Kicking off the snow season in Vermont

An image of Mt. Mansfield in Vermont hidden behind the first snowfall of the season in October
Our first “white wall” of the season

We’ve had a pleasant, mild, and relatively dry fall season so far in Vermont, and the only frozen precipitation of note was some ice back in September. That all changed this week however, as more seasonable temperatures moved in along with some moisture. Whereas the cooler weather can produce beautiful landscapes, it does make getting out an about a little more dangerous. You can’t plan for accidents but they can and do happen, especially in adverse weather conditions. Knowing first aid is one way to put your mind at ease. Why not consider a Brampton Cpr Training course, or one closer to home, where you can learn the basics of first aid? You might even save a life one day. Back to the weather for now though and the first reports of snow started to appear on Tuesday, with Jay Peak revealing some white accumulations, and by yesterday evening, Powderfreak sent in a picture of snow falling down to the 1,500’ base elevation of Stowe Mountain Resort. The snow levels really dropped overnight though, with reports coming in this morning of snow accumulations in some of the valleys. From there it was off to the races with updates as the world woke up, with more reports and pictures of snow in the local valleys and at the ski resorts. Around midday I saw snowfall descend on Mt. Mansfield, and there were some heavy bouts of snow captured on the web cams at Stowe Mountain Resort. Eyewall got a beautiful shot of the snow falling up at Bolton Valley, and Powderfreak posted nice images of the snow in Smuggler’s Notch and the base of the Stowe Gondola. Jay Peak even put together an artistic video of the falling snow, and it really gave you that feel of the season’s first event. As of this evening, the report from the Mt. Mansfield stake was indicating 3 inches of snow depth, but with the way it’s continued to snow this evening, there will likely be more out there by tomorrow. The forecast looks decent for additional snow this weekend as a clipper system moves through, and snow could continue even into next week. Killington opened with lift served skiing today, and if the forecasts are on track, I suspect we’re quickly going to see people out there on other mountains with sliding tools on their feet.

For an extended follow up on our October snows, head to the full report on the snow that affected the valleys on October 26th.

2012-2013 Waterbury Winter Weather Summary

A bar graph of the month snowfall at our house in Waterbury, Vermont for the 2012-2013 winter season
Waterbury snowfall for the 2012-2013 season – broken down by month

The last snowstorm of the 2012-2013 winter season extended all the way out to Memorial Day weekend to produce some great late season skiing, but now that we’re well into summer and all the snow has melted, we can look back at how the winter went down at our location in Vermont’s Winooski Valley. The main focus in the seasonal analysis below is on snowfall, but snowpack and temperatures will be discussed as well. In this post I’ve hit on some of the highlights that came out of the data, and attached our various plots and graphs, but to get to the full data set, you can use the following link:

2012-2013 WINTER WEATHER SUMMARY

Thankfully, this past season’s snowfall (144.2″) marked a notable increase over the previous season (115.3″), but the total snowfall for 2012-2013 was still less than 90% of average, so that’s not likely to lift the season into the category of “great” winters. In addition, the amount of snow on the ground at the house last season didn’t help to improve the winter’s standing. Using the value of snow depth days as an integrative way of representing the season’s snowpack, one finds the 2012-2013 winter season producing a value of 729 inch-days, less than half the average value, and right down there in the basement with the well below average 2011-2012 season (688 inch-days). And, if the overall snowpack depth hadn’t already undermined any chances of redemption to an average level, the 2012-2013 snowpack secured the season’s ignominy by reaching the lowest value we’ve seen in January and February (3.0″), and coming within a hair’s breadth of melting out in the area around our measurement stake at a record early date in mid March:

A plot showing this past season's rather meager snowpack at our location in Waterbury (red line) relative to average (green shading)
This past season’s rather meager snowpack at our location in Waterbury (red line) relative to average (green shading)

Often, each month of the winter/snowfall season has its own unique flavor with respect to the weather, so one method I like to use to get a feel for the winter is to look at it on a month-by-month basis. Again, the focus below is on snowfall at our location, but snowpack is also considered, as well as mountain snowfall/snowpack and the associated effect on the local skiing. I’ll have a separate 2012-2013 ski season summary coming up, so I’ve kept the ski discussion minimal here in anticipation of a more thorough discussion in that report. The month’s total snowfall is listed at the start of each section below for reference:

October Month IconSnowfall: 0.1″October snowfall isn’t reliable enough down at our elevation to be factored much into the seasonal assessment, but this October was on the weak side, with just a tenth of an inch of snow, vs. the mean of roughly an inch. Regardless of this, there was still enough for the needs of companies like https://divisionkangaroof.com/areas-served/gainesville/ with the weight of the snow causing damage to some roofs. One small feather in the cap of 2012-2013 is the fact that the first accumulating snow fell on October 12th, which beats out 2010-2011’s October 15th snowfall by three days, and now represents the earliest measurable snowfall I’ve recorded here at the house since I started monitoring the weather in 2006.

