Glades Archives - J&E Productions

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 18, 2025January 28, 2025

Gilpin Mountain/Domey’s Dome, VT 18JAN2025

An image of Dylan, Jack, Dylan, and Ronan pausing for a picture at the South Peak of Gilpin Mountain on the Long Trail during a ski tour in the Jay Peak backcountry.

An image of Dylan Telemark skiing in powder snow in the trees during a January ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain/Domey's Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry in Vermont — Dylan was back on his Telemark skis gliding through the powder today. We had a great ski tour today in the Gilpin Mountain/Domey’s Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry with great snow and many acres of nicely spaced tree skiing.

A couple weeks back there was some great discussion in the Northern New England thread at the American Weather Forums about the Jay Peak backcountry conditions in areas like Gilpin Mountain and Domey’s Dome, so I was certainly looking to head up to that part of the Northern Greens for some touring when the opportunity arose. Prodigious amounts of snow have simply continued to fall through much of this past week, with Jay Peak now at 200 inches of snowfall on the season. So, the powder has been staying fresh and the snowpack just keeps getting deeper. I was thinking of heading up for a tour in the Gilpin/Domey’s area this weekend, and out of the blue, Dylan called to see if I’d bring him and some of his college friends on a backcountry ski tour since some of their passes were in blackout mode due to the holiday weekend. I told him where I was already thinking on touring, and that’s all it took – the plan was in place to head out Saturday morning.

An image of Dylan Telemark skiing in deep powder snow in the trees during a January ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain/Domey's Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry in Vermont — The powder was deep and bottomless throughout the descent today.

The forecast for the day was looking great – temperatures in the upper 20s F are perfect because it’s warm enough to be quite comfortable out in the backcountry, but below the freezing mark to avoid any temperature effects on the powder. I was concerned about parking since it’s a holiday weekend, but there were plenty of parking spots up at Jay Pass on Route 242. I arrived about 20 minutes before Dylan and his friends, so I poked around at the pass, and checked out the snow conditions and trail access points until they arrived.

An image of a skier jumping off a rock during a January ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain/Domey's Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry in Vermont — Along with the powder, Mother Nature also supplied plenty of terrain features for a bit of extra fun during the descent.

I’ve skied the terrain north of the pass on Gilpin Mountain before, but this time I wanted to check out the terrain to the south. My plan for our tour was to use the Long Trail to head up Gilpin Mountain and out along the ridgeline toward Domey’s Dome, then descend the west face of the range and catch the Catamount Trail for the return trip. With regard to ski touring, that side of the range is, in theory, set up beautifully – the Long Trail follows the ridgeline, and the Catamount Trail roughly parallels it down in the valley near Route 242. So, you can head out on the Long Trail to whatever point you want, then drop in for a descent and use the Catamount Trail as a collector for returning to Jay Pass. I say it’s a great setup “in theory”, with the caveat that the Long Trail can be tough to follow at this time of year. The Long Trail uses white blazes on the trees to mark its route for hikers, and the trees up along the ridgeline there can be absolutely loaded with snow. So, following the trail can be quite challenging if someone hasn’t already put a track in place. Also, as the snowpack continues to rise, the blazes can be more and more difficult to find. As of now, the blazes are at about waist level, so they’re still visible if you can find them behind the inches of snow caked to the trees, but even at the current height they are getting hard to see. One could certainly head out to an ascent of Domey’s Dome using the Catamount Trail from below, but after traversing the Catamount Trail in that area for the return on our tour (there are plenty of undulations and meanderings), that approach feels like more work than it needs to be unless you park farther down on Route 242.

An image of a skier turning in the powder and surrounded by snowy trees during a January ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain/Domey's Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry in Vermont — In many areas of the tour, the terrain and trees were just choked with fluffy snow.

