Snowfall Archives - Page 26 of 35

December 27, 2013December 28, 2013

Bolton Valley, VT 27DEC2013

An image of Erica skiing powder snow on the Cougar trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — E showing how its done in the powder at Bolton Valley today

An Alberta Clipper hit the New England region yesterday, dropping up to 10 inches of snow in Northern Vermont and continuing the process of covering up surfaces that were hardened by the big mixed precipitation event earlier this week. We had a couple additional rounds of light snow prior to yesterday’s storm, but there still hasn’t been enough new snow to resurface steep, icy terrain. As such, Bolton Valley only has their core set of trails open on the main mountain. I had fun on those trails on Saturday, but it’s still a limited number of options for runs, and with a good amount of new powder available, we decided to earn some turns and get some fresh tracks today. The Wilderness Lift isn’t running yet for the season, so we decided to pay that terrain another visit. Ty, E, and I had a great time there back on November 30^th, and with the current firm, icy subsurface, we knew that the moderate pitches and relatively high elevation of the lower Wilderness area trails would be a good bet for powder skiing today.

Now that we’re back into a more consistently wintry weather regime, the Northern Greens snow globe has kicked in, and we’ve had a fairly consistent supply of light fluffy snows in the air. It’s not really substantiating the base snow, but it is creating quite the quintessential Vermont winter scene for holiday visitors, and it’s topping off the slopes with some serious softness. Another burst of flakes was just kicking off when we left the house to head up to the mountain today after lunch, and the snowfall intensity increased as we headed up toward the resort. Up in the Village we encountered temperatures in the low 20s F and steady light but accumulating snows. There were plenty of cars in the parking lots, but since spots were opening up with early afternoon departures, we secured a spot right at the north end of the upper lot.

“The descent was a
peaceful glide through
silky smooth powder,
with only the occasional
touchdown on the old base.”

We headed up to the landing on the northwest corner of the main Village complex, and got our gear ready. Quinn passed through and gave us a heads up on conditions – below the powder was a slick, icy base as we’d suspected. We followed a nice skin track up Lower Turnpike, and there were a few sets of tracks on the trail, but a lot of fresh snow remaining. A couple of guys came down the trail and let us know that the steep upper sections weren’t worth the effort because of the ice, right in line with what our beta was suggesting. Depth checks at the start of the ascent revealed 5-6” of powder, which represents the accumulations from this recent clipper and the couple of small bouts of snow that preceded it.

“…you could really feel the
way the floatation afforded
by our fat skis was letting
us ride a bit higher and
faster in the powder on
those lower-angle pitches.”

We skinned up among steady flakes, enjoying the snowy views of evergreens around us, and when Dylan called for a break ,we stopped at the first crossover to the Wilderness Lift Line at 2,500’. I checked on the conditions on Wilderness Lift Line, and found that it had been hit with wind harder than our last visit – it was clear that although Turnpike had a few tracks, it was the better choice for snow quality. With Ty leading the charge, we continued on up to ~2,750’ before finally putting a halt to the ascent because we were getting into icy, scoured terrain. The snow depth up at the point had increased to roughly 7 inches.

The descent was a peaceful glide through silky smooth powder, with only the occasional touchdown on the old base. The pitch and powder were essentially perfect, although the powder was deep enough that Dylan would sometimes have difficulty keeping his speed up. Dylan’s Telemark skis (Völkl Gotama Juniors) are fairly wide, but nothing like the Black Diamond Elements and AMPerages that E and I were using, and momentum issues aside, you could really feel the way the floatation afforded by our fat skis was letting us ride a bit higher and faster in the powder on those lower-angle pitches. I was curious to see if E had noticed the effect, so I asked her how she felt about the speed of her skis on the descent. She initially thought that they were very fast, and figured it was because they haven’t been used for too many outings and had been waxed. I explained that a good part of that was actually from the floatation that the skis provided. Ty invented a new descent technique where he would kneel all the way on the tips of his skis with both knees, and in the powder it gave the illusion that he was just kneeling in the snow with no skis and flying down the mountain. We’ll have to get some video of that at some point, because it’s quite a hoot.

An image of Ty Telemark skiing in powder snow on the Cougar trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — Ty dives in

We ended our descent back at the landing on the northwest corner of the Inn, and discovered that it’s a great spot to be if you want to catch up with what’s going on at the resort. After seeing Quinn at the start of our tour, we ran into Cam and later Josh at the end of the tour. We got to chat about the current state of the conditions, being happy that there are still great options out there for powder, but hoping that we can get some larger storms in here to start building the base. We’re in an OK pattern for maintenance over the next couple of days, and there’s a chance for getting in on snow from a coastal system as we head into Sunday night. We’re certainly a bit fat to the northwest to really jackpot with that storm, but if we can get some base-building synoptic snow out of it, it will really be a step toward terrain expansion.

December 24, 2013January 4, 2014

Jay Peak, VT 24DEC2013

An image of Erica skiing a bit of powder on the Interstate trail at Jay Peak Resort in Vermont — Making use of what Mother Nature delivered to get in some fun turns today at Jay Peak

We’ve been up at Jay Peak with family leading up to Christmas, and today we got out on the slopes for a few turns. The weather hasn’t been great for the ski conditions, since we just had an extended storm with plenty of mixed precipitation. The storm did bring some snow with it, but also plenty of other precipitation that ultimately led to a hardening up of the slopes. There really wasn’t much to inspire one to get out on the hill today, especially with colder temperatures on the way, but it was snowing when we arrived last night, and that piqued my interest at least a little.

When it finally came time to decide if we wanted to ski today, the boys were game. And since our RFID cards that serve as our room keys and provide access to other areas of the resort, also serve as RFID ski tickets, there wasn’t much of a downside to hitting the slopes. Today was also a chance for the boys to ride the tram, which was already closed for the season the last time the boys and I came to Jay Peak for lift-served turns. Temperatures were starting the day in the mid teens, which wasn’t too bad, but they were expected to drop throughout the day, so we decided that we’d best served by going for our turns in the morning before it got colder.