November Month IconSnowfall: 6.3″November snowfall came in just a bit below average this past season, so certainly not remarkable, but notable in that it was probably about as average a November as we’ve seen. November has typically been feast or famine when it comes to snow. We actually had a total of five snowstorms in November, but a small to moderate storm of 4.4″ at the end of the month contributed the bulk of the monthly total as well as some of the first great skiing of the season in the mountains.

December Month IconSnowfall: 49.5″December held the first lengthy, redeeming snowfall period of 2012-2013. Although the first half of the month was extremely poor on snowfall (just 2.2″ of snow at the house), from the 16th of December onward, temperatures got cold and snow came in for a dramatic change; close to 50″ of snow fell on us in the second half of the month, and as a whole the month actually wound up several inches above average. Those in homes with faulty or no heating in place are likely to struggle with the crushing cold at this time of year which is why it’s so important to conduct regular maintenance on heaters so you’re not left to suffer over winter. Reaching out to the likes of these professionals could help with this – siriuspac.com/heating-repair-service/. A problem left unaddressed could snowball into substantial damage and become more costly to repair over time so it’s well worth acting on it as early as possible. We received our second (15.5″) and fourth (11.7″) largest storms of the season during that stretch, right near Christmas and just a few days apart, so needless to say, the snow was there to set quite the holiday mood in the valleys and up above on the slopes.

January Month IconSnowfall: 21.9″January continued that good, snowy weather pattern in its first week, albeit to a lesser degree than December, but unfortunately that modest first week ultimately wound up representing roughly half of the month’s snowfall. The second week featured a couple of substantial thaws with no measurable snow, and in fact we received no accumulating snow at all for the period between January 7th and 16th, a very long stretch for the mountainous areas of Northern Vermont during the winter. The third week of January offered just a few small systems, and the fourth week was arctic cold with minimal snow. The final week attempted to recoup the losses with a modest half foot storm, but it was too little too late – the month ended with just 21.9″ of snow, by far the lowest January in my records. The combination of very low snowfall and two January thaws was very deleterious to the valley snowpack – after coming down from the depths achieved in December, the snowpack depth at our location never even reached 10 inches again during the month, and got as low as 3.0 inches. That is ridiculously close to losing the winter snowpack in January, definitely the closest we’ve come based on my records since 2006.

February Month IconSnowfall: 31.4″February was again below average in snowfall, partly due to the continuation of the dry arctic pattern in the first week, and it wound up missing the mark for the lowest February in my data set by less than an inch. Although that persistent dry pattern didn’t make for a very snowy first half of the month, our third largest storm of the season (12.6″) hit in the second week. It was still a rather modest storm, but at least it did break that one foot mark for accumulation at the house. By the end of the third week of February, the snow depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake actually poked above average for the first time in about a month and a half – but it was only by a couple of inches, and it quickly went back below average as the snowpack sat there essentially stagnant for an entire month. On February 21st, the snowpack was at 65″, and roughly a month later on March 18th, it was still at 65″, without any major consolidation of more than a few inches. That’s stagnant. Our snowpack at the house languished similarly, never even getting above 10 inches of depth during that stretch – and that’s a time of year when it is usually building to its peak of the season. The carryover of the low snowpack from January also set the lowest mark (3.0″) for snowpack that we’ve ever seen in February.

March Month IconSnowfall: 30.8″ – Although certainly not approaching what we saw in the second half of December, the last part of the winter/snowfall season was the other relatively bright spot to mention. This was aided by our largest storm of the season, which delivered 21.3″ during the last third of the month. That storm was the only real standout for the month however. It did bring March above average in terms of snowfall, but only by roughly six inches, and the resulting monthly total really ranks in the middle of the pack for Marches in my records. The fact that the snowpack in the area around our snow measurement stake at the house was barely hanging on around mid month was certainly disconcerting, but the snowpack did recover somewhat with the help of a modest mid-month storm, that big storm at the end of the month, and reasonably cool temperatures.

April Month IconSnowfall: 4.2″April was even a couple inches below average for snowfall, but temperatures stayed cool enough to keep the winter season rolling along, and that’s what really helped make the period wintrier. We didn’t have any notable April snow accumulations down at our elevation, just a couple of small ones on the 2nd, and again on the 12th – 13th, but the mountains continued to get fresh snow right into mid month to keep surfaces in great form and the Mt. Mansfield snowpack robust.

May Month IconSnowfall: 0.0″ – There was no accumulating May snowfall down at the house this season, but that’s not too much of knock on the Month, because not getting snow in May is more the norm than actually getting snow. The mountains did get that beautiful Memorial Day weekend storm though, and the late season powder skiing was mighty fine. Although I can’t factor that directly into the analysis for the valley, it was quite cold in the valleys at the end of the month, and close to even snowing there.

