Bolton Valley Archives - J&E Productions

February 2, 2025July 6, 2025

Bolton Valley, VT 02FEB2025

An image of an evergreen tree plastered with globs of snow at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of ski tracks in powder snow in one of the off piste areas at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — We’ve had a lot of snow in the past several days, and venturing off piste at Bolton Valley was yielding a couple feet of powder for turns.

Today I was out for some lift-served skiing at Bolton Valley, and after touring for the last several ski sessions, it was actually the first time being back on the lifts since January 19^th. Yesterday I decided to tour because of the temperatures, but today’s forecast suggested it would be warmer. Temperatures were definitely higher than they were yesterday, but it was still darned cold at elevation. Above 3,000’ it must have been only in the single digits F, and there was plenty of wind that made it a biting cold.

I decided take advantage of parking down at Timberline, with the intention of doing a big loop to the far end of the resort and back. My first ride on the Timberline Quad was with a group of mechanical engineering graduate students from Yale whose work is in robotics, so that was a fun conversation. One of them was also from Montana, so we were able to discuss all the ski areas out there. The temperatures felt quite comfortable down at those Timberline elevations (probably somewhere in the teens F), and there was no wind to speak of, but my next ride on the Vista Quad was frigid. So, there appeared to be quite a temperature gradient with respect to elevation, and the addition of those winds ahead of our next approaching winter system just multiplied the effect.

A view of a snow cat near the base of the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view from the base of Timberline, where I kicked off today’s ski session.

I’d actually planned to ride up the Wilderness Chair, but for some reason it wasn’t running. In any event, I was able to make my way over to the Wilderness terrain from Vista, and with the low traffic due to no direct lift service, the snow quality at Wilderness was excellent. There were certainly more tracks out there than when I’d visited on Friday, but you could tell that it was pretty much ski touring-level traffic vs. lift-served levels of traffic; the glades have plenty of fresh lines left in them. I finished out the day’s session with a ride up the Vista Quad and a hike up to The Knob, followed by assorted tree skiing in areas like the KP Glades and Corner Pocket Glades to get myself back to the Timberline Base.

With respect to the conditions I encountered, the headwall of Cobrass was really rough – it had the worst conditions I found on the day. The manmade snow was incredibly firm, and I had a hard time even getting turns in the usual strip of soft snow on the skier’s right that arises from skiers pushing the snow around. The skiers I saw in that top section of the trail during my run were often just sliding sideways and hanging on for dear life as they tried to get enough grip with their edges. It’s not as if we’ve had any sort of thaw in a long time, but that surface needs some serious work. It would do well with a good resurfacing storm or some major, deep grooming. I also skied Alta Vista though, and conditions there were much better. It still had manmade snow, but it was loose enough that plenty of snow had been pushed around and made available outside the center high traffic areas.

Thankfully, I was able to spend most of my time off piste, and as I’d hoped, the somewhat warmer temperatures and some natural settling and drying of the recent snows in last night’s very cold temperatures brought the quality of the powder up a couple of notches. In any untracked areas, there was a good couple feet of powder at all elevations – from above 3,000’ all the way down to 1,500’ at the base of Timberline. The powder is not yet super dry in the upper levels of the snowpack, but the right-side-up gradient is definitely reforming. I found that base depths were great at all elevations as well, so the past couple of weeks have really helped to get those lower Timberline elevations near midwinter form. The on-piste natural snow areas that were scoured by wind in January are still plagued by less than perfect coverage, but it looks like we’ve got a weather pattern with a series of somewhat moist systems coming through the area through about mid-month. So, as long as they don’t bring the kind of winds that many of the January systems did, those scoured areas may finally have a chance to acquire decent coverage.

February 1, 2025July 5, 2025

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 01FEB2025

An image of the Catamount Trail rising from the Bolton Valley Access Road at the start of a backcountry ski tour near Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont

An image showing the snow stacked atop the outhouse near the Buchanan Shelter on the backcountry network during a ski tour near Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view of the snow stacked atop the outhouse near the Buchanan Shelter

The weak area of low pressure that passed through the area last night brought 5 to 7 inches of snow accumulation to Bolton Valley as of their morning report. That was definitely enough to make it worth checking out some lift-served, on piste skiing. Unfortunately, high temperatures were expected to be in the single digits F, and with some wind around as well, that really didn’t lend itself to sitting on the lifts. Tomorrow’s forecast is looking much better, so I figured ski touring was ultimately the best call for today.