We started out at the moving carpet, where Luke and Lilly were having their first ski experience ever. We helped Marc and Jill get them going with some tips, and then once they started getting the hang of things, Marc joined up with E and the boys and me for a run on the Tram. The boys finally got their tram ride, and were impressed with how high and fast it traveled. From the summit we headed down Northway to Ullr’s Dream, and conditions were simply heinous up top. The snow was hard and icy, and I’m glad I’d sharpened our skis, but I’m not sure how much good it did. That’s sort of par for the course anyway with the way the wind blows up there, but the recent storm certainly didn’t help in that regard. We didn’t find much to inspire us to really take another run until we got down onto Kokomo along the lower elevations of Ullr’s Dream. Down there, an inch or two of powder has settled in, and combined with the modest pitches, we were starting to encounter some soft turns

The end of that run inspired us to make a second, and this time we used the Metro Quad, which is low, out of the wind, and down in the warmer elevations. We were hoping to head over toward Deer Run, but when we found the terrain on that side of the lift roped off because of snowmaking, we moved toward the Interstate side of the lift. That turned out to be just what we were looking for. Since the vast majority of the people on the trial were there for the terrain features, they were totally ignoring the large area of untracked snow off to the skier’s left. We found an inch or two of fresh powder over a smooth base, and turns were quite inspirational. It was the sort of discovery that definitely injects some excitement into the day. It was so much fun, I felt that we had to do it again. Of course with the rest of the family hungry and eager to get to the water park, I was by myself on that next run, but it was just as sweet.

It’s snowing again tonight as I write this, so as is par for the course for the Northern Greens, they seem to be starting to nickel and dime their way back to nicer conditions. I don’t think we’ll really have time to ski tomorrow with the Christmas Holiday, but I bet our tracks will be covered up again for tomorrow, and there should be fresh turns out there waiting for someone. I’ll update this report with more info on the whole trip as time goes on, but indeed there’s just way more to do here than time often permits. I will say one thing that really impressed and surprised me though, is that with the addition of the new Stateside Hotel, there are now 17 eateries of various sorts up here at the resort. We tried out three new food options on this trip that we hadn’t before, so I’ll talk about those when I add a bit more to this trip report.

December 19, 2013December 21, 2013

Bolton Valley, VT 19DEC2013

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Twice as Nice ski trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — Twice as Nice today

I stopped in at Bolton Valley this morning to check out the snow and make some turns, eager to see how the Timberline area was doing. Up to this point I’ve only skied the main mountain, because the snowpack down at the Timberline elevations was just a bit too marginal. The snowstorm we just had over the weekend was fairly significant though, with close to a foot of snow for the ski resorts in Northern Vermont, and with additional small rounds of fluffy snow topping things off this week, I suspected that Timberline would finally be ready for some turns.

Temperatures have warmed up significantly from where they’ve been over the past several days, and this morning’s valley temperatures in the mid 20s F were very nice. The shot of snow that we picked up this morning in association with a passing warm front had essentially dissipated by the time I was driving up to the hill, and I found just cloudy skies as I geared up for my ascent.

“…I set the AMPerages
together alpine style, then
schussed the next 30-40
feet of the headwall before
dropping into Tele turns in
the fluff along the skier’s
left of the trail.”

Right off the bat as I began my ascent behind the Timberline Lodge, I started probing the snow to get a sense of the depths and consistency. I found roughly 10 inches of powder in undisturbed areas just above the lodge, and it was indeed nice, but it only had a bit of a density gradient to it. The more surprising thing was that there was little if any base below the powder. There must not have been much snow down at those low elevations before the weekend storm. I followed a nice skin track that took the typical route, wrapping around the lodge and heading up the skier’s right of Twice as Nice. I saw some great-looking powder along the skier’s left of the trail which is more protected from the sun, but there continued to be little if any base along the skin track. That lack of base had me concerned, but once I was above 2,000’ it started to kick in even in the sunnier areas. I was getting snow depth readings of roughly a foot above that level, and there were at least a couple inches of dense base snow. At the mid station I looked toward the upper section of terrain and could tell that with the wind, it wasn’t really going to be worth the additional hike. I traversed across to assess the descent options, and although the tracks on Twice as Nice looked good, Spell Binder looked a bit better.

I switched over for the descent and side-stepped cautiously down the first 20 feet or so of the headwall. I could tell that the snow was thin in that area due to wind scouring, but below that it was much better. I had enough confidence in the coverage to ski the next section of the headwall, but I wanted maximum floatation just to be safe, so I set the AMPerages together alpine style, then schussed the next 30-40 feet of the headwall before dropping into Tele turns in the fluff along the skier’s left of the trail. It felt like the perfect melding of alpine and Telemark technique, and dropping the knee into those lower turns was oh so good. I did a couple of depth checks along the edge during the descent, and generally found at least a foot of snow, with up to 17 inches in one of the deeper spots. The powder there had that fantastic density gradient that delivers great turns. As is often the case, the Timberline area has managed to deliver some of the finest turns of the season so far.

An image of old ski tracks in powder snow on the Spell Binder Trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — Gorgeous Timberline fluff

Down at the car, I ran into Brian, one of our graduate students, who was also catching a morning ski constitutional before heading to work. He’d taken Twice as Nice, and said that he had to be on his guard at times. He’s bigger than me, and his skis weren’t quite as wide as mine, but based on our conversation I think I’d give Spell Binder the nod on conditions. Temperatures warmed up to around the freezing mark down in the valley, and that felt nice. We’d supposedly got a big storm, or series of storms coming through the area this weekend, and although there’s going to be a lot of mixed precipitation, it could be a good snowpack builder as well. We’ll just have to see how it plays out.