There were a couple of other interesting notes with respect to snowfall this season:

1) Storm frequency and average storm size: Despite coming in below average for snowfall, the 2012-2013 season offered up a healthy 51 accumulating snowstorms, almost up there with the 53 storms we received in 2007-2008. Of course, to come in below average for snowfall with that many storms indicates that the average snowfall per storm was down, and indeed it was. At 2.8″/storm, 2012-2013 ranks down there with 2011-2012 (2.6″/storm), the only odd seasons out compared to the more typical seasons up near 4″/storm. For whatever reason, this season’s average came in on the low side. This is presumably due in part to many of the everyday events being on the small side, but also due to the lack of bigger storms, which is covered in point #2 below.

2) Storms with double-digit snowfall: It’s certainly an arbitrary and subtle distinction, but after looking through my data, I noticed an interesting trend with respect to each season’s largest storms for our location. In my season summaries, I always make a list of the top five storms of the season, and when the season seems to have gone well, all of those top five storms have been in the double digits for snowfall. In fact, the “best” seasons thus far have been able to surpass that five-storm threshold. For reference, here’s the top five list for this season, with the links to the detailed web pages for each storm:

Top five snowfall events
1. 21.3″ (3/19/2013-3/24/2013)
2. 15.5″ (12/26/2012-12/28/2012)
3. 12.6″ (2/8/2013-2/9/2013)
4. 11.7″ (12/21/2012-12/23/2012)
5. 7.8″ (12/29/2012-12/30/2012)

Indeed, if we look at the number of storms with double-digit snowfall by the seasons, we see an obvious trend. With the number of double-digit snowfall storms listed in parentheses after the season, one notes those “good” seasons – 2007-2008 (6), 2008-2009 (7), 2010-2011 (7) seemed to find a way to exceed five double-digit storms, whereas the poorer snowfall seasons – 2006-2007 (4), 2009-2010 (2), 2011-2012 (3), 2012-2013 (4) just didn’t. Surely the law of averages comes into play here to some degree – seasons with patterns producing lots of snow likely have a greater chance of getting a big storm in here, but that’s not a given. It’s also very suspicious that those seasons that come in sort of in that middling ground like 2006-2007 and our season of interest for this summary, 2012-2013, fall just short of making the cut. I suspect this trend may be more intact in a location like ours because of the relatively high number of storms and snowfall, and upslope snow (which was on the low side this season) as an extra protection against huge snowfall variance, but this is going to be an interesting trend to follow into the future as a gauge of snowfall seasons.

In sum, while snowfall was certainly a bit below average, and snowpack was well below average, I’d still give the season a reasonable grade. If C is average, I’d go with a C- for 2012-2013, just a bit off from making the average. Were snowpack a more significant factor in my winter preferences, one could argue for going a bit lower, but at least minimal snowpack was maintained throughout the entirety of the winter to keep everything white. Overall it could have been a lot worse, and with the amount of snowfall we did get, it’s hard to drop the season into the D range, which, based solely on snowfall and snowpack at the house, is where I’d put a season like 2011-2012.

For a complete look at all the data, charts, graphs, and tables from the winter season, head to our Waterbury, VT 2012-2013 winter weather and snowfall summary page.

2012-2013 Ski Season Summary

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Spell Binder trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A succession of storms led to fantastic ski conditions during the holidays for 2012-2013.

Our recently completed 2012-2013 Waterbury Winter Weather Summary, focused on how the snowfall and other aspects of winter transpired down at our house in the Winooski Valley, and now this report will focus on the skiing and snow in the higher elevations.

Snowfall:  Compared to the snowfall-deficient 2011-2012 Ski Season, the 2012-2013 Ski Season was certainly a step up, but it was still generally below average for snowfall in the mountains of Northern Vermont.  It was Bolton Valley that seemed to fare the worst of the northern resorts along the spine of the Green Mountains, perhaps due to their west slope location and this season’s dearth of upslope snow; they reported just 78.5% of their average snowfall.  Heading northward, Stowe and Smugg’s fared a bit better at around 85% of average, and Jay Peak reported roughly average snowfall.  Down at our house in the Winooski Valley, snowfall was 88.6% of average, so not too shabby by most accounts, but a bit below the mean like some of the local mountains.  These past two seasons have actually been the first pair delivering back-to-back below average snowfall in our area since we started keeping track in 2006.  Those numbers can be seen in both our Waterbury Winter Weather Summary Table, and the table of Bolton Valley annual snowfall below; this past season’s snowfall is highlighted in blue:

A table showing the average and seasonal snowfall at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont from 2006 to 2013.
Low snowfall last winter meant back to back seasons with below average snowfall at Bolton Valley.

