2016-17 Snowfall: Belleayre vs. Plattekill

Just noticed this:

Belleayre: 152 inches
Plattekill: 233 inches

An 81-inch difference?

considering platte's totals would be close to double what is average I am going to say they exaggerate quite a bit.  It was a great season nonetheless

Plattekill would say this is the result of them being on the western edge of the Catskills,which lets them benefit from lake effect that rolls all the way across the CNY lowlands. Are you suggesting something more nefarious?

This wasn't a big LES year..

I can see a 10% increase over Bell...

The weekend I skied Pkatty I skied Bell the next day and there was noticably more snow in the woods at Platty.

There's definately a case to be made that Plattekill gets more. I've always thought that. Why and how much is debatable I guess

Totally agree that on any given year, due to Platekill being further into Lake Effect terriority, it will get more snow then Belleayre (and Hunter and Windham also). That being said Belleayre gets its fair share of lake effect also and I can't imagine there being an 81in difference which is pretty astronomical

The one time I skied trees at Belleayre in February and then the next day at Plattekill, coverage was a little better in the woods at Belleayre. Not sure about post-Stella, but I would think their totals from that storm would have been pretty close to each other.

My comparison days were February 9th and 10th. The following week there was more snow, and looking back at the Plattekill conditions thread, that's when Coach Z did his comparison. So, Plattekill likely fared better during that storm cycle, but as noted by others, the overall numbers are likely exaggerated a lot.

Methodology and measurement points are an issue. I don't know how Belle and Platty measure, but Gore and Whiteface have very different methods.

The numbers don't affect me personally very much.  I'd suspect that that might be true for many here too. How often is anyone here surprised at what they find at a NY mountain?  It's rare for me to be surprised, unless something happens right before opening when I am in the car, like my day at McCauley.

evantful wrote

Totally agree that on any given year, due to Platekill being further into Lake Effect terriority, it will get more snow then Belleayre (and Hunter and Windham also). That being said Belleayre gets its fair share of lake effect also and I can't imagine there being an 81in difference which is pretty astronomical

Agree.

Belleayre is still almost as far West as Plattekill and does pick up the Lake effect. Yes, Plattekill is slightly more on the Great Lakes side of the territory, but I would think that the slight geographical difference would be offset by the coastal storms that generally dump more on the Southern territory. Hunter and Wyndham are a whole different story, and are in a terrible location IMO.

An 81" difference is astronomical for two mountains that you can see from each other.

Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.

Ideally, I would like to see Plattekill buy Belleayre when we get a new governor who realizes that Belleayre is a huge waste of state money and closes it down. A guy with balls of steel like Laz could keep both places afloat with the existing setup and offer a joint pass. Kind of like Killington and Pico, or Wildcat and Attitash in Northern NH.

Harvey wrote

Methodology and measurement points are an issue. I don't know how Belle and Platty measure,

This is probably the most important point. The year I worked at Killington, I was somewhat involved in the measuring and I can tell you it was chaos.

Plattekill is a family owned business where the owner is very involved and on-site all the time. They probably know where the mountain gets the most accumulation  and measure there, make sure they never miss an event and, yeah, maybe round up a little once in a while.

Belle is state owned. Whoever is responsible to report might measure right outside their office at the ops building and, if it's that persons day off, who knows if the dude that's supposed to take up the slack even remembers to do it, especially if there's just a few flurries or an inch or two overnight. It's just as possible, in my opinion, that Belle's totals are too low as Plattys are too high.

How far is Jay Peak from Sutton?

Ethan Snow wrote

An 81" difference is astronomical for two mountains that you can see from each other.

Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.

That's not unusual at all actually.

Harvey wrote

How far is Jay Peak from Sutton?

According to Google Maps: as the crow fllies, Jay Peak to Sutton is 12 miles; Belle to Platte is 13 miles.

I can conform that. I just measured it on Google Earth myself. I actually Thought Belleayre was a bit closer than that as the crow poops. Anyway, Sutton is to Jay, as Belleayre is to Plattekill. What's the argument? Does Sutton usually get 80" more than Jay?

I thought that Jay's average was about 350, Sutton about 250.

Anybody know Hunters and Windams totals? I feel like Plattekill gets the most of the four mountains, based on my own experience and memory. Whether or not 50% more is realistic or not I don't know.  I would think that 13 miles is  far enough for terrain and other factors to create different microclimates.

Brownski wrote

Anybody know Hunters and Windams totals? I feel like Plattekill gets the most of the four mountains, based on my own experience and memory. Whether or not 50% more is realistic or not I don't know.  I would think that 13 miles is  far enough for terrain and other factors to create different microclimates.

Looking at the OnTheSnow snowfall records, Belleayre, Hunter, Windham show 99, 91, 92 as season totals as of 4/1/17.  The Plattekill total is 148 inches.  My understanding is that OnTheSnow pulls numbers from ski area websites.  The List View for Base Depth of Historical Snowfall lists daily snowfall, season total, and base depth for days with 1+ inches of new snow.

If you look at the daily numbers, the big days for Platty were:
2/9  13
2/15  15
3/14  30

The totals for the mid-March storm are about the same for the four mountains.

Belleayre shows 9 inches for 2/9 and nothing for 2/15, with a season total of 52 as of 2/16.  Hunter lists 12 for 2/9, nothing for 2/15, and a total of 40 on 2/16.  Windham shows a total of 52 inches on 2/13.  In contrast Platty is listed as having 94 inches on 2/16 with steady increases between 2/9 and 2/16.

Assuming all the daily snowfall numbers make sense, that means the difference between Platty and the other three comes from the Feb storm.  Is that possible?