December 15, 2013December 18, 2013

Stowe, VT 15DEC2013

An image of snow on the roof of a shed with a snowgun in the background at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont — All kinds of snow today at Stowe

Yesterday E had her training day for our school’s ski program at Stowe, and boy was it cold – it was below zero F for the entire morning. I’d sent E off with plenty of hand and foot warmers, and she made use of them. She actually cracked the lens in her goggles toward the end of the morning, but by then everyone was just about done anyway. I don’t think there were many takers for afternoon turns once the requisite training items were covered in the morning.

Things were a little different for my training day today – temperatures were rising through the teens F, and oh yeah, there was a bit of a snowstorm in the intervening period. This storm was one of those that comes out of the Ohio Valley and redevelops off the New England coast, and it brought up to 19 inches of new snow for the Vermont ski areas. Snowfall totals were a bit lower for the Northern Vermont ski areas, generally approaching a foot, but as my snow analyses had shown, there was plenty of liquid equivalent in the snow; as of this morning, we’d picked up close to ¾ of an inch of liquid in the snow and the density was close to 10% H2O. The snow was of course quite dry with the cold temperatures in the area, but it certainly wasn’t fluff that might be prone to blowing away.

“The snow depth at the Mt.
Mansfield Stake isn’t quite
to that 24” mark yet, but
people are definitely starting
to ski those areas of early
season trees.”

For today’s training session, Claire assigned me to the level eight group, and when the instructors were dividing up the trainees in that group, they further broke them up by those who had already skied five days or more, and those who hadn’t. Although I’d yet to ride a ski lift this season, I’ve been out several times already, so I joined the former group, with Steve as our instructor.

“During today’s session,
Steve brought us into
Sunrise Glades, Birch
Glades, and Lower
Gulch Glades, and
they were all in
pretty good shape.”

With all the new snow, Steve’s plan for the day was to let us ski a lot. Instead of working on drills, he wanted to work on group management (i.e., how do the coaches effectively manage their groups of students on the slopes) in between the skiing. This was actually a nice change of pace, since E and I have had plenty of sessions with drills for both us and the students over the past few training sessions. One new group management technique that I learned today was for brining the kids into new areas of trees. What Steve likes to do is to show the students the entrance to the glade, but instead of entering that first time, he goes around to the exit of the glade via the trails. That way, the students know what is in store, and are ready with a little more directional orientation for when they actually do ski the glade. We talked a lot about strategies to use when bringing the kids into the trees, and it was a good fit for the trainees in our group, because many worked with the advanced students and were indeed doing a lot of off piste skiing. Steve also worked on the partner strategy for ensuring that everyone is accounted for at each stop. We actually had a real-time demonstration of its effectiveness, since my partner John had misheard our lift destination on one run and ended up at the Gondola instead of the Fourrunner Quad. Since we knew he was missing, I was able to run over to the Gondola and retrieve him.

An image of Telemark skis with snow on them on a car ski rack at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont — Grabbing the Tele boards for some afternoon turns

In terms of conditions, naturally they were best early on – we had a couple of great runs down Perry Merrill with good packed snow, and chowder and powder off to the edges. It was nice that Steve just let us rip it up. I generally found 12” of powder whenever I looked in undisturbed places, which is presumably the combination of snow from this storm and that frontal passage the other day. The snow depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake isn’t quite to that 24” mark yet (22” as of this evening’s report), but people are definitely starting to ski those appropriate areas of early season trees. During today’s session, Steve brought us into Sunrise Glades, Birch Glades, and Lower Gulch Glades, and they were all in pretty good shape. If you were going for lines of fresh powder, you wanted to be on your guard a bit since there are still some obstacles about, but in many spots it was hard to tell that it was so early in the season. In areas that had seen skier traffic and had packed snow, you could just ski it and really didn’t have to worry about coverage issues. In any event, it was definitely nice to be back in the trees. Indeed those runs listed are the more moderately pitched, well maintained glades that are amenable to these earlier visits, but they’re very low on the mountain and that says a lot about the current state of the snowpack.

After some lunch and paperwork at the Great Room Grill, Steve said that we were done, but that anyone who wanted to could meet with him at 1:00 P.M. and work on identifying weaknesses in student’s ski technique and how to remedy the situation. Having done a lot of that over the past few sessions, I decided I’d just grab a pair of my Tele skis from the car and take a final run or two before heading home. I was just going to grab my mid fats and head back over toward the Chapel Glades, but then wondered if the Sensation Quad was open – if it wasn’t, it might be a nice place to earn some turns. With that in mind, I grabbed the fat boards off the rack, finding everything covered in a layer of new snow that had fallen during the morning. Once I checked in at the lift status board at the Spruce Peak Base, I saw that indeed the Sensation Quad was running. That meant that the terrain over there on Spruce would likely be pretty packed out, but I decided to just go for it instead of making yet another trip back to the car.

I took a trip up the Sunny Spruce Quad and made my way over toward the base of Sensation. There were actually very few people over in that area, but in terms of traffic, the damage had been done earlier in the day. There were still pockets of powder off to the sides of trials, but with Main Street closed for snowmaking, terrain was limited. Even the hiking terrain above the top of Sensation was tracked up, so people had clearly been doing what they could to get some powder with the limited acreage that’s currently available on Spruce Peak. In spots where the snow surface was down to manmade snow, the fat skis were definitely a poor tool for the job. I ended up just going with alpine turns in the areas where the snow was firm like that, because getting the fat skis on edge in a Telemark stance in those areas felt like trying to get a snowboard on edge on icy terrain. They’re just not meant to do that well. I will say that I notice the deficiencies of fat, rockered skis much less when I ski them alpine, so that may be one reason that so many people are willing to use them as more all around skis (or they just go in with the recent marketing trends and figure that’s the way it is). With my legs cooked from the morning’s runs, I was very ready to call it a day after that trip to the bottom. I really would have liked to venture over to the snowfields above Meadows for some powder, but they had that area roped off because of snowmaking below. It was looking so good in there with the tracks from when it had been skied – hopefully I can get in there on my next Stowe powder day.

