Bolton Valley, VT 22MAR2014 (AM)

An image of Dylan skiing powder snow in the Wilderness Woods area of Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Wind holds at Bolton Valley yesterday meant lots of untracked powder today.

We had a winter storm at the end of the week that brought over a foot to some of the local ski resorts, and it created quite a powder day by Friday morning.  Fortunately (for some of us that didn’t get out Friday) most of the lifts at Bolton Valley were on wind hold all day, so much of the powder was still sitting there as of this morning.  With that in mind, we got a relatively early start up at the mountain today, getting there by roughly 9:00 A.M.  One great aspect of the day was that Dylan has been given a clean bill of health after his recent viral illness, so he was ready to jump back on the skis and go wild with the rest of the family.

The wind was already somewhat vigorous ahead of today’s incoming storm as the four us loaded onto the Vista Quad, and although temperatures were in the 20s F and fairly comfortable, the east wind blowing in our faces on the wasn’t pleasant.  We started off on Alta Vista, and while there seemed to be less powder off to the sides than usual due to extensive grooming, the actual groomed trail had some of the best snow we’ve encountered on it.  Oftentimes, traffic and wind make it pretty scratchy at the start, but not today.  Down lower on the trail, we got into some powder toward the Vista Glades, and it was quite good.  We worked our way over toward Wilderness and caught some of the first tracks in Wilderness Woods.  The powder wasn’t overly deep, but it had such a beautiful density gradient associated with it that it was bottomless everywhere.  Indeed there’s a ton of soft snow out there now, essentially everywhere I tested the depth of snow with my measurement ski pole off piste, I was able to push it down to around 40 inches before hitting any hard surfaces.  There’s really been a good amount of snow in the mountains this month.  We eventually made our way out onto Lower Turnpike, and although it had seen a thorough grooming, even that was super soft and there was untracked powder available on the sides.

When we arrived down at the base of Wilderness there were about 15 minutes to go before they loaded it, so E went in for a bathroom break, while the boys and I went for a Mid Mountain run.  It turned out that Mid Mountain was on wind hold, so we made a Snowflake run instead.  We caught some lines in the Bonus Woods and then met up with E for the loading of the Wilderness Chair.  From the Wilderness Summit we decided on Bolton Outlaw, and from what we could see even before we got there, the good powder was in protected areas.  The Outlaw Woods yielded some excellent snow.  We worked our way down via Cougar for another run in the Wilderness Woods like our first one, and the snow was still excellent, even if we weren’t in the realm of first tracks the way we’d been earlier in the morning.

An image of Dylan skiing in the Outlaw Woods area of Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Finding some beautiful snow in the Outlaw Woods

E and the boys were ready for a break from the wind, so they headed in for some snacks while I took another run on Super Snow Hole.  Being by myself, it was the perfect opportunity to dial in the traverse there, and avoid having to drag the family around looking for it like last time.  This time I found one of the main traverse tracks leading to the area and hit it from the top.  The snow was beautiful in there, and so well protected from the wind.  The snow had started to pick up with the approaching storm, and in the trees I got to experience some of those big fat flakes floating straight down in the dead calm.  It was a world of difference in those protected areas.  It was a great run in which I got to hit some nice lines that I’d explored in the off season.

I met up with E and the boys back in the lodge, and found out that they’d actually had a good bit to eat during their break.  I eventually convinced them to come for a run with me on Super Snow Hole, especially since I had a track in place and could guarantee that the traverse would be simple and productive.  They actually loved the run, especially with the really high quality powder, so I don’t think I’ll have quite as hard a time convincing them to go with me next time.

Everyone was game for one more run, so we took a trip up Vista and headed to Maria’s Woods.  We didn’t take the hike up the crack, but the snow was really good on the main lines anyway.  Sometimes you can get in there and find powder that just doesn’t seem to work, but not today.  In fact, I was really pleased in general at the high quality of the snow today.  I’d brought my Amperages, hoping that the snow was going to be of enough quality that they would be a good fit, and indeed they were.  They had that “no width” feeling, and everything was quick and effortless.  There’s something about the consistency of the snow that just seemed to work with them, and I’m still figuring out just what days allow them to shine.  A great example of when they weren’t a great fit was last Saturday, when the powder was dense in general, and the lower mountain having  bit of wetter snow.  One would think that fat skis would be great in that dense stuff, but I found that it was just too stiff in most places for their width.  Perhaps I’m getting used to how quickly they move around in high quality, fluffy snow, but  definitely found myself wanting my mid fats that day.  In any event, I’m definitely starting to dial in the type of days that work best, or at least “feel best” with the fats, and it’s not simply the deep days.  The quality of the powder seems to be the biggest factor.

I checked on the interest in any additional runs, but everyone was ready to leave, so we skied to the car, packed up, and headed down the access road.  As we passed by Timberline, we saw that it had finally gotten off wind hold, and people were loading.  It was very tempting to stop in and check out all the snow that had been sitting there for the past couple of days, but I couldn’t convince anyone to make the stop, they were happy to call it a day.  It did plant in my mind the possibility of heading back out after lunch though…

Stowe, VT 16MAR2014

An image of Joe skiing Profanity Chute in the alpine terrain above treeline at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
After a Northern Greens fluff bomb visited the area last night, we got some incredibly great snow above treeline on Mt. Mansfield today.