I haven’t been up to the Buchanan Shelter area of the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network yet this season, because I’ve been waiting for the lower elevation snowpack to get to the point where it was viable for touring without worrying about coverage. I typically start tours to the Buchanan Shelter at the Catamount Trail parking area on the Bolton Valley Access Road, which is down around 1,200’, so you want a decent snowpack down to at least that level. Even with settling, we’ve finally got a snowpack of more than a foot down at our house in the Winooski Valley at the 500’ elevation, so that had me confident that the snowpack at 1,200’ was ready. The starting point there at the Catamount Trail parking area would definitely be the lowest elevation ski touring I’ve done yet this season, but with the cold temperatures getting worse at higher elevations, being at some of those lower elevations was a good thing.

An image showing midwinter snow sparkling in the air at the Catamount Trail parking area along the Bolton Valley Access Road at the start of a ski tour near Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Midwinter snow sparkles in the air in the Catamount Trail parking area along the Bolton Valley Access Road

I headed up to the trailhead around midday, and was worried that parking might be tight, but there was only one other car in the parking lot, and it looked like it had been sitting there for a while – it had about 4 inches of fresh snow on it from the most recent storm. When I’d check the midmorning temperature up at Bolton Valley, they were reporting a temperature of 1 F, so I knew it was going to be cold out there. As I started my tour though, especially with the bright sun, it really felt more like “February” cold, vs, December or January cold. That sunlight definitely makes a difference in taking off some of the chill. The first big chunk of my ascent up the Catamount Trail was out of the wind, so it really was quite comfortable, but I was quickly reminded of just how cold it was when I hit Caribou’s Corner and got into those open, exposed areas by the beaver ponds.

Beyond Caribou’s Corner, I also started to get into some drifted snow, and that required occasionally breaking trail through 1 to 2 feet of powder. Skier traffic was incredibly light today in that area of the network, but thankfully I was able to make use of at least a few tracks of Nordic skiers in the lower and middle elevations of the approach. Where trails hadn’t been broken though, I was typically having to break trail myself through about 4 to 10 inches of powder where snow hadn’t drifted. Once I reached the Upper Beaver Pond Trail, all bets were off though. Nobody had broken trail there, and the best help I could get were the vestiges of where someone had set a track several storms ago. That helped at least a little, but that faint memory of a track disappeared in many places due to drifted snow, so I was left breaking trail up the steepest part of the ascent through a foot or two of powder. I did have my 115 mm fat skis on, and at least they were a saving grace with respect to floatation for breaking trail. While fatter skis do add a bit more weight on your feet, there’s no doubt that they more than made up for that in deep snow with respect to how much higher they kept me up and out of the snow while breaking trail.

For the typical descent on these tours, I head southward or southeastward right from the Buchanan Shelter area, and I know that ski terrain is great, but I had the time and figure I’d mix things up with a bit more exploring today to see what else might be available. So, instead of descending from the Buchanan Shelter, I continued on up the spur trail that leads from the shelter toward the Long Trail, then cut eastward to catch the high ridge that juts out southeastward off the main Oxbow Ridge/North Ridge area. I could see that the top of that ridge I was targeting was hitting the evergreen tree line, and it looked like the vegetation would be too tight for skiing its steep slopes, so I cut through the col separating that ridge from the Oxbow Ridge/North Ridge. From the col, I headed out along the ridge itself to check for ski terrain, but as I’d expected, it was fairly dense with evergreens, and the south face was quite steep and rife with ledges as well. Descending the east side of the ridge, I just continued to traverse left until the vegetation became more of a hardwood/evergreen mix. I ended up descending through a gully in the Goat Path area, although I never actually connected with the Goat Path trail itself. I wrapped back around the ridge and finally connected back to the trail Network at Maple Loop. From there, I was able to easily head back to the parking area via Broadway and the Catamount Trail. My descent through the gully was fine, and there were some nice steep, skiable lines, but I’d actually say the standard terrain down below the Buchanan Shelter offers better skiing, so the extra effort required to head to the east side of that ridge isn’t worth it unless you really just want to explore that rarely visited part of the network.