December 1, 2013December 2, 2013

Bolton Valley, VT 01DEC2013

An image of ski tracks in powder snow on the Fanny Hill Trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — Checking out the snow on Fanny Hill today

The ski tour we took yesterday was certainly considered a success, since both E and Ty were saying positive things today, and Ty was expressing to Dylan that he missed out on some fun. With the prospects for a little more snow today from a passing Alberta Clipper, I figured another visit to the mountain was in order, and I decided to make it at the end of the day once the new snow had started to accumulate and top off the powder. I couldn’t quite convince anyone else to come with me since they were having too much fun sledding or doing other stuff, so it was another solo outing.

I wasn’t exactly sure when the snow was supposed to start, but eventually it looked like I was going to run out of light, so around 3:00 P.M. I finally headed out. Fortunately, flakes had just started falling in the valley, so I knew the snow would already be well underway up on the hill. Up at Bolton Valley, the temperature in the Village at 2,100’ was 30 F and a steady light snow was coming down. The flakes weren’t huge, but it was accumulating on my equipment quickly enough that gear left out took on a coating within a minute or two.

“Fanny Hill ultimately lost
out to Work Road because
the snow was just too
good – 6 to 8 inches of
fluff and hardly a track.”

After using Turnpike for the past couple of ascents, and seeing that skier traffic there had been decent, I decided to go for an alternative ascent route up through the Fanny Hill area. It would give me a chance to check out the skiing in that area, and still head over toward the Wilderness Lift Line if I didn’t find anything that seemed to top what we skied yesterday. My first interesting sight was right as I was starting my ascent on Lower Fanny Hill – on one of the small cross trails there was a group of folks hanging out in a protected nook in the trees, just sitting in a circle of chairs and chatting. I suspect they were from the Liftline Condos that were just beyond. There was no wind, so with the light snow falling and temperatures around 30 F, it was indeed a fun time to be outside; it just seemed like a fitting thing to be doing on a dark Sunday afternoon in December.

Upon reaching Fanny Hill, the snow looked good, so I decided to continue my ascent there and explore the surfaces further. In general there were the same several inches of powder above the base snow that we’d encountered on the Wilderness Lift Line yesterday, and only when I got into the steeper sections of terrain near the top did the pitch seem to be too much for the snowpack. In a nice undisturbed spot along the edge of the trail at 2,600’, I was able to check the full snowpack at that elevation, and that came in at 13”. I’d say that consisted of a 6” base, and the rest was powder on top

I continued up toward Upper Fanny Hill, generally staying away from the Sherman’s Pass area where I could hear the snow guns running. Those higher trails like Coyote, Work Road, Lower Crossover, and Swing, held deeper snow and had seen much less traffic. They were definitely going to be on my descent route. I stopped my ascent around 2,900’ on Upper Fanny Hill just before the steepest pitches, because I could see that they were somewhat windswept and just didn’t have the coverage they needed yet.

I played it by ear on the descent, just watching for those trails with deep snow that had seen minimal traffic. Fanny Hill ultimately lost out to Work Road because the snow was just too good – 6 to 8 inches of fluff and hardly a track. That brought me over to the Wilderness Lift Line, and since we’d skied the skier’s right yesterday, I took the skier’s left today and found the same type of good snow. I’m sure Fanny Hill would have been fine as well, but after committing to Work Road I went where gravity took me. The rest of the descent back to the Village was just like yesterday, good soft snow, so no complaints.

It was getting pretty dark when I was leaving, but the group of folks was still hanging out in their little alcove in the trees – it was a good spot. As I made my way along some of the Liftline Condos, I saw a woman pushing something along through the snow – she made her way through some of the deeper snow around the back of the condos, and then was out of view for a bit before she got onto the street and I could get a picture I didn’t know if it was a stroller, or just some other sort of vehicle for moving things, but whatever the case, the fact that it was on skis was intriguing. Clearly it seemed to be somebody who knows the Bolton Valley environment.

An image of a woman pushing some type of sled in the snow in the Bolton Valley Village in Vermont — Bolton Valley Village version of getting around

It snowed all the way down to the valley when I was heading back to the house around 5:00 P.M., and the temperatures had fallen below the freezing mark even at the bottom of the access road down at 340’. It looks like the next opportunities for snow are some light stuff in the early week, and then a frontal system later in the week.

November 30, 2013December 1, 2013

Bolton Valley, VT 30NOV2013

An image of Ty skiing in powder on the Turnpike trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Getting after some of that leftover Thanksgiving powder

For the valleys in Northern Vermont, our first big winter storm of the season hit the area this week, and it created some potential holiday travel woes because of its occurrence so close to Thanksgiving. The storm was essentially complete by the time we traveled on Thanksgiving Day, but with 8.2 inches of snow, and 1.62 inches of liquid equivalent, it had certainly bolstered the snowpack in the yard and changed the look of the landscape. While the storm did have some mixed precipitation and rain in the middle, it was quite a nice gain in snow for the mountains, with some of the ski areas in the Northern Greens picking up more than foot of snow. And, as is often the case, the final volley from the storm consisted of a good shot of dry powder that sat well atop some newly added dense base to create some great Thanksgiving Day skiing.

With our holiday traveling done, we finally had the chance to get out today and sample some of the new snow. Dylan was away at a friend’s house, but E, Ty, and I headed up to Bolton Valley to earn some turns. They had reported 9 inches of new snow for Thanksgiving morning, and as we headed up to the Village, we stopped in at the base of Timberline at 1,500’ to check on how the snow had settled in down at that elevation. The depth of the powder was 3 to 4 inches over a good base, and we could see that there had been plenty of ski activity on Timberline’s slopes. Continuing on up to the Village at 2,100’, we found that the snow had increased to 4 to 6 inches in depth.