While it was breezy in the open area of Jay Pass, with the anemometers at the weather station area buzzing right along, the wind disappeared as soon as we entered the forest on our ascent. Following the Long Trail upward from the pass to Gilpin Mountain was fairly easy – it was well set as a skin track from plenty of skier traffic, so even without being able to see the blazes, it’s simple to follow. Once we were up at the Gilpin Mountain ridgeline, we took a quick jaunt to the north to check out the official summit of Gilpin Mountain at 3,021’ then moved southward and reached the South Peak of Gilpin Mountain, which is slightly lower at 2,993’. From there, we headed south on the Long Trail toward Domey’s Dome. We ran into a couple of guys from Quebec (based on their accents) who were setting up to descend a steep, sweet looking gully on the back side of the range. They joked with us about not stealing it from them, but we would never have done that, and we had other plans anyway. After that, we didn’t run into anyone, because skier traffic seems very light once you get past the general Gilpin Mountain area. We were able to follow the Long Trail southward for a little while, with the help of one track from a previous skier, but as we descended into the col between Gilpin and Domey’s, it became more and more difficult to hold the ridgeline and not get pulled into descending on one side of the ridge of the other. Nobody had broken trail on the Long Trail across the ridgeline, so the route finding took time. We had access to multiple GPS units, and when the Long Trail is obscured with deep snow like it is now, you certainly want to have your GPS and compass. Not wanting to waste too much of the session trying to navigate the traverse, we eventually decided to hug the western side of the ridge as we headed southward, with the intention of beginning a descent if we saw some appealing ski terrain. It wasn’t too long before we found a relatively steep line that dropped through some open trees, and we decided it was as good a time as any to begin skiing.

An image of Dylan Telemark skiing in the powder in the trees with friends looking on during a January ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain/Domey's Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry in Vermont — The boys would line up, drop into their lines, and let ’em rip.

Our descent from the col between Gilpin and Domey’s featured some nice areas with reasonably open trees, spots with excellent natural glades, and some terrain that had been logged and maintained for logging access. The powder was fantastic – there was typically 1 to 2 feet of bottomless powder over a deep base. I would frequently check the depth of the snowpack, and my ski pole would go below the surface of the snow, which means the snowpack depth was in excess of 45 inches. The powder was in a very nice right-side-up density gradient starting with snow in roughly the 6 to 8% H2O range on top. The only thing that could have really made the powder better would have been to throw on several more inches of fresh 3-6% H2O champagne, but that’s really getting picky, because it skied incredibly well. Everyone was on fat skis with widths over 100 mm, and the skis were definitely in their element out there today. Dylan was on his Telemark skis for the first time in 2 or 3 seasons because he’s been looking for a good pair of boots to replace the current ones that are too tight, but it didn’t look like his Telemark skiing had missed a beat. I was happy to see that, and so were his friends.

A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for a ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain and Domey's Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry in Vermont — A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for today’s ski tour in the Gilpin Mountain and Domey’s Dome area of the Jay Peak backcountry.

An image of the Omakase Asian fusion restaurant on Route 242 near Jay Peak in Vermont with snow on the roof and huge icicles hanging down to the ground. — The Omakase Asian fusion restaurant on Route 242 really fit the look of the Jay Peak area with its snow on the roof and huge icicles hanging down to the ground.

As of this morning, Jay Peak is reporting 203 inches of snowfall on the season, and you can really feel it when you’re out there in the nearby backcountry. The snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake at 3,700’ is around 55 inches, but based on what I found out there on our tour in the Gilpin/Domey’s area, that snowpack depth is probably obtained at a lower elevation in the Jay Peak area. We weren’t even out in the Big Jay Basin area, which seems to collect some of the most snow in the area due to its leeward position, so I bet the snowpack is quite deep out there. Dylan and his friends are planning to head out to Alyeska in March for some skiing during spring break, and he mentioned that as of now they apparently have the most snowfall for the season of any ski area in the U.S. at 346 inches. That got me wondering about how things are going for some of the well-known, snowier resorts in western North America with respect to snowfall, and I saw that Steamboat is at 143 inches, Whistler Blackcomb is at 197 inches, Grand Targhee is at 211 inches, and Alta is at 233 inches. So, Jay Peak’s 203 inches is certainly in that ballpark, and the area’s snowpack is definitely doing well. I’d say what’s really helped with making Jay Peak’s snowfall perform in terms of building the snowpack is that they haven’t had to deal with many thaws, especially in the past few weeks when they’ve has so much continuous snowfall.

