The day after Christmas. Boxing Day in Canada. 2 grandsons, oldest and youngest, son and son-in-law went to Mad River on an unpromising day. High 30s in Williston but 20 at MRG mid station on the single and top of the double. The tops of both single and double were wild with visibility of about 100 feet exacerbated by the wind which sandblasted our faces with ice particles swept off the slope. Skiing was surprisingly good. Then again Mad River is almost always like that. Lots of soft snow once off those high points and little ice or rock, easily avoided. We'll be back tomorrow.

Well, that was yesterday. Here is today's report,
http://www.madriverglen.com/
Rain, 2 trails on the practice slope open, everything else closed. Not an uncommon situation in northern New England in early winter. It is not nearly as bad as it sounds. Mad River closes the main mountain for 24 hrs. after a rain. This allows the water to drain from the snow and prevents skiers from packing it down prior to the next hard freeze which invariably occurs within 24-48 hrs. I call that smart ski area management but as far as I know, no other mountain does it.

Beginning to snow hard here is Williston. Not much accumulation expected until later, 6-10 by tomorrow morning. Temp. falling from yesterday's high of 40. We are going to Montreal to play tourist today.

0 F/ -22 F wind chill at the base at 8:30. Nobody has measured at the summit because the single is on windhold. I don't ride lifts on days like this anyway. I would skin but not by myself. I am here to see daughter, grandsons, son-in-law. The youngest wants to go skiing but we don't take 35 lb. kids out in this kind of cold.

This from Mt. Washington on the NH side of the Connecticut River.

"However, the big story will be the intruding frigid air mass, which will prompt temperatures to plummet to near 20 below this evening. In addition, winds will rapidly accelerate as the departing low deepens, with gusts approaching the century mark by nightfall. Temperatures will remain very cold with winds sustained around 100 mph for most of the night."

Headed up to Stowe tomorrow morning. We were originally considering going last night, or this morning, and skiing today and tomorrow. However, the wife can't ski because she's pregnant, and I decided discretion is the better part of valor. Plus, they have most of their lifts on hold, anyway. Thus, we're skiing Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun. Hopefully it will be a bit calmer by then!

Dress warm. It is CHILLY here in NYC. That wind is making it brutal. I can't imagine how bad it is up even farther north.

I can duplicate Denis's report for Gore mountain in the Andyrondacks..37 base 30 summit 1st day(clear after freezing rain in morn to awesome views of the high peaks of the Dacks in Aft)..Snowing like crazy 2nd day with whiteout conditions on summit & high peaks areas..temps still nice...0 to 5 below all day today(actual)...Even the Dogs were falling out back in the woods on thier walk!..Mama boy n girl wimps!..9 below packing up the car tomorrow morn...

Is it Jan yet?....

Yup, I work in the financial district, and the walk from Ground Zero to World Financial Center was freezing today!

Today 12/30

A very scary drive to the mountain followed by great skiing.

I-89 from Burlington suburbs to Waterbury was a white knuckle 30 mph experience this morning. The 45 min trip to Mad River was turned into 2+ hrs. There were dozens of wrecks along the way and my AWD Subaru with good snow tires was slipping and sliding almost all the way. The temp was too cold for salt to have any effect and last nights wind carried blowing snow across large sections of the road all night, which quickly became ice under people's wheels. VT 17 from Waitsfield to the MRG parking lot was the best road we encountered.

Once there I was recognized almost immediately by Kelly from Whitegrass. It was very cold, about zero, and the skiing was excellent with much uncut powder and more lightly cut powder. It was by no means free of ice. The wind had scoured the powder off in many places and you had to be on your toes ready for the switch from ice to powder and back again. Chute (see interactive mouseover map http://www.madriverglen.com/maps/iMapLarge.php ) was the run of the day with lots of powder pillows once below the first wind scoured 100 feet.

Edited to say that I don't think I have ever seen anybody skiing while listening to music at Mad River. I know I couldn't do it. It is just too tight and too challenging.