“The powder skiing was
every bit as good as
what I’d experienced
on Sunday…”

Having experienced some good snow on Turnpike on Sunday, I figured that we would check that out again today. Of course, with it being two to three days since the snow fell, plenty of skiers and snowboarders had been out on the trail, a lot more than the single track I’d seen on my last trip. We were treated to a nice skin track, but most of the powder was tracked out, so we definitely kept our eyes open on the ascent for lesser used options. We ran into Cam at the top of Lower Turnpike, and chatted about the mountain’s opening in a couple of weeks. If we can stick with the current weather pattern, things are looking quite good.

Like I’d done on Sunday, we stopped our ascent around 2,900’ on Turnpike since the terrain above that level was rather windswept, but snow depths had increased to roughly 6 to 8 inches, and combined with the base, there was easily over a foot of snow sitting there in many places. On the ascent I’d looked at the snow on Cougar and the Wilderness Lift Line, and I’d seen only a couple of tracks, so we worked those into our descent. The powder skiing was every bit as good as what I’d experienced on Sunday, and I was glad that we found plenty of untracked snow for Ty and E. Ty was putting together some great turns on his Teles, and I think his skiing was helped by the fact that he was in high spirits. E had her first chance to get on her Element skis with her new Telemark boots, and she definitely felt a big increase in control that she’d previously lacked with on her fat skis with her old boots.

An image of Erica skiing in powder on the Cougar trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — E finding much more ability to drive her powder skis today with her new boots

Today was a great, mellow outing, just like you’d expect pre-season at Bolton Valley. Along with Cam, we saw a couple other pairs of skiers, and they all appeared to be experiencing that same vibe. We’ve actually got our next small storm coming through tonight, and it’s supposed to persist into tomorrow, so perhaps we’ll get a freshening of the powder that will set things up for more turns. It’s been a great November of skiing around here, and now it’s on to December – let’s hope it can follow suit.

November 24, 2013November 26, 2013

Bolton Valley, VT 24NOV2013

An image of a ski track in powder snow at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — Some of Bolton’s powder today, thanks to yesterday’s Alberta Clipper

I hadn’t yet been up to Bolton Valley for turns this season, because based on what the web cams have been showing for all the storms thus far, the slopes at Stowe have seen bigger accumulations and better coverage. This time around though, things seemed more equitable. I’d seen the general state of coverage at Stowe when I stopped there for a tour on Thursday, so I had a good idea of what was down after the additional 4 to 6 inches reported this morning due to the recent Alberta Clipper. I could see from the Bolton Valley Live Web Cam that, although there was definitely some wind pushing the snow around and scouring some areas, accumulations were at least in the same ballpark as what Stowe had seen. As long as I went for a protected section of the mountain, it looked like coverage was going to be sufficient for some good powder turns.

“If you’ve ever heard of
the ‘no chain’ expression
in cycling, for when the
pedaling seems effortless,
then the expression for
today’s ski outing would
be ‘no width’.”

I wasn’t initially sure if I’d want to head out to the slopes today, since just a few inches of snow were expected from the clipper, but more due to the fact that the coldest air of the season has moved in on the back of this storm. With significant winds as well, it sounded like it was going to be brutal out there on the mountain. The reality was though, that this was November cold, not January cold. When we were out in the yard early this afternoon taking some potential Christmas card photos, the temperature was in the low 20s F and it was reasonably comfortable. It was going to be colder and windy on the mountain, but it seemed like great weather for earned turns.

An image of folding chairs covered with snow after a November snowstorm in the Bolton Valley Ski Area Village in Vermont — Village views of changing seasons on today’s ascent

I headed up to the mountain in the mid afternoon, made a quick Timberline stop at 1,500’ to measure the snow depths, finding 2-4”, and then parked in the top tier of the village lot around 2,100’. The temperature was in the mid teens F, and snow depths had increased to around 4-5”. After a conversation with Quinn subsequent to one of our recent October snowstorms, he’d mentioned going for an outing on the Turnpike trail, and with today’s accumulations and wind, that sounded like the perfect, protected option for an afternoon ski tour. I found a nice skin track that had been set in place by a prior skier, and it brought me up through some beautifully protected terrain. I think this was actually my first time ascending Turnpike on skins, and it is indeed a nice route. It’s got that type of modest pitch that makes you feel like you’re out for a stroll and hardly doing any work. The coverage was looking decent, and there was even a bit of old base snow that was initially sporadic, but increased as I got higher on the mountain. At 2,500’ I found snow depths in the 5-7” range, and I continued to follow the skin track up to around the 2,800’ mark, where it terminated. My plan was to ascend as high as the quality of the snow dictated, stopping when the winds or terrain outweighed the elevational increase in accumulations. Whoever had made that skin track had the right idea, because at 2,800’ it was starting to get to that point. I pushed on to 2,900’ at the top of Turnpike, and called it there because the next pitches on Peggy Dow’s were clearly steeper, rockier, and exposed to the wind. The snow had definitely been getting deeper though, and I’d say the depth of the powder up there was 7” or more.

An image of the Turnpike ski trail sign with snowy trees at the Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Enjoying a snowy scene at the top of today’s tour

I was unsure exactly how the descent was going to go. I’d chosen Turnpike because it has that protection from the wind, but also a nice combination of blue/green pitch and a generally grassy, not rocky, surface. The new snow was quite dry, but I’d brought my fattest Tele boards, my AMPerages at 115 mm underfoot. I was banking on that width to keep me afloat. I dropped in for my first turns, and another aspect of the snow conditions quickly became apparent… the snow was indeed light and dry, but it was cold enough that it was also slow. I was worried that the lack of glide in the dry snow was really going to affect the descent, but as soon as I hit the first steeper pitch the turns started flowing. Coverage was definitely adequate, and I touched down on the old base or grass very infrequently. Turns were very smooth, and as I was gliding my way down, I was confident that I’d made the right ski choice for the day. In fact, it felt like the perfect ski choice, and amazingly, given the situation I think I would have gone even fatter with the skis.

