Worst Ski Season Ever?

[jaybird]

How many fat biking seasons have there actually been?

Precisely ... at least someone is paying attention

Actually, trails up our way have been normal gnar.
Bike snow ... Less is more.

March is a long month.

 

[slatham]

Well this is a surprise. Just received an email from Bromley:

Yes, that is a snowgun at the top of this page, thank you for noticing! It may 50° right now, but by 6am tomorrow morning it will be 14° at the summit. Have we mentioned we love winter?! We do. So much so that we will resume snowmaking again early Friday morning and keep this crazy season going in style. Bonus points to anyone who can remember the last time Big B turned on a snow gun after the February holiday week.

 

[Los]

I'm changing my vote to the worst. I'm young, so this is me getting my "once in a lifetime" winter over with.

Sorry dude, that's wishful thinking. The reality is that winters like these will become increasingly common.

 

[Smellytele]

Sorry dude, that's wishful thinking. The reality is that winters like these will become increasingly common.

From the Al Gore website...

 

[Puck it]

From the Al Gore website...

Aren't we suppose to be underwater too?

 

[ss20]

Sorry dude, that's wishful thinking. The reality is that winters like these will become increasingly common.

View attachment 19235

And last year it felt like we were up here...

 

[NYDB]

Worst ever for me. Based on my job, my season starts early and pretty much ends 3/1, so this one blew chunks.

I had a few good trips banging groomers with the family and lapping the park with the children, and that is a lot of the fun nowadays.

But not one trip driving up to the house in the middle of the night in anticipation of a epic dump or a day of powder and trees, and that is disappointing. I usually get 4-5 days like that a year and those days makes my season.

And my oldest (7) was just getting into the trees and riding pow pretty well at the end of 2015 season. None of that this year. He asks every trip why we can't go in the woods, and I gently wipe the tears from his eyes, and tell him that God and al gore hate us because he won't eat his vegetables and all the rain is god crying.

 

[djd66]

From the Al Gore website...

+1

 

[BenedictGomez]

Aren't we suppose to be underwater too?

The greatest hits list of failed Global Warming predictions (through 2015) are pretty funny. They'll get even better with all the failed doom and gloom predictions that will need to be added in 2020.

 

[Los]

And last year it felt like we were up here...

View attachment 19236

It's my understanding that extreme weather patterns are a characteristic of a warming climate. Unfortunately, the "favorable" extremes provide false comfort to the naive and they provide reassurance to the ideologically obstinate who are choosing to ignore the overwhelming scientific consensus, which is that we have a serious problem as a result of 200 years of carbon emissions.

For good measure, it would behoove us all to not wax nostalgic about last year. Yes, it was great. But our collective memory is failing us: there was little to no snowfall in December 2014 and the first half of January 2015. I remember skiing Cranmore on January 9th and it was pretty bad. It was only the freak 6 solid weeks of storm after storm between mid-January and the end of February that made it great. I'm not the only one who remembers this. Check this out: http://newenglandskiindustry.com/viewstory.php?storyid=383 According to the McIntyre operator, "[t]he past 3 seasons have been the worst in recent memory." THE PAST THREE.

For more anecdotal evidence (as if any is needed), type "worst ski season" into an internet search engine and check out the results. You'll see tons of stories about regions/ski areas all over the world experiencing their "worst ski season" within the past 5 years or so.

Our carbon emissions are catching up with us and we need to take massive action NOW. But that's not going to happen when not even SKIERS will accept the scientific consensus. It's really, really sad. It's SO easy to make snarky comments and to use those "favorable" extreme weather patterns to dismiss concerns about a warming climate.

But -- as I commented to another non-scientist on AZ who seems to be cherry picking the data that he likes in order to tell 95% of climatologists that they're wrong -- whatever you need to tell yourself.

 

[Cannonball]

Our carbon emissions are catching up with us and we need to take massive action NOW. But that's not going to happen when not even SKIERS will accept the scientific consensus. It's really, really sad. It's SO easy to make snarky comments and to use those "favorable" extreme weather patterns to dismiss concerns about a warming climate.

Meh. Don't worry about that aspect so much. A couple of deniers on a tiny local ski forum aren't indicative of the general population. Real people living in actual impacted coastal zones are very much in tune with the reality. They've moved WAY past juvenile bickering and are involved in productive decision making and planning in order to salvage their local infrastructure and economies. The rest is just an unproductive distraction.

 

[ss20]

It's my understanding that extreme weather patterns are a characteristic of a warming climate. Unfortunately, the "favorable" extremes provide false comfort to the naive and they provide reassurance to the ideologically obstinate who are choosing to ignore the overwhelming scientific consensus, which is that we have a serious problem as a result of 200 years of carbon emissions.

For good measure, it would behoove us all to not wax nostalgic about last year. Yes, it was great. But our collective memory is failing us: there was little to no snowfall in December 2014 and the first half of January 2015. I remember skiing Cranmore on January 9th and it was pretty bad. It was only the freak 6 solid weeks of storm after storm between mid-January and the end of February that made it great. I'm not the only one who remembers this. Check this out: http://newenglandskiindustry.com/viewstory.php?storyid=383 According to the McIntyre operator, "[t]he past 3 seasons have been the worst in recent memory." THE PAST THREE.

