Season 2: #17 Snow Reporter Roundtable

This week we are excited to be bringing you a special Octagon roundtable edition with everyone’s favorite snow reporters Andre Blais, Matt Testa and Scott Braaten. Whether tuning into the snow phone, reading the carefully crafted daily snow report or searching for the fabled Mount Mansfield stake measurement data these are the guys that make it happen day after day. With winter turning into spring we wanted to bring the boys into the studio to hash out what has been a legendary winter and learn more about some of the new projects they have been embarking on this winter.

Transcript

0:00

This episode of The Octagon is sponsored in part by Union Bank. Since 1891, union Bank has made banking a little bit easier and more convenient for you by investing in the success of its local community. Your community headquartered in Mooresville Union Bank has 18 branches and three loan centers throughout Northern Vermont and New Hampshire. Union Bank is a proud supporter of the Octagon Podcast, as well as many fantastic community oriented endeavors such as the STO Trails Partnership, the Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, STO Land Trust, ski Vermont Viba and Richmond Mountain Trails, to name a few of the over 200 nonprofits they work with. To learn more, go to ub local.com. Two welcome listeners to the Octagon Podcast, where we explore the stories, people, and places that make St. Vermont so legendary. I'm your host, Ted Thorndyke, joined by my co-host Mike Carey. This week we're excited to be bringing you a special Octagon round table edition with everyone's favorite snow reporters. Andre Blaze, Matt Testa and Scott Brayton. Whether tuning into the snow phone, reading the carefully crafted daily snow report, or searching for the fabled Mount Mansfield stake measurement data. These are the guys that make it happen day after day with winter, turning into spring, We wanna bring the boys into the studio to hash out what has been a legendary winter and learn more about some of the new projects they've been embarking on this winter. Welcome, Andre, Matt and Scott. Welcome. Thanks for having us. Yeah, happy to be here. How we doing boys? Doing great. Yeah, we thought, good time to bring everybody in. Tomorrow's April 1st. We'll see what April Fool's day, joke, Dre will be bringing up at the mountain, but I'll just have to wait and see. just wanted to chat about, what's been a great winter. We were talking about a little bit in Mike's kitchen, but I don't know, maybe just go around the room give a brief little, overview of what's the winter been like, like big storms, snow quality, just, what it's been like for you. I'm gonna start it off. Yeah. Andre, this winter's been amazing. It's been relentless. So this is Andre speaking nonstop, skiing since November. Yep. November 5th. It was November 5th, first day. Yeah. I was looking at a photo roll and I couldn't believe what I was seeing. stew shoot on like the 20th, November 20th. Yeah. Stuff like that. So it's just been incredible. Yeah. Strong start. Strong start. And we're gonna have a great finish. Yeah. No doubt. Yeah, I think I skied off the summit, in December or beginning of December, which was definitely a first for me, I don't know. It's been a great winter so far. I think that it's been so cold, which kind of really, helps us hang onto our snow back quite a bit. Yeah, no, the strong start was the, highlight for me. I think, opening day, having everything. Available from the top of the quad open and skiable. But if you could get there from the top of that lift on opening day, every trail is open. Yeah. All the uppers, everything. You go out rim, rock over. remarkable. I don't know if we'll see that again, but that we might not. Yeah. that opening was awesome and then it just carried the momentum through, the rest of November, December, January. Snowfalls petered out a little bit in February and March like we were talking about, but it's been cold. Yeah. Kept the snow pack around. Not much thaw, freeze action except last week. Yeah. Until recently. Crampons were out last week, but only one big storm. We were just saying I was away in January. I think that was the only two foot storm. Everything else was up slow. 6, 7, 10. Yeah. I don't even know if we had, was it a two footer? No, that one was 17 inches. 17. That was the most in, yeah, January. End of January. Yeah. We should have brought in our Excel spreadsheet here to refer to the data. Yeah, but I think most of it was up slope. Yeah. It's all the, a couple, three to six inches, every 24 hours or so. Yeah. Stuff starts to add up though, which is right.'cause what are we at 300? Do we hit 300 inches now? 2 84. 2 94. 4 2 94. So we'll get to 300. Yep. Just legit. And what's the, what's the stake at today? Which one? The fabled. The fabled f stake. Was it 70? 70. 70? We peaked out at what it was like just December, right? Wasn't it an all time record? 