An image of a ski track in powder along the edge of the Turnpike trail at Bolton Valley after a November snowfall — Today’s snow offered up some great turns even on the bottom half of the mountain

People are always pushing the fattest skis for the deepest powder, and that definitely makes sense in terms of floatation, but they’re good for so much more. Indeed I find them absolutely horrible on firm snow; it’s a lot like trying to ride a snowboard on a hard surface. But today didn’t have anything to do with firm snow, it was all powder… light, dry powder, and the fatties shone in just modest depths in multiple ways because of their floatation. First, despite the airy snow, they were keeping me off the subsurface and allowing bottomless turns. Second, and this one was totally unanticipated prior to discovering how dry and slow the snow was, they were allowing me to plane at the more modest speeds attained on today’s moderate pitches. That kept me going on lower angle pitches, really enhancing the fun factor, and it’s been one of the few times when I’ve had the feeling that even wider skis wouldn’t have been overkill. If you’ve ever heard of the “no chain” expression in cycling, for when the pedaling seems effortless, then the expression for today’s ski outing would be “no width”. Even though it was all Telemark turns, in which transitions are much slower than alpine, things seemed to move effortlessly from edge to edge during the turns, and it all just flowed.

Looking ahead, we’ve got a small system expected to affect the area tomorrow night with some snow, and then a much more significant system as we move toward Thanksgiving. That one could be messy with some mixed precipitation, but hopefully we’ll get some snow out of it as well.

November 14, 2013November 16, 2013

Stowe, VT 14NOV2013

An image of ski tracks on the Goat trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont — You had to hunt a bit more today due to skier traffic and wind, but great powder is still out there.

When it comes to the Northern Greens, it can be hard to know when a snowstorm is complete. Just when you think an event is finally winding down, these mountains can cause it to fire back up and dump another foot of snow. In this case, that’s just what happened. After Tuesday’s great outing on Mt. Mansfield, I figured there wouldn’t be enough additional snow to lure me back out on the slopes too quickly, but I was wrong. While people anticipated a couple of additional inches to fall as the event finished up, a foot of additional snow was reported at Jay Peak, and another half foot at Stowe. There was already plenty of base in place, so after hearing first hand reports from some of our students at UVM about the great skiing brought about by the additional snow in the mountains, and seeing pictures like the one Powderfreak posted from Jay Peak, I heard the slopes calling again.

An image of the Cliff House on Mt. Mansfield in Stowe, Vermont — A view on the Liftline ascent

So I headed out to Stowe for another early morning session, and the temperature was definitely warmer this morning than what I encountered on Tuesday – it was even a bit above freezing in some of the mountain valleys, and around the freezing mark at the Midway Lot (~1,600’). The snow was still dry, but what was immediately evident was that the snow conditions aren’t as pristine now as they were a couple of days ago. The decrease in quality I saw was due to a combination of skier traffic and wind, and in those areas that were affected, the fresh fluff that fell yesterday was beaten down into something much denser. Since the snow had that wind crust in areas, it was a little harder to efficiently probe the snowpack depths on my ascent, but in general nothing has really melted over the past couple of days, and the snow depths with respect to elevation seemed fairly similar to the numbers provided in Tuesday’s report. I went with yet another ascent route today, and ascended the skin track up Midway that continued on to Liftline. This is the route that I had used last November, and it was a little frustrating at that point because I was using skins cut to Atomic RT-86s that were a bit too narrow for my AMPerages. I’ve got full-width skins now, so the issues from that day were resolved, but I was still slipping a bit up part of the Liftline skin track, and I’ve decided that it’s due to the fact that people have put in a skin track that’s just a little too steep. People should incorporate a few more switchbacks on the Liftline route to get a more reasonable grade on the ascent; it typically ends up being more efficient in the long run.

In any event, while I’d seen some decent, soft looking snow on Midway, Liftline was exposed and was riddled with wind crust. I watched a group of three guys descending the trail, and it was obvious from how little they were sinking into the snow that the wind crust was indeed substantial. One of the three appeared to be an excellent Telemark skier, and at one point he went head over heels dealing with the challenging snow. Seeing that spectacle, I decided to go for something more protected, and Goat came to mind. Some wind had still gotten in there, but it was far more protected than Liftline. I’m more leery about trails like Goat in the early season, since it holds a lot of interesting rocks, but as I probed along the skier’s left of the trail, I found a solid two feet of snow. That definitely looked sufficient for skiing the trail.

“The farther down
I went on the trail,
the more protected and
fluffier the snow was…”

With still a little trickiness to the snow, and the narrow, bumpy, rough and tumble nature of Goat, I found myself making plenty of alpine turns at first. I’ve got to say, I’d love to have another pair of these AMPerages mounted alpine, because they were a heck of a lot of fun in that snow – they created such a stable platform. The farther down I went on the trail, the more protected and fluffier the snow was, and I finished off with some beautifully soft turns on Lower National, which had seen a lot less traffic than the bottom of Lower Nosedive. Coverage remains quite good, and I even passed through some woods on my traverse to Lower National that could easily have been skied. That’s certainly consistent with the snow depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake hovering close to that 24” mark.

It was definitely warming up when I left, and I felt a little stickiness in the snow in the very lowest elevations (last couple hundred feet), so I’d say the snow down there will lose some of its fluffiness. There’s still plenty of snow out there for those that want to make turns, but you just have to pick the lesser used areas now if you want untracked snow. It also may mean going a bit higher to get into the winter snow, depending on how high the freezing line crept upwards today.