A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for a ski tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A map of today’s ski tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network using GPS tracking data displayed via Google Earth

I can’t throw out huge accolades with respect to the quality of the powder skiing on today’s tour though. It was extremely good yesterday, but it really seems to have taken a step back today. I’d say the drop in the quality of the powder I found available was due to a combination of the new snow, which really wasn’t incredibly dry (up in the range of 8% H2O according to my analyses down at the house), and the cold temperatures making for poor gliding. The powder was just sort of slow and clunky, and it lost that perfect right-side-up nature that it had yesterday. Low and even moderate angle terrain just didn’t provide enough speed for turns, and even steep terrain was just so-so. I bet the powder will improve a lot even by tomorrow though – it’s supposed to be substantially warmer, which will help with some glide, and some of the snow’s natural setting and drying will probably start to reset the density gradient. For those considering lower-elevation tours in the near future, base depths were fine throughout today’s route in the Bolton Valley area. I’d say there was a minimum of 12 to 18 inches down at 1,200’, which is fine as long as you’re on the low angle terrain that is typical of the starting points for many routes. My tour topped out around 2,400’ today, and up there I was getting snowpack depths of 30 to 35 inches. There’s a substantial base to that snowpack, and it’s well-settled snow aside from the surface 1 to 2 feet of powder, so it offered plenty of coverage for even the steepest pitches that I encountered.

January 31, 2025July 4, 2025

Bolton Valley, VT 31JAN2025

An image showing the layers and layers of midwinter snow from various storms sitting on surfaces of a condominium complex at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of ski tracks in powder snow along the Wilderness Uphill Route during a ski tour at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Skier traffic has been reasonably light, so there’s still plenty of terrain to track up at Bolton Valley as of today.

It’s been a busy week, so I haven’t been able to get up to the mountain to check out the recent rounds of snow, but I was able to head out for some ski touring this morning. Bolton Valley was reporting 16 inches of additional snow in the past week, and while that’s probably about an average snowfall pace for the resort, the flow of moderate events that we’ve been seeing simply keeps piling on the snow. And, temperatures have been consistently wintry, so all that new snow is just encountering the usual slow midwinter consolidation.

Heading up the Bolton Valley Access Road, it was nice to see that all the recent snow seemed to be having an effect on the coverage at Timberline. The scoured areas on the lower elevation trails down by the Timberline Base were looking much better – I really had to search hard to see any areas with poor coverage as I drove by. Up at the main base area elevations in the 2,000’ to 3,000’ range, the effects of the continuing snowfall are even more pronounced. In many spots, the accumulations are taking on that deep midwinter look, with layers upon layers of snow visible on elevated surfaces from the numerous storms we’ve had over the past couple of months. Some evergreens have deep stacks of snow on them, and the ones that don’t are either in a windy location where the snow doesn’t build, or the stack just finally crashed to the ground due to its weight.

An image of an evergreen tree plastered with so much snow that it is starting to disappear from view in one of the off-piste areas at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Many evergreens are virtually disappearing into the landscape now as they become encased on snow.

I toured in the Wilderness area, ascending via the Wilderness Uphill Route and descending via a combination of glades in the Snow Hole area before reconnecting with Lower Turnpike. I couldn’t believe my eyes with respect to how little skier traffic there had been on Wilderness. Eventually I remembered that the Wilderness Chair doesn’t run on Wednesdays and Thursdays during non-holiday periods, which explained why there were hardly any tracks around on a Friday morning before the lift was running. Anyway, that meant that untracked powder was everywhere, and the quality of that powder continues to be top notch. It’s settling naturally and setting up a beautiful right-side-up gradient of bottomless snow that ranges anywhere from 1 to 3 feet deep. There is a subsurface down there, but it’s getting buried deeper and deeper with each passing storm. There’s no need for debate with the depths and quality of the powder that are out there right now – if you’re going to be touring and hitting mostly untracked snow, just bring your fattest skis; they are the right tool for the job.