One item of note this season was the lack of big storms targeting Northern New England – two of the largest storms to hit the Northeast dropped the bulk of their payloads south of Vermont while exiting stage right toward the Atlantic.  The first of those, nicknamed “Nemo”, hit in the second week of February, and pounded Southern New England with up to 40 inches of snow.  The Green Mountains were on the northern fringe of that storm, but still wound up with 1 to 1.5 feet of snow up and down the spineThe other storm of note was during the March 5th – 8th period, and it dropped another 30 inches on some Southern New England locations, but nothing way up north.  There were some periods of snowfall to highlight up in Northern Vermont however.  The second half of December alone dropped almost 50” of snow down at our house, significantly more in the mountains, and produced some fantastic skiing for the holidays and into early January.  Another period of note was the second half of March into April.  Cold temperatures in the latter part of the season helped preserve wintry conditions on the slopes, and we received some decent snowfall as well – the largest storm for the season in my valley records hit the area near the end of March, with 21.3” of snow down at the house, and multiple feet for the mountains.  The mountain snowpack finally responded during that late season stretch as well, and that’s detailed a bit more in the snowpack section below.  Snowfall continued right into mid April, and the season was capped off with almost two feet of fresh snow on Mt. Mansfield for Memorial Day weekend.  That was a sweet way to end the powder skiing for the season.

Snowpack:  Aside from the spikes associated with a couple of early season storms, the mountain snowpack was below average going into mid December.  That changed quickly though, with the onset of all that new snow during the second half of the month.  The above average snowpack achieved during the holidays didn’t actually stay that way during January’s warmth and lack of storms.  After consolidation, the snowpack generally trundled along at or below average through February’s continuation of relatively low snowfall.  From mid February to mid March, the snowpack sat there essentially stagnant for an entire month; to wit, on February 21st, the snowpack was at 65”, and roughly a month later on March 18th, it was still at 65”, without any notable consolidation of more than a few inches.  The late season stretch from mid March to mid April represented a nice rebound for the mountains however, with some quick gains from the big Northern New England March storm getting it above average, and the snow depth staying at least modestly above during the period.

A graph of the 2012-2013 snowpack depth and long term average at the stake on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont
Two periods stood out this past season for above average snowfall: The holiday period and mid-March through the end of April.

Tree Skiing:  One metric used as a rough guide for the start of off piste skiing in the Northern Green Mountains is the point at which the snow depth reaches 24” at the Mt. Mansfield stake.  For those unfamiliar with how this metric was established, it’s described in some detail in the 2011-2012 ski season summary.  With the incorporation of this season’s data, the mean date remains at December 12th ± 19 days, with an average depth at the stake of 25.9 ± 2.7 inches.  After the very slow start in 2011-2012, in which the 24” depth wasn’t attained until January 3rd (more than a standard deviation later than the mean), this past season was notably earlier.  The plot below shows the date at which 24” was obtained for each season since 1954, with 2011-2012 shown in red, and 2012-2013 shown in green:

A dot plot showing the date of attaining a snow depth of 24 inches at  the stake on Mt. Mansfield in Vermont
Each star marks the date of attaining a snow depth of 24 inches at the Mt. Mansfield stake, covering all years since 1954.  Although still a bit later than average, reaching a depth of 24 inches at the stake this past season (green star – Dec 22) occurred much earlier than the previous season (red star – Jan 3).  The mean date for attaining a depth of 24″ is marked by the large vertical bar in the center of the plot, and the smaller bars indicate the range of one standard deviation above and below that mean.

This past season, the date (December 22nd, Depth=28”, Green Star) was still later than average due in part to the slow first half of December, but unlike last season it was well within the 1 S.D. bars (thin vertical black lines).  Note that the 24” mark is being used as an indicator of when the first forays into appropriate off piste/tree skiing terrain typically start in the Central and Northern Greens.  In terms of empirical tree skiing observations, personal experience again lends some support to the use of 24” mark this season, as we began venturing into the trees the very next day on December 23rd at Bolton Valley.  It should be noted though, that while the 24” mark was attained on December 22nd this season, the 40” mark was attained the very next day on December 23rd.  The 40-inch rule (i.e. reaching a depth of 40” at the stake), is used as an indicator of when most off piste/tree skiing around here is ready to go.  Although I haven’t looked into the data, this season has got to represent one of the quickest ascents from 24” to 40” – it’s interesting to note however that after rising to 42” of depth on December 23rd and 24th, the snowpack settled back to 36” for a couple of days before rebounding to 45” on the 27th.

