the snow in the woods off Rumble might not be that bad. It was almost like the canopy of evergreens protected it from major crusting.

 

[riverc0il]

Tomorrow should own.

I was thinking about joining you at Jay tomorrow. Yeah, no.

Wuss.

A truer string of posts for sure.

 

[JD]

Sucks sometimes to be a powder snob, eh?

Seriously, the natural trails at Sugarbush were skiing just fine yesterday, especially lower elevations. The Mall was beautiful powder bumps. Castlerock is fine. We didn't venture into the woods, but it seemed the snow in the woods off Rumble might not be that bad. It was almost like the canopy of evergreens protected it from major crusting.

Not really. Sucks to have people hype an event and get skunked for sure, but days where unforcast feet of snow fall make up fot it. I came home, went XC skiing with my dog in the back yard and had alot of laughs. True about the soft woods preventing the crust from forming.

I ski when the snow is good. I don't feel like I have to ski mediocre snow because I bought a pass, took a vacation day, or drove 5 hours to get here. If I still lived down your way, I prolly wouldn't even ski. I'd still me MTBing and paddling all winter. Yesterday was an epic White Water day in CT and Western Mass. You had the equivalent of a 2 foot dump, and it would have been overhead powder.....in your back yard..that's where I would have been. On Sandy Brook about 20 minutes from your house, then 20 minutes up the road to Hubbard. I had 2 POW days this week so I can't really complain. We all create our own reality. Mine is powder only.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

So JD does that mean your not going to drive 5 hours to Jersey and ski Xanadu this summer???

 

[JD]

Will they let me skin there?

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Will they let me skin there?

If you tried to skin up, they'd probably call security..

 

[Greg]

Not really. Sucks to have people hype an event and get skunked for sure, but days where unforcast feet of snow fall make up fot it. I came home, went XC skiing with my dog in the back yard and had alot of laughs. True about the soft woods preventing the crust from forming.

I ski when the snow is good. I don't feel like I have to ski mediocre snow because I bought a pass, took a vacation day, or drove 5 hours to get here. If I still lived down your way, I prolly wouldn't even ski. I'd still me MTBing and paddling all winter. Yesterday was an epic White Water day in CT and Western Mass. You had the equivalent of a 2 foot dump, and it would have been overhead powder.....in your back yard..that's where I would have been. On Sandy Brook about 20 minutes from your house, then 20 minutes up the road to Hubbard. I had 2 POW days this week so I can't really complain. We all create our own reality. Mine is powder only.

I could see the appeal of white water. Between MTB and skiing, I have enough outdoor hobbies. Would like to get back into backpacking eventually though. Anyway, for me, it's about perspective. Just being up in the mountains of the north country for a brief time is satisfying even if conditions aren't stellar. I've never been picky about the conditions. So if you asked if skiing the 6 runs on Castlerock and one down the Mall was worth the close to 10 hours of driving, I would answer "yes". And I'll be skiing the firm bumps at Sundown a few times in the coming days too and will undoubtedly enjoy myself. Different realities for sure.

 

[JD]

I could see the appeal of white water. Between MTB and skiing, I have enough outdoor hobbies. Would like to get back into backpacking eventually though. Anyway, for me, it's about perspective. Just being up in the mountains of the north country for a brief time is satisfying even if conditions aren't stellar. I've never been picky about the conditions. So if you asked if skiing the 6 runs on Castlerock and one down the Mall was worth the close to 10 hours of driving, I would answer "yes". And I'll be skiing the firm bumps at Sundown a few times in the coming days too and will undoubtedly enjoy myself. Different realities for sure.

Why do you have enough outdoor hobbies. For the cost of 5 or 6 trpis like you just made, you could have complete creeking setup and enjoy the outdoors on a whole new level. You live in a great area for it, why not get into what'sin your back yard. If you'd have posted pics of you on Sandy or Hubbard yesterday, I'd have been wicked jealous!

 

[Greg]

Why do you have enough outdoor hobbies.

Job, 2 small kids and a wife, house/yard to maintain in the summer. I'm really digging the mountain bike now so if I wanted to do something else, I would have to cut back on that. Free "me time" is just limited. Again, different realities.

 

[loafer89]

Nobody was paddling any of the whitewater that we saw today as most of the rivers are above flood stage and it was very cold today with a high generally in the mid 20's.

The Natchaug (Diane's Pool) Hop and the Scantic where all roaring today.

Natchaug River/Diane's Pool @ 12:30pm 12/13/08:

Michaud's Hole/Natchaug River:

Scantic River/Stokers Rip with a nasty keeper of a hydraulic:

Stokers Rip Wave Train:

 

[JD]

People were on Sandy early.
Looks like Natchaug tomorrow...
http://www.npmb.com/cms2/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?108559
Nice pics. Looks like a line on the left with a few real nice surfs down below!

 

[loafer89]

People were on Sandy early.
Looks like Natchaug tomorrow...
http://www.npmb.com/cms2/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?108559
Nice pics. Looks like a line on the left with a few real nice surfs down below!

I might run the Scantic on monday if the weather warms up as forecast. I am not a real fan of winter paddling as I find myself too busy skiing and I dislike cold water. I have plenty of whitewater within a 1/2 hour drive from home and I paddle with my son from May 15th - November 1st.

 

[JD]

I've been way colder on a ski lift then I ever have on the water, But I def. bring the difficulty down into the comfort zone when it's below freezing. Not wanting to swim. I love boating in the winter though. Esspecially just after a light snow when all the rocks have mushrooms of snow and all the branches are snow covered. The river is a real beautiful place to be. A few years ago we ran the dryway in February, hitched a shuttle on the plow truck in 10 inches and dumping. AWESOME RUN. Made it to Blanford by the afternoon to harvest pow while my nephue and his grom friends lapped the "park" Chased a red fox down the skiers left trail. One of my best play days in memory.

 

[loafer89]

I ran the Dryway in August for the first time with an AMC raft trip and some of the rapids are huge. The paddler sitting in front of me fell out of the raft and swam about 500' of rapids.

My only experience with winter paddling was in February 1996 on the Housatonic River after skiing at Mohawk in the morning.

Today would have sucked if one swam with the air temperature at 27F when we where at Diane's Pool.

 

[JD]

Dryway is not a good place to swim. Alot of the rapids have boulder sieves in them. Dryway is a fun run. Great intro to class 3+, 4. My first time I capsized 3 times just in Dragon's Tooth. Nerves....make you paddle like crap.

 

[Zand]

First time on here since I lost power Thursday. Got power back Saturday but didn't get cable or internet till today. I'm lucky enough to live on Route 9 which enabled me to be one of the first to get power back. Most of my town still doesn't have power. I also haven't had school since Thursday and it is uncertain if schools will reopen before Christmas.