Snowology Weather & News

Snowology Weather & News SNOWOLOGY Weather & News is the premier skiing and riding resource for the East. Follow us to the pow!

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲, 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝘀 𝟰3 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀Indy Pass announced today that their pass is back on sale to the general pu...
08/28/2025

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲, 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝘀 𝟰3 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀

Indy Pass announced today that their pass is back on sale to the general public (no waitlist) but quantities are limited and they have been selling out very quickly in recent years. They now boast a total of 271 resorts across the globe with the addition of the 43 resorts that they announced today. They also announced 33 partners for the new Learn-to-Turn Pass.
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We'll focus on just the changes in the East Coast including two notable additions in Quebec of Mont Sutton and Owl's Head which are just over the border from Vermont.
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Here's a list of all of the East Coast additions to the pass. The only non-returning resort in the region this season is Montage Mountain, PA.

- Burke Mountain Resort, VT
- Buffalo Ski Club, NY
- Dry Hill Ski Area, NY
- McIntyre Ski Area, NH
- Tenney Mountain, NH
- Centre Vorlage, QC
- Mont Sutton, QC
- Mont Edouard, QC
- Owl’s Head, QC
- Ski Mont Habitant, QC
- Ski Valle Bleue, QC
- Val D’Irene, QC
- Hockley Valley Resort, ON
- Marble Mountain, NL
- Smokey Mountain, NL
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The following resorts are the East Coast participants in the Learn-to-Turn Pass which provides 3 days of lift tickets, lessons, and rentals for just $189. Indy Pass holders will also be sent coupons for $40 off this new pass that they can provide to their friends in order to help get them into the sport:

- Berkshire East, MA
- Big Rock, ME
- Black Mountain, NH
- Bolton Valley, VT
- Bousquet Mountain, MA
- Centre Vorlage, QC
- Dartmouth Skiway, NH
- Greek Peak, NY
- Hunt Hollow Ski Club, NY
- Jay Peak, NY
- Maple Ski Ridge, NY
- Massif du Sud, QC
- Mt. Abrams, ME
- Pats Peak, NH
- Ski Big Bear, PA
- Tenney Mountain, NH
- Titus Mountain Resort, NY
- Waterville Valley, NH
- Whaleback, NH
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Prices for the fall pass sale are as follows:

- Indy Base Pass $449 Adult / $299 Kids (12-and-under)
- Indy+ Pass $599 Adult / $329 Kids (no blackouts)
- Indy AddOn Base $349 Adult / $229 Kids
- Indy AddOn+ Pass $429 Adult / $249 Kids (no blackouts)
- XC Pass $99 Adult / $49 Kids
- Learn to Turn Pass $189, all ages six and up
- Personalized Photo Pass $10

We've been working on a lot of things during the off season, one of them being collecting accurate and detailed mountain...
08/25/2025

We've been working on a lot of things during the off season, one of them being collecting accurate and detailed mountain stats.
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Most ski areas inflate several aspects of their stats. This is a remnant from the pre-internet days where things like snowfall, trail counts, and vertical were all stretched, and if you didn't measure inches with centimeters, chop up one trail into three different ones, and stretch your vertical by hundreds of feet, you were at a disadvantage.
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The internet eventually brought light to this and snowfall reporting has much improved from just 15 years ago but there is still no real standard in the East with some reporting ranges that represent bottom and top figures, reporting ranges across upper terrain, reporting only from the base at times, reporting remotely from cams on snow stakes that are wind blown or trap snow, and our preferred method which is to report a single representative number from a location no more than 2/3 of the way up the mountain. This makes it hard for the average skier or rider to compare snowfall so we will be supplementing missing snowfall reports with estimates from snowfall analysis and when ranges are given we will be providing the middle point of that range as a single figure for the sake of consistency.
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The trail count inflation is in fact useful in many ways even if trails do not equal runs, but we will eventually supplement with enhanced data that shows miles of terrain that is open or closed.
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Another project of ours is to gather information and coordinates for every lift on the mountain, and we will represent the max vertical as the difference between the upper-most lift terminal and either the base lodge or the lowest bottom terminal (including carpets). You won't always be able to ski or ride this full vertical without taking a lift but this will represent the vertical difference of the entire terrain which is consistent with the intended meaning of vertical used by the industry, but backed up with high resolution GIS data.
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This isn't a challenge to the ski industry in any way, in fact many will welcome this because every ski area will have the same treatment so there is no advantage nor disadvantage that doesn't physically exist.
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Tell us what you think of this!