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 5, 2025January 17, 2025

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 05JAN2025

An image of Ty Telemark skiing in powder in the White Rabbit area of the Nordic & Backcountry Network in January at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty make a deep Telemark turn in powder during a backcountry ski tour in the Snow Hole area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty diving through the powder on today’s tour as we descend in Bolton’s Snow Hole area

Based on the quality of yesterday’s skiing, I was leaning heavily toward heading out for another tour today. The backcountry conditions around Bolton are already quite good, and they were reporting another 2 to 4 inches of new snow this morning, so that was a nice bonus. Temperatures were expected to be about the same as yesterday, which meant single digits F.

Ty was able to join me today, so it was great to have company, and we were able to get some actions shots in the powder. We did a tour somewhat similar to what I did yesterday, but we lengthened it out a bit more. Instead of heading up to Heavenly Highway and working our way down to North Slope, we went all the way up to Moose Glen and then wrapped around on a descent toward the glades around Snow Hole, which was roughly a four-mile tour. I chose that route to get us some relatively high altitude turns after observing the notable improvements in the overall snowpack above 2,500’ yesterday.

The number of visitors at the resort seemed a bit less today – there was no sign posted about the Village lots being full, and we easily grabbed a parking spot in the upper lot by the entry to the Backcountry Network. With cold temperatures preserving the snow, conditions were similar to yesterday with 1 to 2 feet of powder available wherever wind hadn’t scoured it to lower depths. Touring some of the higher elevation trails allowed us to see the various areas that had been hit by wind, and you just had to be cognizant of where winds had affected the snowpack to pick the lines with the best undisturbed powder. The middle elevations were much less disturbed by the wind, and you could pick just about line and get some great powder turns.

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

The models suggest we might have another long-duration system like this past one starting up tomorrow night and running right through the week, and I see that Winter Weather Advisories are already up for the Northern Greens in anticipation of some of that snowfall.

January 4, 2025January 7, 2025

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 04JAN2025

An image of a snowdrift outside the condominiums near the base of the Wilderness Double Chairlift during a January snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of ski tracks in powder snow in the Cup Runneth Over area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — The powder is great and the backcountry ski traffic has generally been light – as I passed by, I saw just one old set of tracks in the Cup Runneth Over area.

Our current storm cycle started up back on Wednesday, with low pressure deepening as it passed over southeast New England and up into Maine. It then headed on up into eastern Quebec, stalled there for a bit, and finally moved to northwest to James Bay, where it’s expected to sit until about Monday. While this isn’t a stacked low-pressure system sitting in the Canadian Maritimes feeding continuous 1+”/hr. snows into the Northern Greens, the broad cyclonic flow supported by the various positions of the low pressure has kept the area in a nice moist westerly/northwesterly flow that’s been feeding snow into the mountains. So, this isn’t a typical 24-, 48-, or 72-hour type of storm cycle; it’s a much more drawn-out sort of “cycle”. I wasn’t sure how the positions of this low would actually play out with respect to snowfall, but since well before the start of the storm the National Weather Service Office in Burlington has been on it – they felt that the potential was there for solid amounts of snow over the protracted period. And they certainly weren’t wrong. It’s been a little tough to total up the mountain accumulations for the full event because it’s already been going on for four days, and the resorts typically only report up to 48-hour accumulations, but it looks like anywhere from roughly 1.5 to 3 feet have fallen in the Northern Greens from the system as of today.

