How Long Does a Powder Day Last in the East?

riverc0il

Two criteria are really needed IMO to make a great powder day:

1. At least 5″ of snow that is relatively dry

2. Low enough windspeeds that one is not going from crust to drifts

But IMO, a New England powder day last about one hour.  Your thoughts?

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My criteria for a powder day includes at least 6″ of fresh snow and at least one mostly untracked run. I don’t count hours for when a day is or is not a powder day, it starts binary regardless of how long it lasts.

How long powder lasts entirely depends on how many skiers there are. Lots of factors are involved such as mid-week or weekend, holiday or not, time of year (pre-Christmas and late season can be AMAZING due to fewer skiers despite good conditions), how long since the last powder day (powder drought brings out insane demand), and aggressiveness/type of skier (i.e. more powder hounds = faster tracks). Also which mountain has a huge impact as well. The more off map tree skiing, the longer I can find fresh tracks. Mountains without glades are toast pretty quickly. Lift layout also has a strong impact on how long the powder lasts. If you can stay ahead of the crowds, you can keep getting “first chairs” at some areas. Wind holds also help for finding fresh tracks if you are willing to work. Etc etc etc….

On a typical weekend at Jay, I can easily find fresh untracked for at least two hours minimum. Four hours on a slow day. I’ve had every run a face shot during unexpected surprised storms at a number of areas. But typically, I almost always get there for first tracks and leave by 1-2pm. Pretty rare I ski open to close even on a powder day… things are almost always completely tracked out and packed down by noontime, especially on a weekend. Even a lot of off map woods are being beat down by noontime. Every powder day is a different plan based on a number of factors but it is a special treat to still be skiing long untracked lines even in off map woods past noon time. 

Regarding midweek vs weekend, it is true that powder hounds make it a priority midweek (I certainly save up vacation days for winter, that is for sure). But non-powder hounds don’t make it a priority. There is always less volume during mid-week powder days unless we are suffering a significant drought and people are starved. A track by someone that can’t ski powder and prefers groomers is still a track. Pretty rare mid-week powder day lines are as long as weekend powder day lines. A lot depends on how long the storm is forecasted for, though. The less hype and shorter notice, the better.

I think there may be some definition variation and experience from different posters. For reference, powder to me means untracked, slightly tracked, or fairly well tracked. Chop and packed down is not powder, those conditions are chop and packed. An occasional turn or two on the edge of the trails is fun but left overs, not skiing powder.

joshua_segal

In 2011, I caught a 40+" storm at Jay Peak.  The Canadians descended en masse.  That non-holiday Monday (not including glades), I got one run. The second already included a significant amount of chop.

Cannonball

I agree with what everyone is saying, in that the number of people skiing the powder is the primary defining factor in how long it lasts (obviously).  The key then is to figure out where the least amount of people will be tracking out the powder.  Obviously mid-week vs weekend is a big factor.  But a bigger factor is the community of skiers at any given mountain.  A place like Cannon is terrible for powder preservation. It doesn’t matter if it’s a random Tuesday with an unexpected storm. There will be a 200 people waiting in line before the Tram opens. The main trails will be tracked out in 1-2 hours, mapped glades in 2-3 hours, and sidecountry stashes by mid-day.  Conversely, Bretton Woods will have untracked lines within sight of the chair for several days after a snowfall.

Zig when everyone else Zags.   

Skizix

A trick question perhaps? A day is 24 hours… (ba-da-bump}

Agree that powder days getting fresh tracks is about one - two hours. Then you have to hunt around for the goods. I’ve seen Jiminy Peak get chopped up in two hours and less depending on how many hounds are there. I find it amazing how about 50 skiers can chop up a mountain so fast. I did get lucky with a powder day there this past December 17th on a Saturday, no less. 6″ - 8″ and very few people maybe because the roads were so bad. So few that I was getting fresh in Hot Wheels Glades around 11 in the morning. It was pretty special not having to ski-like-hell to get fresh tracks…

mapnut

How much different is it at Mad River Glen on the trails served by the single chair?

NewEnglandSkier13

When I skied Veteran’s Memorial on a powder day I got first tracks on Ian’s Trail an hour after opening. There were probably only 20 skiers total that day.

joshua_segal

Consensus with the exception of a few very low trafficked ski areas:

One to two hours.

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Aside to ski_it: day has a number of definitions,  including, of course, 24 hrs.  Many refer to day and night where the combination of the two is 24 hrs. (e.g. Dec. 21 is the shortest day of the year).  Another definiton is a particular part of a 24-hour period (e.g. He works an 8 hour day.) Checking a dictionary will yield about a dozen others including its usage in this thread where a powder day, like a workday, can be many (or few) hours. The English language is complicated with many subtleties which makes it so ripe for puns.

JimK

I am going to Utah tomorrow morning for a week of skiing.  LCC got a few inches yesterday, getting a few more tomorrow, but could wake up to 1-2 feet on Monday.  I’ll report back on how fast things track out at Snowbird.  I stay down in the SLC suburbs, so getting up the access road amidst crowds and avi closures is a bigger worry than how fast the pow gets tracked up.  But from last year, I know it gets tracked up pretty fast there too, unless you know some really secret stashes beyond anything I’ve been shown.