83. Three or four something. I remember seeing, it was all time record for a while, it's funny just. Look at it, and it really didn't get that high. Like we were primed for a, oh, I thought it was a hundred, 120. I know. but it definitely, petered out there at the end. Yeah. Yeah. and January was cold. Yes. Yeah, it was cold. November was cold. November was cold. December was cold. Yep. January kind of started to change a little bit in February, but I think we saw what the early season snow and getting how. How important that is. A cold, snowy November sets the tone.'cause even though maybe snowfall tapered off a bit, but it, we had that base from day one. Whole Mountain Musk skiable. Yeah. Yeah. So as I mentioned, April Fools tomorrow, do we think we have another storm in us? you guys are the experts. there's always another one. Always is. You always think it's over. There's always another. Is it really? It's a long way to go. It could be. It could be mid-May or something. Who knows? last year on closing day it was, I'm pretty sure raining at the bottom, snowing at the top. I think that there's always another one. Seems like April always throws us a bone when you're least expecting it, I have my fingers crossed. Yeah. I think, COVID spring, early May. Oh yeah. There would be nothing at my house. And like a foot of dry snow. Up at the mountain. That was a cold spring. yeah. Yeah. I can't remember. Skinning Sterling Valley in like pretty epic. April. Pretty epic. Yeah. next. So pond ski. What's the weather gonna be from pond ski? Hard to say. Warm and sunny. Yeah. Hopefully warm and sunny. Yeah, exactly. Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't that be great? I know. Need to spring days, right? Yeah. We've had a few spring days. Not many though. We need that three or four days in a row where you just know it's gonna be like sunny, blue. Yeah. We're stuck in the pattern where it gets, it warms up, gets to be spring, but it's only for a day. Then it rains, then it gets cold. Yeah, and it's like frozen granular for several days and it warms back up. Does it? Cool. So just to, jump into some of the new projects that, that you guys are doing this winter. I know I've read about it on the Insta page a little bit, but, maybe you could dive into some of the work you're doing with UVM. I've been told Dre is the resident experts doctor on the work. Yes, Steve, you call me doctor. But, but yeah, it looked super cool. There was a lot of language that I just didn't understand. so yeah, maybe just tell our listeners what. Kind of partnership you got going with UVM. UVM, the way they started their conservation efforts with Mount Mansfield in like 1840s, they conserved that the ridge. And it really was a lot of foreshadowing for conservation efforts like in the future. They really like Recognize how had that vision Yeah. They recognized how special that area was. not only for conservation, but for research. So UV M's been a great steward of. Mansfield. yeah, it's a funny story. So it was really deep, one of those spring deep days where it's super deep and we did get some fresh snow and I was looking up at the booger shoot, which I hadn't skied at that time in probably 20, 25 years. I was like, one of those things you do at once or twice and you're okay. So I said, why not? I'm gonna go up there and skip. So I'm hiking up the old nose, dive upper. Yep. most upper nose dive, all the way up towards the towers. And I'm waist deep, snow breaking trail. And I had a sense of, solitude, Yeah. Little gusto too. Yeah. In the middle of an adventure. Solo adventure. So I get to the top and there's 10 folks up there with a helipad and like a total, like this, like gigantic, remote control. And they were operating a drone. Okay. And I introduced myself and they wanted to know where I was coming from, and it was cool. It was a cool little interaction. So that was the team from UVM, they were flying a drone monitoring snow depth. which is pretty cool. so we got to talking and, we had a common interest, obviously. Yes. So it was back and forth with a few, folks from their team for a little while, and they're always giving me a heads up look, we're gonna be here conducting this, that, experiments all around it. So fascinating. all they do. So it, we ended up meeting finally on the mountain and, we had a great day together with, Dr. Keith and RNA and, Hannah, Josh. great folks to, to work with, and they're just cut Next level. Uhhuh, snow Sciences, next level nerds, snow nerds. Yeah, they are our people. awesome. Love, love those guys. Dr. Wemple, who's conduct just 25 years for the, her study with, watershed for Ranch Camp and Mansfield. just really fascinating stuff. So yeah, we just really, made that connection and started working together and it was pretty much, like a field trip out on the mountain and we were showing them our plots and they were showing us their plots. Very cool. it was super fun. we did some core stuff. Did you know about the UVM plots before this? So we've seen'em, but this is, there's the classic one off, slow side there. That's always been there. deer yard. Yeah. Like off, off sunrise. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we actually went to that one, there's that one, and then you see them up and down the, the Bruce. There's a couple stations. Okay. You kind see Yeah, I've seen it. Yeah. And you just assume they're UV can almost become like a turf battle. Like my snow pots better than yours. Wow. So yeah. It's, that's cool. and it's such a young relationship and, really look forward to working with them in the future. just great people. Dr. Keith is an incredible mind. really enjoy spending time with him. yeah, looking forward to the future. There's a lot of fun collaborations. Are they, are they mostly trying to understand water? Like how all the snow milk ends up in rivers? You guys care about snow forecasting and Yeah. they're looking at water. That's what I figured. Like the watersheds, long-terms and long-term snow pack. The snow water equivalent. Yeah. That's in, in the snow pack. they've got a couple of, Snow scales. Snow scales. Yeah. and they were using, I dunno, LIDAR or something like that. I forget what the, all different methods to try and come up with. how much water is it snow is in the snow. So they had an electronic way of measuring it. And then they also do the physical cores to try and verify. and I think their goal is basically to create these electronic stations and dial them in. Yeah. which goes to what? Some of our dreams would be they have out west, they have the snow tell systems, the automated snowfall and snow pack and rain and temperatures and stuff. And trying to have something like that on Mount Mansfield would be super cool. Yeah. Okay. Are you guys looking into that? not, we're very far down the, depends what's in the budget. yeah. It's not something, but UVM they're working with that technology through grants and stuff like that. So have these do, have they shared any. Trends or anything that they've seen, is it more water in the snow pack because it's wetter winters not, that's, I think it's too new. Too new, yeah. Yeah. Long term trends. Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of it is looking at their new, digital scientific instruments and comparing it to going out in the field and taking, a manual measurement with something like the column or, and just seeing how those. Different numbers, is what they're seeing digitally when they're in Burlington. Looking at the computer. What is actually out there, or what Scott, Andre and I are like seeing, so correlating all the data and trying to, dial that system in, I think is a big part of what they're trying to do right now. That's cool, man. I bet you guys would miss. Going out. I'm sure you'd probably still go out even if you have the digital Yeah, we're going out. But imagine, I'm just, I'm curious what that's like for wake up at three in the morning to go to the bathroom or something and you just check your phone and that two inches fell in the last hour on Mansfield and it's giving you the date. I never sleep. Never sleep. You're like, oh my God, what's happening up there? even the snow cam that, went in up there, you'll. It's funny, you click on it'cause it shows you how many users are on it at a certain time. if you look at, and you can, you go on there and one in the morning and there's 15 people watching. You know what I mean? Yeah. Oh yeah. We'll do some early ones. No, I had a game camera once that would get sent to my cell phone and it just became a problem on the, it just, deep in the woods, I was just, I was always checking. I'm like, I need to stop this. I'm just gonna go, check the memory cards. that's cool. Just technology to explore though, I think you explained it too well. it was funny though, because we, our first stop was their, summit station, which was up the toll road. Yeah. by the visitor center down. Downhill a wee bit and, it was pretty tech. They had the scale, they have a scale up there, so it's a giant stainless steel platform that measures the snow. It's probably eight by eight, 10 by 10. And they had that and they had their tower that had, I don't know, half a dozen instruments on it. And it was buried. So it was totally buried with They had to dig it out. Yeah. Know. So they dug that out. How did they get up there? Did, are they, we saw stand up there. They just walked up. Yeah, we literally just walked up the road. They were very prepared. They take the lift to take the lift, they take the left. Okay. They take the lift up. They're very prepared, for different, whatever they'd encounter, yeah. Everybody, we just went up there, walked up there. It was funny because they asked Matt and I, they were like. You guys walk in your ski boots all the time. tho that team does not spend as much time on the mountain as they would like, like when they get to go out into the field. Oh yeah. They were really excited. So it's, it was a fun, fun hang. And so we went there, but then we went to High Road. And I felt they were disappointed in our, basic what do all attached to a, you don't have LIDAR here. Yeah. There's no lidar. There's no, so that's a good segue into work. More manual operation. Yeah. I, that's raw data. That is, but that's super helpful. I see the snow report and you have the, so there's a bunch of new snow plots this year. Yeah, we've always had Barnes Camp and High Road. High Road. those are like the two tried and true. Yeah. And then Andre found, was it you and Spike? Spike? Spike found this. we should give a shout out. Big shout out to Mr. Tracy eof. Yeah, he's the one that came up with these plots originally. Oh, really? Yes. So Tracy Eih was a patroller. Oh yeah. As a patroller. Oh, a groomer. Local legend. Local legend. Legend, yeah. Spike. Does he still have that? They call it Spike States. They still that Jeep Cherokee. Now he's an Lexus now the Jeep. That Jeep man my whole life. I've seen him rip around in that. But he was, it was good to the last drop that Jeep. Yeah, he got the most good return on investment, but he found all these plots by just wandering around. just he looking for the perfect place. he at one point had stakes, I think every. Yeah, all going out bench traverse every couple hundred yards, all the way out the bench, traverse all the way to the planets and everything. He had stakes uphill of that. you could, he'd watch how the snow moves around the mountain with the different winds and things like that. And, oh, good shout out. Yeah. So no spike, spike stakes, a lot of mountain and of the, I think all the stakes we have now, were made by him. So he's machined them. He's built them. And so he's a huge part of our operation, and I didn't know that. What consult? Yeah. So what he consults us here and there. Yeah. when I was doing the report, 15 years ago, he would approach me. we did what I think most other ski areas either do or did, is just an estimate. You're, yeah. Yeah. you're not really, you're just, it'd be like talking to your buddy and being like, how much snow do you think fell? And somebody says, Hey, seven to nine inches. Sounds like jp. We're not gonna go just, yeah. no. And it's just generally a toss a number out. Yeah, totally. And say, that's what that, that's what we think it is. You