Stowe, VT 08NOV2014

An image of ski tracks in powder at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont after a November snowfall
Out for some early season turns at Stowe on the slopes of Mt. Mansfield

With the recent snow I headed up to Stowe this morning to check out the conditions and make some turns. The weather had cleared out since yesterday’s storminess, but it was still fairly cool, and much of the snow that had accumulated in the valleys was hanging around. There were skiffs of it on the shady rooftops in Stowe Village, but it wasn’t until up around the 1,000′ elevation that it really began to appear in traces on the ground.

Up at the resort there was an inch or two at the base of Mansfield, and there were a few dozen cars in the Mansfield Parking Lot from other folks who were out for some activity on the snow. The snow guns were blazing on the usual North Slope route, so when I saw a skin track heading up a much quieter Hayride, I decided to give it a shot. Right from the base there was plenty of snow for skinning, and as the depth increased with elevation, it held up fine even on Hayride’s steeper pitches. Whoever set that skin track was right on the money; they kept the pitch fairly consistent and made appropriate switchbacks instead of trying to scramble their way up those steep shots. There were even some nice alternative tracks to fit your preference – some a bit steeper and some a bit shallower.

An image of a frosty "Stop Gate" sign at the top of the Lookout Double Chairlift at Stowe Mountain Resort in VermontAt the top of Hayride I finally ran into the snow guns on Upper Lord, so I cut across to the top terminal of the Lookout Chair (3,325′) to get out of the noisy fray of spray. Looking upward toward Ridge View and Upper Lord, I could see that they were both being blasted by the guns, so I decided that it wasn’t worth pushing on through that and called it an ascent. Temperatures were somewhere in the mid to upper 20s F at that elevation, and I spent a few minutes during the ascent changeover poking around, getting some wintry photos, and checking out the snow quality. My depth checks along the my ascent were made challenging by the lack of base and plenty of fluffy grass beneath the new snow, but my best estimates for natural snow would be the following with respect to elevation:

1,500′: 1-2″
2,000′: 2-4″
2,500′: 3-4″
3,000′: 3-5″

There was some drifting, and I found depths of up to 15″ at some of the water bars.

I began my descent on some of the lesser used trails up there around the top of the Lookout Chair that weren’t getting hit by the guns, and managed some early season powder turns. In a few spots some of the overspray of snow from the main trails messed with the consistency of the powder, but in general there was plenty of space for good turns in natural snow. Once back onto the snowmaking terrain I found that the untracked snow from the guns was unfortunately a sticky mess, but decent turns could be had where other skiers had done a bit of their own grooming and churning up of the snow. It was a bit tough to resist the usual urge to go for the least tracked snow, but the turns were often quite good in those places with skier traffic. The very worst turns were on the periphery of the snowmaking where soft natural snow was covered with a layer of dense, artificial snow. That was almost like putting a manmade crust over the snow, and it was definitely Tele hell. I learned quickly to not even go near that stuff.

The snow stayed wintry all the way back to the base, although the temperatures were just starting to crack the freezing mark when I got down there. The snow along the Mountain Road was still hanging on though as I got back down around that 1,000′ mark. I did stop in to check on the construction in the Spruce Peak Base Area on my way home, and boy is that another big project. Parking is really going to be at a premium this season, as there’s essentially nothing for day parking over at Spruce with the construction taking place. The month of November looks like it’s going to be reasonably cool, so hopefully we’ll get some additional snow, but at least the snow guns should be able to keep running to put down base.

Stowe, VT 18MAY2014

An image of Erica skiing on the slopes of Mt. Mansfield at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont in Mid May with an image of a pond and spring foliage in the background
Erica cruises her way down Mt. Mansfield today with hints of spring in the valley below.

There’s still snow on the slopes of Mt. Mansfield, and since today’s weather was absolutely beautiful, we decided to get in some turns while we still could. After some rain on Friday night, the weather cleared out and dried out yesterday, and today was just a continuation of that trend with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the 60s F. We headed up to Mt. Mansfield in the early afternoon, and a quick survey of the slopes revealed that the substantial snow on Nosedive was quite a distance up in elevation, but North Slope has decent coverage all the way to the base. That seemed like the best option for turns, especially for the boys. The Mansfield Parking Lot was closed, and accessing North Slope from the Gondola lots was a bit of a hike, so we found a nice parking spot near the exit from the Mansfield Lot that gave us some quick access to the snow, and even allowed us to use the big staircase behind the Mansfield Base Lodge.

“The snow was excellent corn, from which the top couple of inches would be shaved off to produce some very nice turns.”

