Skiology... What's your take?

[rfreeman]

I find his forecasts helpful and reliable and like that he includes things like potential wind holds and need to de-ice.lifts.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I've been following the Facebook conversation. Someone posted an interesting comment:

I think you’re misunderstanding your own business. You offer a unique weather forecast. This is a slight upgrade from what people have gotten for free for 3/4 of a century.

Most people have a favorite resort or a second home. This is the East, they’re gonna go there and ski and just deal with whatever Mother Nature brings. The number of people who actually make a go or no go, or destination decision based on your report is far less than your total viewers. Most of us are just curious how it’s going to be where we’ve already decided to go.

So, you’re missing the mark reaching out to your viewers. If you want money, you go to the people who stand to profit from your services. That’s the resorts, equipment makers, hospitality industry. Approach them. Integrate your services with their business models. That’s how you run a business.

Ironically, you seem to spend more time publicly bashing the hands that should feed you and instead are asking a bunch of 20-something pow hunters for some of their lunch money. It will never work.

 

[rfreeman]

I do find his reporting valuable. It certainly leads to me making more extended drives to ski by making me more aware with higher accuracy at the mountain by mountain level of what conditions will be further away. Having both Epic and Indy passes gives me a fair degree of flexibility in where to go.

But no haven't sent him $

 

[jamesdeluxe]

It certainly leads to me making more extended drives to ski by making me more aware with higher accuracy at the mountain by mountain level of what conditions will be further away.

If it hasn't already been done, it would be interesting to conduct a poll (I generally don't pay attention to them but would be curious about this one!) about the percentage of people who a) adjust their skiing plans significantly based on expected conditions or snowfall, and b) those who follow the opinion of that Facebook comment: "Most people have a favorite resort or a second home. (...) Most of us are just curious how it’s going to be where we’ve already decided to go."

 

[rfreeman]

Like I would not have booked Snowed Inn for Sun nt and taken off Monday to ski Hunter had I not been following his reporting
.

Made my decision Sun late AM when he upgraded his snow fall prediction there to equal S.VT - where Inhad contemplated going but then ruled out cause it looked like snow would fall into eve making trip home dicey. So had abandoned plans to ski Mon but then he upgraded Hunter forecast and off I went

 

[tirolski]

If it hasn't already been done, it would be interesting to conduct a poll... would be curious ... about the percentage of people who a) adjust their skiing plans significantly based on expected conditions or snowfall,

Lab or Song? (~ 10 miles away from each other) not much difference unless a lake effect band locks one in better.
Song wasn’t touched yesterday, so hi ho hi ho, off we’ll go.

 

[dubstar]

Well, we had people here calling for 3"-5" in the Catskills from yesterday's storm. He did a better job with that for sure. I also think he is more accurate than OpenSnow's computer generated Northeast forecasts, which are also often reposted and discussed here. As mentioned above, he also does a good job forecasting wind and ice holds. Finally, I think it's important to point out that there is a difference between the Skiology weather page and the Skiology community group page. If you only want to see the weather posts and forecasts from Matt, stick to the Skiology weather page. The community page allows posts by members; in addition to the often valuable local scene reports, there are also a variety of other topics that may or may not interest others.

There are numerous ski and surf forecasting sites such as OpenSnow and Surfline that offer both free and paid content. Back in the '80s, I watched the coastal lows, phoned the local surf shop answering machine report, and often just went down to the beach and surfed whatever was there. I still do all of that, but also take full advantage of the various internet and other real-time tools available. Sometimes that involvs looking at raw data and sometimes that involves third-party forecasts. I have a solid grasp of both ski and surf weather, but don't have the time or patience to crunch the numbers like Skiology or OpenSnow. Forecasting aside, the real time reports and post-ski day summaries that are posted in the Skiology group page are a good window on the NE scene and can help determine where I might snowboard next. If Skiology is not for you, simply move along.

 

[SayvilleSteve]

Matt isn't a member here, but there is a decent chance he would see what you post here.

Drama does generate traffic and clicks. The post complaining about Waterville Valley having only paid options for bag storage got 168 comments and was enough to get Waterville Valley to reverse the policy and provide free bag storage again.

His most recent post begins... "I've been accused at times of making 'click-bait' (sic) when people disagree with me..."

 

[Harvey]

If it hasn't already been done, it would be interesting to conduct a poll (I generally don't pay attention to them but would be curious about this one!) about the percentage of people who a) adjust their skiing plans significantly based on expected conditions or snowfall, and b) those who follow the opinion of that Facebook comment: "Most people have a favorite resort or a second home. (...) Most of us are just curious how it’s going to be where we’ve already decided to go."

I think this forum would be higher than a broad skier average, regarding the percentage that chase conditions.

Scott and I made the call at 4am Monday am to ski Hunter, so there's at least two here.

 

[dubstar]

EDIT: this is in response to Harvey's question above

WIndham has been my home mountain since 1984. I have a pass, but am still planning on hitting Plattekill this Friday depending on how the week plays out. When we're up at the house, I'm locked into either Plattekill or Belleayre as alternatives to WIndham depending on local weather and snowfall variations. When we're not up at the house, I have some leeway in making day trips, usually deciding the destination close to the day. For example, last season I ended up hiking Windham 4/20 after the big last season storm we had; hiking Plattekill and even driving up to Gore or Whiteface were also options. Last Monday I had MLK Day off and made a last-minute decision to head to Mohawk Mountain in CT for the first time. Ended up being a great day with excellent snow coverage and conditions. I imagine it must be really fun when it's 100% open. Definitely rode bigger than its actual elevation and vertical drop. When I eventually retire, I'll be making more last-minute choices based on the latest weather and conditions.