Overnight we had one of those classic Northern Greens mini upslope snow events – the kind that almost seem to come out of nowhere and drop localized fluff bombs of Champlain Powder™.  We’d been up at Bolton Valley yesterday from mid morning to mid afternoon, and by the time we left, it was really dumping up there – snow accumulation on the road was down to ~1,500’, and snow/mix was down to ~1,000’.  It was still just rain down at our house in the bottom of the Winooski Valley at the 500’ elevation, and that was essentially all I’d noted about the weather before we went on with our evening indoors.  We’d watched the second Hunger Games movie, which kept us pretty enthralled for a good couple of hours, and it was a while before I checked in on my computer to see what weather discussion was going on in the Northern New England thread at the American Weather Forum.  I noticed eyewall in Burlington reporting some snow accumulation, and it prompted me to take a look out back.  Low and behold, it was dumping snow out there, easily 1” an hour type snowfall, and there was already a couple fresh inches of snow down.  By the wee hours of the morning, we’d picked up half a foot of snow at the house, and of course that got me thinking about what was going on in the mountains.

“The snow in the
chute looked so
good it was
almost spooky.”

My thoughts of a very early departure to Stowe for me and Ty were stymied by the fact that I had to get some work done and send it off to Stephen, but we managed to get going by around 9:30 A.M.  I hadn’t eaten by that point, and we stopped in at the DD on Route 100 to really calorie up with some hearty food.  Although he’d had some breakfast, Ty followed suit with at least a cream cheese bagel; it was a good idea, because I suspected we’d need those calories, and as we’d find out later in the day… they were going to be burned.  We got to the mountain by mid morning, and the slopes were looking very good.  The resort was reporting a fresh 9 inches overnight, and they appeared to be in the sweet spot for accumulations.  We were of course really happy that the surprise dump of snow coincided with our usual Sunday visit to the mountain.  We’d dressed warmly since temperatures were around 10 F, but truth be told, the temperature just didn’t have the bite that it seems to in January.  It’s mid March, and either we’re acclimated, or the March sun just helps to fight off the cold.

An image of Ty skiing powder snow on the Lower Smugglers trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Warmin’ up for the day

Ty and I kicked things off with a run on the Sunny Spruce, featuring some Lower Smugglers Trees just like we’d done a couple of weeks ago, followed by a visit to the terrain above Meadows.  The new snow was indeed light and dry, and the skiing in the trees was awesome, although the base was stiff in low elevation areas that were unprotected from the sun.  I’d suspected that as a possibility based on the dense snow we’d found in the lower elevations at Bolton Valley yesterday, so after that warm up run our plan was to head right up into the higher elevations of Mt. Mansfield, where we knew the snow would be very well preserved.

We started off with a trip along the Kitchen Wall traverse, and hit some of the deep powder there.  There had really been minimal traffic through the area at that point, so we just picked an untracked area in one of the first snowfields and had at it.  That essentially led us on a long and meandering trip through various areas of tree skiing that brought us to the Fourrunner Quad.  From the top of the quad I took Ty down Pipeline, which I probably haven’t skied in 20 years.  I was happy that I was able to find it, but less enthused about how narrow it was.  My skis have only gotten shorter since 20 years ago, so I have no idea how I skied it back then.  It was already well packed out, which probably doesn’t take much, since in general people are going to side slip a lot of it anyway.  It was just as steep as I remembered though, and the fall away views were spectacular.  We eventually found ourselves dropping into the Hazelton Zone from the south side, and that resulted in a great run with tons of untracked snow.  Somehow we even managed to get into some of the same lines we’d hit back on the 2nd, and I think our noses naturally lead us in certain directions.  Knowing more about some of the big, north-facing gullies though, we managed to get ourselves into one of those, and that was pretty sweet.  We’ve still got several of those to explore however, the trick is just finding exactly where to enter the zone to get there.

An image of Ty spraying powder while skiing in the trees on Mt. Mansfield at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Ty sending up a huge spray of powder out there in some of the trees on the lower elevations of Mt. Mansfield

By the time we traversed out of the Hazelton Zone, it was time to head over to Spruce Peak for some lunch, and to meet up with Dylan, E, and all the other folks for the afternoon BJAMS ski program.  After climbing and skiing the Cliff Trail Gully last Sunday as a refresher, today the plan was to kick things up a notch and visit Profanity Chute.  Skiing Profanity is a bit of a larger endeavor, since it involves going all the way to the top of The Chin, with a longer hike and a longer descent.  This was a great day for it though, with a couple feet of snow midweek from winter storm Vulcan, topped off with another 9 inches of fluff from the overnight snows, the odds were favoring some really nice snow in the alpine.  Joe had heard about our plans, and since he was interested in bringing his group up as well, we joined together with him, Ethan, and Julia to make a nice gondola-sized group of eight.