Snow Quality:  As an monitor of snow quality for the season, the chronological list of our ski outings has once again been compiled, with those days in which we were skiing powder indicated by a P, and those days in which powder skiing wasn’t available indicated by an X.  The availability of powder suggests a fairly high level of snow quality, and the absence of powder generally indicates that temperatures rose above freezing at all elevations.  Each listing below represents a link to the full report where images and more information from the outing can be obtained.  Outings with an X may still be providing decent skiing such as wet snow, corn, etc. (or else skiing was typically avoided) but aside from the spring period, there’s going to be a price to pay in terms of snow quality associated with these episodes when temperatures eventually cool back down.  The pattern of snow conditions in the Northern Green Mountains was fairly typical this past winter, with those days lacking powder skiing showing up in three distinct periods: 1) the early season with its usual temperature fluctuations, up through mid December before the weather pattern changed and the cold weather stabilized, 2) a thaw period in mid January, and 3) the period starting in mid March where spring weather began to make inroads.  However, with the way the weather patterns this past spring continued to provide cool temperatures and snowfall, powder skiing generally dominated until mid April.  Having analyzed the skiing in this way for the past three seasons, a surprising level of consistency is noted, with an overall average of close to four out of five days providing powder, despite notable differences in the demeanor of these recent ski seasons.  The 2010-2011 season, which was above average in snowfall, provided powder on 78% of outings, the 2011-2012 season, which was well below average in many ways, revealed the same 78%, and most recently the 2012-2013 season, which was slightly below average in this area, produced a very similar 77% of outings with powder.  The percentages don’t take into account differences in the number of outings each season, but with all three seasons falling into the range of 50 to 60 ski outings, differences in the sample sizes aren’t huge.  The list of categorized ski outings with links to their full reports follows below:

P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 04NOV2012
X  Stowe, VT, Sunday 11NOV2012
X  Stowe, VT, Thursday 15NOV2012
P  Stowe, VT, Friday 30NOV2012
P  Stowe, VT, Saturday, 01DEC2012
X  Stowe, VT, Saturday, 15DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Friday 21DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 22DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 23DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 27DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Friday 28DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 29DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 29DEC2012 (Night)
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 30DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Monday 31DEC2012
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 01JAN2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 05JAN2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 06JAN2013
X  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 12JAN2013
X  Stowe, VT, Sunday 13JAN2013
P  Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 19JAN2013
P  Stowe Sidecountry & Bruce Trail, VT, Monday 21JAN2013
P  Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT, Sunday 27JAN2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 29JAN2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 03FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 09FEB2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 10FEB2013
P  Stowe, VT, Thursday 14FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 16FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Monday 18FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday, 21FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 23FEB2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 24FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 26FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 28FEB2013
P  Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 02MAR2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 03MAR2013
P  Bolton Valley & Backcountry, VT, Saturday 09MAR2013
X  Stowe, VT, Sunday 10MAR2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 16MAR2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 17MAR2013
P  Stowe, VT, Tuesday 19MAR2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 21MAR2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Thursday 21MAR2013 (Evening)
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 23MAR2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 24MAR2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Saturday 30MAR2013
X  Stowe, VT, Sunday 31MAR2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Tuesday 02APR2013
P  Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT, Saturday 06APR2013
X  Stowe & Mt. Mansfield Chin, VT, Sunday 07APR2013
P  Stowe, VT, Saturday 13APR2013
P  Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 14APR2013
X  Stowe, VT, Saturday 20APR2013
X  Stowe, VT, Sunday 21APR2013
X  Bolton Valley, VT, Sunday 28APR2013
X  Sugarbush, VT, Saturday 04MAY2013
X  Stowe, VT, Sunday, 05MAY2013
X  Mt. Washington, NH, Saturday 18MAY2013
P  Stowe, VT, Sunday 26MAY2013

The detailed month-by-month synopsis of the season is next:

An image of Camel's Hump in Vermont with snowfall just starting to appear around itOctober: It wasn’t an especially snowy October to kick off the season; we had five rounds of snow in the mountains, and the third one even dropped accumulations to the lowest mountain valleys, but none of the storms were huge dumps, and we had just a tenth of an inch of snowfall down at the house for the month.  October’s first snowstorm started up on the 7th, with snowfall being reported at the top of the Mt. Mansfield Toll Road in the afternoon, and by the next morning Powderfreak sent along his picture of 4” of accumulation at the top of the Stowe Gondola.  I also got a shot of Mt. Mansfield later in the day with its first accumulation of the season.  It didn’t seem like quite enough snow to tempt me out to ski, but the FIS boys hit the snow and provided a thorough report of the turns.  The second storm delivered some accumulation on the 11th, with a snow line up around the 3,000’ level and less than an inch of snow found up on Mt. Mansfield.  The third storm was the one that finally touched the lower valleys with some minimal accumulations, but in terms of mountain accumulations, I don’t think it was anything more than junkboarding material.  The 4th (on the 14th of the month) and 5th (on the 16th of the month) storms of October also appeared to be pretty minimal and generally flew under the radar in terms of discussion.  So while it wasn’t a great October for natural snow skiing (with nothing like the back-to-back larger storms at the end of October during the previous season), some folks made some turns and there were several smaller rounds of snow to keep the peaks white.

An image of ski tracks in the powder on the National trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in VermontNovember:  Snowfall for the month of November turned out to be a bit below average down at our location in the valley, but we did have five storms that delivered accumulations all the way to the valley floor.  It was a decent month for snowfall in the mountains, with Stowe reporting 35” in November.  That’s not outrageous by any means, but it was a noticeable increase from the previous November.  It was actually the first month with below average temperatures in Burlington in 20 months, and the corresponding mountain temperatures allowed Stowe to make a tremendous amount of snow.  The rounds of November snows produced some modest powder that got me out early in the month on the 4th, and mid month on the 15th, but the best skiing was right at the month’s end.  A storm overnight on the 29th dropped a foot of fresh fluff on the Northern Greens and then cleared out for some great turns by dawn patrol time.  That new snow on top of previous rounds of accumulation delivered some fantastic bottomless powder skiing that held up even on steep terrain like Stowe’s National trail.

