Bolton Valley, VT 21NOV2017

An image of ski tracks in powder snow and snowflakes in the air at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Thanks to a surprise storm yesterday afternoon, Bolton Valley offered up some fluffy powder turns this morning.

I certainly hadn’t anticipated skiing today, but yesterday afternoon into the evening, Mother Nature dropped a surprise storm on us that really put a fresh coating down on the slopes.  Things began looking a bit suspicious yesterday in the late morning hours, and by midday it was snowing in the Champlain ValleyEven the National Weather Service in Burlington was caught off guard, and before we knew it, it was snowing 1 to 2 inches per hour out in the mountains, and travel on I-89 was getting tricky.  By the time the storm was tapering down in the evening, we had a new half foot of snow at the house, with more in the mountains.

“Even with fat skis, it can be a challenge to float in snow that dry unless you’ve got a lot of it.”

I wanted to see how the storm played out on the slopes, so I stopped for a quick ski tour at Bolton Valley this morning.  My calculations had revealed that the snow was very dry, down around 2% H2O, so fat skis seemed to be in order this time around.  Arriving up at the Bolton Valley Village, I’d describe the weather as having a very Colorado-esque vibe.  The ground was covered with desert-dry, champagne powder and temperatures were in the mid-20s F.  Even before the sunshine hit you, the air just had that comfortable feel, and with the clear skies, the day just held that promise of being sunny, dry, and warm.  I guess it also reminded me of a March ski day to some degree.

An image of fresh snow in a streambed at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VermontI haven’t seen an official report on snow accumulations from the resort, which is not too surprising since they’re still in pre-season, but based on settled depths of the new powder and the rate of settling I’d seen at the house, I’d guess the Village elevations around 2,000’ picked up a half foot of snow.  That’s similar to what we picked up down at the house.  I’d tack on another couple of inches higher in the mountain, which would put accumulations there similar to the 7” reported at elevation for Stowe.  With the 7-8” of fluff, the total snowpack depth I was finding on the upper half of the mountain was in the 10-12” range.  I see that the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake came in at 11” as of tonight’s reading.  The high temperature up there was only 32 F, so that snow probably didn’t undergo much melting and is likely comparable to what I found at Bolton this morning.

An image of fat Telemark skis in snow at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Changing over for the descent at around 2,800′

The skiing was good, although the powder certainly wasn’t bottomless on every turn.  Even with fat skis, it can be a challenge to float in snow that dry unless you’ve got a lot of it.

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