An image of Ty and Dylan on their skis during a descent of the North Slope trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont in mid May The snow on Lower North Slope was discontinuous, but there were large areas of coverage left over from parts of the terrain park that would allow most of the descent there to be on snow. We hiked up to Crossover with our skis on our packs, and then decided to switch over to skinning above that point, since our earlier observations from afar suggested that the snow cover would be becoming fairly continuous in that area. The boys had us going at their usual leisurely pace, which included stopping at various times to either play on one of the massive snow piles, slide downhill in the snow on their knees as members of a rock band playing guitars, attach old beer cans to the bottom of their ski poles, or pick up the odds and ends that appear at ski resorts as the snow disappears. They were also quite engrossed in discussing their latest exploits on Minecraft, which helped to keep things upbeat during the ascent vs. having them constantly ask about how much higher we were going to hike. As we were putting on our skins above Crossover, a skier was just descending to us, and he told us that there was some excellent coverage and smooth snow up on Sunrise. The skin up North Slope was fun, with a couple spots having fairly narrow passageways of snow that took some careful navigation. Also of note were the occasional mini crevasses that formed where the snowpack was separating; those were an immediate source of fun for the boys as they strove to cross in wide areas without touching the ground below. The snow was just about continuous up to near the summit of the Mountain Triple Chair, where we finally had to stop our ascent due to time. I really would have liked to go a bit farther and check out Sunrise, but if I take a trip up by myself I may do that at some point. In any event, the coverage on the upper parts of North Slope was generally wall to wall and a couple feet deep.

An image of Ty skiing in spring snow on the North Slope trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont in mid May
Ty slicing some new tracks into North Slope today

We only paused at the top of the ascent long enough to switch the gear over for the descent, and there was definitely a bit of chill in the air up there whenever the occasional cloud would pass in front of the sun. The snow was excellent corn, from which the top couple of inches would be shaved off to produce some very nice turns. There were occasional areas of sun cups around, but for the most part they were either minimal in size, or there was a side of the trail with very few of them, so we got in lots of smooth turns. The boys had used Alpine Trekkers today so that they could ski on their alpine skis, and they had a blast ripping through all the nuances of the terrain. Along with the smooth turns on the upper half of North Slope, one of my favorite parts was lower down on the trail where the snow was down to just a few feet wide in a couple of sections – holding a Telemark drift in those areas was a lot of fun, and we even got E doing it with some great control.

An image of Jay skiing the North Slope trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont in Mid May
On the descent of North Slope today

Below Crossover we had to take off our skis a few times, but the walking was easy on the grassy slopes, so the descent was very quick. Everyone got up atop one of the big mounds of snow left from a huge terrain park feature and enjoyed some turns down the steep back side. It was definitely a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, although unfortunately it doesn’t look like there will be too many opportunities left for these types of outings this season – the skiing return is going to start getting more and more marginal for the hiking investment. We all lamented that these may be our last turns at Stowe for this season. I read today that the Mt. Washington Auto Road opened to the summit, so I suspect our next family outing will be a trip to Mt. Washington to ski the snowfields if an appropriate window of weather is available.

Jay Peak, VT 10MAY2014

An image of Erica Telemark skiing on the Interstate trail at Jay Peak Ski Resort over Mother's Day weekend 2014.
Mom out on the slopes of Jay Peak for Mother’s Day weekend.

The season before last was our most recent trip to Jay Peak for Mother’s Day weekend, and over the past few weeks it’s been looking like this season might offer a chance for a similar trip. Although April didn’t deliver much in the way of new snowfall, the cold temperatures in March and fairly average April temperatures kept the snowpack around. Jay Peak even decided to keep their lifts running for Mother’s Day, which was not the case back during the 2012 trip, when we hiked for turns.

The lodging packages can be great this time of year at Jay Peak, and a few weeks back at the end of April, I got an email about their deals in May, which included a $229 Ski + Splash + Stay option for the entire family. Since that’s not too much more than it would cost the four of us to just go lift-served skiing for the day, it’s a great deal when you realize that along with the skiing you get lodging, two days of water park access… and two days of skiing. Unlike our last Mother’s Day package, this year’s doesn’t include the Mother’s Day brunch, but it does include fresh pastries and OJ delivered to your room daily.

“We basically had the
whole trail to ourselves
though, with just a
couple other skiers
out in the area…”

I watched the forecast to make sure that the weekend wasn’t going to be a washout, and by midweek it was looking good and we called in a reservation. The boys have fun skiing of course, but when it comes to Jay Peak, it’s really all about the Pump House Waterpark. We let them know that if they wanted to head up to Jay Peak and hit the water park, they’d have to agree to at least put in some practice on their Telemark gear. With the ebb and flow of this season, they just haven’t gotten in many Telemark days, and we wanted to get them a bit more time to work on their turns before the season came to a close.

An  image of a man on the front porch of the Westfield General Stoer in Westfield VermontThe boys were definitely on board with that idea of some Telemark time, so in the afternoon we loaded up the gear, stopped off for some groceries, and headed up to Jay Peak. It was surprisingly warm today, with temperatures in the 70s F at the house and even a bit of humidity due to some rain that had come through. The clouds were pulling out by the afternoon though, and the sun kept the temperatures right up there in the 70s F even as we approached the mountain. We checked in at the Tram Haus Lodge with the help of some friendly lodging staff, who brought us, our bags, and our ski clothes right up to the room so that we could gear up for some afternoon turns while the lifts were still running. We had a different style of room this time than our previous trip back in 2012 – on that trip we had a 1-bedroom, which has a separate bedroom from the main area, and a full kitchen. This time we had a studio sweet, which has a smaller kitchenette area and it consists of only one room. There’s typically a higher cost for those rooms, but if you want a bedroom with privacy or the larger kitchen, it’s the way to go. In either case, both rooms we’ve been in have that same level of quality craftsmanship, with a Vermont theme in the décor. We actually only had a short time to check out the room when we first got there though, because we quickly got our ski gear on and were out the door to catch some afternoon turns.

There’s actually skiing available at both the Stateside and Tramside areas, although the areas of skiing aren’t currently connected, so you have to pick one or the other. With the late hour, we decided to ski Tramside, since we wouldn’t have to travel anywhere. Also, the skiing there was on the Interstate trail, which is just about perfect for the boys to work on their Telemark turns. We grabbed our ski gear from the car, booted up, and headed right to the Metro Quad in front of the Tram Haus Lodge. The biggest thing that struck me was how easy it was to walk in my boots; with Telemark boots at temperatures around 70 F, it felt like I was almost walking around in street shoes.

Once on the snow, the boys jumped right into their Telemark turns as if they hadn’t missed a beat, and that’s what we were hoping to see. For Dylan, identifying his strong and weak sides was more obvious, but Ty was really putting down some consistent turns in both directions. The snow was mostly decent corn, but there were a few sticky spots, and a few spots where coverage is getting narrow. We basically had the whole trail to ourselves though, with just a couple other skiers out in the area, and it was especially familiar since it was where we’d had some of our favorite turns when we visited over the holidays.

When the Metro Quad shut down, we headed back to the room and everyone relaxed for a bit. After I got some work done, Ty, E, and Dylan were still reading or playing on their tablets, so I decided to head back out for a quick ski tour before dinner. I switched back into my ski clothes, got my skins and skis from the car, and headed for a quick skin up Interstate. The sun was still an hour or two away from setting, and the snow remained quite soft. It was kind of a treat to just walk out the door and have the snow there at this time of year.

An image of Jay walking with Telemark skis in front of the base lodge at Jay Peak Ski Resort in Vermont
Dad heads back to the Tram Haus Lodge after a short evening ski tour.

After dinner, the boys were calling for some water park time, and we had some good rides in the river and on the slides before finishing off with a sit in the indoor hot tub. It wasn’t overly busy, but there was a steady stream of people at the slides, so I suspect there are plenty of visitors to pay the bills. The attendant who was running the green and blue slides tonight was a lot of fun; he was constantly proctoring races between the two slides. I raced Ty and Dylan with me on the green slide and them and on the blue slide, and they won. The blue slide must be shorter. There was also a prom going on this evening for Richford over in the tram base lodge, and along with a hockey tournament that’s taking place, there have been a lot of people out an about around the resort grounds today. We’ll see how everything goes for Mother’s Day tomorrow, but hopefully we can check out the Stateside area and make some turns over there.

Bolton Valley, VT 27APR2014

An image of the Alta Vista trail with a ski track in late April at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
We got a bit of fresh snow and some fun turns in the higher elevations from our latest April storm.

Our latest April storm brought with it the potential for some mountain snow, and as the forecast from the National Weather Service Office in Burlington suggested, snow levels came down last night, and the snow started to accumulate.  Precipitation was just a mix of rain and snow at our house down here at 500’ this morning as I checked on some of the local mountain web cams, but I began to get a sense for how the snow had accumulated up high.  There was no accumulation visible at Stowe’s base elevations, and it looked like the snow line was up above 2,000’ on the east slope of Mt. Mansfield based on the accumulations seen on the trees.  Bolton Valley appeared to have picked up a reasonable accumulation of snow at roughly 2,000’, and when Powderfreak showed accumulations down to roughly the 800’ elevation along the western slopes, that sealed the deal on Bolton Valley as my tour destination.

“The skiing was actually far
better than I’d expected – it
was three inches of dense
snow atop what, even up at
that elevation, was a soft
spring base.”

Temperatures were in the upper 30s F down in the Winooski Valley with light rain/mist, and as I headed westward through Bolton Flats, the intensity of the precipitation picked up.  The rain changed over to snow at ~1,200’ on the Bolton Valley Access Road, and first signs of new snow accumulation were at the Timberline Base at 1,500’.  I suspect that accumulations had reached lower based on that image that PF showed earlier from 800’ in Nashville, but it seemed like the snow line had already risen a bit by the time I was up there.  As I continued to ascend the road beyond the Timberline Base, the deciduous trees took on a picturesque coating of white, and gradually the ground began to fill in with white as well.

The Village was quiet as is typical for late April, and as I pulled into the upper lot near the base lodge, I saw a skier just returning to his car after a run.  We chatted for a bit, and he said that he’d just come down Cobrass and that the skiing was great.  I looked around and saw what looked to be about an inch of fresh snow atop all surfaces, and even the base snow appeared to be soft.  Unsure of exactly what I was going to find, I’d brought both fat and mid fat Tele skis, and after finding out how soft the subsurfaces were, I felt confident that going with the fatter AMPerages was the call.  I strapped on skins and headed upward, just as another car with three skiers arrived to take the place of the lone skier that had just left.

An image of one of the snowmaking pump houses with fresh April snow at the mid mountain elevation of the main mountain at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VermontLight snow continued to fall as I began skinning up above the lodge, and I could see that skier traffic had been very light.  There were signs of just a couple of skiers that had skinned up in the new snow, and a couple of addition sets of footprints from people that had hiked.  As I was ascending near the top of Beech Seal, a skier passed me on his descent, and I definitely liked the sound of his turns… or more appropriately, the lack of sound as he came by.  That quiet schuss was a good sign regarding the subsurface below the new snow, and I with the good coverage I saw, I made a note to consider Beech Seal on that part of the descent.  At Mid Mountain the depth of the new snow was about 2”, and I continued over toward Cobrass on my ascent to see what that other skier had experienced.  I don’t think I’ve ascended Cobrass yet this spring, so it also gave me a chance to use that route.  I could see the other skier’s descent track, and pretty quickly I knew that descending Cobrass was not going to be the call for me.  With its southern and western exposures, there was just too little base in various spots.  I suspected things would be much better on a trail with northern exposure.  I could see that the Cobrass Café picnic table had reappeared from its winter burial; it’s been looking a bit worse for wear over the past couple of seasons, but it’s hanging in there.

An image of evergreen boughs covered with snow from a late April, snowstorm up at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Snow accumulations increased gradually with elevation today, eventually revealing more substantial accumulations.

At the Vista Summit, I checked the depth of new snow again, and it was right around 3”.  There were actually no tracks of any kind over near the patrol house or the top of the Vista Quad, and it was just pristine snow, so I suspected that whatever trail I chose, I’d be able to get first tracks.  I downed a GU and some water, switched over to descent mode, and headed down Alta Vista.  Aside from the wind scoured section along the skier’s right at the top, the base coverage was wall to wall, and the new snow on top was wholly untracked.  The skiing was actually far better than I’d expected – it was three inches of dense snow atop what, even up at that elevation, was a soft spring base.  I was very happy with my ski choice, as the AMPerages were in their element – I was planing pretty quickly atop the dense snow, and had a lot of fun drifting some of my turns.  The new snow was only partially bonded to the subsurface, so you could easily let it slide as much as you wanted as you sloughed the snow away.

I thought about a number of options once I was down to Sherman’s Pass, but stuck with Sherman’s because I was sure of the base snow.  It also meant that I could catch Beech Seal, which I knew was a sure thing.  The turns on the lower half of the mountain were good, and certainly soft, but the upper half of the mountain took the prize for conditions.  The temperature had risen at the base since I’d started my tour, and I could see that much of the snow had melted out of the deciduous trees down at the Village elevations as I departed.   The snow line had risen another few hundred feet as I was heading back down the mountain, so it was definitely one of those days to get at it sooner rather than later.  It’s actually continued to be a slow April in terms of snowfall, but the forecast does show the potential for additional shots of snow in the midweek period and then next weekend, so we’ll see if we get anything like this event in the next several days.

Bolton Valley, VT 17APR2014

An image of ski tracks in the Mid Mountain area of Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont after an April snowstorm
Although the lifts have stopped running for the season, the powder skiing rolls on at Bolton Valley thanks to a recent April storm.

Yesterday was quite a cold April day, cold enough that the temperature in the Bolton Valley Village never got anywhere near the freezing mark – it never even reached 25 F.  Anticipating that the cold temperatures would mean maintenance of the dry, wintry powder that the area received from the recent snowstorm, I grabbed the fat skis and headed up to Bolton Valley this morning to see how the snow was faring.  Based on the fact that we’d picked up over four inches of new snow down at the house from the storm, I figured that Bolton must have done at least that well.

“Indeed the sun or warmth
had not appeared to be
issues of any sort for snow
– the real enemy in terms
of  snow quality was the
wind.”

The temperature was still in the low 20s F when I rolled into the Bolton Valley Village this morning, and it looked like midwinter as much as it did mid April.  I began skinning right up the well established skin track on Beech Seal, and as one might expect from a well consolidated skin track, it meant that the surrounding slopes had seen plenty of ski traffic.  There were some nice looking turns out there though – I saw some beautiful, smooth looking powder turns in the low-angle terrain coming out of the Jungle Jib terrain park.  New snow depths and ski conditions were fairly similar to what we found yesterday at Stowe – I found 3 to 5 inches of new snow on the lower half of the mountain, and around a half foot up top near Vista Peak.  Indeed the sun or warmth had not appeared to be issues of any sort for snow – the real enemy in terms of snow quality was the wind.  In the usual spots, the new powder was scoured down to the crusty surface below, so I could see that it was going to be one of those days where choosing aspect, trail, and trail side, was going to be extremely important in seeking out the best powder turns.

