Stowe, VT 27MAR2011

Image of the Chin of Mt. Mansfield and the Stowe gondola
Looking back toward the Chin of Mt. Mansfield and the Stowe gondola from the Nosedive Glades

It was ski program day at Stowe today, and since Johannes and Helena are done with their programs at Bolton, Stephen and the kids tagged along with our group.  I had to drop off Ty at the Stowe Shaw’s to be picked up for a birthday party, but I eventually caught up with Claire, Stephen, and all the kids just as they were heading up the gondola for their first Mansfield run.

Off piste conditions were fantastic, since the upslope pattern was delivering well and Stowe had seen a foot and a half of snow since the Monday event.  I added some of the totals into my update at Americanwx.com, and it showed quite the north to south trend with Jay Peak cashing in nicely:

Jay Peak: 30” (359”)  Stowe: 18” (311”)  Bolton Valley: 14” (316”)  Killington: 4” (251”)

In one of our traverses we stumbled onto a gully in the Lower Goat woods that everyone skied – it had some really steep walls and reminded me of one of those Jackson Hole gullies.  To see the full text and pictures, head to the Stowe trip report from today.

Bolton Valley, VT 26MAR2011

Image of Jay skiing in powder
Jay comes into view skiing some of the beautiful powder in the Villager Trees at Bolton Valley.

The upslope snow has been rolling in, and although we haven’t had a ton of snow from this event yet, snow surfaces are getting a nice freshening.  This morning down at the house we were on our way toward picking up a quick additional inch of snow to put us at 2.8 inches for this end of the week event, and 9 inches for the week.  Bolton was reporting 13 inches over that span, with the snow continuing to fall.  Today we were back up at the mountain again for an afternoon session with Stephen and his kids, and for the first half of the afternoon it was snowing at a good clip.  Everyone joined in for a run on Spell Binder, and using the knowledge about the aspects with best snow that the boys and I had learned yesterday, there were some really awesome bottomless turns available on the skier’s left.  Even with just a few inches of additional snow, the skiing took quite a jump up in quality.  We found the same snow setup on Tattle Tale, and all three boys had fun ripping up the powder in their own way.  We gave Johannes first tracks on one line, and he decided that a figure 11 was the way to go, while Ty and Dylan accented his line with some curves.  We’re starting to nickname Johannes “11”.  For the full text and all the pictures, click through to the Bolton Valley trip report from today.

Bolton Valley, VT 25MAR2011

Ty skiing powder in the Villager Trees
Ty gets ready to dodge a tree as he rips up the powder in the Villager Trees at Bolton Valley

The boys and I hit the powder up at Bolton Valley today and found some great conditions.  The snow continues to fall as indicated in the weather updates in the blog and the skiing just keeps improving.  For all the details and powdery pictures, go to my March 25th report from Bolton Valley.

Bolton Valley, VT 23MAR2011

Ski tracks on Spell Binder
Some of my tracks left in the delicate powder present on Spell Binder this morning

I headed up to the mountain for some turns this morning and got in my first powder of the week, with more powder likely to come as the upslope snow continues to fall.  I skinned up at Timberline and found 3 to 5 inches of powder at 1,500′, and about 6 inches at 2,500′.  The full details and pictures are in my Bolton Valley report from this morning.

Monroe’s Sugarin’, Barton, VT 19MAR2011

Steam rising from the sugarhouse
Steam rising from the Monroe's Sugarin' sugarhouse as boiling commenced

The visit to Steve’s sugarhouse was great today, with the usual assortment of food, snowmachines, skiing, sledding, sugar on snow, and many of the other things that go with spring in Vermont.  Temperatures were actually just below freezing, but with the sunshine and no wind, it was comfortable outside.   

Skiing in Barton Vermont
We found some nice turns in snow that had warmed from the sun.

Additional pictures and more details about the day are available in my full report.The snowpack was plentiful, and we even got to do some skiing during the afternoon.

Bolton Valley, VT 12MAR2011

Tracks in the Villager Trees
There was some decent powder in the Villager Trees

I headed up to Bolton Valley today to catch some afternoon turns, and the sking was pretty nice. There were a couple of fresh inches, and conditions varied from wintry up top with the surfaces helped out by the new powder, to borderline spring-like down low with the surfaces helped out by the warmer temperatures. The powder off piste was certainly vairable, but there were nice turns depending on elevation and aspect.  More details and images are in my Bolton Valley, VT 12MAR2011 report.

Dylan in the powder on the Stowe website

Dylan skiing powder at Stowe
Dylan ripping up the powder in Stowe's Nastar Hill/Meadows area

One of the pictures from our Tuesday visit to Stowe was added to the photo gallery on their website: it’s Dylan ripping up the powder in the Nastar Hill/Meadows area. Way to go Dylan! You can click on the image here to see it full size, there’s another version available in Stowe’s Gallery, or you can find it by browsing the gallery.