There's snow in them thar hills

[Mohamed Ellozy]

This is one of the snowiest Decembers I can remember in recent years. In the past two weeks or so we have had two good sized storms (with the usual hype about them ), plus several smaller snowfalls. Add temps by and large below freezing, so little melting, hence a lot of snow has accumulated.

Today I hiked Tecumseh. The small stream at the very start was open, with the rocks almost bare. I crossed it in my boots, so as not to wet the bottoms of my snowshoes. The next area of visible rocks was the upper part of the Sossman Trail approaching the summit. OK, there were a very few visible individual rocks in between, but by and large the rocks were invisible. Not only invisible, but mostly covered by enough snow that my snowshoe crampons did not touch them (my poles often did).

Quite a bit of snow came down the back of my neck as the "shortened" trees were hit by my head. Another sign of winter: the snowdrifts started forming on the uppermost part of the Sossman Trail; there was no trace of them on Saturday!

Three to six more inches are predicted between tonight and tomorrow. Be sure to bring your snowshoes this coming weekend

 

[Mattl]

Definitly is! Been an incredible winter so far, things looks to be warmer for the next week, but there will be chances for rain and snow. Its good we get a small warmup to consolidate some of this powder snow. -Mattl

 

[DrewKnight]

Snow, glorious snow...

About 6" fresh and fluffy powder down in Waterville Valley so far (as of 9am), and possibility of another couple inches throughout the day.

Sounds like tomorrow and Saturday are nirvana for us snowmonsters, but Sunday may bring a damp end to the fluffy goodness... Roemer is calling for .5" to 1" of rain / mixed precip during the day and evening Sunday, followed by a cool-off that could make for some icing all over the Whites and Greens. He also thinks there will be some backlash snows.

Given the fantastic base on the trails and in the woods, I don't imagine this will really hurt things all that bad, but I guess we should look for some icing and crustiness where so far it's just been sweet pow.

What are your models saying, Matt?

 

[Mattl]

The amount of snow we have can take quite a bit of water. It is looking like some freezing rain or sleet changing to rain for a period of time on Sunday, doesnt look like that much rain maybe .30-1 in max. But the good news is that a very strong cold front will accompany the rain and change it immediatly to snow or flash freeze. It wont be that annoying front where the temperatures take forever to get below freezing. It will be a drastic drop in temperatures which is actually what we need. It will cause the snow to turn into a solid block of hard snow and ice. Can only get so much powder before something like this happends anyway. This will create that fantastic base for the rest of the year that is the best I have ever seen in December. After this it looks seasonal with some possible coastal action sometime in the next week. Snow lovers, the year we have been waiting for, 3-4.5 feet of snow in most of the mountains already -Mattl

 

[sardog1]

Snow lovers in the Whites and Daks will also want to keep this upcoming "solid block of hard snow and ice" in mind. It will be significant for avalanche potential for a while if it happens, at least until later snow bonds to it.

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

About 6" fresh and fluffy powder down in Waterville Valley so far (as of 9am), and possibility of another couple inches throughout the day.

Now (2 PM) the snow is clearly tapering, my guess is that down in the valley we got 8 or 9 inches.

 

[McRat]

Free Snow - must pick up - Malden, MA

I like snow much better in the hills than on my driveway.

Would anyone care to haul some up North? I'll let you have it for free.

In case anyone's interested, I've left it out by the curb.

pm for directions

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I snowshoed up the power lines behind my house, did a loop, found a very recent loop, came back, snowblowed the driveway, went back out the other way breaking a new trail and eventually connecting back with the 'lines on the return trip.

Under the pines there was 8-10" but in the open woods I went in calf to knee deep on every step, and thigh deep in a few holes. There is 15-30" of powder around here (Bedford, NH) and you can feel that little bit of sleet from the other storm as you punch through...

Hopefully the predicted rain on Sunday doesn't ruin things too much

Tim

 

[Russ]

We've got about 30" or so up high in Danby Vt area. Loosin my mind the BC skiing is soooooo good now!! What a start to the season!!

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Russ

 

[Jasper]

Snowshoeing and Domestic Chores

Snowshoed the local conservation area in the afternoon, yesterday. Looks like 12" of new light snow. We have well over 30" on the ground here in Dracut.

With the forcasted rain on Sunday, I will be out with the snow-rake pulling the stuff off the roof today.