MID ATLANTIC SNOWPOCALYPSE!!!!

 I'm living in the middle of it right now.  And the term for this event is SNOWMAGEDDON - the December 2009 storm was "officially" SNOWPOCALYPSE.  

It's coming down hard right now: wet snow, clinging to a lot of surfaces (good for slopes, bad for, say trees and side roads).  It's gonna be a blast!

Will keep folks posted, possibly with pix.

Just made the third pass on my driveway out here in the northeastern Burgh burbs and cleared another 3 inches for a total of 4-5 inches since 3 PM. Forecast calls for 8 to 12 inches here by morning and the storm is tracking south and east so the Laurels should get well over a foot. I know, tame by western standards but epic here on top of a solid (and I do mean solid) foot natural base from last month's storms. It's heavy wet snow so I'll leave the SLs at home and break out my wide boards (78mm) tomorrow but I stay on the groomers all day.

The Mid-Atlantic really sucks and all you folks should just head to Deer Valley or Stratton. There will still be swarms of gapers, rocks and ice lurking just under the slop then it will rain. You better just stay home because the road will be impassable.

I thought the official title for this one was snOMG.  Snowmageddon works, too, though.  :)  Either way, it's EPIC out there right now.

Gonna miss us here in the Finger Lakes area of NY 

Yes, it missed us here in Western Washington too. That's okay, it looks like Atlantic City is going to get POUNDED. Who's going to huck the dunes and earn a spot on "Jersey Shore"?

 Looks like the deeper stuff will track south of Elk, unfortunately, but Blue should be good enough for Phil, even.

Elan 999's and RD Coyote Helidogs are in the Thule box on top of the Forester.  I'm heading for Wintergreen tomorrow.  They got 18" this week.  They're expecting an ADDITIONAL 18"-24" by tomorrow evening.

 I just shoveled a few inches off my driveway in Annapolis.  The first two or three inches had been much lighter.  This stuff weighs a ton.  If I am at all lucky, Liberty will get some fluffier snow.  The stuff in my driveway would qualify as cement mix.  the folks around here with sailboats in the water had better go clear the rigging, as the stuff weights enough to capsize some boats.
Edited by FOG - 2/5/10 at 6:37pm

Just shoveled the driveway off here in Indy. Good god the base was wet and the top bits powdery goodness. I even goofed off with the skis in the yard a bit (looking like an idiot I'm sure). Would love to ski this stuff. Wanna hit the hill tomorrow but Saturdays there are already just stupidly busy until 6PM and snow makes it worse. Wonder if it'll still drop off like normal ~6PM?

If so, bump runs for everyone! (but no pow for me :(  )

This is awesome. Powder for the East Coast. Means we'll have common ground on many topics.

Good luck with that.  When they get real big storms, they often have to close the place down (as was the case with the 30" drop in December).  Definitely check the report before you make the drive.  During that big December dump, they also left the snow guns running, and groomed everything down.  So much for powder.  I have learned not to depend on Wintergreen for powder days.  A day or two after the storm, it will be great groomer skiing though.

Everybody is getting excited about this particular storm, but the snow:water ratios are not real good, so it won't be powder.  I am seeing 7:1 to 10:1 in the current precipitation.  And as far as Snowpoclypse?  Nah.  We get decent powder dumps in WV several times a season, with nice fluffy 15:1 or better snow, so a Nor'Easter is not a big deal.  For the cities, yes, but not for the WV mountains.  Heck, last season I had better powder days in WV than Utah!

"snOMG" was also used for December's event.  Here are the ones bandied about for this one:

• Snowmageddon
• SnOMGasm
• SnOvetchkin (for the Caps fans)

Just did third pass of shoveling.  6.5-8" in the Dupont Circle area of DC.  Really wet, heavy snow.

This weather map sums it up nicely:

 Was supposed to start hours ago here in central PA so far just a few flurries; we always miss the snow here. Unfortunately it looks like many in the Poconos are gonna be a bit north to get the huge dumping they're getting in DC. They still may get a foot possibly, too bad if it would just go a bit north we'd have 2 feet all through the Poconos, the heavy is getting wasted on washington.

Liberty and  Whitetail may end up with 12-16" out of this.  Maybe.

The place to be is likely Bryce or Canaan Valley - both should end up with 20"+ out of this storm.  So it's not wasted at all.

And if you are into XC or snowshoeing, Rock Creek Park will be EPIC tomorrow.

Keep the reports coming in, folks.

Even though I've never skied east of the Illinois River, I'm fascinated with how this storm is going to play out.  Out in our part of the world, we call it being in "the right track" when you get DUMPED and your neighboring resorts just look on in jealous envy.  (I'm thinking us versus Alta, here.)

Let's hear some reports from those of you who are brave enough (or have chains or 4wd or Hummers or whatever) to get out there and track it up this weekend.  Huge bonuses for pics.

We don't CARE if it's 20% moisture.  Ankle-deep, boot-top, waist-deep, or over-the-head is all we care about.

Good luck, all you East-Coasters!  Tell us what you got.

 someone take a picture of faceshot south of the mason dixon line, or spring, or round top, or blue knob.

show me it exist or I am claiming your a bunch of liars.

and FYI it snow ALOT in the northern Greens cough*mansifield*cough but everyone would rather bump TR with no pics than mine...

speaking of, is alex back on the caps yet or is he still nursing his booboo?

