Your 2012-2013 Ski Season Recap

[SkiFanE]

I'm going with a B+, okay A+ if you consider I'm old and still un-injured after 40+ years of skiing (knock knock). Every season my biggest goal is to make it through without injury. Actually...I sprained a thumb (I'm guessing), but nothing that caused me to miss a run.

2 months shorter than last year, didn't count my days but I'm guessing 50. Started opening weekend at SR to closing weekend..then a day at K in late April...so Nov-Apr, last year was Oct-May. Have to say...I'm still improving and feel better and tighter in the bumps than last year. More comfy with air. Got some great runs on some great trails at SR that are often flash in the pans, as far as being open. Hardball, Ruby Palace one day was epic... Honestly it's one big blur of awesomeness - every day was great. My youngest (7yo) has become a racer with awesome parallel stance, he's now faster than me...tucks down trails I am too scared to (keeping up with 12yo sister), but such control considering he's not even 4 feet tall yet. So to see them improve and love it as much as we do made the season that much better.

Summer can end...I'm ready.

 

[skiadikt]

down in days (about 30 - all at k) but probably the best consistent quality i can remember. seems i was always catching some dumpage and even on the weekends after a thaw/freeze, k would be blowing on a couple runs that turned the weekend from just ok to surprisingly good. it was the best 208" ever skied ...

 

[ScottySkis]

down in days (about 30 - all at k) but probably the best consistent quality i can remember. seems i was always catching some dumpage and even on the weekends after a thaw/freeze, k would be blowing on a couple runs that turned the weekend from just ok to surprisingly good. it was the best 208" ever skied ...

Glad k got only 42 inches less then average.

 

[snowmonster]

Phase One is complete.

With a full on heat wave bearing down on Boston, it's time to finally call it a season. Besides, with the Stanley Cup over, it must be full on summer, right? The ski racks on my car have now been replaced by a surfboard carrier and, in the next few days, my boards will be getting their annual summer tune and wax. Time for the season recap:

I give this season a solid A. Despite a late start because of personal reasons, I got in 37 days (December 15-June 15), which ties the most number of days I had (2010).

Highlights::beer:

1. Four days of holiday skiing in Utah with thetrailboss - Deer Valley, Canyons, Alta and Snowbird.
2. Two trips to La Belle Province for awesome skiing - L'Estrie/the Eastern Townships (Bromont, Sutton, Orford and Owl's Head [technically, a separate trip]) and Quebec City (Mont Saint Anne and Le Massif de Charlevoix).
3. Finally skied Big Jay!
4. Powder days at Deer Valley, Canyons, Wachusett (yes), Sunday River, Mad River Glen, Jay Peak and Stowe. This includes skiing around my neighborhood -- over the tops of cars and down a NELSAP golf course during Nemo.
5. Skied the farthest limits of Brackett Basin without going on the Golden Road.
6. Finally skied the Corner Store and Dorothy's Crotch at Sunday River.
7. First trip ever to the Blue Hills.
8. First time to hit Hillman's Highway and Batman in the Great Gulf.
9. Closed out the lift serviced season at the Loaf on May 5.
10. Closed out the season in Tuckerman Ravine on June 15 as 1 of only 4 people who were skiing that day east of the Rockies (right, riv?).

Lowlights:

1. Missed the AZ Summit because of the MA travel ban.
2. Missed Airplane in the Great Gulf because of a miscalculation.
3. Should have skied Whaleback on closing day. I passed by it on the way home from MRG and should have spent an hour just riding the lift. Too bad it's gone now.
4. Did not ski the BC more often. Teardrop and Hellbrook at Stowe, King Ravine and Oakes Gulf in the Presidentials and Camel's Hump in Vermont are still on the hit list. Sigh.

Overall, a great season. We had great snow for the most part and I did most of the things I wanted to do. Seriously, I can't ask for more -- except maybe another trip out west but that's what the future is for.

In closing, thanks again to all you Alpinezoners for sharing your knowledge, your friendship and your stoke. I'm a late comer to this sport (never believe anyone when they say that, if you start this sport after puberty, you're destined to be lousy at it) and, if it weren't for the enthusiasm on this site, I probably would have been a once a year skier who's content with skiing the greens at Wachusett. Instead, I became the snowmonster and, though my bank account took a beating from the gear, the trips and the passes, I am much richer in friends, memories and experiences. Otto Schniebs was right: "skiing is more than a sport, it's a way of life." Skiing was truly more than a sport to me: I learned more about myself through it. I think I am more courageous, more daring and more persevering now than when I started. I guess I always had those in me. I just needed this sport to prove it to bring them to the surface. I'll take these lessons with me going forward.

It was a long journey from here, my first day on skis on February 5, 2005:



To here, my last lift-served day on May 5, 2013:




And here, my last ski day on June 15, 2013:


What a journey it's been! This closes the first phase of the ski story of the snowmonster. I'm ready for the next phase.

TRs to follow.

 

[Conrad]

With 21 days of skiing in this season, I had what was easily my best season since I don't believe I have ever skied more than 10-15 days in one year. I stuck to Sunday River and Sugarloaf where I have a pass, but I also hopped on $9 days at Cranmore and Wildcat and a free day at Titcomb. Combining that with a day at Loon and a weekend at Jay Peak, I visited five new ski areas this year. This was also the first year my ski lifts hobby took off and I took hundreds of photos of ski lifts and am just beginning to write ski lift reports for remontees-mecaniques. I also became acquainted with Sunday River's network of secret trails and I can't wait to get out there next season having heard some tips from a local and fellow student at school. Sugarloaf was a bit more of a hit or miss, but I did get to explore Brackett Basin. Jay Peak was probably the most epic trip of the season with snow falling the entire mid-April weekend and it was unbelievable for me how gnarly their terrain was. The season ended on a high note, as I met snowmonster and skied Sugarloaf on closing day with a sizable selection of trails open and 70 degree weather.


For future reference, here are my trip reports:
Sugarloaf 12/1 12/19 2/2 2/10 3/9 3/23 5/5
Jay Peak 4/13 4/14
Sunday River 12/22 12/28 12/31 2/16 2/22 3/30 4/4
Wilcat/Attitash 4/1
Saddleback 3/24
Titcomb 3/3
Loon 1/13
Cranmore 1/4


Having taken a ton of photos I put together this slideshow video with a selection of them:
http://youtu.be/Ds4k8XPfFNo

However, first and foremost is this montage with video highlights of the season:

Finally I want to share what would be my picture of the year. People are always amazed by how far away I am from the mountain when they see this photo taken from deep within Brackett Basin.

High Quality Version: http://tinyurl.com/pgc7afr

One last notable highlight is that this is my first year on AZ. I hope that next year's ski season is at least as good as this year's and maybe I will meet more AZ'rs on the slopes next season!

 

[J.Spin]

I’m still putting together our full season recap, but we recently finished compiling our 2012-2013 Bolton Valley Photo Gallery, so I figured I’d pass that along for now since it’s at least a pictorial view of how the season went down at Bolton Valley.

I typically work up my ski and weather summaries over the summer, but I’ve now got those both completed, so I’m passing along some of the J&E Productions 2012-2013 Ski Season Summary here. I’ve got links to both the skiing and weather summaries below, which focus on the valley and mountain weather/skiing in our area of the Northern Greens respectively. Long story short, it was a subpar season, but not horribly so, with plenty of powder as usual (~77% of outings as detailed in the included list of reports).

Weather: http://jandeproductions.com/2013/09/08/2012-2013-waterbury-winter-weather-summary/

Skiing: http://jandeproductions.com/2013/10/13/2012-2013-ski-season-summary/

Snowfall: Compared to the snowfall-deficient 2011-2012 Ski Season, the 2012-2013 Ski Season was certainly a step up, but it was still generally below average for snowfall in the mountains of Northern Vermont. It was Bolton Valley that seemed to fare the worst of the northern resorts along the spine of the Green Mountains, perhaps due to their west slope location and this season’s dearth of upslope snow; they reported just 78.5% of their average snowfall. Heading northward, Stowe and Smugg’s fared a bit better at around 85% of average, and Jay Peak reported roughly average snowfall. Down at our house in the Winooski Valley, snowfall was 88.6% of average, so not too shabby by most accounts, but a bit below the mean like some of the local mountains. These past two seasons have actually been the first pair delivering back-to-back below average snowfall in our area since we started keeping track in 2006. Those numbers can be seen in both our Waterbury Winter Weather Summary Table, and the table of Bolton Valley annual snowfall below; this past season’s snowfall is highlighted in blue:

One item of note this season was the lack of big storms targeting Northern New England – two of the largest storms to hit the Northeast dropped the bulk of their payloads south of Vermont while exiting stage right toward the Atlantic. The first of those, nicknamed “Nemo”, hit in the second week of February, and pounded Southern New England with up to 40 inches of snow. The Green Mountains were on the northern fringe of that storm, but still wound up with 1 to 1.5 feet of snow up and down the spine. The other storm of note was during the March 5th – 8th period, and it dropped another 30 inches on some Southern New England locations, but nothing way up north. There were some periods of snowfall to highlight up in Northern Vermont however. The second half of December alone dropped almost 50” of snow down at our house, significantly more in the mountains, and produced some fantastic skiing for the holidays and into early January. Another period of note was the second half of March into April. Cold temperatures in the latter part of the season helped preserve wintry conditions on the slopes, and we received some decent snowfall as well – the largest storm for the season in my valley records hit the area near the end of March, with 21.3” of snow down at the house, and multiple feet for the mountains. The mountain snowpack finally responded during that late season stretch as well, and that’s detailed a bit more in the snowpack section below. Snowfall continued right into mid April, and the season was capped off with almost two feet of fresh snow on Mt. Mansfield for Memorial Day weekend. That was a sweet way to end the powder skiing for the season.

Snowpack: Aside from the spikes associated with a couple of early season storms, the mountain snowpack was below average going into mid December. That changed quickly though, with the onset of all that new snow during the second half of the month. The above average snowpack achieved during the holidays didn’t actually stay that way during January’s warmth and lack of storms. After consolidation, the snowpack generally trundled along at or below average through February’s continuation of relatively low snowfall. From mid February to mid March, the snowpack sat there essentially stagnant for an entire month; to wit, on February 21st, the snowpack was at 65”, and roughly a month later on March 18th, it was still at 65”, without any notable consolidation of more than a few inches. The late season stretch from mid March to mid April represented a nice rebound for the mountains however, with some quick gains from the big Northern New England March storm getting it above average, and the snow depth staying at least modestly above during the period.

Tree Skiing: One metric used as a rough guide for the start of off piste skiing in the Northern Green Mountains is the point at which the snow depth reaches 24” at the Mt. Mansfield stake. For those unfamiliar with how this metric was established, it’s described in some detail in the 2011-2012 ski season summary. With the incorporation of this season’s data, the mean date remains at December 12th ± 19 days, with an average depth at the stake of 25.9 ± 2.7 inches. After the very slow start in 2011-2012, in which the 24” depth wasn’t attained until January 3rd (more than a standard deviation later than the mean), this past season was notably earlier. The plot below shows the date at which 24” was obtained for each season since 1954, with 2011-2012 shown in red, and 2012-2013 shown in green:

This past season, the date (December 22nd, Depth=28”, Green Star) was still later than average due in part to the slow first half of December, but unlike last season it was well within the 1 S.D. bars (thin vertical black lines). Note that the 24” mark is being used as an indicator of when the first forays into appropriate off piste/tree skiing terrain typically start in the Central and Northern Greens. In terms of empirical tree skiing observations, personal experience again lends some support to the use of 24” mark this season, as we began venturing into the trees the very next day on December 23rd at Bolton Valley. It should be noted though, that while the 24” mark was attained on December 22nd this season, the 40” mark was attained the very next day on December 23rd. The 40-inch rule (i.e. reaching a depth of 40” at the stake), is used as an indicator of when most off piste/tree skiing around here is ready to go. Although I haven’t looked into the data, this season has got to represent one of the quickest ascents from 24” to 40” – it’s interesting to note however that after rising to 42” of depth on December 23rd and 24th, the snowpack settled back to 36” for a couple of days before rebounding to 45” on the 27th.

Snow Quality: As an monitor of snow quality for the season, the chronological list of our ski outings has once again been compiled, with those days in which we were skiing powder indicated by a P, and those days in which powder skiing wasn’t available indicated by an X. The availability of powder suggests a fairly high level of snow quality, and the absence of powder generally indicates that temperatures rose above freezing at all elevations. Each listing below represents a link to the full report where images and more information from the outing can be obtained. Outings with an X may still be providing decent skiing such as wet snow, corn, etc. (or else skiing was typically avoided) but aside from the spring period, there’s going to be a price to pay in terms of snow quality associated with these episodes when temperatures eventually cool back down. The pattern of snow conditions in the Northern Green Mountains was fairly typical this past winter, with those days lacking powder skiing showing up in three distinct periods: 1) the early season with its usual temperature fluctuations, up through mid December before the weather pattern changed and the cold weather stabilized, 2) a thaw period in mid January, and 3) the period starting in mid March where spring weather began to make inroads. However, with the way the weather patterns this past spring continued to provide cool temperatures and snowfall, powder skiing generally dominated until mid April. Having analyzed the skiing in this way for the past three seasons, a surprising level of consistency is noted, with an overall average of close to four out of five days providing powder, despite notable differences in the demeanor of these recent ski seasons. The 2010-2011 season, which was above average in snowfall, provided powder on 78% of outings, the 2011-2012 season, which was well below average in many ways, revealed the same 78%, and most recently the 2012-2013 season, which was slightly below average in this area, produced a very similar 77% of outings with powder. The percentages don’t take into account differences in the number of outings each season, but with all three seasons falling into the range of 50 to 60 ski outings, differences in the sample sizes aren’t huge. The list of categorized ski outings with links to their full reports follows below:

P Stowe, VT, Sunday 04NOV2012
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 11NOV2012
X Stowe, VT, Thursday 15NOV2012
P Stowe, VT, Friday 30NOV2012
P Stowe, VT, Saturday, 01DEC2012
X Stowe, VT, Saturday, 15DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Friday 21DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 22DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 23DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 27DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Friday 28DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 29DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 29DEC2012 (Night)
P Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 30DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Monday 31DEC2012
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 01JAN2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 05JAN2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 06JAN2013
X Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 12JAN2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 13JAN2013
P Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 19JAN2013
P Stowe Sidecountry & Bruce Trail, VT, Monday 21JAN2013
P Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT, Sunday 27JAN2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 29JAN2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 03FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 09FEB2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 10FEB2013
P Stowe, VT, Thursday 14FEB2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 16FEB2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Monday 18FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday, 21FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 23FEB2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 24FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 26FEB2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 28FEB2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 02MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 03MAR2013
P Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 09MAR2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 10MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 16MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 17MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Tuesday 19MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 21MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 21MAR2013 (Evening)
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 23MAR2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 24MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 30MAR2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 31MAR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 02APR2013
P Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT, Saturday 06APR2013
X Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT, Sunday 07APR2013
P Stowe, VT, Saturday 13APR2013
P Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 14APR2013
X Stowe, VT, Saturday 20APR2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday 21APR2013
X Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 28APR2013
X Sugarbush, VT, Saturday 04MAY2013
X Stowe, VT, Sunday, 05MAY2013
X Mt. Washington, NH, Saturday 18MAY2013
P Stowe, VT, Sunday 26MAY2013

Below I’m adding the monthly images used in the detailed month-by-month section of the summary. The detailed monthly text can be found along with some closing thoughts in the full report:

http://jandeproductions.com/2013/10/13/2012-2013-ski-season-summary/

October

November

December

January

February

March

April

May

 

[Smellytele]

I looked at the pictures which were nice. Too many words for this adhd brain to handle.

 

[dlague]

Can't say I have ever analyzed a season that way! Maybe from a 50,000 ft POV via someone else - wait I just did that! I generally look at the number of trips, trip quality, and cost. Last year we had our best price per skier visit at $13.41 and we skied decent resorts (normal average for us is around $23-$25). What helped was the a $850 Waterville Valley gift card that I won, Vermont and NH 5th grade passports, Ride and Ski card, a half dozen comps or so (from friends that do not ski and ski show), resident Sundays (Okemo, Bretton Woods), Tuesday nights at Gunstock, etc.

It will be sad this year since our fifth grader will be in sixth grade. He skied for free all season last year. It also looks like the deals are not quite as easy to find as they were in years past...... and I have not won anything!