guys are meticulous. I love it. And Spike approached me, used to be like, he's I gotta show you these things. And you'd go and you'd find out. he's these are tried and true. This is actual data. Yeah. this isn't just asking somebody what do you think? And that's what the number is, and then you just toss it out there and whatever. so you have the actual data. And maybe 10 years ago or so, we've, I finally transitioned transitioned to solely using that data for the snow reporting process. There's two things. one, it's. you guys know in the morning it's super stressful to, to come up with a num, if you have nothing to go off of before there's no snow cam upstate up, up on the top, there's nothing to go off of and you're just, you gotta represent, and you know that you're gonna hear about it if you're wrong for a long time. Yeah. So like the fear of just saying 10 inches and people getting up there and finding six maybe or something, it's. so finally we're like, why don't we just use data? And it takes that, that almost takes that anxiety out of it a hundred percent of But you do realize just how much you used to overestimate snowfall, right? And I do think that's a, I truly believe that skiers are optimistic in nature in the east coast especially, have to be you. eight inches becomes 12 and 12 inches is now 14 and. 17 is now two far or it's skied Yes. that's the most common thing to hear, right? Oh, they only said six inches. This feels like 10. Or skied. Like foot. Like a foot. I love that. And everybody wants, and you're like, no. I mean we have visual evidence there. It's snow, it's six inches. and so that's the high road. That's the high road. High. High Road is the official. That is the official, and that is, is yeah, that is a perfect spot. Yeah. Pretty wind protected. what are you looking for? You're just looking for an opening in the woods that relatively flat. And that's that high road topography, that whole area that, that bowl there between, gondola and nose dive, the kind of hazelton drain, the upper Hazelton drainage there. you got a nice flat area. I know Spike had, he had the official, it's the hole in the forest needs to be, the radius needs to be the height of the trees. So if you want to get really official, you would find a circular plot in the woods where the radius of the circle is equal to the height of the trees. In that area, like to find the right opening or whatever for the snow to collect and snow, snow correctly. And it's not necessarily blowing around and whatever. But, yeah, he had all that, he wandered the woods and found that high road spot, and that's, I think that is probably one of the best spots on the hill. Yeah. And this is through, he was full on MMSP, he was like One of the, one of the team. Yeah. So they were doing this stuff. on their own. It wasn't a, there was, it wasn't with the Snow report. So he's played a huge role. Yeah. Yeah. Like in my house, you're sitting here, it's green grass, it's grass, and then Barnes Camp is usually at, it's much that's at 1500 feet. And it, you realize how snowy it is when you're walking around back there. Yeah. That's a just two or three feet, right? Yeah. It's top of the mountain at six feet. And even high road is not at the top. Yeah. Because we always joke if we put one like behind the cliff house or like up at that. Yeah.'cause you ski waterfall, like we'll often take waterfall to upper switch back. Yeah. And down and like you're skiing at terrain that's above the elevation of the snow plot. And there's a lot of times you do feel like those first turns On upper waterfall are deeper. like Totally, yeah. You just that, that cliff house area just Fluffs in Off the ridge and stuff so you can have some really deep turns up there. Yeah. That by the time you get down to High Road might be an inch or two, a couple inches less. Majestic Mount Mansfield embodies the spirit of Stowe heritage. And we're proud to present the Octagon Podcast, a true reflection of our amazing community. Stowe Living is honored to sponsor this podcast. We're helping you live your best life daily with stunning furniture, unique design, kitchenwares, thoughtful gifts sourced from around the world. Thank you Stowe for your continued support of Stowe Living and the Octagon Podcast. When it comes to luxury real estate in Stowe Trust, Meg Kaufman of Land Vests, Christie's International Real Estate. Meg Kaufman knows the market inside and out. She's been a part of the Stowe community for over 20 years. Whether you're buying or selling, Meg Kaufman offers a concierge level of service. Taylor, just for you. Backed by the power of land vests and Christie's International. She brings proven success and local insight to every transaction, luxury real estate, local expertise. Meg Kaufman and Land Vests are the team you want on your side. So if the mountain like you even put almost 300 inches, like how much does Barnes camp get? Does Barnes Camp get half? Is it that Stark or, I don't think it is. I think that I You think Barnes can, I bet Barnes can probably year this year. This year has been interesting. Yes. And that's another thing when we look at other reports and you see these wide ranges in Snowfall, like we've had, how many times have we seen, high Road and Barnes are very similar, huh? In a lot. This, yeah. Lot storms because it's been cold. There also been some storms where. Barns actually, it's actually getting, will get a little bit more, they've actually gotten more than high road, which is a very weird, but that's the wind and we've noticed that on southeast flow. Yeah. Low level southeast flow kind of bottles up the valley. Yeah. And just seems to, it hits that area pretty well at the southeast side of the notch. Yeah. And it was, it was pretty