Jay Telemark skiing in powder at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont on a pair of Black Diamond AMPerage fat skisDecember:  The great powder conditions from the end of November storm carried right over into the beginning of December, with some excellent skiing on the 1st of the month.  That was really the highlight of the first half of December however, as snow was hard to come by through the 16th; we had just 2.2” of snow at the house during that period.  It was as if a switch was flipped for the second half of the month though, with winter roaring back in to deliver almost 50” of snow for us in the valley.  Some of the more significant storms during that stretch were on the 21st, with up to 20” of accumulation, the 26th, with over two feet, and the 29th, with another foot plus thrown in for good measure, so naturally the skiing during the holiday period was blissfully powdery.  Even on days between the more substantial storms, a new half foot of snow could pop up.  It was just day after day after day of powder, with even a little night added to the mix.  The only detractor from that stretch was that the snowpack wasn’t initially up to the depths to allow people to enjoy that powder on all terrain.  The natural base depths did make some quick and significant gains during the period though, with the 24” threshold depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake being attained on the 22nd, and the 40” mark reached on the following day as described above in the section on tree skiing.  Our first notable forays into the off piste were on the 23rd at Bolton Valley, which wasn’t surprising with almost all of Stowe’s terrain getting opened by that pointThe off piste was quickly going… off, and things just went up from there.  That storm on the 26th had a somewhat uncommon east wind, which filled in the Bolton Valley headwall areas for some fantastic coverage. Despite the relative scarcity of snowfall in the first half of the month, by the end of December, Stowe was at a respectable 102” of snow on the season.

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Spell Binder trail at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VermontJanuary:  December’s snows and excellent ski conditions continued into the beginning of January, with four modest storms hitting the Northern Greens during the first week.  In the higher elevations, the largest of those storms came in on January 4th and affected the northernmost resorts hardest, with a foot at Jay Peak.  Even with somewhat lower totals at resorts to the south, the skiing remained quite good because of all the powder that had been building up over the previous three weeks – we found over a foot of powder lurking in the trees at Bolton Valley on the 5thMore snow came in that night to produce a nice day at Stowe on the 6th, and after the final snowfall event in the series, the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake stood at 51 inches on the 7th.  The stormy stretch ended after that, and warm temperatures brought spring-like ski conditions until mid month.  Fortunately, the base depths that had built up over the previous three weeks meant that there was a lot of good, soft skiing.  Winter was back by mid month, with small systems that brought a return to some powder conditions.  The fourth week of January featured arctic cold, which unfortunately meant little snowfall, but at least the temperatures preserved the powder.  Finally at the end of the month we got a modest half foot storm to bring back some fresh powder, but January as a whole was quite low on snowfall – down at the house it was by far the least snowy January in my weather records.

An image of Ty skiing waist deeppowder in the KP Glades at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont thanks to winter storm NemoFebruary:  The month of February rolled in with a tempered return to the type of dry, arctic pattern that we’d encountered in that fourth week of January, but fortunately there was at least a bit more moisture and temperatures weren’t quite as cold.  There wasn’t much new snow for the first weekend of the month, but at least the skiing was decent.  Of the three storms that came in that following midweek, the second one brought from a half foot to nearly a foot of powder at some of the Northern Vermont resorts, so the skiing improved.  Just in time for the next weekend, the “Nemo” storm hit the Northeast, and while it was largely a miss for Northern Vermont relative to areas to the south that got up to 40” of snow, the mountains still picked up more than a foot of powder to provide some excellent turnsNemo was followed by a storm named “Orko”, which came in at the beginning of the following week with 1 to 1.5 feet for some of the local resorts.  Beyond that storm, mid February was fairly dry, but powder conditions persisted, and on the 19th a more sizeable storm hit the area with snow totals of 1 to 2 feet plus for the Northern Vermont resorts.  The month finished off with a few more storms, with a half foot storm and a 1 to 1.5-foot storm being the more notable ones.  Although the month as a whole was actually rather lean on snowfall (only an inch from being the least snowy February in my records at the house), as it typical, the consistent availability of powder rolled right on into March as seen in the categorized list of ski outings above.