One of the biggest snow storms here if not the biggest in my lifetime and I'm still digging out. Looks like I'll have to wait until later today or tomorrow to get to the mountains, normally an hour and a half drive from here. Just wanted to take a break and post a few pics, eat some breakfast then get back to digging out. I've been at it since 6:30 AM and it is still coming down. I think the weather service got this one wrong.

LHC!!  Pittsburgh got more than DC.  I live 5 miles from White House.  We have about 16-18" as of 8AM 2/6/10.  Still a light rainy snow coming down.

The snowpocalypse has turned my world on its head.
Still hope to get to the Springs tomorrow.  Keep us informed about Western PA road conditions.  If I can't get out of my neighborhood I'll still get some backyard X-country skiing this weekend.

Wish I could but stuck in Utah until tomorrow. I think it is faceshot deep kind of stuff but I hear it's pretty wet so I doubt it will "blow up" like that. My wife just reported 16" in the driveway and it's supposed to continue all day. I live 15 minutes from Roundtop.

 2 feet on my deck just north of Phila and we'll get at least another 6 inches by 5 p.m.

 The snow continues to be very wet and very heavy on the shovel.  I called the hotel near Liberty to cancel my reservation for tonight and they said that Liberty was opening late today to remove snow from the chairlifts.  Elkridge Maryland, about fifteen miles from here, is reporting over thirty inches of snow already on the ground.  My street is currently unpassable for traffic.  I wish I could be skiing instead of shoveling, but that is the way the ball bounces.

Pandacalypse!    Tai Shan's Revenge Report.

Did 7.5 miles in the first 2 feet of the storm, soft humid flakes made for really easy striding along W&OD trail and 4-mile Run trail. (~7pm)

I am convinced that snow collects humidity from the air -after- the snow has fallen: 

The closer i was to the creek beds, the wetter and gloppier the cover.

I got tired of that, so I climbed out of the W&OD onto Carlin Springs road

(One dead Dodge Durango impaled onto a fire hydrant here.    Folks: do NOT take 2WD SUVs out on the road in this.   Esp. one with summer tires.)

Immediate snow change here, the wind is both packing down the snow and drying it out, the crystals are far more aggressive.     There is very little glide in the fresh pow, but the freshly snowplowed berm is 5 feet wide and PERFECT!  for climbing and gliding both.    Fresh snowplowage without salt = 5 foot wide berm of corn snow!    Tee Hee!

(Two log-hopping mini-downhills later, the wind is really picking up.  The front of my jacket is plastered with white snow, and there is 2" of snow on the bill of my baseball cap.     

One very flustered-looking fox runs across the road here).

More skiing along the snowplow berm.     Some very silly people attempting to drive compact cars.  I LOLZ.

Carlin Springs to George Mason (~10pm)  the snow is dryer (a lot!) and windfluffed.     4x repeats of the ramp, squiggly teleturns just an absolute delight.      The whole George Mason/Carlin Springs area is like a mini-bowl of fluffy delight snow.

(One dead  RWD BMW here.   Some really stewpid peeples on the roads).

At the bottom of George Mason (~11pm), next to 4-mile Run, the snow turned squeaky clump.   Ugh.  I am more than EVER convinced that snow soaks up airborne humidity.

Gear:  Tua Escape S 205cm, Rivas, Alpina TeleLite
            Atomic Rainiers, Rotefella SuperTelemarks, Rossi X9

Wax:  Silicone spray followed by Maplus white universal solid (ironed, scraped, Fibertexed).     <- This combo ROCKS as an anti-clumper when there is no time to let the skis cool off before skiing.    The skier with the  Swix CH8/Zardoz combo was clumping like crazy.


Today's project:   Lorcom Lane/Custis/Military Road, with maybe a divert to Quebec St.

Very important in this kind of snow:  Let the skis cool off to outdoor temps before you ski!     Put them outside at least an hour beforehand.

You are damn brave to get within 100 yards of a road on skis, but I enjoyed that report.  I think the funniest part about living down here is seeing the ridiculous/inappropriate vehicles that people venture out in.  During that 30" dump in December, I saw people out in RWD Mustangs, Porsches, etc with summer tires.  Totally nuts. During that storm, I was pushing my luck even with AWD and winter tires, and it took me 7 hours to get home from WTG instead of the normal 2.5.  Can't imagine trying it in a RWD vehicle with low/no ground clearance (indeed, those types of cars were littering the ditch by the *hundreds*).  The last RWD sports car I owned couldn't even get traction on damp grass, never mind snow/ice.  

 BTW, Wintergreen is reporting 21" overnight and they are OPEN.  I hope CR made it there OK and is killing it!

Summer tires is certainly the key there - I drove last winter in a miata with snow tires. Holy crap the thing was grippy as hell. Passing jeeps during dumps. It was lunacy. The previous winter I had all seasons and the damn thing was a hockey puck.

The clearance thing sucked though. Gotta love the feeling of snow brushing against your floorboards. =/

This year my Cooper S with all seasons is a pain in the ass with its all seasons and oodles of torque. Traction control is always flashing at me.

Can I change my username to Queequeg now?

The  Moby Dick fans amongst you might remember the chapter on eating whale steaks.    Ishmael points out that there is something scary and unappetizing about a forty-foot meat pie, no matter how tasty the bites.

Ishmael was WRONG.

edit:  pass the ketchup.