Weather Log 2023-2024

[SpillwayEast]

Need snow for sure. Luckily there doesnt seem to be a big warm up during vacation week. Will they break out any snow guns to improve the surface on some high traffic areas?

[Alpiner]

Will they break out any snow guns to improve the surface on some high traffic areas?

They should. Conditions are shit. Which reminds me, I am utterly mystified why Spillway was left ungroomed today. It is barely usable, consisting of a mixture of hockey ice and random piles of granulated ice. I often don't understand the management of that trail. It seems like a showcase trail to me, being under one of the two most important lifts on the mountain. As such it seems like keeping it in top condition should be a marketing and PR priority, but what do I know.

[Glade Monkey]

The snow on the trails can only be ground and reground so many times before even the snow reporters run out of adjectives.

It is barely usable, consisting of a mixture of hockey ice and random piles of granulated ice.

They can use that or reference some of the types of snow from the classic book “Smilla’s Sense of Snow”

[cveccentric]

Conditions Repot = TFT = Tilted Frozen Tundra!

[Glade Monkey]

Conditions Repot = TFT = Tilted Frozen Tundra!

Perfect day to run #3T...it was "ready to go" the other day (shows as OPEN on the interactive map)

[SpillwayEast]

Will they break out any snow guns to improve the surface on some high traffic areas?

They should. Conditions are shit. Which reminds me, I am utterly mystified why Spillway was left ungroomed today. It is barely usable, consisting of a mixture of hockey ice and random piles of granulated ice. I often don't understand the management of that trail. It seems like a showcase trail to me, being under one of the two most important lifts on the mountain. As such it seems like keeping it in top condition should be a marketing and PR priority, but what do I know.

I agree. Spillway has always been a longtime favorite and after a big storm can have some of the best bumps on the mountain and when groomed can be a top 3 high speed cruiser.

[shot ski]

All quiet on the western front

Brutal February , still pretty quiet on the 10 day look ahead.

[SpillwayEast]

@SugarloafSnow reports that KP is on wind hold this morning. Has it been scheduled any other day this week?

[Glade Monkey]

@SugarloafSnow reports that KP is on wind hold this morning. Has it been scheduled any other day this week?

It was scheduled yesterday since they knew that Timberline wasn't going to run, but spent most of the day on wind hold. I'm tracking it's schedule in the weather log notes

[Glade Monkey]

Still way behind for February snowfall total but the recent 2” allowed the mountain to reopen 11 trails

[Mr. Vesper]

Golf Course may open early this year!!

[essslsclsact]

Usually when snow is low there’s a big dump in April. Skiing well into Spring.

[Glade Monkey]

Usually when snow is low there’s a big dump in April. Skiing well into Spring.

[SpillwayEast]

Conditions should be interesting after the rain on wed and the plummeting temps.............sharpen your edges.

[Alpiner]

Conditions should be interesting after the rain on wed and the plummeting temps.............sharpen your edges.

Not even going to try. Carving season is over. Switching to the all-mtn setup now and will just skid around on the ice until spring.

This season is going to take a miracle. So far it is the worst that I can remember. It never got going. Or maybe that year it was 85 in March was worse, not sure.

[SpillwayEast]

Conditions should be interesting after the rain on wed and the plummeting temps.............sharpen your edges.

Not even going to try. Carving season is over. Switching to the all-mtn setup now and will just skid around on the ice until spring.

This season is going to take a miracle. So far it is the worst that I can remember. It never got going. Or maybe that year it was 85 in March was worse, not sure.

Yah I agree.......I cant remember a season like this. There might have been worse in the 70's or 80's but mostly due to lack of snowmaking. I've seen the snowmobile season end mid march but never this early. Clubs are calling it a season unless maine gets dumped on in March which doesn't look like will happen..........warm temps are coming too.

[gondicar]

So far it is the worst that I can remember. It never got going. Or maybe that year it was 85 in March was worse, not sure.

Very similar to 97-98, which still holds the record in Bangor for least amount of snow in Feb ever (unless they get 1/10th o an inch when the cold through goes through tonight, this year will break the record). Portland is about the same.

[SpillwayEast]

With todays warm temps followed by single digits tonight and tomorrow with high winds Saddleback has already announced they will be closed tomorrow. Will be interesting what opens at Sugarloaf..............if anything.

[Alpiner]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... 2092078038

Sugarloaf really needs to cut the shit with promoting 200" average annual snowfall on current media. When was the last time that even happened? 10 years ago? Sure, leave it buried on a web page about mountain stats, but to actively push it now is just bad optics if not dishonest.

[Glade Monkey]

With todays warm temps followed by single digits tonight and tomorrow with high winds Saddleback has already announced they will be closed tomorrow. Will be interesting what opens at Sugarloaf..............if anything.

LIFT STATUS UPDATES
LAST UPDATED: THURSDAY, 10:07 AM
Skidway is running as scheduled. DRC-B is now open. Snubber has gone on windhold. Bucksaw Express is starting the day on conditions hold while grooming wraps up. Skyline, Superquad, King Pine, and Whiffletree have been put on conditions closure for the day.
=====================
Down to 50 open trails with "boilerplate" mentioned in the report.
BTW - SR & Loon have snowmaking online or planned now it is cold enough again. No mention of that by the Loaf.

