Cochran’s Ski Area, VT 05MAR2011
We were around in Stowe for a bit today but in the afternoon we made our way over to Cochran’s Ski Area in Richmond to check out their 50th anniversary celebration. They had 1961 throwback ticket pricing, so tickets were just 25¢ per person. Everyone in the family went with their Telemark skis, and the boys had fun working on their turns. Cochran’s is 9 miles down the Winooski Valley from our location, and the base elevation is fairly low. At only 500 feet, it’s at the same elevation as our house. Being down in the lower elevations, I’m not sure where temperatures were at in the high country today, but at Cochran’s and in the other lower elevation valleys they were in the 40s F. We only skied on piste, but the snow was a good soft consistency, certainly somewhat spring-like, and it offered great carving.
I hadn’t been to Cochran’s since back in the 1980s, so it was quite fun to see it again. I’d warned E and the boys all about the crazy, fast, and long, rope tow, and wanted to see what she and the boys would think of it. Everyone got to ride it, but since it was a challenge for the boys, we ended up spending most of the afternoon on the smaller rope tow, which was plenty for the boys to work on their Telemark turns. We ran into Kathleen and her daughter during the afternoon, although we missed Stephen and the kids as they’d only been there in the morning. After we finished skiing we poked around the lodge for a bit and got some photos; Cochran’s really is a special place with a lot of history and I know E would love to head back again for another mellow day of skiing.
We’re in the midst of a winter storm that started up today, and although all we’ve seen for precipitation so far has been a little sleet last night, some light snow activity this morning, and a few rain showers during the day, the storm holds a lot of snowfall potential because winter storm warnings are up and we could be looking at a foot or two for the mountains. The latest graphics for projected snowfall from the Burlington office of the National Weather Service are below:
J.Spin