Reposting an anecdote from UT pow day last year:

My first powder day of the trip (Saturday, Jan 30, 2016) at Snowbird, UT was a 20” day and I got my head handed to me on a platter.  There was loose snow in many places before the new snow fell, so it really skied like two feet of fresh.   My hard charging adult son moved to a location 25 minutes from Snowbird in Oct 2015 and promptly got a Snowbird season pass.  He took me on a bunch of black diamond runs between 9 and 1130AM on that first morning and wore me out!It should have been an awesome day, but within a couple hours I was leg weary and ready for an early lunch.  I have to admit I was totally humbled by challenging terrain, slightly heavy snow, low visibility, and a hill full of remarkably talented skiers and boarders blowing past me on all sides like I was standing still.  This was my first time experiencing an LCC powder day frenzy, and it was a Saturday to boot.  To their credit the hard chargers werecordial, just impatient to plunder the goods. Good on ‘em.What happened to me? Where did my skills go?  We skied front side trails like Restaurant Roll, Sneaky Pete, Mach Schnell, and Hot Foot Gully.  These are black diamond slopes, but not the highest tier of difficulty at Snowbird.  I felt like I was fighting every inch of vertical down the hill; non-stop thigh burn even on the traverses and what little run-outs there are at Snowbird.After lunch my son left to ski with friends and I headed to lower angle terrain on lifts like Mid-Gad, Wilbere and with no small measure of humiliation…Baby Thunder.  I was able to keep myself entertained and find a little better comfort factor. Down near the base area there was better visibility and less swirling snow.  Many trails had been cut-up and packed to a degree making them easier to ski. That night I felt pretty bummed out.  We had another day scheduled the following day and I wondered how it would go? Fortunately, it went a lot better.  The snow was packed out to a degree and my son took it a little slower with me.  We skied a bunch of the same terrain and joined two of his friends.  They slowed their tempo down for me and I was inspired by their company.When you have a bad day, get some rest. Get back on the horse, remember what made you fall in love with the sport, believe in yourself, get back to the basics, and ski with friends for encouragement.  Lighten-up, what was once fun will be funagain.

joshua_segal

To JimK: In UT, it’s not the snow or your age that tired you out as much as acclimation to the altitude at Snowbird.  And I’m sure with Snowbird’s massive acreage, a powder day lasts far longer there than it does in the east!

riverc0il

<blockquote class=“Quote” rel=“mapnut”>How much different is it at Mad River Glen on the trails served by the single chair?</blockquote>

On trail, Mad River powder goes about the same as any other mountain. There may be fewer skiers on the trails due to limited uphill capacity… but the trails are narrower and fewer. Mad River has significantly less on map acres than comparable vertical areas. That said, the mountain has tree shots everywhere and a few take some effort to get to so that really helps.

Another factor at Mad River Glen is the level of the skier. You are contending with the vast majority of skiers being powder hounds and knowing the mountain well. Mad River is actually a pretty good place to be on a powder day despite the crowds if you get there for first chair. You can usually get three good runs in before the line starts to back up and the pickings start thinning out. 

Also, very few trails (as a percent of total on map trails) are exclusively served by the Single. You can get to as far right as Liftline from the Double. So the Single is exclusive on map only to Antelope (top to bottom), Catamount/Cat Bowl, Chute, Fall Line, Paradise, and the very top of Liftline. Everything else can be reached by the Double (I can’t remember if you can cut into lower Beaver from the Double or not). 

I am quite familiar with the mountain and can score some untracked through lunch time in the woods. But on the map trails and popular glades are toast within 1-2 hours just like any other mountain.

mapnut

Thanks for the comprehensive answer!

joshua_segal

After the dump of Feb. 9, by the AM of Feb. 10, pretty much the entire mountain (including all glades that I know of), were pretty much skied out.  Is that consistent with other people’s observations about the big storm? 

slatham

For East Coast powder enjoyment, take the road less traveled. Might be slower lifts, less vert, and no sushi, but the pow will last longer…..

DrJeff

Granted it was only about 2″ at the opening bell at Mount Snow today (7:30 for passholders, 8 for non passholders), but on the main face where passholders have access to via the Bluebird for those 30 minutes, we did a pretty darn good job of eliminating anything more than 3 or 4 untracked turns by 8AM!!

Cannonball

A foot of fresh lasted pretty much all day at Cannon today. Factors included: 1) Monday 2) The storm made it very difficult for people to get to the mountain. 3) Lift wind holds off and on throughout the day kept people off some of the terrain. 4) Continual refreshing all day from new falling snow and wind redistribution.

riverc0il

Yea, Monday at Cannon was incredible. I found untracked turns every run right up until my last run around 2ish (skiing off map woods, obviously, though on map was still often chopped up pow and not completely packed). I was very surprised, I thought for sure Cannon would be packed considering it is the best powder day skiing that is closest to Boston and also the storm was forecasted in advance and people knew it was going to be big (bigger in some metro areas than at Cannon, even).

All schools were closed so kids staying home may have been an issue. I think also a factor is many families have trips planned next week and the next two weekends so probably hard to get away from the family with a trip coming, perhaps? I figured travel may have been an issue but powder hounds go no matter what… they usually just show up late if road conditions are bad. But we never got a late rush on Monday. 93 from Ashland, where I live, was plowed very well and I did 60ish all the way to Cannon. Not sure how roads were further south…

Only a footish depending on aspect. But oftentimes how good a powder day is depends more on how many people show up rather than how much snow. Monday was certainly better than many days when the mountain got twice as much snow and it was gone in a matter of hours…

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