Tag: Powder

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Stowe, VT 26MAY2013

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Perry Merrill trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont during a spring storm on Memorial Day Weekend
Visiting Mt. Mansfield for some glorious Memorial Day Weekend powder today

For the past several days, the meteorologists and weather enthusiasts in the New England Regional Forum at American Weather have been talking about a late-season snowstorm with the potential to unload on the northern parts of New York and New England.  Around mid month, a thread discussing the Memorial Day Weekend weather was started, and even at that point there was a suggestion that the weather could be cool.  However, by Thursday, just a couple of days before the weekend, it was obvious that a late-season snowstorm was developing, and the discussion began to focus on just how much snow the Northern Greens were going to get.  I hadn’t been following the weather too closely, but when I stopped in to check the board and found out about the impending snowstorm in the local mountains, my interest was definitely piqued.  We spent last weekend skiing in spring snow on Mt. Washington, and it began to look like this weekend would bring winter skiing on Mt. Mansfield.

“…you didn’t have to
 worry about hitting
anything underneath
and you could just let
it rip.”

Saturday arrived with a nor’easter developing just like the weather models had suggested.  For folks that had outdoor, warm-weather plans for the big holiday weekend, you almost couldn’t find a nastier combination of weather.  Temperatures were in the 40s F, and there was plenty of wind and rain.  We wondered if we were going to have to turn the heat back on in the house.  Reports began to come in about the snow in the mountains, and by mid afternoon, Whiteface was already reporting that they had received 18” of new snow.  As the afternoon wore on, even valley temperatures fell down well into the 30s F in many places in New England, and fairly low elevation spots began to report snow mixing in with the rain.  Although we weren’t getting any snow down to the low elevations in our area, we lost power from about 8:30 P.M. to 9:30 P.M. for some reason, so we headed off to bed early and decided to see how things were going in the morning.

An image of ski trails and a status sign for Route 108 through Smuggler's Notch in Vermont indicating that the notch road was closed due to snow over Memorial Day Weekend
Snow closed down the road through Smuggler’s Notch today.

I made my morning CoCoRaHS observations at 6:00 A.M., and after checking back in on the weather board and looking at some of the mountain web cams, I decided to head to Mt. Mansfield for a ski tour.  I couldn’t tell quite how low the snow line had gotten, but it was still below freezing in the higher elevations, and the precipitation had continued through the night.  There was a good chance that a nice shot of snow had accumulated on Mt. Mansfield.  I didn’t try convincing E or the boys to try to join me, since they were all still in bed, so I got into my ski clothes, let E know that I was on my way, and loaded up the car with my gear.  I don’t typically find the ski gear vying for space with the baseball stuff in the back of the car, but it definitely was today.  I headed off to the mountain around 7:30 A.M. or so, and temperatures throughout the mountain valleys in the Waterbury–Stowe area were in the lower 40s F on my drive.  The precipitation was generally light rain until roughly the point where the electronic sign indicates the status of Route 108 through Smuggler’s Notch, and not long after that, the rain became much heavier.  The sign, by the way, read “NOTCH ROAD CLOSED… DUE TO SNOW”.  The road through the notch tops out near 2,200’, so clearly the snow was accumulating at that elevation on paved surfaces.  The temperature remained in the lower 40s F until that final rise above The Matterhorn to Stowe Mountain Resort, where they dropped into the upper 30s F.

“You could do laps
up there from 2,500’
to 3,600’ and think
it was midwinter.”

I parked at the Midway Lodge (~1,600’), where the temperature was in the mid to upper 30s F, and the precipitation was generally snow, but certainly some rain as well, and the snow that was falling was of course incredibly wet.  It was pretty nasty at that point, with 25 MPH winds and driven wet snow/rain.  The snow wasn’t quite accumulating there, but it was close, and you could see the accumulations just a few hundred feet up the trails.  The weather was nasty enough that I left my lens hood on my camera in its protective orientation, even when it went back in my pack.  I rarely feel the need to do that, and typically flip it back around for storage, but that speaks to just how wet and windy that snow was to make me take that extra step to minimize the amount of precipitation getting on the lens filter.

An image of the 2,100' snow line on the Nosedive trail at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont during the Memorial Day Weekend Storm of 2013
Snow line in sight on Nosedive at 2,100′

In the Midway parking lot there were a few dozen vehicles belonging to skiers, and most of the people were heading up Gondolier, but my initial ascent was via Nosedive; it’s often a good bet for decent snow coverage and preservation in these early and late-season storms.  Also, based on what I saw in the report from AdventureSkier.com last Sunday, it looked like there would be some decent base snow left in case the new snow depths were marginal.  The first traces of snow accumulation on the ascent were at 1,800’, by 2,100’ there was generally complete coverage of the trail, and by ~2,200’ the depth was a couple of inches and it was consistent enough that I switched from hiking to skinning.  Even with those couple inches of snow, I was beginning to experience some occasional slipping as I hiked, so it was nice to get the skis off the pack and on the snow where the skins had beautiful traction.  There was a faint skin track from an earlier ascender, but it was intermixed with some of the descent tracks of skiers and a bit hard to follow.  I met up with another guy that was making the Nosedive ascent, and we chatted a bit about skiing as we made our way up the mountain.  He was just hiking in his boots with his skis on his back, which seemed like a bit more work as the snow got deeper and deeper, but it didn’t appear to slow him down too much.  Listed below are the snow depths I found on the ascent of Nosedive with respect to elevation:

1,600’:  0”
1,800’:  Trace
2,100’:  1”
2,200’:  2”
2,500’:  4”
2,600’:  5”
3,000’:  8”
3,300’:  10” – 12”-15”

We stopped our ascent at 3,300’ because as we approached the switchbacks at the top of the trail we got some beta from a couple of skiers coming down Nosedive – they indicated that everything above that elevation in the switchbacks was scoured and really not worth it, and indeed that was obvious once we got to the landing below that final switchback at 3,300’.  I’m going to call the average snow depth there 10” to be on the conservative side, but there were plenty of areas with 12”-15” of snow; there was just variability due to the effects of wind deposition.  I stuck my measurement pole right in the snow in the center of that landing, and found 15” of snow depth.  The guy that had ascended with me headed up just a bit higher to catch some turns along a drift of snow, so I pulled out the camera and got some action shots as he made his way down.

An image of a skier on the Nosedive trial at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont during a Memorial Day Weekend snowstorm
I didn’t get his name, but he had quite a blast ripping up the powder on Nosedive today.

An image of Vanilla Bean GU Energy Gel

Before beginning my descent, I downed a packet of GU Energy Gel to see if it would provide that extra boost of energy to my legs to permit proficient and aggressive Telemark turns.  I’ve noticed that after fairly long and/or quick ascents, my legs are often still recovering, and not to the stage where they can handle a lot of rigorous Telemark skiing right away.  Alpine turns are typically no problem, since they’re easier and more stable to begin with, and after decades of alpine skiing, my muscles have the memory to really let them do it efficiently.  But those Telemark turns take a lot more work, and it seemed like a little extra boost of quick energy would get me where I needed to be.  So, I took a cue from the boys, who like to have a GU when they’re starting to fade while we’re biking or skiing – the Vanilla Bean flavor is a favorite among all of us.  I usually don’t find that I need to worry about having enough energy on outings with the boys along; the pace is so slow that E and I usually don’t get drained.  The boys certainly push themselves though, often needing some sort of recharge due to their smaller energy reserves, and when that’s the case, it’s GU to the rescue.  On bigger, faster paced outings by myself though, I also feel the drain, and today I wanted to give a recuperative GU shot a try.  I had the GU just a few minutes before my descent, and it absolutely worked.  It helped give my legs that quick energy that they craved, and they had no trouble making Telemark turns.  It was great having maximum powder to drive the legs, and while there’s no way to know exactly how my legs would have performed without the shot of GU, it was certainly my hero for today.  I can still remember when I first learned about those energy gels back in the early 2,000s when Scott and Troy and their Dirtworld.com mountain biking team would use them.  They’d strap them to their handlebars and down one on each lap to keep their energy up.  With the way it performed today, I think a shot of GU before each earned descent is going to become part of the routine.

“There were plenty of
untracked lines to ski,
and it was dense, wall-
to-wall snow…”

As for the snow conditions, indeed there was some leftover base snow on Nosedive, and that offered up great turns, but the new snow itself was extremely dense (probably 12-14% H2O or so) and as long as there was enough of it, there was no need for previous base because it kept you off of anything below.  I caught some beautiful bottomless powder on the skier’s left below the switchbacks, and then a lot more on the skier’s right along the edge of the trail.  The Telemark turns were definitely flowing, and despite the fact that it was dense snow that could easily have been challenging to ski, it wasn’t.  I immediately thought back to that storm last year on April 10th.  Mt. Mansfield picked up more than two feet of dense snow that covered everything, but it was quite a challenge to ski on the Teles.  Sometimes you would punch through the snow too far, perhaps with one ski, making lateral balance tough, and fore-aft balance was also extremely challenging.  It’s possible that there was snow of varying densities in that storm, with some less dense snow underneath the topmost layer.  That’s “upside down” snow, which is typically more challenging to ski.  It was after that storm that I really decided that I wanted some fat, rockered Telemark skis for powder, and eventually got the Black Diamond AMPerages.  I can only wonder how they would have performed in that storm – they would have been nice today, but being unsure of the snow depths I went with my older Atomic RT-86 midfats, and there were no issues.  Really, the most challenging aspect of today’s skiing was negotiating areas of thinner snow as you dropped in elevation.  I was actually quite impressed with the quality of some of the powder skiing on Nosedive today, but little did I know it wasn’t even going to hold a candle to what was in store over at the Gondola.

An image showing a ski measurement pole indicating 22" of snow at the Cliff House at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont on Memorial Day Weekend
22″ of new snow up at the Cliff House today

I had no time limits, and plenty of energy left in the tank with the shortened ascent, so I skied down to the junction of Nosedive and Cliff Trail, and continued my tour by skinning up Cliff Trail.  Within a few moments of starting my ascent, it was obvious that snow depths were substantially greater on Cliff Trail than they were on Nosedive at equivalent elevations.  I wasn’t sure if it was because I was heading toward the Gondola, or because Cliff Trail offers better protection from the wind, but coverage was deep, wall-to-wall.  Unlike what I’d seen on most of Nosedive, there were no signs of whatever lay beneath the snow.  It wasn’t an illusion either; the depth at 3,000’ on Cliff Trail was 11”, vs. the 8” on Nosedive.  The snow just continued to increase as I ascended toward the Gondola, there was 12”+ by the junction with Perry Merrill at 3,400’, and 12” – 15” easily up at the Cliff House.  That’s on the conservative side for what you could find up there, and in general the snow depth was somewhat deceptive because you didn’t sink much into the dense snow.  But right in the middle of Perry Merrill just beyond the Cliff House I measured 22” of new snow in flat terrain with no drifting.  The usual measurement off the top of the picnic tables was deceptive as well – there was about a half foot of snow on the tables, but you could tell that the snow was much deeper because the table’s seats were just about buried.  I measured in the open space between the tables and got a depth of 18”, so presumably the tops of the tables didn’t accumulate the snow well due to wind, melting, or some other effect.  Here’s the summary of the depths I found on the Gondola side ascending via Cliff Trail:

3,000’:  11”
3,400’:  12”-15”
3,600’:  12”-15” – 18”-22”

“…at times it was dense
enough that you’d be
smearing turns right
on the surface.”

I had another GU and got ready for my descent.  Even that first steep pitch of Perry Merrill had great coverage comprised of that dense snow.  Typically you’d sink in a few to several inches, but at times it was dense enough that you’d be smearing turns right on the surface.  It took a moment to adapt when that was happening, but somehow the variability in the turns didn’t seem to disrupt the flow of the skiing – it was just really fun.  I almost headed back down Cliff Trail since the coverage was so complete, but there were already a couple of tracks on it, and it’s fairly narrow, so I opted to check out Perry Merrill instead.  I was hoping it would live up to the coverage I’d seen on Cliff Trail, and indeed it was just as good, if not even a bit better.  There were plenty of untracked lines to ski, and it was dense, wall-to-wall snow, all the way down to 2,500’.  You could do laps up there from 2,500’ to 3,600’ and think it was midwinter.  The snow certainly wasn’t fluffy Vermont Champlain Powder™, it was dense Sierra Cement, but it wasn’t wet or sticky.  It made for plenty of base and just skied really well – it was right near the top on quality that I’ve experienced relative to many similar early and late-season dense-snow events.  Sinking into the snow only a few inches or so was inconsequential compared to the fact that you didn’t have to worry about hitting anything underneath and you could just let it rip.

An image looking down at the base area of Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont from a snowy Perry Merrill trail down toward a snowless base area during a Memorial Day Weekend snowstorm
The view from white to wet

I stopped my descent at around 2,300’, as the snow was down to about 4” and it was getting notably wetter.  You could probably go down to around 2,100’ easily if you had your rock skis.  I hiked down the last 700’ back to the Midway Lodge, and the last vestiges of snow disappeared right around 1,800’ just like I’d seen over on Nosedive.  The precipitation was snow down to just a couple hundred feet above the base, and back down at the lodge it was mostly rain with some snow mixed in at times.  There were some really good bursts of snow on my descent, even in the lower elevations.  The temperature had increased a few degrees to ~40 F at the base, but it was midday at that point, so that was still quite impressive.

Overall, I was really excited about how my equipment and supplies performed on this tour.  My Gore-Tex did its job in keeping me dry, despite the driving rain and snow.  My skins held like glue even in the wet snow, and hiking both up and down in my Telemark boots was a joy.  I remembered to put them in walk mode for the walking sections (and put them back in ski mode for the descents) and it was almost like being in my hiking boots.  And then there was the GU.  It really quickened my recovery for the descents, and I’m going to be keeping that on the tour menu going forward.  The boys won’t be able to borrow GU from me as easily though when they need it.  While the GU certainly did its thing, I’m sure my stop off at Dunkin Donuts to fuel up before the tour also helped.  I was feeling so great when I got home at midday, that I was ready to go for another round of skiing if E and the boys wanted to.  It was still nasty and rainy outside, and not really conducive to doing too much else, but we had some fantastic winter powder skiing sitting up there in the high country.  I couldn’t convince them to go though, so they unfortunately missed out this time.  We did get some quality time indoors though, which I’m guessing a lot of families were doing this weekend.  Ty, Dylan and I had a great round of “The Settlers of Catan” while E did a bit of shopping.  It was quite a storm though, with Whiteface and other areas of the high peaks really cleaning up and putting out some amazing pictures.

An image of snow-capped Mt. Mansfield in Vermont from the west after a Memorial Day snowstorm
…and this is what you get for Memorial Day

Monday update:  The clouds cleared out today to produce crystal blue skies, and naturally that revealed some amazing vistas of the spring foliage and snow-capped peaks everywhere.  Mt. Mansfield and Camel’s Hump were topped with white, shimmering in the strong sun of late May, and the high peaks of the Adirondacks were brilliant.  We traveled around from Waterbury to Vergennes to Cambridge doing various activities, so we took in numerous vantages of the Greens and Adirondacks.  It turned out to be a spectacular Northern New England Day for the holiday, almost as if Mother Nature was trying to strike as sharp a contrast as possible against the recently departed storm.

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Stowe, VT 13APR2013

An image of Ty skiing in the Bypass area of Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Fresh snow in the Bypass Chutes today

The storm that came through the area over the past few days was a real mixed bag; we certainly got some snow, but there was also a lot of sleet, and that was the preponderant precipitation down at our house.  By the time the storm wound down this morning, we’d picked up roughly eight tenths of an inch of liquid equivalent in our sleet and snow, and I suspected that would translate into more than an inch of liquid up in the higher elevations.  Although the new snow accumulations reported this morning were only in the 3 to 5-inch range in the Northern Greens, the snow had all that liquid in it, so there was a good chance of a decent resurfacing of the slopes.

“…a healthy layer of smooth,
dense snow that offered up
some great turns and did
a nice job of covering the
subsurface.”

E and Dylan had midday communion practice, but Ty and I planned to ski, and I’d alerted Ty about the potential for some fresh snow earlier in the week.  He was definitely ready for some skiing, but I was still torn about whether or not to head out first thing in the morning.  Either the snow was going to be good and wintry from the get go because it was soft and sufficient to cover up the old subsurface, or we’d have to wait for it to soften up.  We told E and Dylan that we might just end up doing a run or two if the snow wasn’t good, and Ty was definitely prepared for the worst.  I brought both fat and mid-fat Telemark skis for me, and fat alpines and Telemark skis for Ty – we also brought out skins and ski packs in case we got ambitious and wanted to earn some untracked powder over on the upper part of the Gondola area.

An image of Ty dropping into some April powder in the Toll Road trees at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont
First things first: Ty checks on the powder in the trees.

Ultimately we went with a mid morning start, finding temperatures in the mid 30s F at the base of Mansfield.  The snow on the lowest slopes of the mountain had clearly softened into something nice based on the sounds (or lack of them) we heard from the lift, but up in the higher elevations, the temperature was below freezing and the quality of the skiing was still a mystery.  The top half of the mountain remained in the clouds, and appeared to be well protected from any warming effects of the sun.  We started off the day’s explorations near Ridgeview, and with a few quick samplings off piste it was quickly evident that the high-elevation snow was not some hard, refrozen amalgam of immovable ice, but a healthy layer of smooth, dense, sugary powder that offered up some great turns and did a nice job of covering the subsurface.  Discovering this, we quickly dove into the trees toward Toll Road, and Ty was immediately captivated by the quality of the turns.  He confirmed that we wouldn’t be going home after just one run.  We found ourselves certainly more “on” than “in” the powder, based on the density, but the turns were silky smooth and skiing the trees was like mid winter.  We worked our way down through a series of gladed areas on the various tiers of Upper Toll Road, before reaching Sunrise.  Ty is always talking about how much he likes Toll Road, more for the glades that cut the switchbacks than anything else, and with the discovery of all these new lines it’s becoming even more attractive.  We’ll have to find a way to get in there more often; perhaps I’ll have to capitalize on Ty’s requests.  We dove back into the Sunrise Trees, and continued into the Chapel Glades, with good snow all the way to the Chapel.  The snow really started to transition to a wetter, spring-style consistency below that point, and going was slowed on Lower Tyro.  We did catch some nice, albeit somewhat sloppy and wet, fresh tracks down there though.  After the experience of that first run, I was ever so close to grabbing my fat skis off the car and switching to them, but the mid-fats were getting the job done and I decided to save the time.

An image of the snow depth in the Bypass Chutes at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in VermontOn the next run I decided it was time to introduce Ty to the Bypass Chutes.  He’d never been in there before that I can recall, but I told him that it was like doing the Kitchen Wall traverse in the opposite direction.  We traversed high, and saw a lot of good lines.  The snow was definitely the deepest of the day out there, and when we finally hit an area where my depth checks revealed 11 inches of new snow, it was time to ride.  I couldn’t believe how deep the snow was in that area, but you could see that it was likely spillover from the ice cliffs above.  Mt. Mansfield always seems to find a way to deliver the goods.  Ty hiked up a bit higher than me to get a good starting point, and then let it rip down a beautiful line, while I shots some photos.  Some other skiers who were on the traverse below us stopped to watch the show, and gave him props for his turns.  Ty was definitely loving his first experience in the Bypass Chutes; it’s totally his kind of terrain.  The trip through various steep cutes continued, until we reached Rimrock.  We worked our way over to check out the Gondola area next, and eventually got back into that springtime snow as we dropped in elevation.  One nice aspect of this recent storm made itself apparent though – the sleet that fell really isn’t all that different than corn snow, so it really made a quick transition to something other than mush.  There were still sticky areas due to the recent snow, but overall that snow was transitioning to a nice spring snow much quicker than dry, fine-grained powder would.

“…the turns were
silky smooth and
skiing the trees
was like mid
winter.”

We had a good lunch in the Mansfield Base Lodge, and by the time we got back out, the clouds had risen up to near the peaks, and it was really starting to warm up.  There were even some breaks in the clouds off to the east and it was starting to turn into a partly sunny day.  The freezing level had climbed all the way to the top of the Fourrunner Quad.  We did get back into the Upper Toll Road Glades, but the snow was much wetter than it had been, and we spent most of the run back on the trails.  Although not quite up to the level it was before, the skiing was still decent, but Ty was pretty tired and we called it a day.  We’ve got more precipitation falling this evening though, and with temperatures in the 30s F down here in the valley, it’s going to be frozen up high.  The snowpack at the stake continues to sit in that 70-80 inch range, and coverage remains excellent at Stowe all the way down to the lowest elevations.  I suspect the mountain could be sitting at roughly 100% open if they really had the traffic to warrant it.

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Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT 06APR2013

An image looking down Profanity Chute above Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont
Looking down from the top of Profanity Chute at some nice winter snow

Today turned out to be a day of actual “Alpine Touring” in the high elevations of Mt. Mansfield.  Although Stowe picked up a foot of snow earlier this week, the freezing level eventually rose fairly high over the past few days, and that brought the lower elevation snow surfaces back into spring time cycling.  There wasn’t going to be much spring softening of the snow today though – highs in the Bolton Valley Village at ~2,100’ were predicted to be below freezing, and up in the peaks the temperatures weren’t supposed to get out of the 20s F.  That sounded like a frozen granular recipe for those elevations that had gone above freezing, so it seemed like a prime time to head to the high elevations up near 4,000’.  I’ve been waiting for a day to get up into the alpine areas of The Chin so that I could explore some lines to ski with the boys, and today’s conditions were the perfect excuse.  It was crystal clear, and visibility is always something to consider if you’re going to go exploring around above tree line.

“The snow was
definitely all
winter up there…”

I laughed to myself as I was driving to the mountain around midday and saw that even in the valleys the temperature was below freezing.  There definitely wasn’t going to be much in the way of softening today.  If the alpine areas had been warmed, it was going to be a short outing, because there was no need to play around up there on bad snow that had been refrozen.  Despite the sub-freezing temperatures all the way down to the valleys, there was still the occasional reminder of spring.  As I was driving near The Gables Inn on the Mountain Road, I was momentarily distracted as a red fox was chasing a skinny, dark black animal (perhaps a mink) all over the place alongside and across the road.  The mink didn’t seem especially scared, and it actually wasn’t all the much smaller than the fox; it was almost as if the two were simply engaging in some sort of springtime frivolity.

I parked at the Midway Lodge, hopped on the Gondola, and began my hike right up above the Cliff House once the lift dropped me off.  I’ve hiked that route in the fall before with E and the boys – it’s the hiking route called Cliff Trail (not to be confused with Stowe’s ski trail called “Cliff Trail”.  There’s quite a dramatic difference in what one experiences up there in the warmer months – the trail wraps around, under, and over 20-foot tall boulders and other sorts of obstacles.  However, in the winter it’s essentially buffed smooth with meters and meters of snow.  That’s pretty amazing, and speaks to just how deep the snow gets up there.  On my ascent from the Cliff House at ~3,600’, the surface of the snow initially had a thick layer on top that seemed to be some sort of melt and/or wind crust, but at around the 3,800’ level, the snow began to get better and pockets of powder were starting to appear.  Before I knew it, I’d hit the ridge around 4,100’.  Relative to similar warm weather hikes, it felt like no time at all had passed, and it’s a testament to just how much easier it is to hike that route when all the huge rocks are covered with a nice, smooth surface of snow.  I did get to follow someone else’s boot pack though, and that certainly helped with the pace.

An image looking down the Cliff Trail Gully in the alpine terrain of Mt. Mansfield above Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont
The Cliff Trail Gully today offering some winter snow

I spent a few minutes on the ridgeline, and then dropped in for some turns.  The snow was definitely all winter up there, I’d say the bigger enemy had been the winds.  I got in some nice turns, and once I’d dropped a couple hundred feet and the snow quality started to deteriorate, I popped my skis back on my pack and headed skier’s left to see where it brought me.  The travel was very easy with all the snow, and I quickly came to the next gully over.  I hiked up that one to the top, but didn’t find the snow to be up to the best stuff I’d found over in the Cliff Trail Gully.  I made a short descent in that gully, just enough to get me access to keep moving to the left, and then came to a third gully.  By the time I topped out in that one I was actually starting to get close to The Chin, so I decided to just continue up and poke around to see what descents might have good snow.

I checked out both Profanity Chute and Hourglass Chute, and they both appeared to have good winter snow in them.  I haven’t been down Hourglass since I skied it about 15 years ago, but as I watched people side-slipping their way through the crux, it didn’t seem all that appealing.  The snow quality looked decent, it didn’t quite have the appealing look that Profanity did, so I ended up going down Profanity Chute for my descent.  Taking that option was a bonus as well, because I don’t think I’ve ever skied it before.  It’s definitely a fun line, and it’s not excessively steep at probably 30 degrees or so, it gives you a nice ride with an alpine feel.  The snow was generally packed powder, although there were a few slick spots in there.  I cut left and followed the main line down through the subalpine areas, and outside the main track there were good shots of powder – I was often finding depths of 10 to 11 inches and it was quality stuff.  The snow definitely started to deteriorate below 4,000’.  It was mostly in the main lines where there had been traffic, but those spots were certainly slick.  Following the lower connection of the chute through the evergreens was notably more challenging than the crux up at the top, in part due to the firmer snow in those lower elevations.  I made my way back toward Chin Clip, and connected onto Gondolier.  Conditions were pretty bad as far as I was concerned, it was a lot of frozen granular, with the best relief from that being the loose granular that people had pushed around.  I’m not sure how much day tickets cost at Stowe today, but I’m surprised how busy the mountain was.  The parking lots were reasonably full, so apparently there are plenty of folks out there that didn’t mind the conditions.  We’re heading back to Stowe tomorrow for BJAMS ski program, and the potential is there for some warmer temperatures.  It feels like we’ll either need some of those warm temperatures, or enough new snow to soften up the surfaces.

A Google Earth/GPS plot showing the route of my tour in the Chin Area of Mt. Mansfield
A close up view of the Google Earth/GPS map of today’s tour – click for the full size image.
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Bolton Valley, VT 02APR2013

An image of ski tracks in powder snow on the Alta Vista trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Starting off with the powder on Alta Vista today

I hadn’t really been paying attention to the weather forecast over the past couple of days, but I looked out in the back yard this morning to find that no longer was it just the leftover snow standing out – everything was whitened again.  It looked like it was back to spring in Northern New England.  There was over an inch of snow on our back yard snowboard here in Waterbury as of my 6:00 A.M. CoCoRaHS report, and after a short lull in the precipitation, the snowfall came back in with huge flakes.  When I checked the morning snow reports for the local resorts, I found that Bolton Valley hadn’t updated theirs yet, and I wasn’t sure if they were going to since they aren’t firing up the lifts until the weekend.  Just a bit farther north though, Stowe was reporting in, and they were at seven inches of new snow and counting.  If they’d received that much snow, Bolton was likely to be somewhere in that ballpark as well, so I packed up the gear for a stop in at the local hill on my way to Burlington.

“while I finished gearing
up for the ascent, the
snowfall ramped up to
probably 2 to 3 inches
per hour or more…”

Light snowfall in the valley became a decent 1”/hr snowfall up in the Bolton Valley Village at 2,100’.  A couple of minutes after parking and beginning to get my gear together, I re-parked the car with the back facing to the east because everything inside was getting covered with flakes due to the heavy snowfall driven by those westerly winds.  That reorientation was apt, because Mother Nature decided to really crank up the snow spigot at that point; while I finished gearing up for the ascent, the snowfall ramped up to probably 2 to 3 inches per hour or more, with visibility dropping to less than 100 yards.  It seemed like the parking lot picked up another inch in just 10 minutes.

An image of heavy snowfall at the base of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont during an early April snowstorm
Ahh, just dumping.

The resort appeared absolutely deserted as I began my ascent behind the main base lodge.  The wind was howling at times, and it was certainly pushing the snow around and making it difficult to get a read on just how much had fallen.  I took a route up Beech Seal and then Cobrass to the Vista Summit and made the following measurements for new snow over the old spring subsurface:

2,100’:  3-4”
2,500’:  4”
2,600’:  5”
3,100’:  5-6”

An image of fresh snow on evergreen boughs along the side of the Cobrass Trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Views of the fresh powder as I ascend Cobrass

With no midweek grooming taking place, the only issue with regard to measuring the snow depth was that wind, which somehow seemed to find a way to mess with everything on the compass that had any sort of westerly component.  There had definitely been some southwesterly winds, because during my ascent of Cobrass I saw that the powder had been blasted in most areas, and indeed up at the Vista Summit I found the wind turbine facing a somewhat uncommon southwesterly direction.  I was happy to see that it was running though and cranking out some power for the resort.

Seeing that wind, I opted for starting my descent on a more northerly aspect using Alta Vista, and the powder was notably better there with respect to scouring.  The snow was indeed quite dry as my morning snow analysis from down at the house indicated, so even with 115 mm underfoot I was still hitting the subsurface on 50% of my turns.  On the lower mountain I opted for Fanny Hill, since it’s typically well protected from most wind.  A little wind had gotten in there, but nothing like what I’d found in the more exposed areas.  Overall the skiing was certainly decent, with a good dose of surfy turns in the new snow, but not so mind-blowing that I wanted to throw on the skins for another run and delay getting to town.  I’d had a good morning workout in any event, and headed off with a smile.

“…even with 115 mm
underfoot I was still
hitting the subsurface
on 50% of my turns.”

As of this evening it’s clear that Mt. Mansfield really took the brunt of this storm though, with a foot of snow down and some nice views of it thanks to Powderfreak’s usual snow journalism.  His Stowe shots from today are certainly worth a look to see Mt. Mansfield doing its thing.  Stowe, both the mountain and the village, looks like it was definitely the spot for this event based on those images and the reports coming out of the rest of the Vermont ski areas.  Bolton did update their snow report today, and they came in with four inches.  That’s certainly reasonable based on what I found, and either a bit on the conservative side for the summit areas – or they may be reporting just from the Village since the groomers hadn’t been out.  This storm has brought the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield stake up to a healthy 87 inches, and it looks like there are a couple more cold days on tap in which to enjoy the new powder.

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Bolton Valley, VT 30MAR2013

An image of Ty skiing in spring corn snow on the Spell Binder trail in the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Spring corn snow at Timberline today

We planned on getting in some skiing on soft, spring snow today, but Mother Nature had different plans and gave us a lot more than that. Temperatures were below freezing at all elevations last night, which is good for running the corn snow cycle, but it meant that surfaces would need some time to soften into what we were seeking.  With that in mind, we took care of other projects in the morning and let the sun do its thing to warm up the snow.  At around midday I checked on the temperature in the Bolton Valley Village (elevation 2,100’), and it was still reading just 34 F despite being in the low 50s F down at the house (elevation ~500’).  Although skies were clear and that late March sun is getting powerful, 34 F at the base meant that summit temperatures were likely below freezing, so if that snow needed softening, it probably wasn’t going to get it.  An hour or so later, I checked and found that the Village temperature had only risen to 37 F, but we figured that the lower slopes, especially those at Timberline below the elevation of the Village, would certainly be softening by that point.  With Bolton Valley having an extensive amount of west-facing terrain, softening in the morning can be slow, but it really gets rolling in the afternoon sunshine.

“It was really interesting to
find the mountain featuring
essentially everything from
mid-winter to spring
conditions today…”

The snowpack has mostly disappeared from the bottom of the Winooski Valley as we approach April, and even on the lower sections of the Bolton Valley Access Road the situation is the same.  It’s not until climbing to around 1,000’ that substantial snowpack starts to return, and then it really snaps into place once you get above the big S-curve in the access road and up to the base of Timberline (elevation ~1,500’).  We parked there, finding that the temperature was around 40 F, and as we rode the lift we could immediately see that the snow in the Timberline area had nicely softened into corn.  I was also impressed with how extensive and complete the snow coverage was on the trails, even all the way down to the Timberline Base.  There were a few bare spots around in some of usual sensitive areas, but the natural snow terrain was really in good shape.

“We made our way over
toward Dylan’s “Heaven”
line, which turned out
to be more like “Hell”…”

The resort’s Rock and Roll Pond Skimming event, which had been postponed from last Saturday due to the winter-like temperatures, was just finishing up as we boarded the Vista Quad.  With the full sun, today was a much better fit for the pond skimming, even if it wasn’t outrageously warm.  Riding on Vista we began to see that conditions actually appeared to be wintry on the upper mountain, and indeed that’s what we found as we made a run on Spillway.  There was even some powder off to the sides, and I caught some nice turns in there, but for the most part it was standard packed winter snow.  It was nice, but nothing that was going to compete with the powder or corn snow.  The conditions then transitioned into a mix of winter and spring snow on the lower half of the main mountain, depending on sun exposure and aspect.

An image of Dylan skiing some spring snow in the Villager Trees at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Searching for that perfect aspect in the Villager Trees

The plan today had initially been to work on some steep terrain like Spillway and Devil’s Playground in soft spring snow, but with the discovery of some powder on the upper mountain, we decided to visit “The Crack” to see if there was any untracked powder up there.  The boys had some fun as we made the ascent, climbing other routes that Dylan pioneered over by the icicles, and starting a snowball fight with me when they had the high ground.  We made our way over toward Dylan’s “Heaven” line, which turned out to be more like “Hell”, since the snow wasn’t softened.  Indeed the snow remained wintry, but it had taken on a dense layer of about an inch thick from previous elevated temperatures.  That line is north-facing, but at around 2,500’ or so, it wasn’t quite high enough to avoid whatever warming had taken place earlier in the week.  It turned out that someone had already skied Heaven anyway, so we ventured left and changed to a more westerly aspect.  Ultimately, we actually found far better turns in the Villager Trees on west-facing terrain that had been softened by the sun today.

Since the Timberline area seemed to be low enough in elevation to support soft snow from top to bottom, we finished off the day there, with Spell Binder being our favorite run.  We found lots of excellent corn snow from top to bottom, but a few shots were getting sticky if they were in direct sun and hadn’t seen traffic.  As good as the snow was down there, I think the boys had just as much fun throwing snowballs around in the sunshine as they did making turns.  It was really interesting to find the mountain featuring essentially everything from mid-winter to spring conditions today based on how warm it got in the lower mountain valleys.  I’d break it down as the upper mountain from around 3,200’ to 2,500’ featuring winter snow on all aspects except directly south-facing, the lower mountain from ~2,500’ to ~2,000’ featuring a mix of conditions depending on sun exposure, and then most of Timberline featuring spring conditions with its lower elevations down to 1,500’.  Hopefully we’ll get to do something similar next weekend as Bolton Valley rolls into April.

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Stowe, VT 24MAR2013

An image of Ken jumping off a rock on skis into the powder above Green Acres at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Ken tests out the powder landings above Green Acres.

I made a Bruce Trail reconnaissance run back in January, and since then we’ve been waiting for the right combination of snowpack, weather, and coach availability to bring our BJAMS group for a trip down the Bruce.  A couple weeks ago, the forecast began to suggest that the snowpack was just going to continue to build through March, so we decided to bide our time.  Indeed as the forecast suggested, this “powder week”, with between 30 and 50 inches of snow at the Northern Vermont resorts along the Green Mountain spine, has bolstered base depths.  One result of all that snow has been the growth of the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake; it’s finally crept above average this week, reaching a depth of 82 inches as of yesterday.  With excellent snowpack now all the way down to the mountain valleys, a forecast for partly cloudy skies with temperatures around 30 F, and good availability of the BJAMS ski program coaches that wanted to ski the Bruce… today was the day for our trip.

“All in all that had
to be just about
perfect conditions
today for skiing
the Bruce…”

We had a little time before our group got together, so we did a warm up run on Sunny Spruce with Connor and his dad.  As expected, the snow quality was excellent – it was packed powder on the trails and powder off piste, with just a few bare spots here and there on steeper south-facing terrain like Freddie’s Chute.  One of the highlights of that run was West Slope, where we rode the ridge along the skier’s left with big swooping drops into the chowder on the left side.  At one point I heard Luke screaming out behind me something like “That was so intense!” after launching a huge drop on one of his turns… intense indeed!

An image taken in the Spruce Peak Village area at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in VermontWe gathered up our group, which featured Claire, Ken, Julia, Luke, Ty, Dylan, and me.  Along with Joana and big Luke, we were missing Joe, Sam and Ethan today, and I suspect they would have loved to make a run down the Bruce, but hopefully they’ll get to do it next time.  Apparently Joe did have a great day out on the mountain on Friday with Ken though, so he’s had a good dose of all this new snow.  We debated briefly about whether we should do our Bruce run at the beginning of the day or the end of the day, but with some folks having obligations preventing them from lingering at the mountain too long at the end, we decided that we’d better start with the Bruce and fill extra time in with some other runs at the end of the day.  Based on my reconnaissance day, I was going with a fairly conservative estimate of two hours for us to complete the run to the base of the Bruce.  I knew there wouldn’t be any problems for anyone in terms of the skiing, I was just unsure about what our pace would be through the flatter terrain in the Nordic areas.  If the kids found it tiring it might take longer than what I’d experience on my own, so I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

An image of Ty skiing powder at the top of the Bruce Trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Dropping into the Bruce Trail for an afternoon run
An image of Luke, Julia, and Dylan making their way down the Bruce backcountry ski trail near Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Luke, Julia, and Dylan make their way down a narrow section of the Bruce Trail.

We didn’t waste any time getting to the top of the Bruce, we crossed on the Over Easy and went right up the Fourrunner Quad.  Unlike down in the base elevations, there was a brisk wind up there around 3,600’.  Some of the boys dropped in the alternate entrance to the Bruce for a bit of powder and I grabbed a few pictures there and some more as they dropped below me on the trail.  It was packed snow on the trail, but the quality was excellent, far better than what I’d experienced on my January trip, which was after a thaw the previous week.  The skiing in the upper sections went pretty much as expected, the boys were having a blast with the bumps and jumps, and one could explore the powder off to the sides when areas opened up in the trees.  A few of the steepest pitches were a little scraped down in spots, but that was pretty minimal because of the deep base and recent snow.  As we got down into the hardwoods and the forest began to open up even more, I started venturing father off the trail into powder lines based on my previous knowledge.  The powder was generally a foot plus in most places, and that worked well on most pitches – enough to slow you down on the steeper stuff, but not bog you down too much in the mellower areas.  Down on the Nordic trails, the final, flatter part of the descent went very smoothly.  Ty noticed one of those wavy green lines one of the trail signs, indicating beginner Nordic terrain, and with regard to the perceived flatness he said, “Oh no, that type of sign is never good!”  I’d say he found out that it really wasn’t that bad.  The kids did a nice job of keeping their pace on the flatter areas, and I’d give Ty and Dylan occasional boosts to keep their pace up.  They started to play around and get tangled up with each other as they skated and poled their way down the trail, so that kept them entertained even on the flats.  As a bonus we got those beautiful views of the snowy Ranch Brook, and the snow stayed quite powdery all the way down to 1,000’. All in all that had to be just about perfect conditions today for skiing the Bruce, comfortable temperatures, partly cloudy skies, and dry snow all the way to the base.  I’m not sure what more one could ask for aside from getting first tracks!

An image of skiers riding the Mountain Road Shuttle Bus in Stowe
Riding the Mountain Road Shuttle – it’s almost worth doing the Bruce Trail just for that!

From leaving the Spruce Peak Base to reaching the bottom of the Bruce at Route 108, it had taken a bit under 90 minutes, so we made it well under my two-hour conservative estimate, even with the large group.  We were about 20 minutes ahead of the next Mountain Road Shuttle when we reached the end of the trail, so we popped into Notchbrook Convenience Store for some snacks, and enjoyed the early spring weather while we waited.  The March sun is quite nice right now, and it’s the beautiful sort of weather that is keeping the snow dry instead of sticky, even with relatively warm air.  Ty and Dylan loved the ride on the shuttle, and Ty only half jokingly insisted that “The Bruce was nice, but it’s the bus ride that’s really my favorite part of the trip.”  He certainly does like to ride buses.  For a representative GPS/Google Earth map or elevation profile plot of the travel circuit we used to ski the Bruce Trail, refer to my Bruce Trail trip report from January 21st.

An image of Luke completing a jump turn at the top of the Green Acres area at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont
Luke comes out of a jump turn in the Green Acres area.

When we arrived back at the Spruce Peak Base Area, we had another hour or so before the lifts stopped running, and we decided to use our remaining time for a trip over to the Sensation Quad.  With the relatively deep March snowpack, it seemed like a good time to ski as much of Spruce Line as we could.  The strengthening sun is only going to start beating on that south-facing terrain more and more.  I was surprised to find that the steep terrain above Green Acres was fairly wind scoured, but we found a line through and the boys did some great steep turns and jumps off one of the rocks there.  Dylan led the charge with an impressive jump turn off the rock, landing in a sea of deep powder.  He was followed up by the other boys, including Luke who was totally jazzed at how high he went.  That steep pitch used to intimidate him, and now he’s launching huge jump turns off boulders into powder.  It’s great to see him expanding his skiing literally by leaps and bounds.  Ken launched a beautiful air off the rock as well, although he had to deal with sloppy fourth or fifths in terms of the powder on the landing.  The snow in Green Acres was excellent – powder of well over a foot in depth, which was plenty to slow you down in some of those tighter tree lines.  We couldn’t ski all of Spruce Line because parts were closed, but we did get the middle section that was fairly lightly tracked with some beautiful snow.  The group also enjoyed the chance to ski Main Street since there weren’t any races taking place – having Main Street open up for general traffic is one of those great things about approaching the spring season at Stowe.

“The Bruce was nice,
but it’s the bus ride
that’s really my
favorite part of
the trip.”

While most of the group had to leave a bit early, Ty, Dylan, and I found time to squeeze in one more run on Sunny Spruce.  We dropped into Freddie’s Chute, and Dylan worked his way to the woods on the skier’s right for some powder.  He ended making an impressive drop off a log, which had to be 8 to 10 feet high.  He did manage to hit his chin with his knee on the landing, and it wasn’t of any consequence, but I did stress the point of being aware that that can happen and making sure that your tongue is not anywhere near your teeth.  That was really an aggressive drop that he made, and between Bolton yesterday and Stowe today, he’s really been on fire with the airs this weekend.  With deep bases and deep powder though, ‘tis the season for such things.  We followed that up with some exploration of the trees off to the skier’s left of Lower Smuggler’s – a section that none of us have ever explored before.  We found some good lines, with just a bit of a slow exit on flat terrain.  We finished off with a final descent down West Slope, making use of that ridge and flying off the edge into the powder.

I just checked the forecast, and we’ve apparent got more snow on the way this week.  Nothing too big is expected, but the mountains often seem to do a lot with just a little moisture in the forecast.  Indeed this is turning out to be quite a March for skiing in the Northern Greens as we make up for the rather paltry snowfall of January and February.

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Bolton Valley, VT 23MAR2013

An image of Dylan skiing deep powder in the KP Glades area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Dylan working the powder in the KP Glades today

In Northern Vermont we remain under the influence of an area of low pressure stuck over the Maritimes, and it dropped another round of snow overnight.  We picked up just shy of 4 inches down here at the house, and Bolton Valley picked up 7-10 inches.  That amount of fresh snow changed my thoughts for today from a more sidecountry or backcountry outing, to a lift-served one.  There’s been close to 30 inches of snow on the upper mountain in the past week, and with this latest round from last night I’d expect even the on piste skiing to be great.

We arrived at Timberline right around the opening of the Timberline Quad, and kicked things off with a Brandywine to Intro to Spell Binder run.  There was some decent powder off to the edges of Brandywine and Intro up top (including enough to bog Dylan down for a great crash that delighted the folks on the lift above), but it was Spell Binder that had the real pay dirt.  There were a few tracks that had been set down, but other than that it was a sea of untracked snow.  I suspect that run would be picked as a favorite in the group today.  The snow wasn’t especially deep, but there was plenty of it for bottomless turns and the density worked out pretty well.  We went with Adam’s Solitude next, and had the fortune to meet Steve from thesnowway.com.  We had an enjoyable run with Steve, and I even managed to sneak in some ski-related conversation.  I’ve avoided Adam’s Solitude over the past several weeks, not being really sure that it had the coverage I want to see in there, and based on what I saw today, it really needed this latest storm.  I know that Steve has been visiting a variety of resorts this season, and it’s great that the recent snowfall brought him over to Bolton for some turns.  I see that he’s already written up his report from the day, so click on over and check it out.  Hopefully Steve can get back for another Bolton trip to check out Wilderness (the Wilderness Chair was down on wind hold today) and some of the backcountry.

An image of Dylan and Ty skiing powder on the Spell Binder trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
The boys teaming up to shred the great snow on Spell Binder today

Dylan was really hankering’ a waffle from the Waffle Cabin – in the spirit of what we were calling his hobbit-style “second breakfast”.  We made our way over only to find that the Waffle Cabin was closed, but we went for an inside snack nonetheless and had a good time sitting by the fire.  We made a Vista run after that, and I directed everyone to Devil’s Bowl… or at least close.  We overshot it a bit and ended up skiing the trees off to skier’s left, but there was a lot of untracked snow in there.  Ty called for a return to Timberline, which went over pretty easily with everyone else since the winds, which were definitely howling at the top of Vista, were notably lower down there.  We caught the lower part of Tattle Tale on the return, and noticed three guys that were actually skiing Upper Tattle Tale – but the Tattle Tale headwall looked really bony from wind scouring and they were essentially skiing around it on the edges of the trail.  Lower Tattle Tale had some decent powder, but a lot of tracks on it.  Fortunately even the previously tracked snow was good, and Ty said he liked it a lot.  We decided on one more run before breaking for lunch, which included the Intro Trees followed by a trip through Doug’s Solitude.  That run was mostly satisfying Dylan’s request to see a lean-to that E and the boys had built during the summer a couple of seasons ago in the Timberline Mid Station area.  It’s still standing, despite the deep snow.  The boys launched some nice airs at the end of those lines though – Ty’s was very smooth with a nice sloped landing, and Dylan’s was flatter with a couple of tiers.  We did discover though that the route back to the Solitude traverse needs some definite trimming this off season as it’s got a lot of small vegetation clogging the lines back there.

An image of Dylan dropping off a cliff into the powder while skiing at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Dylan on a drop in today

After lunch it was the Wood’s Hole/KP Glades show for the boys.  We took the first run with E and she stuck to the trail because her legs were getting a bit cooked for too many more Telemark turns in the steep trees.  The boys were looking to drop some cliffs, and drop them they did.  They were so excited that we hit two more rounds in there even after Mom called it quits for the day and headed for the lodge.  The boys were definitely in the zone during that afternoon session, and the vibe was good because they kept feeding off each other and the whole scene.  The powder out there was set up well for dropping off the various ledges and cliffs – I checked a number of times and was getting depths of 22 inches where snow hasn’t been disturbed during all these recent rounds of snowfall.  Landings were very soft, although Ty did have to walk away from one that I judged just a bit too dangerous with a log and a rock in the landing zone.  He was all set to charge it based on what he saw from above, but once he got down and had a look he thanked me for the warning.

It was a wintry March day today, not especially cold with temperatures in the 20s F, but brisk enough with the wind that the pond skimming had to be postponed.  This cold weather is really keeping that powder in great shape however, and we’re not worried because we know that spring weather will come eventually.  Until then I say keep the snow flying to make up for the slow January and February.  The season is still below average on snowfall (~90% of average at the house), so even though the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake sailed above average to 82 inches today, we’ve still got some catching up to do in that department.  We could actually be in for a repeat of last night’s snow tonight.  Winter weather advisories up for the Northern Greens for as much as 10 inches of snow, but we’ll have to see how that plays out – so far the radar hasn’t really seemed to light up the way it did last night.

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Bolton Valley, VT 21MAR2013 (Evening)

An image of Dylan making a Telemark turn in powder snow while E looks on at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Back at Bolton Valley for another round of powder in the evening

E had been talking about getting another evening of skiing in at Bolton Valley before the season ended, and things came together today to make it happen.  I’d initially forgotten about the potential plans when she called me at work this afternoon, especially since I was somewhat satiated and ready to get a lot of work done after a great morning session at Timberline.  Although I did have a lot of work that I wanted to get done in the evening, she said that the boys were interested in going up for some skiing as well.  It was hard not to jump at the opportunity if they were eager for some turns – an evening out on the slopes would probably be better for everyone than an evening of TV or similar indoor things.  Even if there isn’t an ongoing hefty storm to really sweeten the deal, conditions are pretty darned good after the recent snows, and temperatures haven’t been too bad either.  As we chatted on the phone, I began to describe the fantastic turns that I’d had this morning, lamenting the fact that they weren’t there to experience the powder.  But, as we began to plan the evening, I suddenly realized that they actually could get out on that same snow.  We’re into daylight savings time and past the spring equinox now, and there’s light in the sky until 7:00 P.M.  The evening plans began to shift, and pretty soon we were discussing the logistics of an evening Timberline run.  I initially thought that we should just skin up like I’d done in the morning, until E pointed out that it could be done much more quickly if we used the lifts and made it a sidecountry run.  That was brilliant of course, because it would be much faster for the boys than trying to do a full ascent under their own power.

“…it was the kind of snow
that made you just want
to keep going and going
with turn after turn, and
apparently that’s what I
did.”

Even with the relatively late sunset, time was still going to be of the essence, so we quickly decided on how to optimize our schedule.  E and the boys were at the house, just a few minutes from the resort, but I was farther away in Burlington.  Conveniently though, I still had all my gear right in the car from my morning outing; I could get into my ski clothes on the way to the mountain, and easily be there by 6:00 P.M. ready to go.  That would give us a good hour of light, which would be plenty of time for a lift-assisted lap on Timberline.

I made good time traveling from Burlington, and arrived in the Timberline lot a few minutes before 6:00 P.M.  That gave me enough time to park my car, get into my ski boots and outer layers, and have all my gear ready to go by the time E and the boys arrived.  They picked me up and we headed up to the Village.  There were no concerns about leaving a pair of “driving boots” in the car (one of those logistical aspects that has almost caught us in the past) because I was already in my Telemark boots and I had two other pairs of boots/shoes in the car.  We were good to go.  E dropped me and the boys and all the gear off right at the base of the Snowflake Lift, and we got everything ready while she parked the car and got suited up herself.  It was fun to be on that end of the preparation duties, since I’m typically the one parking the car.  Within a few minutes we were on the Snowflake Lift heading upward, with the sun still well above the horizon.  Even without lights, the resort still had all the trails of the Snowflake area open because of the extended daylight, so we easily made it over toward Five Corners and up to the Timberline Summit.

Everything had gone smoothly on our part, but there were still a couple of potentially confounding factors with regard to the skiing:  1) since the resort is planning to resume Timberline lift service tomorrow, they had been grooming some of the terrain, and 2) even with relatively cold temperatures, it appeared that sun exposed areas on the western slopes had melted a bit due to the strong March sun, and that left a sun crust that we’d want to avoid if at all possible to get the very best powder turns.

An image of Ty skiing in powder down the Intro headwall area at Bolton Valley resort in Vermont
Ty’s “Intro” to some of the evening’s powder

The upper part of Brandywine had been groomed pretty thoroughly, so that only left a few options for powder skiing.  As I expected, we found that the shaded, skier’s left of the trail yielded the best snow – in most cases one could get powder that was just as pristine as what I’d found in the morning.  With some grooming having been done on both Showtime and Twice as Nice, Spell Binder gave the most available powder below the top section of terrain, and we made our way there.  Just like I’d experienced on Showtime in the morning, the Spell Binder Headwall was in decent shape aside from a little scouring at the very top – I’d say we have the easterly wind to thank for that.  As long as one stayed along that skier’s left, and fortunately there was plenty of untracked snow there, they were catching some very good powder.  Dylan, E and I focused our efforts on that area, while Ty, who had decided to go with his fat alpine skis, seemed to have no problem ripping up any part of the trail, regardless of whether it had seen the sun or not.  He was simply flying down the slope at times – at one point he said he was going so fast that he wasn’t even leaving a track.  I think a little sun crust might have been involved in that one, but he really did seem to be a kinetic blur most of the time off to our right, and he does seem to have elf-like abilities at time atop the snow.  Dylan had daringly chosen to go with his Telemark skis, and certainly struggled at times, but he also made some really nice turns.  E was initially disheartened with the performance of her fat skis on some of the packed terrain we’d hit on the way down, but they sure seemed to work well for her when she was in the powder – as they should.  I had no complaints, my AMPerages did heir amazing job in the powder, and even when I strayed a bit far toward the crust, they seemed to help me get on track with plenty of crust-busting power.  Like this morning, it was the kind of snow that made you just want to keep going and going with turn after turn, and apparently that’s what I did.  E thought I might stop at one point as we were farther down the trail to pass the camera off to her for some pictures, but she was surprised to see me just cruise right on by.  In reality though, pictures were getting tough as time wore on – the sun was going down and the light was getting quite dim.  Low light is the enemy of high speed photography, and we were pushing it even with using the DSLR.  We still got some decent shots out of the session, even if I had to crank up the ISO to somewhat grainy levels.  We definitely made the most of the light we had.

It was kind of neat the way things came together this evening to let us get in that late-day sidecountry run, and we’ll definitely have to keep these sorts of spring days in mind for future.  We’ve got more snow coming in over the next couple of days, with more fluff to top off what’s currently out there.  I think it’s going to be a fun experience as we balance out the new snow with which aspects and elevations have seen that bit of sun crust, but I’m sure there will be some great turns out there this weekend.

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Bolton Valley, VT 21MAR2013

An image of ski tracks in powder snow on the Showtime trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Still reaping the benefits of this week’s nor’easter at Bolton Valley

Today felt like a blast from the past… well at least the somewhat recent past of the 2012-2013 ski season.  With a silent Timberline Quad, luxurious untracked powder on the slopes, and fat skis on the feet, it was just like being back in December.  That second half of December was one of the best stretches for ski conditions this season, and it was the early date combined with some mechanical issues on the Timberline Quad that left the Timberline area the realm of those earning their powder turns.  Now we’re on the other end of season, and as it begins to wind down we find that the Timberline Quad isn’t running every day.  So it’s back to earning Timberline turns, but with a more established base of snow, and a lot more sunshine.

At some point earlier this week I realized that the Timberline Quad wasn’t running, so with some extra time this morning, I made my way up to Timberline in search of powder.  Our storm earlier in the week produced a nice resurfacing dump with about a foot of synoptic density snow, and it’s been followed up over the past couple of days by some dry fluff to really top that off for some primo powder skiing conditions.  Skies were clear this morning, with temperatures in the mid teens as I pulled into the Timberline lot, and the sun was just trying to break the ridge that marks the top of the resort to the east.  There were a couple cars in the parking lot and I could see tracks on the trails indicating that people had certainly been out taking advantage of the snow.  Depth checks at the Timberline Base elevations revealed anywhere from 12 to 15 inches of powder above the subsurface, although I tended to get reading in the 10 to 12-inch range higher up where the wind may have pushed the snow around at some point.  The main skin track today was up Showtime, and it took a somewhat unconventional route right up the gut of the trail because it was made in someone’s descent track.  It was quite a good track though, well packed and devoid of any footprints.  I saw about a dozen tracks from other skiers that had descended in the Showtime area, but untracked lines were still quite plentiful.

All was quiet when I arrived at the Timberline Mid Station, although I eventually saw a couple of snowboarders and skier getting on with their descents.  One of the lift operators showed up and began to prep the mid station area for use, and when I asked him about the upcoming schedule for Timberline, he said that it was opening back up tomorrow.  That is of course a bittersweet occurrence – it means that we can get lots of Timberline runs, but gone are the runs of endless powder day after day.  I figured that at least I’d made it in time to catch “Club Timberline” mode.

I poked around over at Spell Binder, and it looked good, but I ultimately chose Showtime for the descent because that seems to be a bit harder to come by.  Another aspect of the day that reminded me of December was the fact that all the west-facing headwalls appeared to be filled in nicely, without the usual scouring that can accompany a westerly wind – there must have been some easterly component to the wind during our most recent nor’easter.  The Showtime Headwall looked like it had been treated nicely by the storm, so I dropped in with the confidence that I wasn’t going to hit anything below the snow.  I pushed hard into those steep turns on the headwall, and the powder pushed right back, cushioning each movement of my skis with a snowpack of ever increasing density.  The turns were so silky smooth and buoyant that I have to give the conditions at least a 9 out of 10.  It really was utter perfection in terms of snow quality; with the only thing one could ask being perhaps some deeper champagne and a bunch of face shots.  After one quick stop I rattled off turns down the rest of the run, with a cadence that lingered in my head long after I was done.

I really wished that E and the boys could have been there, because the scene reminded me exactly of an outing we had back on December 28th.  The sun was out and the snow was great, and I know that they would have loved it.  I drove away thinking about how I was going to describe the skiing to E.  It turned out that it wasn’t going to be that difficult; because little did I know at time, I was actually going to be right back on those slopes again at the end of the day…

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Stowe, VT 19MAR2013

An image of Erica Telemark skiing in powder on the Lower Tyro trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont during a nor'easter
The latest nor’easter had delivered about a foot of fresh powder to Stowe by the end of the day today.

This morning I awoke to the first accumulation of snow from our current nor’easter.  My early estimation was that there were 3 to 4 inches of snow on the snowboard, and that was pretty close, with 3.8 inches measured for my 6:00 A.M. CoCoRaHS observations.  Once reports from the Vermont ski areas started coming in, the trend was ~6 inches in the northern resorts, and 8 to 9 inches at the southern resorts.  E and the boys eventually got the word that school was cancelled for the day, which meant it was time to decide where to ski.  E was initially leaning toward Bolton for the shorter drive in the snow, but we found out that Claire, Luke, Jack, and Madeleine were going to be at Stowe, and that shifted the balance.

After the initial overnight snowfall, precipitation slowed down for the first half of the morning, and then resumed with greater intensity around mid morning.  It was starting to coat the roads again as we made our way to Stowe, but the driving conditions were still decent.  Based on the day’s ski plans, we parked over by the Mansfield Base Lodge for the first time this season.  The scene had that retro flair, complete with a train of classic, bluesy rock playing on the audio system.

An image from the base of the Fourrunner Quad Chairlift at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont showing a sign indicating that it was going to be a powder week
It’s Powder Week!

Stowe had indicated about 5 inches of new snow in their morning report, so I decided that we’d focus on some moderate angle terrain for a bit and see where that led us.  We’d had such success with areas like the Chapel Glades and various surrounding trees, that it seemed like a good place to start.  From the summit of the Fourrunner Quad we made our way down some of my favorite mellow routes in the Toll Road and some of the Upper Sunrise Glades.  We explored a new route and found that there has been a LOT of off season work done in those areas.  We followed that up with a trip through the Chapel Glades, where E was having a lot of fun on here Teles.  E’s favorite part of the run was probably when we dropped into Lower Tyro and found very few tracks, just vast areas of fresh powder at a nice pitch for powder skiing.  As an added bonus, the sky was just unloading snow on us at that point with some of the heaviest snowfall of the day.  We followed that up with a run from the Mountain Triple, where we traversed even farther before dropping into the Chapel Glades and found that there had been a lot less traffic.

Dylan was ready for lunch at the bottom of the next run, so we hit the Mansfield Base Lodge, and we were pleasantly surprised by the variety and quality of food that they had available.  Once you get used to the plethora of great options at the Great Room Grill, other dining spots might seem limited, but there was a good selection at the ‘ol Mansfield Base Lodge.  I got the soup of the day, which was corn chowder, in a bread bowl, and E and I were able to share it.  Claire called while we were eating, and by the time we were finishing up, she and her crew had arrived.

An image of Dylan skiing in powder snow above his waist in the Hayride Trees at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Deep Dylan

We decided to show everyone what we’d been skiing in the morning, and varied it by pushing even farther into the Upper Sunrise Glades toward a line we’d seen from below.  It was quite steep at the top, which got some of the boys like Ty excited, but meant a bit slower going for Madeleine.  In subsequent runs we hit some of the Hayride Woods that we’d wanted to try and finished off the day visiting Duck Walk and the half pipe.  We actually had to start picking up the pitch of untracked terrain as the day wore on, because the powder was getting deep enough that the gentler terrain wasn’t quite cutting it.  It’s a good sign that the subsurface is getting covered.  It’s been quite fun exploring the far southern side of the resort after so many days earlier this season in the northern areas.

Overall it was a sensational powder day, since temperatures were comfortable and there was little if any wind away from the highest elevations.  There were numerous times today where we enjoyed the silence that comes from heavy snow in the air.  It looks like this snowfall could continue for quite a good period this week, and Stowe actually had a sign at the bottom of the Fourrunner Quad indicating not just a “powder day”, but a “powder week”.  That’s a good way to run a week.  The Mt. Mansfield Stake hit 70 inches today, which is the highest it’s been this season.  It’s still a little bit below average, but the mountain is skiing really well and should be in really great shape if the snow keeps up this week.