I’d checked on some of the boys packs down in the lodge, so once we got to the top of the gondola, the preparation for the hike went fairly smoothly.  The ascent of the Climbing Gully was a little slow at first, simply because of all the fresh snow.  The boot ladder was just not consolidated enough.  That issue gradually waned as we got up into terrain that had been brushed by the wind a bit more.  About 1/3 of the way up the gully, we stopped for a break and to let Jack and Kenny catch up with the group.  In order to give them a rest, we waited a bit longer, and with temperatures in the single digits, we had to worry about getting too cold.  In the upper half of the hike, I eventually had to put Kenny’s and Jack’s skis on my pack to allow them to keep pace with the rest of the group.  That worked well though, and we eventually got everyone up to the Chin and the area atop Profanity Chute.  Winds were probably 30-35 MPH up along the ridgeline near The Chin, but fortunately we were able to quickly get on the leeward side of the mountain by the chute.

The snow in the chute looked so good it was almost spooky.  There was just one obvious ski track over on the skier’s left, but the right side was a huge field of what appeared to be powder.  Just to be safe and to check on wind loading, I ski cut through that area to make sure it wasn’t going to release.  It passed that test, and we let the kids just rip it up.  I didn’t even have time to get my camera out because they were so quickly enamored with what lay beneath their feet.  Indeed that was some mighty fine snow we hit, two to three feet of soft powder, with the denser accumulations from Vulcan topped off with last night’s fluff.  I was at least able to shoot some images of Joe in the chute, since he’d waited for all the kids to go.  The kids were treated to some fantastic conditions up there, with almost no tracks all the way down the second part of the chute toward Taft Lodge.  There’s not much to say other than that the snow was deep, bottomless, and everywhere; that leeward side of Mansfield just really knows how to do snow right.

After following the mazes of tracks and bobsled runs through the subalpine area, getting down to Chin Clip, and then skiing all the way to the base, it was time to head back to Spruce Peak and call it a day.  The kids really earned high marks today, and I was amazed at how comfortable with the exposure of the chute up in the alpine.  I think that the amazing snow helped with that of course, because even when people did fall, they just immediately stopped thanks to the deep powder.  The temperatures were doing a great job of preserving the snow, even when the March sun came out, and it looks like those temperatures will continue to keep preserving the snow as we head into the coming week.

A Google Earth GPS map of a ski tour in the Mt. Mansfield alpine area above Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont  including Profanity Chute
A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data of today’s ski tour to Profanity Chute in the Mt. Mansfield Alpine area – Click to view the full size image.

Bolton Valley, VT 15MAR2014

An image of Ty skiing in the Preacher Woods at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
The snow was quite settled today, but boy is coverage good now in Northern Vermont as we hit mid March.

It was already obvious from my outing on Thursday at Bolton Valley that the snow from Winter Storm Vulcan had fallen in a fairly dense state in this area. It hadn’t been warm during the storm, but snow growth just hadn’t been all that great around here, and the small flakes packed together to produce snow in the 10-11% H2O range. When combined with some wind, the snow had definitely been settled, and that was already evident even though I was skiing while the storm was still finishing up. And of course, snow generally just gets denser over time, so with temperatures predicted to be in the 30s F today, we weren’t expecting light and dry powder everywhere.

“…Vulcan dropped what was
likely close to two inches
of liquid equivalent in the
mountains in the form of
snow, so we knew that the
mountain had received a
full resurfacing.”

Although we weren’t expecting feathery, “Champagne Powder®” on the slopes today, Vulcan dropped what was likely close to two inches of liquid equivalent in the mountains in the form of snow, so we knew that the mountain had received a full resurfacing. That meant it was a perfect time to hit all the steep terrain that just hasn’t been well covered yet this season. Because we’re still waiting on Dylan’s physician to give him the go ahead for doing the most vigorous activities, such as skiing, Dylan and E planned to go swimming in the Bolton Valley Sports Center, while Ty and I planned to ski.

E dropped Ty and I off over at the base of Wilderness, and for me, it was quite a treat to get the chauffeur service that the rest of the family usually has. We found out that the Wilderness Double Chair was still on wind hold though, so we headed up to the Vista Quad for a run. Our first stop on the steep terrain tour was the Preacher Woods. The coverage there is definitely sufficient now, even up in the big open areas with multiple ledges. There are still some aspects of the ledges that one needs to dodge here and there, but when the terrain is small cliffs, that’s often the way it’s going to be. The snow was packed, and the untracked powder was sort of thick and dense, but the skiing up there was really pretty decent. There just wasn’t any fluff factor to speak of, so things felt very “settled”. It was really just fun to take virtually any line and not worry about coverage around the next corner; we’ve been waiting for a while to get to that stage this season. Our run brought us down through the Cobrass Woods, and then Deer Path, and finally the Bear Run Woods. The lower half of the mountain had warmer temperatures and snow that was somewhat wet, so that made it a bit more challenging. I’d brought my fat skis, and while I liked them a lot in the dense powder and chowder up high, I was less than thrilled with them on the more packed snow in the lower elevations.