January 26, 2025July 4, 2025

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 26JAN2025

An image of a backcountry ski pack with a blue access band attached on the Nordic & Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image showing evergreen trees plastered with snow from recent winter storms at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — The snow continues to pile up and the evergreens continue to become buried in the Bolton Valley Backcountry.

A cold front moved through the area in the late morning period today, and whiteout conditions were encountered in numerous spots. With snow returning over the past couple of days, Bolton Valley was reporting an additional 2 to 3 inches in their 24-hour total, and my liquid analyses from down at the house indicated that it was indeed very dry snow – down around 2% H2O. This isn’t the kind of snow that is going to quickly build the snowpack, but it is the kind of snow that compliments the powder that is already in place. And the mountain snowpack is doing fine for this time of year anyway – as of today’s report, the snow depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake is almost 60 inches.

My ski tour from yesterday revealed that the powder out there is in absolutely fantastic shape, so I decided to head out for another tour today. Temperatures were up today – well up into the 20s F in the mountains, but the wind had picked up as well. Skies were cloudy as the snow pulled out but quickly shifted to partly cloudy conditions with bright sun at times.

I toured on the west side of the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network yesterday through elevations in roughly the 2,000’-2,400’ range, but today I toured on some of the more traditional Bryant Trail terrain and topped out around 2,800’. I toured up and around Bryant Cabin, then continued on up to the Not a Trail traverse and descended from there. I hit the Gun Sight area, which I’d yet to visit this season, and then continued my descent through a collection of lower-elevation glades. Similar to yesterday, the main lines of most glades have seen plenty of skier traffic, but all you have to do is head off into the surrounding trees and the snow is untracked and bottomless. Even in the dense evergreen areas the snowpack is deep – it was at least 30 to 40 inches when I checked at the 2,800’ level, but I can’t tell if I was actually probing all the way down to ground level.

A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for a ski tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network — A map of today’s ski tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network using GPS tracking data displayed via Google Earth

Today must not have been as busy at the resort as yesterday, because when I headed up the afternoon there was no sign at Timberline about the upper parking areas being full. Bolton has definitely been checking people’s passes for Nordic & Backcountry Network access this weekend. Yesterday on my way up the Bryant Trail I had to show a patroller my pass, and today they had an employee stationed at the Nordic Hut at the base of the Bryant Trail. I showed her my pass, but she wanted me to get one of the new blue arm bands that the resort is requiring for trail network use this season. I’d read about the arm bands on the resort’s website but hadn’t seen them in practice. It looks like they’re fully implementing them now, but now that I’ve picked mine up, it’s good for the whole season. In the Nordic & Backcountry Center they said that you can just keep it on your backcountry pack, since people are finding them a bit small to go on the arm. I was planning to visit the Nordic & Backcountry Center anyway, because I wanted to check out its new location. It’s moved from down at Ralph’s Rec Center to one of the buildings on the west side of the Village Circle. This is a better location with respect to backcountry access, especially for those using the Wilderness Uphill Route since it’s so close, but it seems to be a little less convenient for Nordic skiers that might be starting out on the Broadway Trail.

January 25, 2025July 1, 2025

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 25JAN2025

An image of glades in the Prayer Flag area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of powder snow settling and curling over a tree stump in the area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — We haven’t had much new snowfall in the past couple of days, so the powder is settling on objects throughout the Bolton Valley backcountry in a variety of fun ways.

The pace of snowfall has slowed down a bit over the past few days here in the Northern Greens, so heading into the backcountry seemed like today’s call for good access to untracked powder. It was a sunny midwinter day, so my wife and I went snowshoeing in Morrisville in the morning, but I had time to head up to the Bolton Valley area in the afternoon for some ski touring.

I haven’t really done any ski touring west of the Bryant Trail yet this season, so I decided to head out to the Prayer Flag area on today’s tour. Although the main lines of Prayer Flag had seen a decent amount of skier traffic, the natural glades surrounding the area were nearly untracked. As Prayer Flag began to narrow and dive down to Brook Run, I traversed to the right through the trees toward the Holden’s Hollow Glades. The main lines there were well tracked as I’d expected, so I continued on into the surrounding trees to finish my run down to the Joiner Brook bridge. I felt like extending my tour a bit, so I skinned back up and did a run down the Cup Runneth Over glade before heading back to the car.

Although we didn’t get a ton of new snow this week, what we did get over the past couple of days was incredibly dry, so it topped off the existing powder quite well. We’ve also had the type of cold, dry weather this week that has allowed the powder to settle and dry out to enhance its right-side-up density gradient and improve with age. The quality of the powder out there today was excellent, and the density gradient was such that it skied well on any pitch. In terms of depths, my measurements at the 2,000’ level revealed 17 to 18 inches above the subsurface, and at 2,400’ I found 22 to 24 inches of depth. In general, I found that the main lines of most glades had seen a decent amount of skier traffic, and that’s not surprising without much fresh snow this week, but snow is in the forecast in the coming days to hopefully help reset the powder in those areas.

January 20, 2025July 1, 2025

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 20JAN2025

An image of trees near the Alchemist glade plastered with dry fluffy powder snow from recent winter storms at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of the Nordic Ticket Booth area covered in sunshine and powder snow from recent winter storms at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — The views of snow and sun at the Bolton Valley Nordic ticket booth suggested that Mother Nature was setting up another great day for ski touring.

We were back to highs in the single digits F today, and I’d certainly call those touring temperatures. With the cold weather, I wasn’t sure if I was going to head out for turns today or not, but with snow quality this good and snowpack this deep, it’s easy to tip the scales toward skiing vs. doing something else for exercise. Bolton Valley was also reporting another 2 to 3 inches of fresh snow from Winter Storm Demi, so the January snowfall just keeps piling up, inch by inch.

There are a number of main sectors of the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network that I haven’t visited yet this season, and with the current snowpack, essentially everything is in play, so it was difficult to choose where to go. I ultimately decided on a loop up to Bryant Cabin and a descent in the Gotham City area, since I hadn’t been out there yet this season. Indeed, the afternoon temperatures were in the single digits F in the mountains today like we had back at the beginning of the month, but it was sunny, and there was little wind, so that made it feel noticeably different from the snowy, windy single-digit temperatures we had before. It was really quite comfortable out on the ascent, and I was cruising up the Bryant Trail, it was feeling so nice that I decided to extend my tour a bit higher.

An image of the snowy roof of the Bryant Cabin out on the Nordic and Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view of snowy Brant Cabin today as I stopped by briefly during my ski tour for a drink and some photos.

I stopped briefly at Bryant Cabin for a drink and some photos, then continued on up Heavenly Highway to the Not a Trail area at around the 2,800’ elevation. I did some checks on the snowpack depth and was typically getting numbers in the range of 35 to 45 inches. I think I was getting to the bottom of the snowpack when probing with my ski pole, but it’s hard to know for sure without digging a pit. When I was out in the Jay Peak backcountry touring the west face of the Gilpin Mountain/Domey’s Dome range on Saturday, snowpack probing at similar elevations was typically giving me depths of 45 to 50 inches. So, as one might expect with the snowfall the Jay Peak area has seen thus far this season (a bit over 200 inches), the snowpack seems to be a bit deeper there at equivalent elevations.

An image of a snowy evergreen tree near the Alchemist glade at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — It’s only mid-January, but the forest is getting check with snow and evergreens are beginning their process of disappearing into the snowpack

For my descent, I skied a bit of Not a Trail, took the Not a Trail high traverse, then dropped into a nice line that brought me across North Slope and down to Gardiner’s Lane. From there I headed to Gotham City, and since the weather has been so cold and snow preservation so solid, I decided to check out the south-facing Alchemist glade. That area typically suffers from coverage in sunny and warm conditions, but we haven’t had much of that lately, and coverage was excellent. Since our most recent snow, there were only a couple of new tracks in the main Alchemist lines, but there were a number of older tracks that had packed the snow down a bit more, so I ended up heading off to some ancillary lines on the skier’s left. I found acres of terrain over there that was virtually untracked, and it was so good that I put my skins back on and made a quick second ascent via one of the descent tracks on Alchemist to get in another run.

An image of ski tracks in the fresh powder of the Alchemist glade at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Looking back at some lines after floating down through the powder in Bolton Valley’s Alchemist Glade

If one wants to split hairs, I’d say that the new snow that fell from Winter Storm Demi may have knocked the quality of the powder skiing down just a touch. Up here in the Northern Greens we weren’t in any of the heavier snowfall banding from the storm, so snowfall rates were modest, and flake sizes were as well. My liquid analyses from down in the valley indicated that the powder came in at 8.6% H2O, so that’s getting up there toward the density of standard 10% H2O synoptic snow. That was probably a bit denser than the powder that was sitting on the surface before it fell, so it altered the developing right-side-up density gradient in the surface snow just a touch. Also, the snow skis a bit slower in single-digit temperatures, so the combination of the powder density and temperatures meant that turns were a bit sluggish on lower-angle terrain. Moderate-angle and steep terrain skied great though, and remember, we’re talking about the finer details of powder quality here, so it comes down to the difference between maybe a point on a 10-piont scale. As mentioned, as soon as I reached the bottom of my run, I turned around and skinned up for another go, so that tells you how good the skiing was. With the low temperatures and dry air that we’re expected to have over the next couple of days, and indeed all the way into next weekend, I wouldn’t be surprised to find the top layers of the powder drying out and the density gradient gradually resetting itself for even better powder quality as time goes on. That process has actually happened a decent amount over the past few weeks, which is one of the benefits of consistently cold temperatures and very low humidity.

There aren’t any major systems expected to hit the area in the next couple of days, so the only potential snow during the midweek period would be if any of the moisture from Lake Ontario makes it over here to the Northern Greens. There’s not much expected, but there were a few radar echoes approaching the area in the evening, so the mountains may have pulled a few flakes out of that. Anything we get from lake moisture would be very dry snow, so it would top off the powder nicely in terms of the density gradient. Once we get out toward Friday and the weekend, there may be a couple chances for Clipper systems to affect the area.

January 19, 2025January 31, 2025

Bolton Valley, VT 19JAN2025

A posterized image of Ty Telemark skiing in powder snow in the Wilderness Woods area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty beginning the descent of a line in the Wilderness Woods area on Telemark skis during a January ski outing at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Sunshine sets us up with some good natural lighting as Ty starts into a powdery line in the Wilderness Woods during today’s outing at Bolton Valley.

Today I headed up to Bolton Valley for a bit of afternoon lift-served skiing with E and Ty ahead of the cold temperatures that are expected to be around into the midweek period. The resort has finally shifted their attention to making snow in the Timberline area over the past week, and since it was open to lift-served skiing for the holiday weekend, we figured we’d check it out. It’s always a nice shift into the feel of Bolton’s full mid-season mode when you can start parking down at Timberline to base yourself there to ski the rest of the resort.

Midafternoon yesterday when I was heading home from backcountry skiing in the Jay Peak area, it started snowing as our Saturday system pushed into the area, but the precipitation changed to sprinkles of rain in the valleys as I headed south. We’d picked up a few hundredths of an inch of rain down in the valley at our house in Waterbury that gave a slight crust to the snowpack, so I was curious how high the snow levels had risen. I immediately checked the consistency of the snow when we arrived at the Timberline Base at 1,500’ and was happy to find that the snow was powdery without any rain crust, so even the lowest elevations of the resort had remained above the snow line.

As we ascended on the Timberline Quad, we could see that the lower Timberline trails without snowmaking still need more snow. Our long-duration storms from early January scoured a lot of the west-facing terrain, and the existing snowpack down at the Timberline elevations just wasn’t deep enough to hold up to that very well. Most of the natural snow terrain at Timberline was open, but it’s still just a bit thin to support lift-served skiing without some areas of brush and grass poking through. The areas where they’ve made snow have plentiful coverage of course, but seeing what was available, we decided to head up to the main mountain for better coverage and conditions.

The resort was reporting 4 to 6 inches of new snow in the past 24 hours, and 8 inches of new snow in the past 48 hours, so somehow the mountains just keep pulling the inches out of these minor systems that come through the area. Those snowfall numbers are definitely more reflective of the main mountain though, because accumulations down at Timberline were certainly less.

Up at the main mountain we decided to head right to Wilderness to ski the natural snow terrain, and it was indeed night and day compared to the conditions down at Timberline. There’s certainly been plenty of skier traffic at the resort since it’s a holiday weekend, but jumping off trail into the trees revealed the usual foot plus of light powder that we’ve been seeing over the past couple of weeks in untracked areas. On piste, the snow was nice packed powder wherever the winds hadn’t scoured it down, so we stuck to moderate-angle terrain below the Wilderness Mid Station and had some great runs. We even had some sun at the beginning of our session, and it was nice to have that light and a bit of extra warmth. You could tell that colder air was moving in, and temperatures were dropping through the lower 20s F, so when the clouds came back in ahead of approaching Winter Storm Demi, you could really feel the chill.

We headed back to Timberline as we finished up our afternoon session, and we did find some nice natural snow in areas like Lower Tattle Tale, but due to the shallower snowpack you had to be very selective and stick to well protected areas that hadn’t been scoured. The manmade snow on Timberline Run was definitely firm, and I’d say the disparity between the quality/firmness of the natural and manmade snow is far more than the usual at Timberline right now. The snow they made should be very resilient though.

An image showing a view of the new Miso Curry station in the Timberline Base Lodge with a customer putting in a food order at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view of the new Miso Curry station in the Timberline Base Lodge as a customer puts in an order

The opening of the Timberline area means that food service is firing up there, and this year in the Timberline Base Lodge they have Miso Curry offering food. It turns out that like the Miso Toh Kome hut up at Bolton’s main base area, (and other resorts in the area) Miso Curry is another offering from the Miso Hungry chain. We didn’t know that curry was so prominent in Japanese cuisine, but we shared an order of their katsu pork curry with edamame, and it was great. We were thinking it might be a bit tough though for families if the kids want something more typical to eat, but they can always catch that at the main base lodge, and Miso Curry seems to be a great addition to the variety of food available at the resort.

January 12, 2025January 24, 2025

Bolton Valley, VT 12JAN2025

A black and white image of Ty Telemark skiing through light powder in the Snow Hole area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty Telemark skiing through a contoured line in the trees in light powder in the Snow Hole/Branches area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty cruising down the contours of a fun line in the Snow Hole/Branches area during today’s powder skiing session at Bolton Valley

The weather and ski conditions yesterday were excellent, but today kicked that up yet another notch. Today’s temperatures were well up into the 20s F with brilliant winter sunshine and no wind. And after our spell of cold, snowy weather, you could really feel the difference today. Whether you were riding on the slopes, sitting the lifts, or just hanging out at the base area, it was all very comfortable. Also, with brilliant sun, we had great light for action photography; Near base ISO I was able to shoot 1/4000 sec at f/2.8 even in the trees.

I was up at Bolton Valley this afternoon skiing with Ty, and one notable, and surprising improvement was in the powder. As I mentioned in yesterday’s report, the powder skiing was decent, but not outstanding because the snow density was so homogeneous throughout its depth. I guess Mother Nature just needed a bit of time with that new snow because as of today it had settled beautifully into a more right-side-up powder stack that skied much better. Ty and I dug into the snowpack and checked to see what had changed: the first roughly half foot of powder had dried out, and the snow below it had settled into a smooth density gradient, presumably due to compression from the snow above. At ~2,400’ elevation on Wilderness we found roughly 18 inches of powder before you hit what I’d say was a layer resembling a subsurface.

An image of Ty Telemark skiing through powder in the Snow Hole area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty dropping through a powdery line in the Snow Hole area of Wilderness during this afternoon’s outing at Bolton

With the weather and snow conditions, it was once again fairly busy at the resort with parking needed down at Timberline. Since we went up in the early afternoon though, we were able to get a parking spot up in the Village because of people who were leaving, but it still wasn’t easy – others were arriving to get in afternoon turns as well. Based on the current forecast, the next storm is expected to move into the area tomorrow, with a couple more systems over the course of the week, so hopefully we’ll have a few rounds of snow to keep the great conditions in place.

January 11, 2025January 24, 2025

Bolton Valley, VT 11JAN2025

An image of Erica alpine skiing in powder snow in the Snow Hole area after a couple of long-duration winter storms in January at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of snowmaking taking place at the base are of Timberline at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Bolton Valley has finally fired up snowmaking at the base of the Timberline area, so Timberline’s slopes will likely be opening to lift-served skier traffic soon.

Our recent long-duration system finished up on Friday, and the next winter system moved into the area today, so Mother Nature continues to deliver snow and enhance the conditions on the slopes. E and I headed up to Bolton Valley this morning to check out the conditions with some lift-served skiing, and there’s no doubt that the word is out about the conditions. It was midmorning when we arrived at the resort, and people were already parking at the third tier of Timberline and being shuttled up to the main base. The good news is that they resort has fired up the snow guns on Timberline, so they’ll probably be opening that area to lift-served skiing soon.

After the run of relatively cold, windy (and thankfully snowy) weather we’ve had for the first third of January, today was extremely comfortable with temperatures around 20 F, no wind, and light snow falling. So, everyone we saw at the resort seemed to be excited about that. The resort had received another few inches of snow as the previous system wrapped up, and conditions on the slopes were very similar to what I experienced on Wednesday and Thursday with a touch of improvement thanks to the additional snow and more grooming. The scoured areas were still thin on snow, but grooming had definitely help equalize and soften the conditions there a bit. Natural snow areas out of the wind continue to offer fantastic snow – and when that snow is groomed it skis beautifully; you’re not hitting anything under the packed powder. Off piste, there is a lot of powder as one would expect. We were finding depths of around 20 inches, which is similar to what I’ve been finding this week. In general, areas with that sort of deep powder are skiing fine, but it’s not outstanding powder skiing. The powder is of roughly medium-density, but its density is generally equivalent throughout its depth, so you can sink in pretty far and get a bit bogged down on lower-angle terrain. It’s not upside-down powder, but it just doesn’t ski as well as it would with a really nice right-side-up arrangement. Some areas did offer a better powder experience though. They have finally opened up more of the Snowflake terrain, and we found about a foot of powder over places that had either been groomed or had more settled snow underneath, and those spots offered some very pleasant powder skiing today.

January 9, 2025January 22, 2025

Bolton Valley, VT 09JAN2025

An image of cars with interesting formations of drifted snow in January during a long-duration winter storm in the Village area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of a ski track in powder snow during a long-duration winter storm in January at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Areas protected from the wind continue to offer great powder turns as our second long-duration winter storm this month dops more snow in the local mountains.

I had time to head up to Bolton Valley for another ski tour this morning, and the weather was very much like what we’d had in the mountains for the past few days: temperatures in the single digits F with a lot of wind. Thankfully, yesterday appeared to be the coldest of the days this week, and the temperatures this morning were about 5 to 10 degrees F warmer.

Yesterday I’d done a bit of lift-served skiing after my tour, but today I decided to make my tour a bit longer instead of sitting on the lifts. On my ascent I topped out around 2,900’ on Wilderness, and I figured I’d gone high enough to get a good sampling of the snow at various elevations.

With a few more inches of snow each day, the conditions on the slopes have just continued to improve aside from those areas exposed to the wind where scouring has been incessant. Exposed areas just continued to be scoured, and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those exposed spots had less snow than they did before this system began. Protected areas had simply fantastic snow though. Like yesterday, I typically measured 20 inches or more of powder in protected areas today, and the subsurface snow is a distant memory there. I also measured depths as great as 35 inches in some non-drifted spots, where it seemed like I was just pushing down into the older layers in the snowpack without even hitting any firm layer to differentiate the snows from these recent couple of systems. That’s a good sign about the overall quality of the snowpack though if you can’t even find a subsurface layer until you head down 35 inches into the snow.

An image of snow accumulations on various surfaces during a long-duration, windy winter storm in January in the base area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Throughout the Village, snow has been accumulating in various ways on all sorts of surfaces due to the continued wind and snow from our ongoing long-duration winter storm.

With the end of this most recent long-duration system, it looks like we could be moving into a pattern featuring some Clipper systems. The first one is coming into the area tomorrow, with another expected for Monday into Tuesday.

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