An image of Erica Telemark skiing in powder on the Lower Tyro trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont during a nor'easterMarch:   The first half of March wasn’t especially snowy, with just one notable storm in the ½ to 1-foot range for the mountains; the big storm that affected southern parts of New England with up to 30 inches of snow in the March 5th-8th period was literally a non-event in Northern New England.  Of course even with some warmer temperatures in the second week, decent powder remained in the higher elevations, and soft snow made for fun turns on piste.  Around mid month though, the skiing started to get even better as the snowfall picked back up with back to back modest storms and 72-hour snow totals topping out around 16 inches on the 16th.  Thanks to the ability of the Central and Northern Greens to reel in snow, conditions moved well beyond the dust on crust that many areas to the south were likely encountering. That was the start of an excellent stretch of winter that was second only to the snowy December period, with our largest valley storm of the season arriving on March 19th and delivering 7-day snow totals of 2 to 4 feet in the mountains.  At Stowe they were calling it “Powder Week” and the deep turns just kept on coming.  The increase in mountain snowpack during the period was notable in that it finally moved solidly above average and stayed there Simply put, even lift-served powder skiing was endemic on piste during that second half of March until a brief warm-up during the last couple of days of the month.

An image of Dylan dropping into a steep line on his skis in the Cliff Trail Gully in the alpine terrain above Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in VermontApril:  Despite the somewhat slow increases in the snowpack during the heart of the winter, the gains made during the latter half of March meant that the snowpack was at least modestly above average heading into April, and it quickly reached a peak of 87 inches at the Mt. Mansfield Stake when the first storm of the month dropped a foot of snow at Stowe on April 2nd.  I was up at Bolton Valley that day for a ski tour, and I got to witness some impressive snowfall rates as the storm crashed into the higher elevations.  The alpine terrain above tree line on Mt. Mansfield was in good shape, consistently providing excellent outings during that first part of the month.  Cool temperatures with additional snow meant that the snowpack stayed at an above average level right through the month, and another storm on the 12th saw Ty and I enjoying close to a foot of dense powder out in the Bypass Chutes at Stowe on the 13th.  The skiing gradually transitioned to full on spring conditions after that weekend as the active pattern waned, and an impressively long stretch of clear weather moved in and stuck around well into May.

An image of ski tracks in powder on the Perry Merrill trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont during a spring storm on Memorial Day WeekendMay:  For most of May, there wasn’t much to talk about in terms of new powder, especially with the extended period of incredibly clear weather that carried over from the end of April and lasted a fortnight, finally ending on the 10th of the month.  There was some mighty fine spring skiing right through that period with all the sun and warm weather, even if it did cause the snowpack to decrease a bit faster than it otherwise might have.  The tranquil period of warm weather allowed the Mt. Washington Auto Road to open on the 10th of the month as well (definitely on the early side), but since unsettled weather had just returned at that point, we didn’t get to make our spring pilgrimage to the snowfields until the 18th.  To really cap the month off well, Northern New England and the Adirondacks were rewarded with a Nor’easter over Memorial Day Weekend, which delivered roughly 3 feet of powder to Whiteface and nearly 2 feet to Mt. MansfieldExcellent powder turns were made while the valleys were almost fully leafed out for the spring.  We didn’t actually head out for any June turns beyond that, but the skiing over Memorial Day Weekend had been so good that it hardly mattered – it was just a few short months until the snows of fall would be returning.

So what about the overall feel for the quality of the ski season in Northern Vermont?  Well, much like the snowfall numbers suggest, it feels like it came in a bit below average, even if not horribly so.  The mountain snowpack (as gauged by what was seen at the stake on Mt. Mansfield) had its ups and downs, and on balance it probably gets rated in a similar manner to what the slightly subpar snowfall would suggest.  Being frequent Bolton Valley skiers and living down below the mountain in the Winooski Valley, our perspective might be skewed a bit downward with the resort receiving just 78.5% of their average snowfall.  Having the north miss out somewhat on a couple of big regional storms, while watching a horrid valley snowpack (see the 2012-2013 Winter Weather Summary for details) that kept ski routes to the lower valley bottoms essentially off the table, certainly didn’t win the season any extra points.  It seems that 2012-2013 ultimately sits in the lower half of ski seasons and won’t be remembered as anything epic, but it also appeared to hold onto a decent level of powder availability (77%) based on our experiences, and that means there was still a pretty decent amount of good skiing.  The fact that even the poor 2011-2012 Ski Season was able to hold onto a powder percentage in that range is also reassuring in that regard, suggesting that there is indeed a certainly level of reliability that can be expected in these seasons where snowfall/snowpack is below average.

2012-2013 Bolton Valley Photo Gallery

A black and white image of Ty Telemark skiing in powder on the Wilderness Lift Line trail at Bolton Valley Resort in VermontWe’re pleased to announce the completion of our Bolton Valley Photo Gallery for the 2012-2013 ski season.  This year’s gallery is our largest to date, with over 270 images documenting this season’s ski adventures indoors and out, in the front, side, and backcountry, under blue skies and flake-dumping maelstroms at Vermont’s Bolton Valley Ski Resort.  Continue on to the thumbnail images below and browse away!  Detailed reports are associated with every photograph in the gallery, so if you find a scene that sparks your interest, simply hover over the thumbnail image to get the date, and head to the archives on the right side of the page to read the full report.  We’ve also got similarly extensive galleries from the past several ski seasons, representing nearly 1,600 photographs from around Bolton Valley, and these can all be found at our J&E Productions Photo Galleries Page.  We’ll also have our full 2012-2013 Ski Season Summary coming out later this summer, so stay tuned for that update as well.