An image of Ty skiing some dense spring powder in the Deer Run area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Throwing around some dense snow out in the Deer Run area today

When we arrived back at the base, we found a big lift queue at the Vista Quad, and a similar queue at the Snowflake Chair. The Wilderness Chair was still on wind hold, so we decided to go for a run off the Mid Mountain Lift to get ourselves over to Timberline. We used Deer Run to get there, and Ty had an excellent crash in some of the powder that appeared to be to the amusement of some of the little kids in one of the ski programs. As we headed lower and lower in elevation over toward Timberline, the snow got wetter and wetter, and we could tell that it was really getting warm down in those lowest elevations. We encountered a huge queue at Timberline, probably because of other people that had left the main mountain to find shorter lift queues, but after seeing the drop in snow quality down low, I bet many of them headed back to the relative cool of the main mountain. I took Ty down the steep terrain of Lost Girlz, followed by Thundergoat Pass. We generally skipped the untracked powder down at Timberline, as it was just getting too dense and challenging. The partially tracked up snow was much easier to ski.

An image of fat skis outside the Bolton Valley Village Deli and Grocery at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A deli lunch break for the boards

We made our way back to the main mountain after that, and finding that Wilderness still wasn’t open and there were substantial queues at the other lifts, we decided it was time for lunch. I called down to E and Dylan, and we met them for lunch at the Deli. I suspected that with all the patrons the resort had today, the lodge would be quite packed, and even the usually very quiet deli was hopping, so it was definitely a busy one out there. I actually think it’s interesting that so many people would come out after President’s Day, but Vulcan was a big storm and it caught a lot of people’s attention. After lunch, Ty headed down for some swimming with E and Dylan, and I contemplated another run or two. Finding the lift queues still fairly substantial, I decided to just call it a day. The skiing certainly wasn’t phenomenal enough that it warranted waiting in lift queues, especially since the snowfall was picking up and the possibilities for tomorrow were looking decent with cooler temperatures. I toured around the Village a bit and got some pictures, returned the pizza pans that Fireside Flatbread had lent us when we ordered pizza last Saturday, and finally worked my way down to the Sports Center. I worked on a jigsaw puzzle that was out in the recreation room while I waited for the others to finish swimming, and when they arrived, the battle was joined in a game of foosball. I forget how much fun stuff there is to do down at the Sports Center – we don’t visit to often because we’re usually headed home after skiing, but we’ll have to remember that there’s a lot more than just swimming.

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

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.

Bolton Valley, VT 05FEB2014

An image of the Vista Beast at the base of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The Vista Beast was out showing everyone what they should be doing today.

Our largest snowstorm of the year has been affecting Northern Vermont today, and while snow totals are generally under a foot, the event still represents a huge, sorely needed addition to the mountain snowpack.  The snow was just starting up early this morning, and there was only 1.1” on at the house when I made my 6:00 A.M. observations for CoCoRaHS.  What was very interesting was the density of the snow – it came in at a surprisingly dense 13.6% H20.  That’s great snow to start out a storm and provide a cushion above the subsurface.  The timing of the storm didn’t really lend itself to a powder morning, so I decided to try for some turns later in the afternoon on the way home from Burlington.  Indeed it snowed all day, with snowfall rates up to 1 to 2 inches an hour at times.  Winds had been pretty minimal with this storm, so as the snow fell, the ski conditions were just getting better and better.

“Indeed it snowed all
day, with snowfall
rates up to 1 to 2
inches an hour at
times.”

I arrived up at Bolton Valley in the mid afternoon timeframe, and quick estimates from the parking lot at ~2,100’ suggested roughly a half foot of new snow had fallen.  I’d brought both mid fats and full fats, but decided it was enough to go with the fat boards, so I stowed the appropriate skins in my fanny pack with my camera, and headed up the Vista Quad.  Since people had been skiing the snow all day, you had to head to the edges for powder, but it was a good combination of denser snow and some dry snow on top, and that let you float.  I skied Hard Luck up top, and on the bottom of the mountain I got to pay a visit to Glades for the first time this season.  Coverage was definitely sufficient, but you will still contact icy surfaces below if you went in heavy traffic areas.

An image of the depth of the powder over at the Wilderness area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont showing 16 inchesI decided to skin over to the top of Wilderness on my final run, and followed an ascent track that had just been made by another skier and a couple of snowboarders.  They were post-holing their way along, but even though it wasn’t a pristine skin track, it was still a huge help to have their track set for me – measurements I made along the way revealed 16” of powder resulting from these last few storms.  Breaking trail through that would have been significantly slower, even with the float of my fat skis.  The rewards of the trip over were good though, with tracks on Peggy Dow’s in the deep.  I was definitely glad that I had my fat skis for planing purposes, because the depth was getting to be too much for some of the lower angle slopes on the lower mountain.  It was a fairly short and sweet session this afternoon, but the quality of the turns was very high.  There’s been more snow falling this evening though, so there could be some great turns out there tomorrow.  I actually saw a snow cat working at the base of Timberline, so perhaps the resort is getting ready to open it for the first time this season.  This storm may not have been quite enough to get those lower slopes ready to support lift-served skiing, but it could be close.

An image of a ski track in powder on the Peggy Dow's trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Fun powder lines amidst today’s flakes

Bolton Valley, VT 25JAN2014

An image of Erica Telemark skiing on the Wilderness Lift Line at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Another Alberta Clipper meant another round of fresh powder at Bolton Valley today.

While we’ve still yet to get hit by a big synoptic snowstorm in Northern Vermont this season, another Alberta Clipper system came through the area today, and it began delivering a reasonable shot of fresh snow, just like the one last weekend.  With the snow just starting up this morning, we waited until mid afternoon to head up to the mountain for skiing.  By that point we’d picked up a couple of inches down at the house, and the snow was continuing at a good clip.  Today also offered to bonus of being a somewhat warm reprieve from the arctic air, with temperatures around 20 F in the valley and up on the mountain at Bolton Valley.

I dropped E and the boys off at Snowflake, parked the car, and got my gear together fast enough to catch them on their second run.  Ty was raving about the snow on Butterscotch in general, but E didn’t quite find the overall setup quite as nice as what we found on Monday.  She said that the middle of the trail was good with the new snow, but the powder on the skier’s right didn’t cover and even out the subsurface in quite the same way that it had last time.  Those subtleties aside, you could tell that there been another nice addition to the snowpack, and the snow from this storm was definitely denser than what we received on Monday.  In fact, although it was still fairly dry at ~7% H2O according to my analyses from down our house, that’s still roughly twice as dense as the last storm.  The snow certainly had some heft that helped cover up the old surfaces, but it wasn’t going to be flying in your face the way the snow from the last storm did.

“…the snow from this
storm was definitely
denser than what we
received on Monday.”

Heading next to the Vista Quad, we took Spillway, finding some good turns, but again a notch below what we’d found on Monday.  Ty worked the terrain with fresh snow off to the skier’s right, but wasn’t interested in setting up any photos; clearly the snow couldn’t quite inspire him the way the last storm did.  E wasn’t feeling comfortable enough on her Teles today to stick tight to the soft snow on the edge of Spillway, so spending more time toward the middle of the trail, she had to deal with some icy, high-traffic spots.  As we descended toward Mid Mountain, the boys toured us through some nooks and crannies of access roads in order to ski under a big bent over tree.  That was a bit of a slow route, but you could get a feel for just how much snow was starting to build on the natural terrain.  We checked out Beech Seal on the lower mountain – I hit the usual soft snow on the skier’s right and found it performing right in line with the other terrain we’d skied.  The skiing was great, just a notch below the last storm.  I hadn’t seen where Ty had gone on Beech Seal, but it turns out he’d snuck over into the little lane of terrain on the right beyond the racing fence.  He gets a kick out of being over there, and of course he’s probably one of the only people who can comfortably fit in there and loves the fact that the powder is untouched.

An image of Dylan skiing powder on the Wilderness Lift Line at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Dylan, picking up where things left off last weekend

With Swing finally open, we next headed over toward Wilderness to sample some of the powder over there.  Checking on the powder depth at 2,775’ on Lower Crossover like I’d done on Monday, I got a reading of 9 inches.  That’s actually an inch lower than what I recorded on Monday, but that’s not surprising after several days of settling and now some denser snow on top.  Most importantly, the net content of liquid in the snowpack has increased again with this storm. Every storm continues to bolster the snowpack over there, and we definitely had our best run of the year on Turnpike.  It’s really been our go-to trail this season when snow has been lean, and it was just a heck of a lot of fun with all the new powder.

An image of Ty jumping over a clump of brush on the Wilderness Lift Line trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Ty later told me that he was working on his body positioning in the air with this jump – nice!

Although we still had daylight, the night skiing lights continued to come on as the resort shifted into night skiing mode.  It was 4:15 PM, and I had to be in Burlington for dinner, but we decided to catch a final run off the Mid Mountain Chair – Ty really wanted another chance to ski his line behind the racing fence on Beech Seal.  The snow continued to pour down, now with some larger flakes more reminiscent of upslope, and as we skied along I commented to E on how conditions were almost of the type we like for night skiing – fresh snow, no wind, and relatively warm.  For those that went out last night to the slopes, I’d say they chose a good one.  Ty got to ski his line, and Dylan followed along as well, continuing on to the second fence where the line ends in a bunch of brush.  Dylan extricated himself easily though, and came out smiling.

We skied right back down to the access road through the trees near the Wentworth Condos, which is always a nice way to end the day.  I’d say the mountain had picked up at least 2 to 4 inches by the time we’d left, and a half foot would be a reasonable way to expect the event to finish off.  We’ve got a chance for another Alberta Clipper on Monday, and a steady diet of these is certainly a nice way to go until a bigger storm comes through to really give us a big jump in base depths.