For more anecdotal evidence (as if any is needed), type "worst ski season" into an internet search engine and check out the results. You'll see tons of stories about regions/ski areas all over the world experiencing their "worst ski season" within the past 5 years or so.

Our carbon emissions are catching up with us and we need to take massive action NOW. But that's not going to happen when not even SKIERS will accept the scientific consensus. It's really, really sad. It's SO easy to make snarky comments and to use those "favorable" extreme weather patterns to dismiss concerns about a warming climate.

But -- as I commented to another non-scientist on AZ who seems to be cherry picking the data that he likes in order to tell 95% of climatologists that they're wrong -- whatever you need to tell yourself.

I'm not a climo-astro-meteorolog-ism-ist. But I do know scientific basics.

More heat in the atmosphere from the greenhouse effect = more energy.

More energy = stronger weather patterns... resulting in winter's that go weeks with temperatures below normal by 10-20 degrees (last year) and winter's that have temperatures 10-20 degrees above normal (this year).



That's how I always interpreted it.

 

[Los]

From the Al Gore website...

For what it's worth, I have never voted for a Democrat in my life. PM me and I'll give you my deets (that's how the cool kids say "details"). I"m only saying this because I strongly believe that dealing with carbon emissions should NOT be an ideological or partisan issue. Unfortunately, because he's a polarizing individual (and in my opinion, loathesome) Al Gore probably did more to RETARD action to address climate change than anything else.

 

[Los]

Meh. Don't worry about that aspect so much. A couple of deniers on a tiny local ski forum aren't indicative of the general population. Real people living in actual impacted coastal zones are very much in tune with the reality. They've moved WAY past juvenile bickering and are involved in productive decision making and planning in order to salvage their local infrastructure and economies. The rest is just an unproductive distraction.

Thanks Cannonball. You're right. I'll chill out.

 

[jimk]

Posting interesting chatter I gleaned off the web about snow conditions this winter being better in the Southeast than in Poconos and possibly VT. These are excerpts from other discussion forums, take with grain of salt:

Montage and Elk got little of the snow that the areas south of there got with big Winter Storm Jonas on Jan 23rd. Without the natural snow cover, the ground and rocks heat up from the sun and help melt things down even quicker. Jack Frost on Sunday, Feb 21, 2016: most of the areas between the runs had snow, although it was getting thin.

Driving on Feb 24, 2016 through the Allentown/ Bethlehem area it was 61 degrees, torrential rain and some roads looked more like rivers. No doubt the ski slopes are taking a hit from this.

Could it be that Southern PA is actually holding up better than Eastern PA? Montage Mountain, outside Scranton was weak on 2/21/16 and it rained all week after that.
Ski Liberty webcams on 2/25/16 indicate plenty of snow still on the ground, and they will start snow making tomorrow night and through the weekend.

Sometimes Massanutten ski area, VA is right on the edge of the rain line as storms roll up from the southeast to the northeast. Been watching the weather around there pretty closely for years. Pretty clear that this winter eastern PA ended up with a lot more rain and a lot less snow than southwest PA and northwest VA. Also the cold temps that push into NC and VA mountains often didn't make it to eastern PA. The base depth in NC/VA before the recent warm spell and rain was pretty deep because of just enough frigid days that allowed for round the clock snowmaking before Pres. Day.

The NC mountains got a couple inches of snow this morning 2/25/16 after the squall line of tornados went north into VA late yesterday. Snowmaking started last night. Snowmaking will be happening in VA tonight. Pretty weird when the southeast is doing better than most of the Mid-Atlantic.

Snowshoe, WV could get up to 8 inches of natural snow Feb 26, 2016.

It's been a very weird year for where the snow ended up. It's possible the lower mid-Atlantic is doing better than much of Vermont?

 

[jaybird]

'Doing better' as in natural snow?
Unquestionably.

As to liquor sales, VT is on a record pace.

Enjoy that massive Snowshoe vertical

 

[Keelhauled]

Another depressing datapoint. Per Win Smith (CR=Castle Rock):

"CR chair by the way has run only 12 days. In a mediocre season it normally runs around 55 days. That probably sums up the winter."

Similarly, I don't think Bolton Valley ever opened the Wilderness chair. Pico never ran Knomes Knoll or Outpost either.

 

[xwhaler]

Similarly, I don't think Bolton Valley ever opened the Wilderness chair. Pico never ran Knomes Knoll or Outpost either.

Pretty sure Wilderness spun this yr at some point. It may run next wknd that area of NVT could have a very good March

Not sure on Outpost

 

[jack97]

It's been a very weird year for where the snow ended up. It's possible the lower mid-Atlantic is doing better than much of Vermont?

Snowfall prediction from Bastardi and D'Aleo web site. Back in Aug, they predicted the mid Atlantic would get the snow storms. Seems they where off when it comes to New England, the 100% normal snowfall should have been more south of Mass. But I think they were spot on that snow storms took that southerly path and turn up far way from the NE ski areas.

 

[jack97]

btw.... be thankful we have snow making. Imagine what it was like back in 1981. And I'm looking forward to some spring like conditions this w/e and getting giddy that Kmart blew alot of snow. Should have some fun times skiing in slush bumps.