[darkwizard]

BTW - SR & Loon have snowmaking online or planned now it is cold enough again. No mention of that by the Loaf.

If there was ever a time to make a push to give it all you got, I would guess it is as soon as the winds let up enough and through until the temps don't allow which looks like Saturday morning. Looks warmish for awhile after that.

[WrathOfAramark]

Ready for snow!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15pDtVbFtHZc_GZpQfRlKcwOYKePe7l6m_2SnFcA7sjk/edit?pli=1#gid=2092078038

Glade Monkey, I made a copy of the spreadsheet to play with and I've made a "Charting and Average" sheet to track accurately the per day snow totals over the years and create a per date average snow total. Should make making the snowfall chart easier in the future. Are you OK if I add it to the official tracking sheet at the end as "experimental"?

BTW: Thank you for the daily tracking. I've added a few things over the years during oddball days when weather changes, but you are a hero. I would love to buy you a beer in thanks some time at Sugarloaf or over in Rangeley.

[Glade Monkey]

Ready for snow!
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15pDtVbFtHZc_GZpQfRlKcwOYKePe7l6m_2SnFcA7sjk/edit?pli=1#gid=2092078038

Glade Monkey, I made a copy of the spreadsheet to play with and I've made a "Charting and Average" sheet to track accurately the per day snow totals over the years and create a per date average snow total. Should make making the snowfall chart easier in the future. Are you OK if I add it to the official tracking sheet at the end as "experimental"?

BTW: Thank you for the daily tracking. I've added a few things over the years during oddball days when weather changes, but you are a hero. I would love to buy you a beer in thanks some time at Sugarloaf or over in Rangeley.

Sounds good - it’s a public doc so additions are welcome!
Thanks for the shout out & offer. ! I never say no to beer….next planned visit to the Loaf is St Patty's weekend. That said it’s been a labor of love and become part of my morning routine, which is why I’m on here now to check where yesterday ended and how today will start.

[WrathOfAramark]

Alright, should be in and working now.

The snowfall chart was always a little wonky looking to me, it had weird starting point offsets for the lines when the totals started, and data itself seemed misaligned. You must have fought with the sheet so hard to create those data series just to show something close to accurate. You have way more patience than me.

So I created an averages tab, it uses Vlookup based on the date to go grab the cumulative total from the respective season tab using that specific date, if it fails because the date doesn't exist (there's a few holes in the season spreadsheet or weird start dates), there's an error, it then uses that error to determine if it should just carry the last value or use the update value. There's some manual futzing that is done around the leap year date so it doesn't look like a drop on that one day or misalign all the data after Feb 28. After that preprocessing it's easy to do an average across the seasons based on date and have everything line up.

So for next season, when you create the new season tab it'll be easy to just create a new column for vlookup, do the error correction and leap day futzing, Bob's your uncle, the graph has a new series without wanting to pull your hair out.

[Glade Monkey]

Alright, should be in and working now.

The snowfall chart was always a little wonky looking to me, it had weird starting point offsets for the lines when the totals started, and data itself seemed misaligned. You must have fought with the sheet so hard to create those data series just to show something close to accurate. You have way more patience than me.

So I created an averages tab, it uses Vlookup based on the date to go grab the cumulative total from the respective season tab using that specific date, if it fails because the date doesn't exist (there's a few holes in the season spreadsheet or weird start dates), there's an error, it then uses that error to determine if it should just carry the last value or use the update value. There's some manual futzing that is done around the leap year date so it doesn't look like a drop on that one day or misalign all the data after Feb 28. After that preprocessing it's easy to do an average across the seasons based on date and have everything line up.

So for next season, when you create the new season tab it'll be easy to just create a new column for vlookup, do the error correction and leap day futzing, Bob's your uncle, the graph has a new series without wanting to pull your hair out.

Nice work! Definitely a vast improvement over the mis-aligned one I dumped in last season after requests. 23/24 was trending to be an above average season for snowfall until February, now it could be the worst
Next up will be requests for daily temps, rainfall, % of cloud cover.....

[Glade Monkey]

First inch of snow reported in March today, and also the first in a a fortnight.
Hope the logjam is over!

[Glade Monkey]

Winter returns (is it #2 or 3?)
5” reported overnight & still coming down. Expected to continue all day & possibly overnight.
12 lifts scheduled (KP still on maint hold) but at least 9 will start on wind hold. Suspect Skidway, Moosecalator & CVA Tbar will open (perhaps #3 will be added/opened)

Remember the uphill rule: Uphill Access is only open to point of the highest lift spinning for ski patrol coverage.

[WrathOfAramark]

It's snowing. At least 4" up reported. I'm about the same elevation as the base lodge and I have a dense two inches so far. And no wind.

[Glade Monkey]

It's snowing. At least 4" up reported. I'm about the same elevation as the base lodge and I have a dense two inches so far. And no wind.

Only halfway through the month and already more than double February's total!!!

[Glade Monkey]

Baby steps....no lifts yesterday. Skidway only today.
That 11" came with TWO FEET of wind.
Hoping for less wind after Saturday night!
If the storm brings more than 8" then March total will be highest in WeatherLog history!