Bolton Valley, VT 20JAN2014

An image of Dylan skiing deep powder on the Cougar Trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
It’s amazing what a little of that Champlain Powder can do for the skiing.

When Bolton Valley reported another four inches of snow this morning, we knew that we’d be heading up to make some turns.  That amount of snow, on top of the four to five inches that I’d found when I visited the mountain yesterday, was definitely going to bring the skiing up a notch.  As it turned out, it brought the skiing up several notches and turned it into what was for us, unquestionably the best ski day of the 2014 calendar year.  That’s actually not saying much with the way the past few weeks had gone in terms of weather around here, but when Ty gets talking about having to ski blind because there’s too much powder in his face, it’s a sign that conditions are on the mend.

“…when Ty gets talking about
having to ski blind because
there’s too much powder in his
face, it’s a sign that conditions
are on the mend.”

The approach of an arctic front brought an inch and a half of snow to the house overnight, but as the cold air continued to filter in, more snow was wrung out, and we received snowfall of various intensities through the morning.  Snow was falling up at the mountain as well, and with updates on the website indicating that new trails were opening, it sounded like conditions were getting better and better.  While we had initially started to discuss both skinning and lift-served options for today’s outing, the opening of new terrain sealed the deal in favor of the latter; we knew that meant that the recent accumulations had resulted in substantial changes in coverage.  In the end, with so many additional terrain options opening, it was clearly the right choice.

We finally headed up later in the morning to find the parking lot only about half filled, and after dropping E and the boys off at the base of the Snowflake Chair, I quickly got a great spot to park down near the end of one of the top rows with help from one of the parking attendants.  I’d spoken with him before, and as I got my gear on, we chatted about how nice it was to have some consistent temperatures back – the past few weeks have been a real roller coaster with systems passing though off to the west, and he said that he had to pack a ridiculous amount of clothes each day just to keep up with the weather.  In any event, winter was definitely in place, and as I look around at the falling snow and ski vehicles covered in white, it was a much more familiar look for the Northern Greens in winter.

An image of ski vehicles and falling snow in the village parking lot at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Back to reality

By the time I got to the base of Snowflake, E and the boys had already completed a couple of runs, and Ty was raving about the conditions.  They’d taken Butterscotch, and Ty said that there was powder off to the sides, but even if you didn’t go into the powder, the conditions were great.  We hit one more run there, and then boarded the Vista Quad to hit some steeper terrain.  We spent the midday hours trying out the steepest available terrain like Spillway, Hard Luck, and then Alta Vista.  Not surprisingly, there were some firm surfaces on the middle areas of the trails where manmade snow predominated, but off to the sides where traffic was low, the snow was generally softer and there was plenty of chopped up powder and even untracked powder at times.  The skier’s right of Spillway held a lot of great snow over the edge of the trail where the terrain fell away.

An image of Ty skiing the Spillway trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Ty finally getting his chance to ski some of Bolton’s steeper terrain on the great snow today.

After a few runs, E was getting a bit cold, and Dylan was ready for a break, but Ty was just too jazzed to go in.  He wanted to stay out with me and shoot some photos, so I told him that I had two specific runs in mind.  We kicked things off with a run down Spillway, where he dissected all the potential powdery lines off to the skier’s right, coming up with his own lines and photos that he wanted me to shoot.  He was one fire on that steep terrain, taking on everything, even the occasional massive death cookie that got sent that way from the groomers.  On our next run we headed over toward Wilderness.  Although Swing was roped off, closing the upper entrances, another track was available off Sherman’s that gave us some lower access.  I checked the snow depth as we headed over, and found 10 inches of settled powder.  The Wilderness Lift Line was in nice shape with plenty of coverage and plenty of powder, and Ty managed some nice face shots.

An image of Ty getting a face shot of powder on the Wilderness Lift Line trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Ty encountering some of today’s visual impairment.
An image of Ty skiing deep powder on the Cougar trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Ty keeping his head above water

We stopped in the lodge for some lunch with E and Dylan, and then brought Dylan out for one more run in the powder on Wilderness.  They boys got some deep turns on Cougar, followed by a delightful cruise through the powder on Turnpike.  Actually, we had to use the tracks of others at times on Turnpike, because the powder is now getting almost too deep for some of the pitches there.  The snow had let up, and the sun came out for that final run to really punctuate the day.  The coming week is looking quite cold, with single digits for high temperatures, but at least the snow is going to be well preserved for the near future.  It was interesting to note what Powderfreak said in the Ski Tread at American Weather – that this week we just managed for the first time in 2014 to have an average snowfall week here in the Northern Greens.  With that being the case, an above average week should be really fun.

Bolton Valley, VT 19JAN2014

An image of a snow-covered car at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A couple of modest storms have helped replenish the powder at Bolton Valley over the past few days, and there could be more on the way tonight.