It's happening!
08/20/2025

It's happening!

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻-𝘁𝗼-𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟱𝟬 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀There’s a lot t...
08/19/2025

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗔𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻-𝘁𝗼-𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟱𝟬 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀

There’s a lot to unpack here with today’s announcement and we’ll start off with the new pass product targeted at beginning skiers and riders.
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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻-𝗧𝗼-𝗧𝘂𝗿𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀
This is a new pass product from Indy Pass targeted at beginners that will offer 3 days of skiing, 3 days of rentals, and 3 days of lessons for just $189. That’s a nice price to start, but they will also be sending all Indy Pass holders two $40 off discounts for this new pass that they can share with friends and family bringing the price down to just $149, or about $50/day for a ticket, lessons, and rentals.
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This will only be available at Indy Pass partners who choose to participate in this program and that list of ski areas is not yet available and likely to grow in future seasons. The product will require advance bookings and will be subject to blackouts and availability. The pass will go on sale in September and will remain available to purchase during the ski season.
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𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝟮𝟴𝘁𝗵
Early season passes sold out in March after just 10 days but they will go on sale again to the general public on August 28th. Those on the waitlist will have an opportunity to buy before the general public and will be notified by email when that happens. We’ve been told this will happen “soon” and they’ve been teasing for everyone to get on the waitlist in order to not miss out as they will get first dibs. Every indication is that they will sell out again in short order as demand has outpaced supply in recent years.
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Indy Pass has stated repeatedly that they do not wish to oversale passes and cause overcrowding at their partner resorts as the reason behind limiting passes, and it is pretty clear that they also do not want to compete directly with the season passes sold by their partners. It is our opinion however that more of this demand should be met given the increasing price competitiveness across the industry as of late, and where excess demand exists, those partners can limit redemptions. Very few Indy Pass partners have notable lift lines on non-holidays outside of operational difficulties.
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𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗱
The list of new pass members will be announced on the 28th when sales to the general public starts. They indicated in the release that these partners will be spread across the United States, Canada, Austria, France, Slovenia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Scotland, and Japan, and we have been told separately to expect some additions in the Northeast.

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗦𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝟯 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝟭𝟱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 $𝟭𝟲𝟵.𝟵𝟵Snow Triple Play is a new product from Snow ...
08/18/2025

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗦𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗧𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝟯 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀 𝟭𝟱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 $𝟭𝟲𝟵.𝟵𝟵

Snow Triple Play is a new product from Snow Partners, the company behind Snow Operating which provides services to ski areas and are the operators of Mountain Creek and Big SNOW. This product is a "frequency pass" according to industry terminology, offering 3 days of skiing or riding in total at any of their 15 partner resorts with a limit of 2 uses at any one. Those resorts are as follows:
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- Mountain Creek, NJ
- Big Snow, NJ
- Mount Southington, CT
- Ski Butternut, MA
- Plattekill, NY
- Belleayre, NY
- Gore, NY
- Whiteface, NY
- Oak Mountain, NY
- Pleasant Mountain, ME
- Sommet Saint Sauveur, QC
- Sommet Morin Heights, QC
- Sommet Gabriel, QC
- Sommet Olympia, QC
- Ski Martock, NS
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Snow Triple Play will go on sale on September 1st and they are offering special pricing of $169.99 ($56.66/ticket) to the first 1,000 purchasers and then the price goes up to $199.99 ($66.66/ticket) and will continue to be on sale through December 24th. Blackouts may apply however such details are currently not available.
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Based on the current distribution of partners on this product it provides the best value to the Greater New York Metro market that both Mountain Creek and Big Snow serves while also giving options in the nearby Catskills, ADK's, and beyond. Many of these resorts are not on other major pass products, making this one of the cheaper ways to visit them.
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This comes on the heels of the recent Vail Resorts announcement providing a number of 50% off discounts to be shared by passholders, an announcement from Ikon Pass in the spring where the full Ikon Pass is now giving 2 days at a limited number of independent resorts, and Indy Pass has been hinting at some big news soon which will surely include another large expansion to their 230+ ski areas.
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With the Northeast starting to settle down following large changes to the pass market as well as post-pandemic normalcy returning, discount products seem to be coming back in favor as a way to attract new skiers and riders. We at Snowology are not unhappy to see that as competition is good for the consumer.