November 12, 2013June 9, 2014

Stowe, VT 12NOV2013

An image of ski tracks on the Hayride trial at Stowe Mountain Resort after a November snowstorm — 18 inches… topped with fluff

It’s been a couple of weeks since those powder days back in October, and there hadn’t been much in the way of new snow, but over the past few days, early winter weather has returned and been the rule. A fairly small Alberta Clipper system came through the area over the weekend, and in typical Northern Greens style, Mt. Mansfield was able to turn it into a decent shot of early season white. As of yesterday, reports of 12-18” of new snow were already coming in, and it didn’t take long for photos of the powder to appear from Powderfreak. We soon saw pictures from the FIS crew and even from the National Weather Service, as one of their meteorologists got out to enjoy his forecast. The initial reports indicated that the snow had been reasonably dense, setting up a substantial covering of the slopes, and with another round of even colder, drier powder anticipated overnight with a frontal passage, it looked like Tuesday held the potential for some sweet, early season turns.

“If someone had asked
me about ski choice for
today, I would have just
said to take your fattest
skis, whether they’re
brand new or not.”

The front came through overnight as expected, dropping about an inch of snow down at our house, and more in the higher elevations. Things seemed to have come together, so I decided to head out to Stowe for an early ski tour. Temperatures were generally in the mid 20s F as I traveled through the mountain valleys, and there were no issues with the roads until I started climbing up toward the mountain around 1,000’. Above that elevation I found enough packed ice and snow that it warranted a bit more cautious driving. At the Midway Parking Lot (1,600’), the temperature was 20 F and there was light snow falling. There was the usual crowd of early morning skiers heading out and returning from the slopes, and I suspected it would be easy to find a nicely established skin track on any of the typical routes.

An image of skiers heading out from the Midway parking lot at Stowe for a November ski tour — Heading out from Midway for turns

Since our last outings a couple of weeks ago focused on the Gondola side of Mansfield, I decided to mix it up this time and took the well established skin track that headed up Nosedive. It was well packed, and made all the sweeter by the fact that for much of the ascent there was a parallel boot pack available for anyone hiking without skins. The snowpack increased very quickly with elevation on the bottom half of the mountain, and I found the following depths during my ascent:

1,600’: 4-6”
2,000’: 8-10”
2,500’+: 12-18”

Above ~2,500’, I was essentially well into the deep stuff, and the gains in snow depth weren’t huge beyond that. Of course, when you’re already talking 12-18” of snow with plenty of substance to it, the lack of additional increases isn’t a big deal. At the top of Nosedive, I continued my ascent up the Toll Road for a few more minutes to check in on the depth of the snowpack at the fabled Mt. Mansfield Stake. At ~3,700’, the stake showed at least 17” of snow, and I generally found 18-19” there when I probed on the edge of the Toll Road itself, so indeed the snow depth up there was right around a foot and a half.

It’s really a nice sheltered area up along the road by the stake, and since the snow wasn’t perturbed by wind, you could definitely get a sense for where the snow stood with respect to quality. Indeed that quality was looking very good. As one would expect with the latest round of fluff, the snowpack was right side up with the lightest snow on top, and it was primed and ready for some turns. Big, dendritic flakes were falling while I was there switching over for the descent, and I stood and savored the moment for a while before pushing off down the road. I crossed over toward the Fourrunner Quad, and the summit area was awash in manmade snow. I didn’t even see that many guns going up there – I think the resort has already been able to hammer that area with manmade snow with the cold temperatures we’ve had.

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Hayride trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont after a November snowstorm — Hayride today

So now I’m left with just one more thing to discuss, the pièce de résistance for the day… the descent. While ascending Nosedive, it was clear that there had been a huge bolus of snow dropped above 2,500’, so coverage wasn’t going to be an issue. Temperatures were certainly not in question either, since it must have been somewhere in the teens F. That left the aspects of snow density and the effects of the wind, and based on the turns I was seeing by people descending Nosedive, it looked like the skiing was going to be fine, even if not sublime. But, I suspected I could do better. There had definitely been some wind on Nosedive that appeared to have packed out the snow a bit. With that in mind, I decided to roll the dice and check out another descent route – Hayride. I’d had good luck on Hayride back on April 10^th of last year, when Mt. Mansfield got laced with over two feet of dense, resurfacing snow. It was actually the challenge of that snow on Telemark gear that was one of the final nails in the coffin in convincing me to finally get some fat, rockered skis for Telemark use. I could already tell that today’s snow conditions were nothing like what I encountered on that April outing – with the new fluff, this snow was notably drier. I hadn’t actually thought that it would be anywhere near the quality of what we had last November on the 30^th, but after a few turns on Hayride I found that it was certainly in the same league. And indeed we’re talking quite the league – Hayride was sheltered from the wind, so turn after turn after turn I was able to push hard on the deep snow. It gave way, let you sink in, but pushed back with just enough force to keep you from getting to the ground. With 115 mm underfoot and judicious line choice, I think I touched down twice on something other than snow on the entire descent. Just like last November, the AMPerages were totally in their element, letting me play around in the deep snow on a remarkably stable platform. They helped out immensely with fore-aft balance, and I can recall some specific instances where I was saved from what easily could have been a face plant. If someone had asked me about ski choice for today, I would have just said to take your fattest skis, whether they’re brand new or not. Today, a combination of fat skis with the available snow would be plenty to keep you safely above most underlying obstacles. You’d probably end up having a heck of a lot of fun as well.