cold. So you didn't have many Storm, no. You had elevation, depending it was raining. You'll get like seven at the bottom and like maybe eight at hot, and it, you just don't see these, the wide ranges. And what about difference between High Road and the Stake? That's an interesting one because we've, this year, the high road plot has been. Much closer. Okay. To the stakes depth. Yep. Sometimes there is a big difference In that, but for, I think it is been cold. Yep. The snowfall early in the season was very dense in November. Instead of deep base originally. Yep. And, it definitely, to me, they've been very close. Okay. A lot of six inches or so. Yep. And they've hit spot on a few times. Yeah. Which is remarkable. Yeah. Just, I think there was actually a day or two that High Road was higher than higher, the summit stake, and that's because it's, and I think it was after that big fluff, The high ratio storm. Yeah. Because High Road just sits there and very little wind. Yeah. So the snow will stack. And like a day or two later, the fluff fall, like it, it compresses and stuff. But I think there was a couple days in there Yeah. At the end of January that the high road plot had a deeper depth than up at the stake. Huh? What about Big Spruce and Is the Big Spruce, is there a plot there? Yes. Is there a Big Spruce? We gotta go full circle back to Spike. Everyone's always talking about snow and Yeah. It's just Yeah. What we talk about. Yeah. So it's the only important thing in life, right? Yeah. So we, one of our goals was to have a plot at Spruce somewhere. Nice. and so we looked around and it's much different topography, obviously, than Mansfield and. One of those that right around 3,200 feet is the big spruce snow pot. so we went back and forth between, bringing it downhill towards Sterling Pond or bringing it uphill towards, the spruce lookout. and wind was always on our minds. Yeah, like wind disease. it gets really windy on the summit, so we just kinda came up with this one spot and we're trying it out. it's pretty neat. probing isn't always the best indicator of depth, but what we did find in that general area was that the probes were all pretty close. and then, if you zoom out, I do this at the, summit Stick all the time. We're focused on that ruler. We're staring at it. If you zoom out, big picture. You just try to envision the depth in that in the whole area. it's pretty neat. It's pretty consistent. Yeah. Yeah. So Big Spruce right behind, it's on this corner of Snuffy's. And is it El Elephant Head Connector trail. Oh, wow. Wow. It's in this little cute, cool little spot. And so you have to hike up on Snuffy to get to it a little bit. This is two ways ago. Yeah. Behind the patrol building. That way banger. And you go back banger. And you can actually ski back once you check it. Oh, cool. You ski back out. That's good spot on the sterling. Yeah. And down sterling. Yep. nice. But we found that it not as windy'cause No, the snowfall was always surprising to me. High or low? No low. I always feel like spruce is lower, Like almost half. What were you saying? Really? It just always feels that way, right? There's we were measuring it at 3,200 feet though. It's weird. It was, we just never, and I don't know, maybe it's a location we got tried different location. Yeah. Dial on location. There were a few that were Spot on snowfall, spot on with High Road, six inches of High Road six inches up. Okay. And there's a whole bunch that were like half, and then there was a bunch that were half, but then there were some that were like 10%. Wow. Which is it was weird, but the depth, it just, and the depth just, and the depth follows. Like the, if the plot had two inches, the depth would only go up two inches, but maybe High Road had five or something. It, I think we gotta investigate a little more in there, but it Did lead to that Spruce gets less. we all knew. Yeah. You gotta feel that. You go over there and you're like, it's not the same as dropping off the top of the gondola or going down's. Still a high elevation though. It's surprising. Curious what the factors are there. I'd be curious, do you ever check smugglers notch? What they report?'cause they have a, I think they have a webcam. Be curious. there's the snow blowing towards Madonna Peak or something like that. It blows up SMUGs and down across. The planes up to the JP Peak. Sorry. It just all collects right there. I'm sorry. Yes. No, because Smuggler Knots Resort gets similar to Stout. Yes, they do. I think they do. I don't know. It might be just something I think they do. I think they do. I truly believe it couldn't be that different. Oh, John, the pot. the big pot was reading like 50 inch Maxis season, and granted, it's a new spot, but 50 inches there. some friends over on smuggler's notch were probing at 3000 feet, a little bit lower off the highway. I don't know that area that well, but it was off by the other side of Madonna and they were probing like 40, 42 inches max depth at 3000 feet SMUGs. I know the east side well, so the east side of Mansfield has a much deeper snow pack than the west side. They might get the same amount of snow, but the west side gets, accelerated melt, bigger thaws. it's more prone to warm air in the Champlain Valley. The Underhill side. Yes. Like teardrop, so yes. Gets less. I bet if you were to go out there like this week at some point, there, there comes a time in the spring, in May when. The east side, probably high roads still have two feet of snow, even around May 1st or something. And you're over on the other side. Hasn't had snow for a couple weeks now. Yeah. it's just, it's the western aspect too. You get the late afternoon sun when the day is the warmest in, especially in the springtime, if it's. 60 degrees in the afternoon, that West Slope is just getting baked in the sun, whereas the shadow is already on the east side here. Yeah. but I noticed like Barnes Camp that is a deep snow pack for 1500 feet. Yeah. Relatively. Yeah. Yeah. So what was the motivation for the Spruce Snow plot? because that, that seemed like that came into play. Just curious. Yeah. More just curiosity. Just brought out one day. Yeah. I think him and Spike were wandering around and they're like, let's put one. I think it's, I think it's great. We wanted one there. We want one up on the, bad weather route somewhere. That's another spot. We want to stick something. More on maybe slow side. So top of Sunrise Peak. Yeah, sunrise Peak of Sunrise Station. just, we're always so curious and we just care about it and it's great. It is good data, another data point. And yeah. And this year, we have gotten all this data. We've been working with Matt Perilla on his website. So if you go to his website where you see. the Summit Stake data. If you scroll down, you also can see data from Barnes, data from High Road. oh. Nice data from Spruce Peak. So cool. Every morning when we're in there doing the snow report, we will, we'll check Barnes Camp at 5:00 AM We'll input that. And then shortly after when we get up on the mountain and we are able to check the other snow plots, we'll upload that. So if you're looking at Matt's website, those all have, current data. which is pretty cool to, for back country skiers. Anybody else who's, recreating on the mountain to have lifetime, snow depths from all across Mount Mansfield. Yeah, that's great. I got a question for you guys. This is always a question in my ski group. You're skiing, you're wondering how the Bruce Trail is gonna be. like you're skiing, you're like, oh, is it gonna be good? Is it gonna be crusty? Is it gonna be this? I always say, if you do like lookout and lookout glads, it's similar to that. What do you guys think? what would be a good indicator that the Bruce chair would be bad or good? Any thoughts? The upper ridge view, I forget what those are called. What is to the upper Ridgeview toll house. What does Toll house look like when you drive by? Yeah. the quality of the upper Ridgeview woods that drop you down to the red fence on the, on toll road or something. Yeah. Yeah. But'cause the Bruce is difficult'cause it's got that southeast aspect. Yeah. That nowhere else on the mountain really has. It often is better than we think often. It's occasionally worse than we thought. It is a tough, it's a tough one. It's a tricky one. It's just a different aspect. I know, especially in the springtime or later in the year, you never really know what the surface is gonna, you're gonna come up with the bruise trail snow report. if we have the snow tell system, we will have more data.'cause they have, their stations running all the way down stations almost to the batter horn. It's cool. What'd they say they have? UVMs got what, 14 stations down? I've definitely seen them around now. Yeah, I've seen it on there. I always thought they were part of the mountain, but yeah. That's cool. So digging into the season a little more, obviously, you guys do some crazy work early mornings. any notable snow report mornings, crazy stories? I know Matt was talking about. Stranded at his house. I, you guys get up early and get out there no matter what the weather is. So I don't know any, just crazy stories or mornings on the snow report mornings. I don't think I've had anything this year. It's really, I think they standing. I will say the, Barnes Camp parking lot's been popping off. Five, 4:30 AM It's the place to be. Yeah. Lots of vehicles, lots of action. What's going on's? Something that we never, I never noticed before, but until this year is a number, amount of overnight campers in the Barnes camp, like people sleeping in their cars and stuff like that. So it's always funny to pull in there at. 4 45 in the morning, you can tell that everybody's camping and sleeping and you just, you open, you blasted music outta your car or something. I remember one guy was up and he's just I see him looking out his windshield, just watch. And I think, how weird must this be to see this car drive straight in, With a purpose, put it in park. The guy just gets out and just takes off into the woods on foot. that's me. and I'm thinking, this guy that's camping there and he's looking out his windshield, he's probably what are they doing? what is happening? And I come back five minutes later, get in my car and just drive right out there. And it's so funny. I think the VT trans probably knows what we're up to. They probably figured it out at this point. But it is funny, you see the same VT trans plow drivers in there and stuff like that. Percy guys. Percy guys ripping around, I guess not barn camp, but Barnes camp. Yeah. No, that's a state, but, so it's Barnes camp is popping off, or people just, I mean they're, I know they're sleeping. Are they going up at four 30? There are a lot of Skinners, you, on a big pow day in. I see. I dunno, some, even some of those hardos might be seen, sleeping in the parking lot. Yeah. I dunno about sleeping in the parking lot, leaving their car there. Unpaid par. No. I don't know. I don't know. But there's big powder mornings. You definitely, when I'm rolling in at, usually 4 45, I'm starting to see a trail of cars up the road. Yeah. the big powder mornings people get pretty excited. Yeah. That's a big thing that's changed in the last 15 years for me. Doing the early mornings is, sure. 15 years ago you could drive up Mountain Road at 4 45 in the morning, nobody. And not see another vehicle, just the plow truck. Man. If it snowed, you'll literally be in a line of track. it'd be seven, eight cars in a row going up there. Yeah. I feel like COVID, there's a big change there. Really? Like a huge shift in the skinning. Yeah, in the morning skinning. Yeah.'cause I remember, I started probably 15 years ago and it was like, I'd see there's nobody, I'd see three cars. It was like, go up any trail. Yeah, it's changed for sure. my only exciting morning really was, I, so I pull outta my driveway at four 30. I'm heading, down my road and there's a huge birch tree, like a 70, or sorry, a pine tree, like a 70 foot tall white pine across the road. And I'm like. Geez, I can't go around this thing. I'm like, I can't pull it outta the way. so I'm like, geez, what am I gonna do? first thing you're doing is crisis situation. Yeah. First thing I do a crisis situation. Call Mr. Rory Burke. And, good person to call. Yeah. And, so I'm like, Rory, what should I do? He's Call Andre, he's in the hunt. So I, I wake up Andre, and I'm like, I got it covered. But if I have any technical difficulties or if I need any observations, I might need to call on you. So I go back home. I, I'm talking to Andre. I am talking. To Rory and I get a sense for what's going on up at the mountain. And I do, which was ca which was mayhem. Was that real windy night? not so long ago? Yeah. yeah. It was after that crazy windy, evening. So that's why the tree came down. I got the report out, everything was fine, but that was really the most chaos of the morning.'cause now thanks to technology, you can do it anywhere. So it had to be at MOC, you could not, but that was the only time I've ever done it from home and. Not the same, probably. No, it's not the same because you like even being, eight minutes down the road you don't like, you just don't feel the environment. You, you just don't feel the environment. You don't know like. Where's the cloud level at? what's the wind doing? so you have to be at MOC looking at the mountain to really get a good idea for what's going on. even just a couple minutes down the road, it's, it's not the same. It could be pouring, in town there could be two feet of snow up there. So yeah. See it all the time. Yeah. everybody in the early morning is just that parking lot vibe that you get a sense for what's happening and how, what the mood of the mountain is that day. Definitely. This year was, you guys tell me like, I feel like this year there was a lot less angst with the weather because it started out so good. Totally. That like a lot of years when it starts out crappy, you're like, it's gotta snow, and you're like crazy for it to snow. I feel like this year it started out so good. I never felt anxious about the weather. I don't know. did you guys feel that? That's why I think the key is a strong November strong. Yeah.'cause you have the, we had the base get the anxiety out. Yes. You get the anxiety out. We had the snow pack, like you could ski in the woods in November. But you know those years when it's Oh, yeah. It starts out crappy. Oh, usually everybody's at mind. That's all you're talking about, right? Is when is it gonna snow? And I feel like that's, and when it does snow, you're like, is there enough snow on the ground to make use of it? To yeah. Next thing Mike's getting, his tennis membership in November. It's it's just, it's not gonna snow. I did it two weeks ago when it turned crappy membership. Oh this? Yeah. This year. When's it gonna stop snowing? Yeah. In the beginning of the year. Yeah. Yeah. And then everybody out west canceling trips to come to Stove, Vermont, come to Stove. Yeah. There's a lot of people I met that were back their trips. Love it. So bad winter. as you look back on the winter, what was, if one sticks out, you can talk about a couple. what was your favorite ski? My favorite ski day was I skied, off the top pretty early on in the year. That was it for me. it was just, it was like December 27th, 28th. It was just a great, went up the blues. Bluebird had a bunch of powder went up, skied a nice line up off the top, off the chin. It was just. Yeah, it was just textbook like perfect day up top. Nice. but there's been so many days. Yep. That's a good one though. Every day. But that one was blue up on the chin. Yeah, I remember it well. yeah, I think my favorite was, that December 3rd day that I, skied up off the top skied, hourglass. Probably the earliest I ever have. And then, yeah, skied. Basically in the woods all the way down to the road. And it was, awesome, beautiful, sunny day and like those are hard to come by with no wind on top. And yeah, no, it was just pretty special to get into some of those lines early in the season. It's like you've been thinking about them all summer and to get into them early in the season is such a treat. So the anxiety killer. Yeah. So that was pretty cool. Nice dude. Yeah, I think, I keep going back to that January storm that, Dropped that 16 or 17 inches of fluff. I think that's my favorite day. Happened to fall on a day off for me. Yeah, that's key. some of those little personal things that line up and allow you to. enjoy a certain snowfall. a little bit different than being at work and, as a photographer I love taking powder photos so that, yeah, this was a good winter. Had a lot of good pictures and that, that type of, that snowstorm was amazing for that deep, fluffy snow. Lot, lot of, I had a lot of fun. A lot of fun rolling around, taking photos with folks and stuff. What about you, Ted? What was yours? Oh, same one? Yeah, it was, I think Sunday into Monday. Yes. And I don't usually stick around and take runs, but I was like, I'm sticking around. Did a couple laps and then I jumped in my brother's car'cause he has the Mount Mansfield Ski Club, he has kids in the ski club. So we went over there and did two laps on Main Street untracked with my niece and nephew. Oh, nice. So it was just deep light. Awesome. And I think it was awesome day. What makes it better? knowing the weather. I like the over performers. The, yeah. And I, that one was a big, like southern New England blizzard and it was supposed to snow up here, but it could have been that over delivered. It could have been, like a four to eight or something, but it just, it turned on was the ratios were super high, so we made a lot of inches out of less water and, but just when you wake up in that morning, you're like. Oh my God. I was expecting four to six. I was walking my dog 12, and I'm like, oh my God. Like I'm sticking around. Yeah. You're like, this snow's up. Yeah. I did the snow report that morning and I was freaking out. I was like, oh, this is like it. this is it. This is real. Yeah. Yeah. it changes the whole mindset quickly. What about you, Mike? I was away for that one. I was, mine was probably early November. Yeah. Chin clips some great days. In November, I remember it was probably November 5th or sixth. And it was a few of us, we skinned up Chin clip and I have a video of it. It was just like deep powder runs, Yeah. No, I had a couple, you get chin clip in early November. That's almost what, that's five months ago. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. I'll go after national. I had some November down, upper Nash that were Yeah. Special. That was most, yeah, national. And there's no bumps on it. You can just. Pillage the left side. Oh yeah. Nothing better. Oh, those few days they groomed chin clip this year. I don't know if you skied that. Like you ski chin clip when it's groomed. Oh yeah. You bomb down it. It's a really fun groom. Oh, it's really fun. Realize all the turns and stuff like that. Yeah. That's amazing. Yeah. Alright. I'd like to go on record saying that day when we got that, was it 17 storm total? You guessed right. First of all, it was the coolest, oh. You nailed it. The coolest snow stack. How the, it just, the dendrites were like sitting on top of each other. Yeah. It was amazing. I read on the Noah discussion. there was no wind. in the, yeah. DGZ all the way up to some crazy, I remember that about that storm too. it was 25, 20 5,000 feet up or something. Yeah. It was like zero wind, let no wind, let fall down. It was amazing. But yeah. I'm gonna go on record. Say that day wasn't, that wasn't all that It was, it was like, it was blower on hard surface still, it was like, wasn't like. I want that after 20. Yeah. You know what I mean? We like the icing on the cake, like it was still a firm based sub and, but I, yeah, it was, I think there was just a lot of hype. sometimes these storms get super hyped and, even though it was. A Monday, sometimes there can be, I don't know a lot of folks out there. Yeah, I know. And there was, yeah, we live in an era. There's no social media and there's Yeah, for a Monday, I remember. That was pretty crazy. Yeah, it was. The coolest school works canceled. it's nothing better than school's canceled. It's not safe to drive to school, but it's safe to talk. Yeah, totally. Right on. only a few more weeks of snow reports. What's up for the summer? Yeah. Get to sleep in Matt's going surfing. I know he there some surfing. I don't know. I'm still locked in for the next little bit. Oh yeah. Oh, we, I'm, we're good. Move on to that yet. Yeah, we got another month. Do you get sad? Yeah. Yeah. I think we all do, to be honest. Do you get sad? Like I remember every year at least really it's a little. Difference. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. Do you get sad? I don't think, as I've gotten older, I've been less. I like the, you start to, but they have the comradery thing. It's the hard, the funny thing is we won't see each other yeah, totally. Yeah. we talk so much ski together and I get sick of the hardos by then of the winter or so, like we all see in November. I definitely take a slow, nostalgic last run. Nice. On, it's actually, it's from us. It's usually employee ski day, the day after it closes. But I make sure to milk every turn, Yeah. Awesome. Save every turn and then we just come out the next day and skin up. So it doesn't matter. I love it. You're like, this is the last run. I'm gonna go. Nice. Next thing less than 24 hours, you find yourself back up there again. So that's, yeah, because you go back to Maine, right? Matt? Yeah, I'll go back to Maine. probably, I don't know, middle of May. Yep. What about Dre and Scott? what are your, what are here around, yep. Work at the mountain and, yeah. Keep it going. Yep. Yeah. see you up on the, yeah. Spruce work road or something, with a dog or something, you hike. Yeah. Summer. What about you, Dre? Summer's, Winter's right? Just around the corner. So that is how winter that is. I'll take all my boots, I'll buckle the buckles a couple times, loose some. my brother claims he claims winter starts August 1st. Yeah, true. Yeah. I always appreciate the, we'll be skiing right? In some times. It says August 1st. August 1st. you start to think about it, maybe making some equipment, if you look hard enough, you'll find a leave that's changing. Exactly. And that's when the snow season starts. Yeah. the technical snow seasons, is it, you're like, when Mount Baker set the world record, I wanna say it's, I think it's August 1st when they reset the, I've been hiking in the whites. It was August 15th and it was snowing. No, Washington. Yeah, it was snowing, but Awesome. Thanks guys. Thanks. Appreciate it. It was fun. Thank you so much. Thanks for having us. Great. Roll through the winter. Hope you enjoyed that episode of the Octagon Podcast. Remember to like us on Instagram and subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. See you next time.