It’s been two weeks since I was last out on the slopes, because there hasn’t been much to draw me out in the interim.  We finally got a small snowstorm on Wednesday though, and with another few inches of snow at the mountain overnight into this morning, it seemed like it was time to check out how the powder was building up.  Actually, the potential exists for a few more inches of snow tonight with the passage of an arctic frontal boundary, so my real goal was to make a reconnaissance run to see how the snow might be set up for tomorrow.  If things come together to offer up some quality turns, it could be time to entice E and the boys up to the hill.

“The snow wasn’t overly deep
with just 4 to 5 inches, but the
 pitches fit that depth quite well,
the turns were mostly bottomless
 on the fat skis, and it was some
 damn fine powder skiing.”

After hanging out at home and watching some of the AFC Championship game featuring the Patriots, it was almost 4:00 P.M. before I got headed up to Bolton Valley.  I knew that it was going to be getting toward dusk by the time I got on the snow, but I also knew that it would be quite peaceful, and I’ve really been enjoying these tours that I get to finish off while descending to the lights of the Village.  Comfortable temperatures in the upper 20s F down at the house in Waterbury, gave way to somewhat chillier temperatures and snowfall as I ascended the Bolton Valley Access Road.  Our little system from earlier today had dropped a couple inches at the house, and 2 to 3 up at Bolton, but there had been a snowfall lull during the middle of the day.  As evening approached however, snow associated with the upcoming frontal passage was making its presence felt, and as usual, it was starting in the higher elevations.  The intensity of the snow increased as I ascended, and the road began to take on a light accumulation of snow at ~1,200’.  With no night skiing going on tonight, numerous cars inched their way down the road as they finished off their ski day.  I made a brief stop at the Timberline Base to check on the snow situation at 1,500’, and indeed as expected, I found that the snowpack is still a bit too lean down at that elevation to be supporting comfortable skiing without rock skis or junkboards.  There was only 1 to 2 inches of powder down at the base lodge, and that was on top of a fairly thin base.  The snowpack was much improved up in the Village at 2,100’ though, where there was a decent base of several inches, and a consistent 4 inches of powder.

An image of snowbaorders hiking up the Lower Turnpike Trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Other late-day turn-earners

I geared up and began my ascent of Turnpike, watching three snowboarders ahead of me that appeared to have similar thoughts.  In a couple of minutes however, they stopped along the trail just after the junction of Turnpike and Wilderness Lift Line, cracked open some beers, and kicked back in the snow.  Good times.  We exchanged greetings as I passed, tossing around comments on the joys of the new snow, and I continued upward.  There was a nice skin track at times, although it did get disrupted as ski tracks merged and diverged from it, or the end of the occasional deeper water bar forced it away from the trail’s edge.  Steady light snowfall continued, and an occasional gust of wind worked its way into the protected confines of the trial.

Being a trial run, and paying some respect to the growing darkness, a decided to stop at the connector between Turnpike and the Wilderness Lift Line around 2,500’.  The depth of the powder had increased just a bit by that point, and measurements were in the 4 to 5-inch range.  There was some untracked snow still remaining on Turnpike, but despite being a bit more exposed to winds, the Wilderness Lift Line had seen a lot less traffic and seemed like the way to go for fresh tracks.  There were some tracked areas off to the left and right, but excellent lanes of powder showed themselves near the middle of the trail, even in the darkened view allowed by my goggles.  The turns, as I’d later describe them to E, were what I’d call “par for the course” for that area over the past few weeks.  The snow wasn’t overly deep with just 4 to 5 inches, but the pitches fit that depth quite well, the turns were mostly bottomless on the fat skis, and it was some damn fine powder skiing.  The only complaint would be that the snow was a little cold and slow in spots, so maybe an extra coat of wax would be in order if we try something similar tomorrow.

There were no signs of the snowboarders by the time I reached the bottom of my run, but the Village was abuzz with lights, and televisions that were probably set to the Patriots game.  I stopped in for a few minutes at the big screen set up next to Fireside Flatbread in the lodge, and it wasn’t looking good for the Patriots – the Broncos were up 20 to 3.  Outside, the snow had redoubled its efforts, and was coming down at a moderate pace.  I had to take some time to wipe the snow off the car, as there was a good coating on the leeward sides.  Snowfall that was initially more minimal down here at the house has picked up as the evening has progressed, so we’ll have to see where things stand tomorrow with the new snow.  Winter, and fortunately powder skiing, is certainly back after its earlier hiatus.

Bolton Valley, VT 28DEC2013

An image of ski tracks on the Peggy Dow's trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Getting out for a bit more powder today

I saw a couple of new offerings mentioned on the Bolton Valley website this morning as they continue to expand their terrain – the opening of the Snowflake Lift and the Hard Luck trail.  Ty was away at Kenny’s, and E and Dylan had to take care of some shopping for an upcoming birthday party, but eager to check out the expanded terrain, I decided to head up to the hill in the afternoon.