October 26, 2013November 3, 2013

Stowe, VT 26OCT2013

An image of Ty skiing early October powder on the Perry Merrill trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont — Taking advantage of the October powder today at Stowe

Well, we definitely got to witness Mt. Mansfield flexing the snowfall muscles today – despite the fact that we know this mountain’s ability to reel in snow, it just never gets old. Stowe delivers. I’d certainly been contemplating some turns, but after catching Powderfreak’s comment this morning about how it was dumping at the ski area, and then checking the web cams myself to see snow falling hard and fast at the base, that sealed the deal. Ty has been chomping at the bit for some skiing, so he joined me and we headed out in the early afternoon. Temperatures were in the low 40s F in the valleys, and the precipitation was generally light rain. The Worcester Range was visible to the east, white with new snow, but off to the west, a white haze hung over the spine of the Greens and we could see that it was definitely still snowing up there. The precipitation remained rain as we headed up the Mountain Road, but at ~900’ elevation near Northern Lights Lodge, we started to see leftover snow accumulations along the sides of the road. The snow on the ground continued to build, and by the time we pulled into Stowe’s Midway Lot at ~1,600’, we found 2-4” of snow on the ground up on the grassy slopes above. The temperature had only dropped to 38 F, but the precipitation had changed fully over to a light snow comprised of small flakes.

“…despite the fact that
we know this mountain’s
ability to reel in snow,
it just never gets old.”

We changed things up in terms of equipment today, and instead of Tele, we went with alpine gear using Alpine Trekkers for the ascent. I haven’t had the Trekkers out in a while, but it was time to bring them back into service; I’ve finally moved my old Volkl CMH Explosiv fat skis to rock ski status, and I was eager to try them out on one of these early days. My only Tele rock skis are my old skinny Rossignol Hellgates, and with a waist of just 70 mm, they’re really not a great tool for these early season powder days. Combining Tele + skinny + variable early season powder is certainly a recipe for challenge. Another reason to go with the Trekkers today was that Ty’s boots and bindings are now large enough to easily accommodate Trekkers. He’s not at the stage yet with his Tele skiing that he’s ripping up early season, potentially inconsistent powder with aplomb, so going alpine on the tour would be much more enjoyable for him. We decided to go with his carving skis instead of his powder skis for the setup, and fortunately we were able to get a good fit out of his skins from his Telemark skis.

As usual, the Trekkers were great on the ascent. Although going with alpine skis and Trekkers is notably heavier than Tele, it’s typically not a big deal unless you’ve got huge tours to do. My biggest issue was with my skins – I’m not sure if the old skins for my CMH Explosivs have lost their water repellency, but whatever the case, today’s conditions had them catching and carrying a bunch of snow at times. I’d have Ty clean the underside of the skins off for me when we stopped, but we could never quite keep them from re-accumulating a coating of snow. Fortunately, Ty’s skins had no issues in that regard. The snow on the ground was quite wet at the base, but it dried out substantially as our elevation increased. We ascended via a bit of Perry Merrill, and then Gondolier to the Cliff House, and we observed the following snow depths with respect to elevation:

1,600’: 2-4”
2,000’: 4-6”
2,500’: 6-8”
3,000’: 8-10”
3,600’: 10-12”+

Aside from Ty’s first chance to try out Alpine Trekkers another new addition on this outing was his own Measurement Ski Pole. I put together measurement poles for both Ty and Dylan this fall, and it was great having Ty reporting depths along the ascent – with two observers we were able to collectively decide on the best approximations of depths to create the list shown above. It also kept Ty very interested in going higher, even if just to see how much deeper the snow was going to get. Although Dylan didn’t go out to the slopes today because he was off with E doing some shopping, based on Ty’s experience I think he’s going to have a lot of fun with the measurements on our next outing.

An image of Ty in 19 inches of October snow up near the Cliff House at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont — A shot from up near the Cliff House

It was around 4:30 P.M. when we hit the top of the Gondola at ~3,600’, and the snow was coming down with some good intensity. It wasn’t quite inch an hour snowfall since the flakes were still fairly small, but it felt like it was somewhere between ½ and 1 inch/hr and it was quite impressive. We took shelter under the Cliff House to gear up for the descent because of the intensity of the snowfall, but there was almost no wind, so it was nice to hang out and watch the flakes pour down. With the late hour, thick clouds, and hefty snowfall, it had that dusky feel of December in the north. Ty and I discussed how it just as easily could have been December with all the snow. Another great milestone for Ty was the fact that this was his first full ascent to the Gondola, and it was nice to see that he still had plenty left in the tank at the top. We put a call in to Mom to let here know that we’d be descending soon, but also to let her know about Ty’s accomplishment.

An image of Ty throwing a handful of October powder into the air at the Cliff House at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont — Extolling October Snow

We fueled up with some food and drink, but didn’t loiter too long because we knew the light was going, and we had to get in some shopping for dinner on the way home. Soon, we headed off down Perry Merrill, and one of the more challenging aspects wasn’t the snow, but the intense snowfall and reduced visibility. I’d been sort of soured on my CMH Explosivs the last time I’d used them, because they felt heavy and long and I just didn’t want to push them around, but today I’d say there was a newfound love for them. For whatever reason, perhaps because we were out on open trails instead of tight places, they felt great today – fat and stable, and just what one needs for the inconsistent early-season snow. Ty had to work hard on his skinnier skis to handle the powder, but we worked on technique on the way down and he made some great turns. I told him that if he could ski the powder on these skis, he’ll be cranking away when he’s on his powder skis.

That more intense snowfall was with us on the entire descent, and the freezing line had gone down as well. Back at the car, heavy wet snow was falling, and the temperature was down to 35 F, three degrees below where it had been when we’d arrived. It was the sort of precipitation that soaked you very quickly once you were out of your Gore-Tex, and we both got pretty wet putting away the gear and switching out of clothing. The precipitation eventually changed back to rain as we dropped into the valleys on the drive home, but it was raining quite hard at times. There had already been some additional snow accumulations down to lower elevations by the time we were leaving, and the snow in some of the lower elevations actually looked better than it had on the way up due to some new covering. Overall the quality of the skiing was quite good, especially up high, and it could be even better tomorrow with more snow falling tonight.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: