Warm Again this Winter is not My Favorite

[fisheater]

Last Monday we had 8" plus of snow (20 cm), then we dropped in temperature to a pretty steady -10 F (-22 C) before the 10-15 mph winds were factored in. My site was cold, my diesel generator wouldn't fire despite my efforts. I did manage to almost start it on fire! My two day a week intern really thinks I'm from another world. My advice to him was if you don't ever try to do anything you will never f--k anything up.
The thought that kept me going was the nice powder snow I would ski this weekend. I had considered going over to the Lake Michigan side of the state as I had several reports of deep snow. That was cancelled, because school was cancelled all week. My son had a make up basketball game. They were instructed to around noon, to meet with the players arriving on the bus. His game didn't start until 3PM, the school was a 50 minute drive from home.
I skied 5 miles on nice snow. It was 17F when I waxed my skis. I put both blue and green wax tins, a scraper, and a cork in my pocket. I jumped in the truck and made the 10 minute drive to the trailhead.
It was beautiful, cold, white, blue/blue ski. The trail while used over the week, and while boot marked, the snow was powdery. The trail is mostly downhill the first 1/4 mile, then it starts uphill again. The green wax just was not getting it, so I stopped with the intent of going straight to blue, not messing with extending the wax pocket with green. Well, I guess my brain said put blue wax in my soft shell pocket. I put Polar White in my pocket in my pocket instead. So I extended green to the tip and off I went. I had a good ski, I was a little slow in the flats do to less than ideal grip, but the downhills were fast, and slipping gave me maximum exercise per mile. I think I might have had time to ski a few more miles with blue, however it was awesome to be out on nice snow. My first time out was two weeks past, way to late of start to trail skiing season. However it was still too early, the rocks did same base work to the skis, but the unexpected deflections could have been bad for me too.
So when we finally left the gym at 5 PM yesterday it was 40 degrees (4 C). It is 40 F now with rain, it is already to thin to ski. It will be winter temps by Wednesday, but there will not be base even left by then. It has been plenty cold this winter, it's just that the precipitation has come with unusually warm air.
I have done some lift served skiing on man made snow this season. Conditions have not been ideal for that either. I am disappointed, but I'm not in charge of the weather.
I will report back (hopefully) when the snow decides to come again. I will NOT buy any skis next season! Buying skis seems to be bad for my snow luck.

[Verskis]

Damn, it sucks when a promising layer of snow melts completely away!

For me the luck seems to work the other way around. I bought new skis in beginning of January and the snow has been accumulating since then! Now we have a pretty nice, about 50 cm snow depth. And it is nice soft snow. Today I had a great time at an abandoned ski hill. But it seems we might be getting above freezing temperatures by the end of the next week, I hope it doesn't make the snow too hard after it freezes again.

But anyway, let's hope you get some snow before the spring comes. There's still plenty of time for the snow to fall!

[FourthCoast]

I watched it get deep over here on the west side of the state. Constant snow for the entire work week. As soon as Saturday morning rolls around its all melting into a soupy mess. It seems like I might be mowing grass again instead of skiing. No good.

[Cannatonic]

around here winter is going from bad to worse - almost no snow this year. we just had 4 inches on the ground for a few days and now it's melting. I have to start driving north if I want to ski

[FourthCoast]

There is a 'winter storm warning' for this weekend. But it looks like it will be all rain and then more rain three days later.

What happened to that winter around 2010 when the snow was so deep that I couldn't see around the corner at stop signs? Do I have to move to the UP?

[MicahE]

It has been a super late winter here in Oregon as well, not unlike last winter. We're supposed to get close to a couple of feet in the nearby Blue Mountains over the weekend and next week though so hopefully this is the kick-off for the (short) season.

[bauerb]

I grew up in VT. more snow than anyone knew what to do with in the 70's. then came the winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980. nordic trails had to have snow trucked in. in the early to mid 90's I was living in NYC, 14-16 blizzards per year, cars and garbage buried for weeks at a time, people skiing down Broadway. fast forward, even living in NJ, I always knew I needed at least 1 4wd car. well, last 3 years I used 4wd in my Bronco one time each winter, and that was because I intentionally went outside when it was snowing just so I could use 4wd. today in NJ? 64 degrees, with same forecast for the weekend. Thankfully I have booked Vail for the 3rd week of Feb.

[lowangle al]

I got in three more days this week in Pa. before the big thaw that started this morning, bringing my total ski days to ten.

[fisheater]

I got in three more days this week in Pa. before the big thaw that started this morning, bringing my total ski days to ten.

Al, I am very happy for you. I am also disappointed at 42 41’ N, I haven’t had the same opportunities. I have one day of backcountry skiing. If I didn’t have to go to work, I could have had 5 days, maybe another day, possibly two. However with most of my weather having daytime highs above freezing and nights below freezing, and larger precipitation events being rain, I just haven’t been able to ski.
I personally will take the blame for this weather. I purchased a Gamme last year in December and had it shipped south of the 45th parallel. Obviously this act has angered some Norse gods. I have two new pair of Asnes skis purchased last year that have not seen snow. These angry gods don’t mind if I ski Asnes USGI skis over cobble laced trails that haven’t filled in since Gamme moved south. They allowed me to ski the first FT62 mentioned on this forum on down the street snow. Now because I brought the Green Man south, they are making me and many others suffer. My apologies to those who suffer for my actions.
On the bright side, my oak trees tell me we should have some kind of cold winter weather. Hopefully snow will be involved, but my trees did not fully drop their leaves, which in over 30 years has only happened in the lamest of winters.

[connyro]

Plenty of snow in the UP hills this season despite several freeze/thaw/rain cycles. I need to get to camp this week so I can get 4 feet of old snow off the roof.