Stowe, VT 26MAY2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

An image of Vanilla Bean GU Energy Gel

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bolton Valley, VT 14APR2013

An iamge of the Timberline Lodge sign at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Snow falling at Timberline today

We had a family gathering through early afternoon today, but in the mid to late afternoon, I headed up to Bolton Valley for a tour.  Up to that point we’d had on and off bouts of precipitation in the valley, often showers mixed with sleet, but no notable accumulation other than transient stuff.  Temperatures were in the mid 40s F in the 300’-500’ elevation range along the bottom of the Winooski Valley as I headed westward toward Bolton; we’d had breaks of sun among the clouds and precipitation, and I was preparing for some fairly soft and slushy spring turns up on the hill.  Since I never pulled them out yesterday at Stowe, I’d even brought my fat skis to evaluate how they’d perform in the soft stuff.  A lot of people seem to like the way they smooth out the mushy stuff, but I’m still curious about how well that works.

An image of the entrance to the Ponds event area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont showing a lit street lamp in the afternoon in April due to cloudiness and snowfall
A dark, November feel today

Precipitation was pretty sparse as I headed up the Bolton Valley Access Road, and while there’s patchy snow all the way up out of the valley, consistent natural snowpack really didn’t appear until roughly the 1,500’ elevation at the Timberline Base.  Temperatures had dropped into the upper 30s F by that elevation, and light snow was falling.  It was mid to late afternoon, but it was actually pretty dark with the clouds around, and more of them appeared to be building in from the west.  Based on the available light, it actually felt like a typical November outing in the mountains.

“The snow was
good on the
whole descent…”

On the slopes, the snow wasn’t really the mushy spring snow that the valley temperatures had given me the impression I’d find; I think the temperatures and/or available sunlight really weren’t high enough to support that.  Instead what I found was the couple inches of wet snow/sleet that we’ve picked up from these latest storms, sitting atop the base.  The subsurface was still fairly soft and spring-like, presumably due to the recent rounds of wet precipitation percolating some moisture down in there.  The intensity of the snowfall was fairly light on the ascent, although I could see squalls around off to the west.  There was one off to the south, and another more ominous-looking one off to the north, they were both starting to devour the views of the Adirondacks and it looked like the spine of the Greens was in their path.

Up around the Timberline Mid Station at 2,250’, the surface snow began to have a bit more coalesced consistency relative to what was below.  The temperature was approaching the freezing mark, and it appeared to be due to a combination of elevation and some cooler air coming in with the approaching weather.  I topped out at the Timberline Summit at 2,500’, and the temperature by that point was either below freezing or very close – the trees still held snow from the recent storms.

An image showing ski tracks on the Brandywine Trail at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Brandywine Tracks

After starting down Upper Brandywine, I was about to head back toward the Timberline Mid Station, when I saw that there was a lot of good untracked snow farther down on Brandywine, so I followed that less traditional route.  The coverage was actually quite good, and although I don’t follow that route as often, I’m realizing that it’s got more of a northerly aspect than the slopes below the mid station.  I think it’s going to be a good route to use in more marginal situations of coverage or sun exposure.  The snow was good on the whole descent, transitioning from that stronger, peel-away stuff in the higher elevations, to a wetter consistency down low.  I was amazed at how much be  It was very much like what we experienced yesterday at Stowe up to the midday hour before the freezing level rose up above the summit of the Fourrunner Quad.  There are certainly areas starting to develop bare patches at Timberline, but if you wanted you could ski natural snow terrain all the way down to the Timberline Base; that’s pretty decent for west-facing terrain down at those low elevations this time of year.

The precipitation that had been looming off to the west finally pushed its way over the ridge and into the valley as I was switching out of my ski gear at the car.  In typical Bolton Valley style, it came strong, and it was snowfall that meant business.  It wasn’t quite the whiteout that I saw in Powderfreak’s Stowe pictures, I think in part because the flakes weren’t as large (probably about ½” max in diameter), but a decent wall of snow came in and made its presence known.

If that snow had been rain, it would have been pouring, and indeed I was able to watch that transition as I descended back down the access road.  The snow stayed with me down to around the 500’ elevation, and finally mixed out to just a pouring rain.  That rain followed me through the lower elevations of the Winooski Valley, and then by the time I got up a bit higher back at that house along the Waterbury/Bolton line, snow was mixing back in.  Checking the radar a little while later, it showed a nice shot of moisture making its way through the Winooski Valley.

Stowe, VT 13APR2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bolton Valley, VT 02APR2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bolton Valley, VT 23MAR2013

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bolton Valley, VT 21MAR2013 (Evening)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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