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗩𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟱𝟬% 𝗢𝗳𝗳 "𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀"Vail Resorts has announced a new passholder perk t...
08/14/2025

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗩𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗔𝗱𝗱𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝟱𝟬% 𝗢𝗳𝗳 "𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗲𝘁𝘀"

Vail Resorts has announced a new passholder perk that provides a fixed number of 50% off discounts to the the full window ticket price that can be shared with friends. This replaces the "Buddy Tickets" perk with a higher fixed discount level now being offered. Those who purchased a qualifying full season pass prior to April 14th will receive 10 "Friend Tickets", and those who purchased after that date will receive 6 of these discounts to share. Qualifying season passes include the full Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, The Northeast Value Pass, the Northeast Midweek Pass, and other full season pass products. NOTE: these are mislabeled as "tickets" but are just discounts.
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This move comes following several seasons of slightly lower pass unit sales where Vail Resorts includes both full pass products and the the Epic Day Pass product which is a frequency product and not a pass. While the company does not provide a breakdown of units by type of product, their financial disclosures point to a continuing shift from full pass products to the Epic Day Pass product.
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With the Friend Tickets discounts providing a roughly equal to larger discount than Epic Day Pass at most of their small- and medium-sized resorts while not requiring an advance commitment, this perk may work to displace Epic Day Pass sales in the East and also impact full pass sales while increasing the overall value of their passes.
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We do think this is a great perk for skiers and riders that is likely to become widely used but it may have uncertain effects on their financial performance. Much of Vail Resorts' growth has been fueled by a combination of acquisitions and discounting while there have been huge outflows of capital towards stockholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks and the stock price recently hit a 9 year low despite spending $1.6 billion on acquiring 31 resorts during that time frame. EBITDA has also fallen since 2022 when they cut the price of the Epic Pass by 20% and experienced a combination of very notable staffing shortages that widely impacted operations on top of overcrowding.
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Press Release Linked in Comments

We're entering peak hurricane season in the Atlantic and the National Hurricane Center just upgraded a tropical depressi...
08/12/2025

We're entering peak hurricane season in the Atlantic and the National Hurricane Center just upgraded a tropical depression to become Tropical Storm Erin. While Snowology doesn't generally cover off-season weather events, this is a good time to point out some basic truths when it comes to navigating weather coverage and in particular that dealing with hurricanes.

First off, the NHC is the gold standard for tracking tropical systems and their accuracy is phenomenal. They also work with other agencies to help prepare governments, businesses, and the general public. There is simply no better resource from 5 or less days out.

Severe weather (including snowstorms) is exciting to many people, but if you are looking for utility beyond what the NHC provides we would strongly recommend choosing coverage that focuses on either near-term nuance like microwave data showing strengthening or eyewall replacement cycles, or longer-term modeling using ensembles. Tropical Tidbits from Dr. Levi Cowan offers daily updates with plenty of nuance on named storms and a host of resources beyond just the weather modeling. Tomer Burg has some nice visualizations on his site hosted at OU with heat maps developed from ensemble models to help visualize the probabilities of certain tracks. WeatherNerds has the raw ensembles tracked using "spaghetti models" which show the current modeling spread. There are surely other great resources but we would generally recommend sticking to coverage that focuses on these sorts of things.

What you should avoid is weather coverage that promotes 'deterministic' single run models 10 days out such as the example shown. This storm was first picked up 5 days ago and sure enough some people were showing 15 day out modeling of a massive storm impacting various parts of the Gulf Coast and the Southeast including one that had dual major hurricanes on either side of Florida. This is grossly irresponsible, but unfortunately social media algorithms reward hype, and such content is generally seen by far more people than the responsible coverage, and given that severe weather is both concerning and impactful, this is problematic in several ways.