We’re experiencing warmer temperatures right now ahead of the next incoming storm, so it’s been quite comfortable out there.  It was around 30 F at the house when I left at noontime, and mid 20s F up on the hill.  It was cloudy, but unlike the persistent snowfall of yesterday, there was only the occasional spit of snow in the higher elevations.  Like yesterday, I was able to grab a parking spot in the top lot from a car that was leaving, and after getting on my gear I headed right over to catch a ride on Snowflake.  While on the lift I was able to watch a snowcat working on the Butterscotch Terrain Park – all the snow piles were being flattened, and they play to open it tomorrow for skiing without features.  Only Timberline Lane and Lower Villager are open on the skier’s left of Snowflake, so I opted for Sprig O’ Pine to get me down to the Vista Quad.  The snow on Sprig O’ Pine was nice, not as soft as natural snow of course, but good because traffic has been minimal there.  I took the alternate loop out toward Deer Run, which did have natural snow – that was really soft, and as it’s a protected area there were some beautiful accumulations of snow on the trees.

“Indeed, all of Peggy Dow’s
above the first big bend
had plenty of deep snow
and some great powder
turns were made.”

There was a lift queue of probably a couple minutes for the Vista Quad, but I jumped in the singles line and got right on.  I found good snow along the skier’s left of Spillway Lane, and then dropped into Hard Luck to see how it skied.  It was somewhat firm manmade snow in the top section, although skier traffic had created deposits of soft snow along the edges.  As is sometimes the case with manmade snow, the loose material was a lot like sand, but at least it was soft.  The bottom half of Hard Luck appeared to be mostly natural snow – it was much softer than what was above as one would expect, but some areas of poor coverage has to be roped off.  Below Hard Luck there was actually some nice untracked powder remaining on the skier’s left of Sherman’s Pass – people just hadn’t been venturing that far to the left.  On the lower mountain I skied Beech Seal, which had some excellent areas of soft, contoured snow along the skier’s left.  I was eager to hit that again on my next run.

I checked out Alta Vista next, and the line along the skier’s left was in good shape.  Had it not been for the occasional touching down onto firmer snow, it would have been great.  Sherman’s Pass was in decent shape, with the occasional patch of slick snow that could be avoided, and turns were very nice once I got to that area below Hard Luck and followed the same route down Beech Seal.

An image of a snowy evergreen tree in the woods at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Enjoying the wintry views

I’d explored the offerings that I wanted to hit by that point, and decided that I’d tour over to Wilderness to finish off the day with some powder.  I headed down Alta Vista again, really happy with the way I hit that skier’s left with some aggressive turns.  My legs felt warmed up and stronger by that point.  On my previous run I’d seen that all the lower routes over to Wilderness were roped off, so the Upper Crossover route was the best remaining option.  I knew that anything steep was going to be too much for the current conditions, but I suspected that Peggy Dow’s would be passable, even if I found nothing good above the Old Turnpike area.  I caught the bottom portion of Vista Glades, then connected onto Upper Crossover to switch over for the ascent.  While putting on my skins, I had time to enjoy the snowy views, which included evergreens that were really starting to take on some healthy accumulations of powder.  On the ascent toward the Wilderness Summit, I generally found snow depths of 6 to 11 inches in spots that weren’t scoured by the wind, so there were indeed some good pockets of snow up there.

Despite intense scouring at the top of Bolton Outlaw, the Wilderness Summit itself was sheltered from the wind and had some nice snow.  Indeed, all of Peggy Dow’s above the first big bend had plenty of deep snow and some great powder turns were made.  Once I neared the junction with Heavenly Highway I initially went wide right to avoid the icy, wind-scoured face, but I saw that another skier had taken the chute that bypasses it on the left.  That area was protected from the wind, so I followed that skier’s tracks and found reasonable coverage.  Down on Old Turnpike the first couple of steep corners were naturally icy, but there were lines to bypass the most exposed spots, and soon I was down into the protected lower areas that we skied yesterday.  I actually used the same route as we did yesterday, until I decided to mix it up and check out the Wilderness Lift Line instead of Lower Turnpike.  The lift line was actually fine, even if didn’t quite have the protected coverage of Lower Turnpike, and there were several tracks on it.  From the base of Wilderness, I headed back to the car and had time to do a little long-range shooting with Chris’ Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM paired with his Canon Extender EF 1.4 III.  That’s a full frame equivalent to 448 mm on my 30D, so there’s some great reach with that combo, and you’ve still got f/4 speed.  It’s certainly not a setup that you can carry lightly though; with the lens hood on it’s 15 inches in length and the weight is around 6 pounds, so you definitely know it’s there.

An image of the Bolton Valley Village around the holidays taken with a 448 mm equivalent telephoto lens on a 35 mm SLR camera
Zooming in on holiday scenes

Looking ahead, the next winter storm of note is a coastal system that is expected to affect the area tomorrow afternoon into Monday.  The valleys will probably be a bit warm at the start, but the mountains look to do well; the point forecasts from the National Weather Service Office in Burlington currently call for 3 to 5 inches down here at the house, and 3 to 7 inches up at Bolton Valley.