100 inches of snow !!!

That sounds like a decent base for a ski resort, but I didn't know there were any in New York. Anybody got pictures?

 

How 'bout Lake Placid?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Feb 9 2007, 04:20 PM) [snapback]387678[/snapback]</div>

There are several ski resorts in NY. The best one, IMHO, is Whiteface in Lake Placid (think 1980 Winter Olympics). Greek Peek (south of Syracuse) is pretty good, and Hunter Mountain (Catskills) isn't bad. Gore Mountain (Adirondacks, south of Lake Placid) is also excellent. There are also quite a few low-key operations that have little or no snow-making equipment, and while not exactly resorts, have a good bit of charm, and provide some challenging slopes, though generally not too many of them.

The snow northern NY is getting is essentially lake effect snow, where the wind comes from the north, picks up moisture from Lake Ontario, and then dumps the moisture as snow south of the lake. Oswego, which is essentially right on the lake, has already gotten 100 inches of snow this week. Yet, if you travel 45 minutes due south of Oswego, where the temperature is essentially the same as it is in Oswego, they've gotten around 5 inches this week.

Pictures of the snow are all over the 'Net. I've seen them on MSNBC, CNN, as well as on the NY Times and Syracuse Post-Standard newspaper web sites.

 

Very heavy snowfall like this is common in the mountains. Note also, that it's typically very fluffy snow. So there's less moisture in it than, say, prairie snow, which often packs very hard.

One of the places I go hiking in Canada operates skiing in winter. I had an email from one of them, very early this winter. They had arrived at the chalet to prepare for the first guests, and there were 4 or 5 feet of snow on the ground, which they had to clear away.

 

That was a really spooky phenomenon. I was in Syracuse, NY on a business trip. The area that I was in just had a dusting of snow while a mere 30 minutes away got the 100 inches. I got to test the snow capabilities of my Prius on the way home because the storm did eventually start to dump a bit where I was. Only problem I had was some slight fishtailing on a real sharp highway onramp. Visibility was so bad at one point that I was using the GPS screen to figure out which way the road was turning. Then after driving about 25 minutes south it was blue skies again.

 

Ahh, Lake Placid, of course. Forgive my ignorance. Whistler and Blackcomb are two hours North for me, so I guess maybe I'm a bit of a snob.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Feb 9 2007, 05:38 PM) [snapback]387807[/snapback]</div>

Just "earth" for a location? Yep, snob.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Feb 9 2007, 01:20 PM) [snapback]387678[/snapback]</div>

I learned to ski in NY state at a small resort called Peak n Peak (if my mind serves me well after 35 years of the event).

 

Snob? Hey, I could have said 'There are mountains East of The Rockies?'