Grays On Trays

My local ski area received 8 inches of snow in a recent 24-hour period. Since it’s in Minnesota, you might think, “well of course.” But the Twin Cities aren’t exactly the epicenter of snowfall. Though we have cold temperatures, there are no mountains or big lakes nearby to cause snow dumps.

If you look at the historical data from NOAA, you may find a surprise here and there. For example, there’s a city in Arizona–Flagstaff–that gets more snow per year (100 inches) than Buffalo, New York (94). Flagstaff’s mountains produce more snow than Buffalo’s Lake Ontario and Lake Erie.

Being right on a Great Lake can help with snow totals. Muskegon, Michigan (home of the Snurfer!), on Lake Michigan, gets 96 inches of snow a year. But Grand Rapids (home of President Gerald Ford) gets 25 percent less, though it’s only a 45 minute drive to the east.

Though snow in Chicago can wreck your airline travel, the city gets relatively little snow–39 inches, less than Pittsburgh.

Any fan of the NFL has heard of the “frozen tundra” of Green Bay, Wisconsin. The city is on a bay (naturally) and close to Lake Michigan. Yet it barely gets more snow than LaCross, a city on the other side of the state, far removed from the Great Lakes.

The NOAA database doesn’t include small mountain towns, for the most part, so you’re not going to find ski area towns that claim 300 or 500 inches of snow in a year.

I’ve listed only a few towns from the report, and have only scratched the surface. Take a look and see if you find any interesting patterns.

ALASKA
Anchorage — 71
Barrow — 30

ARIZONA
Flagstaff — 100
Phoenix — Trace

COLORADO
Denver — 60
Grand Junction — 24

CONNECTICUT
Hartford — 49

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Reagan National Airport — 17

IDAHO
Boise — 21

ILLINOIS
Chicago – 39

INDIANA
Indianapolis — 24
South Bend — 71

IOWA
Des Moines — 33

KANSAS
Topeka — 21

KENTUCKY
Louisville — 16

MAINE
Portland — 70

MASSACHUSETTS
Boston — 42
Worcester — 68

MICHIGAN
Detroit — 41
Muskegon — 96
Grand Rapid — 73
Marquette — 141

MINNESOTA
Duluth — 81
Minneapolis/St. Paul — 50

MISSOURI
St. Louis — 20

MONTANA
Missoula — 46
Kalispel — 64

NEBRASKA
Lincoln — 28

NEVADA
Las Vegas — 1.2
Reno — 24

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord — 64
Mt. Washington — 261

NEW JERSEY
Newark — 27

NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque — 11

NEW YORK
Buffalo — 94
Rochester — 92
Syracuse — 116
New York City (Central Park) — 28

NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville — 15

NORTH DAKOTA
Fargo — 41

OHIO
Cleveland — 57
Cincinnati airport — 23

OKLAHOMA
Tulsa — 10

OREGON
Portland — 7
Sexton Summit — 98

PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia — 21
Pittsburgh — 43
Erie — 89

RHODE ISLAND
Providence — 36

SOUTH DAKOTA
Sioux Falls — 41

TENNESSEE
Knoxville — 12
Memphis — 5

TEXAS
Dallas — 3
Lubbock — 10

UTAH
Salt Lake City — 59

VERMONT
Burlington — 79

VIRGINIA
Roanoke — 23

WASHINGTON
Seattle — 7
Spokane — 49
Walla Walla — 17

WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston — 34
Elkins — 77

WISCONSIN
Green Bay — 48
LaCrosse — 43

WYOMING
Cheyenne — 56
Lander — 100

I suppose it’s time to take back, at least partly, my complaint about ski areas grooming away the powder.

My preference for powder over groomers remains. But today I got a better appreciation for the value of stomping down the powder: It keeps the base around longer.

This fact is one of those things you know in your head, but have to experience to truly appreciate.

Last week, this is what I saw:

A golf course cart path. The path is not in this case part of the ski trail, and the ski trails themselves were not melting away. Still, the visible cart path and the visible grass were both bad signs for the snowboard and ski season.

Today, the path was not visible. Nor was the grass. Areas that had lost their snow were now good off-the-path places to catch some slight (about 4 inches) powder. And the groomed slopes had an addition applied to their base.

Was I disappointed to find that the only powder available was on the extreme outside edges of the trails? Certainly. On the other hand, the packed-and-groomed new snow should now make for a better rest of the season.

You’ve heard that some people allegedly have 250 different words for “snow?” Well, some people in fact do have more than one word for snow. They’re called snowboarders and skiers.