Hyping severe weather does in fact cause anxiety in a great number of people. For instance if you have been impacted by a flood before, then any mention of severe weather can be triggering. Many people also can't tell a reliable resource from the noise, and the constant drumbeat of 7+ day out events that never happen, end up hundreds of miles away, or impact only smaller areas that can't be effectively identified in advance desensitizes people to even the responsible coverage and official warnings. This can erode the public trust and undermine public safety in the most critical of situations. Even worse the hyped up coverage drowns out the responsible and reliable coverage. This issue is in fact a major and ever-growing concern among those in emergency management.

Unfortunately nothing is going to change in regard to what type of coverage people produce and social media companies will still amplify click-bait coverage from attention seekers, but you can learn how to better navigate this by taking time to understand the difference between reliable and unreliable sources when it comes to weather.

NOTE: Snowology does admittedly hype snowstorms but we do so primarily for the positive effects they bring to skiers, riders, and other snow enthusiasts in the Northeast, and we attempt to do so as accurately as possible with a laser focus on the mountains themselves which is the best place for snow to fall in our opinion! It may be confusing to some to see us not cover monster nor'easters 10 days out that are going viral on social media, but virtually every storm watch we issue results in a storm that impacts the Northeast. We're here for the results and not the clicks because as we like to say, you can't ski hype!

08/09/2025

How often do you visit smaller ski areas (less than 100 acres) vs larger ones?

We have some good news regarding the National Weather Service (NWS) which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheri...
08/07/2025

We have some good news regarding the National Weather Service (NWS) which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The government has now approved 450 new jobs after the agency lost around 600 due to firings and early retirement initiatives earlier this year that left many offices without a sufficient number of forecasters and even management, causing some offices to cease 24 hour operations and reducing weather balloon launches. Keep in mind though that the agency has long struggled to be fully staffed and won't be after these new jobs are filled, but this is a very welcome sight!
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The administration is however continuing to make cuts to NOAA's operations and capabilities in many other ways, especially things involving climate. They have restricted access to satellites operated by the military which is used for things like seeing structures within hurricanes using microwaves, but also for doing things like tracking sea ice. More recently the government has defunded two NASA satellite projects that track CO2 in the atmosphere as well, and the climate website for the government which operated as part of NOAA has been taken off line and redirected to another site that apparently will no longer be updated. For now we still have access to things like the ENSO Blog which is a vital tool for understanding weather patterns, especially those affecting North America in the winter. We believe all of these tools and functions are beneficial to our understanding of weather and enhance everyone's ability to forecast more accurately which in turn helps protect life, property, and our economy.
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Link to the AP article in the comments.

East Coast represent! Ice, don't care. Rocks, don't care. We're unstoppable!
07/29/2025

East Coast represent! Ice, don't care. Rocks, don't care. We're unstoppable!

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀Whiteface has been added to the Mountain Collective pass for the 2025/2026...
07/22/2025

𝗡𝗘𝗪𝗦: 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗳𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘀

Whiteface has been added to the Mountain Collective pass for the 2025/2026 season. This will give Mountain Collective passholders 2 included days at Whiteface, with additional days at 50% off. Their inclusion on the pass also gives Whiteface's own SKI3 full season passholders unlimited 50% off discounts at the 26 other ski areas across the globe. An adult Mountain Collective pass currently runs $669.
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Mountain Collective has been quietly building a presence in the East with 5 resorts now including Whiteface, Bromont, Le Massif, Sunday River, and Sugarloaf. It mainly serves as an add-on pass for destination skiers and riders and includes many world class mountains like Jackson Hole, Aspen Snowmass, Big Sky, Taos, Banff, Revelstoke, Chamonix, Niseko United, and Valle Nevado. With the recent additions in the East this pass is becoming more attractive as an add-on pass for single mountain passholders who want both regional variety and destination possibilities.
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More information is available from ORDA's press release:https://orda.org/2025/07/22/whiteface-mountain-joins-mountain-collective-pass-roster-for-2025-2026-season

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