An image of a ski track in the Jungle Jib terrain park at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A picturesque track in the powder coming out of the Jungle Jib terrain park

“Turnpike delivered as usual,
with just a few spots that
had been affected by the
wind, but a lot of smooth,
silky turns in the slightly
settled powder.”

The skin track took me up Sherman’s, Schuss, and finally Alta Vista, to where I stopped just below the top of the Vista Quad beneath where the snow was all scoured away.  The skier’s left of Alta Vista offered up some nice powder turns, although I still encountered some areas of wind-packed snow.  I ventured off into the lower reaches of Vista Glades, and found some smooth turns there, since the snow was generally protected.  Having seen so many tracks and plenty of wind affecting the trails above the base lodge, I headed over toward Wilderness for the bottom part of my run.  Turnpike delivered as usual, with just a few spots that had been affected by the wind, but a lot of smooth, silky turns in the slightly settled powder.  Like yesterday, the turns weren’t completely bottomless, but there were still a lot of them, and I was happy to have the AMPerages and their floatation to help out.  The Village was still incredibly quiet as I was heading back to my car, but I did run into Josh as he was heading into the office.  He’s already getting ready for next season, enjoying a quieter scene now that the lifts have stopped.  Based on the snow that’s up there though, there’s still plenty of skiing to be done this season.

An image of a ski track in the bottom of the Vista Glades area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Some protected snow at the bottom of Vista Glades

Bolton Valley, VT 30MAR2014

An image of a ski track in powder snow beneath the Wilderness Lift at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Getting out for some fresh turns this morning thanks to our latest storm

Our latest winter storm to come into the area was lean on cold air, bringing the potential for mixed precipitation into the picture.  The northern Vermont resorts managed to get some snow accumulations though, with 5 inches reported by Bolton Valley in the morning.  Well ahead of opening, they announced that the Vista Quad was starting on wind hold, and that Mid Mountain would be the early lift.  So, I threw my skins in my pack before heading up to the mountain.

The temperature was around 35 F in the valley, and only dropped a degree or two as I headed up the Bolton Valley Access Road.  Accumulations of snow on the road naturally increased with elevation, and by the time I got up to the Village, you could see that the plows had cleared away some dense, wet material.  The precipitation at the base was a mist of light rain with occasionally heavier bouts.

As I approached the base of the mid mountain chair, I ran into Quinn, who was just coming down from a run.  Our conversation noted the wet weather, and you could tell by the state of Quinn’s outerwear that he’d been out working in it.  He said that skiing was lots of fun though, and that was a good sign.  The state of the skiing on the lower mountain was quickly confirmed during my ride on the mid mountain chair; beneath my feet, I watched a couple of ski instructors on Beech Seal cut beautiful arcs through the fresh layer of dense snow.  The chairs of the mid mountain chair were in quite a state – they had icicles all over them from freezing rain, and it seemed like the icicles were enhanced as the chairs went through repeated cycles of freezing and thawing on their circuit up and down through various elevations.

At mid mountain, I’d just strapped on my skins and started upward, when I heard a sled approaching.  It was Quinn, and he gave me a quick lift to the Vista Summit on his way to check things out.  The temperature dropped below freezing, and the depths of new snow increased as we headed upward.  My depth checks revealed as much as 6” of new snow up top, with the caveat that it was a bit tough to tell where the new dense snow ended, and the old snow began.  The only downside, and unfortunately it was big one, was that a fairly thick crust had formed on the snow in the higher elevations due to some rain falling into the colder temperatures.  Because of this, I stuck to the groomed Alta Vista for the first part of the descent.  The groomed snow was much easier to manage, but it was still firm with a layer of ice on it.

I next followed Swing over to Wilderness, and ran into Quinn again as he was making his way about the mountain.  I filled him in on the conditions I’d experienced on my descent from Vista, letting him know that ski condition in the lower elevations were actually much better because of the lack of crust.  I made a depth check of the new snow at that Wilderness Mid Station (~2,800’) and found roughly 4 to 5 inches.  Below the Wilderness Mid Station was where the turns really started to get nice.  I got into that beautiful snow that I’d seen the instructors and others skiing on Beech Seal, and cut some nice arcs.  It was really interesting to have the skiing improve with every turn I took downward in elevation, because it’s often the reverse due to deeper snow accumulations up high.  Since I’d found that some areas in the trees on the upper mountain had been protected from the freezing rain, I dipped into the Wilderness Woods briefly to see how they were skiing.  Down at that elevation, it really didn’t make much of a difference, so I quickly ended up back out on the trails since they had large expanses of untracked snow.

I rode the Mid Mountain Chair again, this time heading out on Deer Run and over to the Butterscotch Terrain Park.  I ended up just skiing the park, since it wasn’t open and had plenty of fresh snow.  Usually, with the more limited terrain, it’s not great when the Vista Quad is down and the main option is the Mid Mountain Chair, but with the way the new snow was set up today, it was almost the perfect option.  I didn’t stick around too long this morning because I wanted to get home and dry my gear to get ready for Stowe in the afternoon – I was certainly eager to see how Mt. Mansfield fared in this latest storm.

Bolton Valley, VT 13MAR2014

An image of ski tracks in powder snow on the Twice as Nice trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Compliments of winter storm Vulcan

It was over a week ago that Typhoon Tip of the American Weather Forum spotted a potential winter storm of the Northeastern U.S. based on the overall large-scale weather patterns.  He started a thread that ran for dozens and dozens of pages, and as the time period in question approached, it looked more and more like Northern New England was going to be in the sweet spot for snow.  Folks up here were understandably cautious, as most storms have seemed to trend southward this season, but winter storm “Vulcan” formed, and walked right through Northern Vermont with up to 24 inches of snow at some of the local ski resorts as of this morning.  Although the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake is running less than a foot below average depth, it’s actually been a pretty lean snow year for the Northern Greens, with places like Bolton Valley and Stowe not yet even reaching 200 inches of snowfall.  The on piste snow had definitely been a bit stale last weekend, so Vulcan was very welcomed with respect to both freshening surfaces and building the snowpack going into the spring skiing season.

“…this stuff put
down a ton of
liquid equivalent.”

I got the word in the morning that UVM wasn’t resuming classes until noontime because of the challenges of clearing all the snow, so after thoroughly clearing the driveway with the snow thrower, I headed up to Bolton Valley on my way in to Burlington.  I knew from the snow report that all the lifts were on hold due to the winds, so I brought my skins and planned on a quick ascent of Timberline.  Temperatures were in the single digits at the Timberline Base even as midday approached, but it actually turned out to be a very comfortable temperature for skinning with what I had on.   I generally found 14-18” of settled snow down at the 1,500’ elevation, and was therefore happy to see that there was indeed a skin track in place up Twice as Nice.  In actuality, it was a snowshoe track that had apparently been made by snow snowboarders, but it was well packed and accommodated my skins well.

I made quick time up to the top of Twice as Nice, ripped off my skins, and headed right back down.  This was definitely one of those situations where you never quite know how the snow is going to ski until you ski it, but I could tell it was probably going to be dense, so I had chosen Twice as Nice because of its more consistent pitch.  There was plenty of snow, but there wasn’t much of any fluff on top, so the powder skiing was fairly underwhelming, certainly by NVT standards.  Combined with the cold temperatures, the skiing was definitely “slow” this morning.  I’m glad I had my fattest skis at 115 mm underfoot, but even they didn’t keep me planing high enough on some of the shallower pitches.  After skiing it, I’m actually looking forward to trying the snow from this storm chopped up a bit in chowder form – the trails are going to be great at that stage because this stuff put down a ton of liquid equivalent.  There were certainly some good turns to be had, but nothing spectacular like you can get with fluffy Champlain Powder™.

On my way to Burlington on Route 2, I found myself running right alongside a locomotive, the 2674 from New England Central Railroad, and I was impressed with the way the snow was flying as it cleared the tracks of fresh snow.  I sped ahead to see if I could catch it at the Jonesville railroad crossing, and quickly parked the car along the side of the intersection there and go into position.  I was able to catch the locomotive blasting through the berm left by the plow, and the snow was flying everywhere.  Just moments after this, I saw a snow plow approach the intersection, and the driver was really excited to see if I’d gotten the shot.  I gave him a big “thumbs up” to let him know that I’d managed to get it, and couldn’t wait to have a chance to see just what it looked like.  I’d argue it looked like what a locomotive would do on a powder day.

An image of a locomotive hitting the snow at the Jonesville railroad crossing in Vermont
Catching a locomotive hitting the snow at the Jonesville railroad crossing

Camel’s Hump – Monroe Trail, VT 08MAR2014

An image of ski tracks in one of the glades off the Monroe Trail  on the east side of Camel's Hump in Vermont
Out for some powder on the east side of Camel’s Hump today

It’s been a light week for snowfall here in the Northern Greens; since the storm that hit the area last Sunday, we’ve had generally cold and dry weather, with just one small round of snow in the Tuesday-Wednesday timeframe. That got me thinking about a backcountry tour for today. My initial inclination was to head northward, since as our snowy Sunday outing at Stowe confirmed, the northern mountains had really picked up the most snow, and accumulations tapered off as you headed southward. With that in mind, I was thinking of heading to Nebraska Notch for some turns. However, yesterday’s and today’s weather history also needed to be factored into the mix. Temperatures reached above freezing in some spots yesterday, and today was looking similar, so I figured that something sheltered and with relatively high elevation was the way to go for the best snow. I decided to head to some of the skiing around the Monroe Trail, on the Waterbury/Duxbury side of Camel’s Hump. I had planned to have Ty come with me, but at the last moment he decided that he didn’t want to skin today, so I said we’d head up to Bolton Valley for some lift-served turns when I got back from the tour.

It’s been over four years since I last visited the Monroe Trail area of Camel’s Hump for skiing. On that outing, I followed the Monroe Trail up to the large cliffs beneath the peak of Camel’s Hump, then traversed somewhat northward to set up for a descent fairly distant from the trail and toward the glades that drop down near the trailhead. I got in some good skiing in the trees, but really just caught the end of the glades, so I knew there would be more lines to explore. This time, my plan was to simply skin up one of the descent tracks made by skiers coming down through the glades, since it would save a lot of time traversing around up high to find the best starting points.

I headed out from the house a bit before noon, and temperatures were in the mid 30s F. The temperature fell as I headed up Camel’s Hump Road, dropping to 31 F by the time I reached the winter parking area at ~1,200’. Just a couple hundred feet below the parking area, I’d seen the first flakes of snow from a small system that was expected to come through in the afternoon. From the trailhead at ~1,500’, I skinned up the Monroe Trail for a few more minutes and then as the trail started to bend southward, I jumped onto one of the ski tracks coming down out of the obvious glades in the terrain above. The tracks traversed northward for a bit, but then gradually began to make a more direct ascent up toward the east face of Camel’s Hump. I was a little worried about the snow quality, because although it was below freezing and most snow that wasn’t in the sun was still wintry and dry, there were only a few inches of powder above an old crust. I wasn’t quite sure how that was going to ski. But, the snow got better and better as I ascended, with the powder on top of any crust getting deeper and deeper. It was really nice skinning though – the temperatures were just below freezing, the wind was calm, and light snow was falling in association with the afternoon’s storm. I hiked in just a vest over my polypropylene base layer, and quickly had my hat off as well.

As I ascended, it became obvious that the lower parts of the glades represented a common track to regain the Monroe Trail, but in the higher elevations, there were a number of interconnected glades from which to choose. About halfway through the ascent, I stuck with a glade that was generally on the skier’s right of the area that had seen very little traffic. There was just one very old descent track in it, and that track was actually hard to find at times because so much snow had fallen on it since it had been made. I knew that there were other glades around to my north, because I saw a couple of skiers descending in that area. After generally rejoining with tracks from some of the other glades, I traveled for a bit through more gently sloped terrain until I hit the trail for the Camel’s Hump Challenge at roughly 2,800’. I followed that northward a bit more until I topped out around the 3,000’ mark in some of the upper glades just below the Cliffs of Camel’s Hump. The quality of the snow had definitely improved up at that elevation, with any crust buried below several inches of powder.

I had a snack, switched my gear over, and then began my descent. There were some decent turns above the Camel’s Hump Challenge Trail, but the best turns were definitely when I got onto that lesser used glade below that point. The highest quality snow was in the top half of the vertical, and with my fat skis it was generally soft, bottomless turns. On the lower half of the descent, even my fat skis weren’t enough to always keep me floating, as the depth of the powder decreased to just a few inches; to best handle any partially tracked and/or narrower sections of terrain, I had to inject a lot more alpine turns into the mix vs. just Telemark turns. I did venture off the main glade that I was on at times, and there was plenty of skiing to be had right in the natural trees all around. I saw one other skier as I was descending – he was ascending through the glades as I’d done. He and his dog moved out of the way when he saw me off in the trees beyond the glade, but after I let him know that I was solo and nobody else would be coming down behind me, he quickly resumed his ascent.

Just as I’d experienced on my last outing in the area, from the bottom of the glades it was an easy downhill ski on the Monroe Trail itself. I was even able to catch some turns in the powder off to the side of the snow-covered roadway below the trailhead, then shouldered my skis to walk the last tenth of a mile back to the parking area. The temperature was 31 F just as it had been when I arrived, and the light snow had mostly tapered off down at that elevation. Despite the deeper snow and lack of a defined skin track in the glades relative to the beautifully packed nature of the Monroe Trail, I almost wonder if it’s more efficient to ascend in some cases because it’s a much shorter distance due to the way the Monroe Trail wraps around so far to the south. In terms of preserving the powder and ascending if the unconsolidated snow is deep and there aren’t many descent tracks, the Monroe Trail is the way to go, but now that I’ve gone up via both routes, I’d say they are both pretty convenient options. Hopefully I can get E and the boys along on one of these Monroe Trail trips – now that I’ve had a couple of sessions out there, I think I could guide them on a great tour.

A Google Earth map with GPS data from a ski tour in Vermont on the east face of Camel's Hump in the area of the Monroe Trail
The GPS data from today’s backcountry ski tour overlaid onto Google Earth

 

Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry, VT 16FEB2014

An image of a Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for a ski tour on February 16th, 2014 at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of the "Breakfast Bowl" sign and glades at  Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Getting ready to drop in for some first tracks in Breakfast Bowl this afternoon

We had a great day of lift-served skiing at Bolton Valley yesterday thanks to almost two feet of new snow from Winter Storm “Pax”, but today looked to be colder and windier, so some backcountry touring seemed like a good fit. It was such a gorgeous midwinter day today in the valley, with lots of sunshine, and highs around 20 F. The boys were more interested in sledding than skiing, but at least they were getting out enjoying the day. E stayed home with them and ended up doing some snowshoeing, but I headed up to the mountain for a tour. There had actually been a few more inches of fluff overnight in association with upslope flow from Winter Storm “Quintus”, so that new snow simply topped off what came from the larger storm.

“The settled powder was 25” deep up at Bryant Cabin, and assessments throughout the day revealed that to be pretty consistent at most of the elevations I visited.”

Since I was solo, I decided on an interesting tour that would hit some common spots as well as some new areas that would let me check out some additional glades. I began with a standard skin up to Bryant Cabin via the Bryant Trail, which went quite quickly without any real stops. I actually had my pass checked by one of the resort employees out on the trail, so the resort is keeping up on that. The settled powder was 25” deep up at Bryant Cabin, and assessments throughout the day revealed that to be pretty consistent at most of the elevations I visited.

An image of prayer flags at the top of the Prayer Flag trail in the backcountry network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VermontFrom Bryant Cabin I headed out on Gardiner’s Lane and descended via JJ’s. There had been some skier traffic in the area, but there were various lines with fresh snow, and everything was simply bottomless and soft. I cut across to Possum, merged onto Cliff Hanger, and then skinned up to reach the top of Prayer Flag. Although I’ve explored that area before, I didn’t really know the name of the run until I saw it on the new Bolton Valley Backcountry Map. There was only one track on Prayer Flag, and it seemed to be an ascent track. The turns were good, and it was trench city with respect to the track I left. It was actually a bit much in the way of new snow for shallower grades, but for the steeper pitches it was excellent.

An image of ski trakcs in deep powder in the Breakfast Bowl area of the backcountry network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The powder was so deep today that ski tracks were often trenches.

From the bottom of Prayer Flag I headed out toward “Breakfast Bowl”, a glade I’ve never skied before, and noted that the tracks looked really good coming down out of Holden’s Hollow. I found Breakfast Bowl totally untracked, and those were some of the best turns of the day – there is plenty of pitch there for whatever amount of powder you’ve got. At the bottom of Breakfast Bowl, instead of heading back up toward Broadway, I decided to cut across Joiner Brook, head up to the plateau on the other side, and take the Valley Loop Nordic trail back to the car. On my way up out of the streambed, I really got a feel for the instability of the snowpack. With the upside down snowpack having dense snow on top of lighter, drier stuff, “whumphing” sounds were being made with every step. It felt like a snowpack that would be ready to rip in appropriate terrain, and no sooner had I been thinking about it, than a room-sized slab shifted under me on a fairly steep slope. It only moved a couple of inches since it was stabilized by some trees, but it sure let me know that the snowpack meant business. Finishing my tour on Valley Loop was somewhat slow on my fat skis, but it was relaxing, and I cut a few corners to speed up the process on the very winding trail.

An image of a Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for a ski tour on February 16th, 2014 at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The GPS data from today’s backcountry ski tour at Bolton Valley mapped onto Google Earth

Bolton Valley, VT 06FEB2014

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Spell Binder trail at Bolton Valley
Some of the great powder out there today at Bolton Valley

Yesterday’s snowstorm finished up with a few more inches overnight, bringing the local ski area storm totals to the 9-12” range.  Just as important though, was the amount of liquid that the snow held, and based on the fact that we received 0.56” of liquid equivalent at our house, and Mt. Mansfield picked up at least 0.60”, Bolton Valley should have been well above the half inch mark.  An inch or two of liquid equivalent would have been even better, but even a half inch is more than we’ve had in recent storms.

The amount of liquid in the snow seemed substantial enough that I decided to see how Timberline was skiing this morning.  The last time I’d looked, it wasn’t quite there, but after our past couple of storms, plus somewhere near 9 inches of additional snow from this latest one, it was worth a look.  As I parked at the Timberline Base, I met another couple of skiers who had just come down from a run, and were preparing to go back up for another one after a quick break.  When I asked about the snow, one of them said, “It’s @#$%(#$%^ awesome!”  I took that as a good sign.

I followed an excellent skin track up Twice as Nice, and generally found 9 to 10 inches of settled powder.  However, in the lowest elevations there was often little to no base below that snow.  I hate to say it, but rolling the trail with a snow cat would probably be the best thing to do in terms of preserving the snow, turning it into a base, and getting it ready to support lift-served skiing.  The tracks of previous skiers definitely spoke to the quality of the powder though – it was classing Timberline fluff that had settled nicely with no wind.

I ended up making my descent on Spell Binder, and indeed the snow was awesome, just as that skier had indicated.  The main detractor from the experience was that there just isn’t enough base snow yet to take the steep terrain with reckless abandon.  I found 15 inches of snow atop the Spell Binder headwall, but I had to play it safe on that steep terrain since there are rocks lurking.  So, even with the great snow, that offered champagne on top and a very nice “right side up” density gradient, I have to give the skiing a middle of the road sort of score because of the base.  One more big storm and some settling of what’s out there now, and Timberline will probably be ready for some lift served skiing.  Actually, the resort was planning to open at least the main snowmaking routes over there today, so a lot of the area should be ready to go if more snow comes.