Sue Freeman, the author of the blog New York Outdoors, offers up 22 Snow Terms You Should Know.

The terms include “boilerplate” and “railroad tracks.”

Even though the winters are cold here, we don’t get a lot of snow; according to= the University of Minnesota, the historical average is a mere 45 inches a year. The winds that arrive here from the western plains are simply dry.

Tuesday night we received 4-5 inches, which, by comparison with the seasonal average, is what we call a “powder dump” around here.

Sadly, riders don’t get to enjoy it that much. First of all, there’s so little terrain compared with the number of skiers and riders that it gets tracked out pretty quickly.

And if it’s not tracked out? The grooming machines attack it. Seriously. I once saw a groomer steaming up the hill, mid-day, wiping out the powder.

Yikes.

Then again, so many people here depend on groomed surfaces, especially ski racers, for whom the icier, the better.

Not all Midwestern areas are so cursed. For example, Indianhead, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and on the leeward side of Lake Superior winds, gets about 300 inches a year. Boyne Mountain, much further south in the state, claims 140 inches a year. Lutsen, in Minnesota and along Lake Superior but along its windward side, says they get only 114.

Snowmaking, as you can see, is rather important for the region.

One great thing about snowboarding is that it can provide the motivation to get fit. And if you want to get into shape, one good guide to doing so is “Open Your Heart to Winter Fitness,” by Lisa Marie Mercer.

I’m only sixty or so pages into it, but it provides both inspiration and instruction. The techno-babble can be a bit heavy in a few spots, but if you can understand that, you’ll have a better appreciation for what the exercises will do for you. If you’re not interested in understanding biomechanics, read the first few chapters and then plunge into part 2 for specific exercises.

The other day, the Weather Channel ran a short segment about the snow that lingers at Mt. Hood.

The segment fades out to the co-presenters, a man and a woman. The man says something like “Snowboarders are enjoying the powder,” and the woman offers the obligatory “dude” in response.

Powder? In June? You’d think that someone on the Weather Channel would know the difference between powder and old snow.

You should start every snowboarding season with fresh wax on your board. And, as I remembered today, change the wax as required.

It should have been a great day for riding. The air was warm, but not so warm that you’d get hot wearing the usual clothes. One section of the “mountain” that has been open only on weekends (of late) was open, and hey, it’s late March and we’re still riding!

The sky was overcast, and that’s what fooled me into thinking that the snow was fine. But the snow was, well, challenging. It had a lot of water in it; while on the lift, I could easily make snowballs out of the snow that was riding on top of the board. (I’m a poor shot and only infrequently hit a lift tower.)

But the snow wasn’t, as was the case two weeks ago, mashed potatoes. That snow, though also wet and sloppy, was a lot easier to work with. You had to push stuff around, but the board slide through it. Today’s snow, by contrast, was unpredictable, alternately grabbing and releasing the board. You’re moving along–not too fast, but still, moving–and then bam, it’s like a dozen little fingers reached up from the ground and grabbed on.

And no, it wasn’t just me; other riders and skiers reported the same problem.

I adapted, though I’m not sure how well I did. The approach to some of the steeper runs is gently sloping, and very long. To keep the board moving to where the hill dropped off, I crouched very low and towards the tip of the board. It seemed to work.

Alternately, in “cruising” areas, I sometimes leaned as far as I could towards the tail.

Eventually the air temperature dropped a couple degrees, and that made a big difference. But I was ready to leave by then.

It’s been said that an expert skier is someone who can ski all snow, all terrain. Well, yesterday I got a lesson in the “all snow” part of that.

In the afternoon, I rode in mashed potatoes–choppy, slushy, wet snow, what we call “mashed potatoes.” It was fun in its own way, conducive to dancing rather than powering your way down the run. It was THISCLOSE to being too warm. I had to open the pit zips on my coat and pants. Fortunately, the wax on the board held, and did not smear.

I wanted to experience how the snow changes when the temperature drops. So I did some night riding. And boy did I get an experience! Night riding on soft snow is great. Night riding on hard snow? Hmmm. Let me think about that.

Mashed potatoes can be fun. Frozen mashed potatoes can be … well, work. It’s like driving your car over frozen mud.

Bump. Bump. Bump. Rattle, rattle, rattle.

I made adjustments, though right now I’m not sure I can tell you what those adjustments were, except for making more use of traverses, especially on the steeper runs. One benefit of the frozen potatoes: I didn’t have to concentrate so much on finishing off the turn on the steeps. It just happened.

It also pays to pay more attention to the terrain, and anticipate frozen “waves” in the snow.