Bolton Valley was reporting 4 to 6 inches of new snow overnight on top of their previous accumulations from the system. I’d already been finding snow accumulations of 9 to 10 inches when I was out touring at Bolton on Thursday, so between whatever fell Thursday night into Friday, plus these additional Friday night accumulations, there seemed to be some good powder potential out there. Temperature forecasts for the mountains were in the single digits F today, so touring seemed to be the best option. E was initially going to join me for a ski tour, but after thinking about the temperatures for a bit, she ultimately decided to work out at home instead.

I headed up to the mountain a bit after noontime, and people certainly didn’t seem to care about the temperatures – the signs were up for visitors to park at Timberline because the upper lots were full. Being after noon, I knew I’d be able to get a spot from someone who was leaving for the day, so I headed up to the main base anyway. I still ended up getting a spot in the lowest tennis court lot though, and that changed up my touring plans a bit. I had initially planned to ascend at the start of the Wilderness Uphill Route and then make my way toward Gardiner’s Lane, but since I was parked right down by the Pond Loop area with easy access to the Bryant Trail, I ascended there instead. I had just planned to loop around Bryant Cabin and then head out to start my descent on North Slope, but the temperatures felt great while touring, so I continued on up to Heavenly Highway, topped out around 2,800’, and started my descent via the “Not a Trail” glade. From there I continued down North Slope and then made a second ascent to ski some of the glades in the Snow Hole area.

An image of a ski pole with measurement of the powder in the snowpack showing a depth of 24 inches during a backcountry ski tour on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Up above 2,500′ there were frequently areas with 24 inches of powder atop a substantial base for what must have been a snowpack depth in the range of 40 inches

It was clear that powder depths had increased at the resort since I was last there on Thursday. Winds have died down substantially now, so measuring the snow is much easier, and right at the car at ~2,000’ I was getting 8-12” depths for the surface snow above the base. By 2,500’ the typical depths were in the 12-16” range, and around 2,800’ I’d say they were 12-18”. I’d still think that’s somewhat conservative though, because I was often finding powder depths of 24” up around 2,700’-2,800’. Right now, getting up above 2,500’ makes a real difference in the snow though, because those areas must have done really well during our previous warmup – the interface between the surface snow and the base has mostly disappeared by that point (making it harder to measure just the new snow), and the skiing is really good. Dropping into my initial descent, I could tell that the overall snowpack was really deep. Below that top 24” of powder there was substantial base, and I’d say the snowpack there has to be 40 inches. The snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake was at 39” as of a couple of days ago, and it hasn’t been updated since then, but based on what I found out there today a few miles to the south, it’s got to be over 40 inches by now.

Anyway, I’d recommend doing most of your touring up in that 2,500’ to 3,500’ elevation range if you can – it’s just a notable improvement in the overall snowpack below 2,500’. It’s still nice skiing down there, but it’s sort of mid-fat powder conditions below 2,500’, and full-fat conditions above 2,500’. I toured on mid-fats today, but I was wishing I had fat skis in that deep snowpack above 2,500’. The powder is of medium weight, so there’s plenty of liquid equivalent in there to really keep you off the base. As of this evening we’re approaching an inch of liquid equivalent from this system at our site in the valley, so you know the mountains have had at least an inch of two of liquid equivalent from this system so far, and it definitely felt like it based on what I experienced above 2,500’ today.

A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data from a ski tour out on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A Google Earth/GPS map of today’s tour out on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network

With respect to the ongoing storm, there was generally light but consistent snow falling when I was out on the mountain today. The flakes were small, in the 1 to 2 mm range, so it was hard to gauge snowfall rates, but I had to clean a decent layer off my car when I got back to it after just an hour or two of touring. Toward the end of my tour, the flake size was picking up noticeably to roughly 2 to 8 mm flakes. Down here at the house, we’ve had light snow all day, but it’s picked up more this evening with larger flakes, especially when strong echoes come through as more pronounced shortwaves embedded in the overall cyclonic flow move through the area. Based on what we’ve been seeing here at the house this evening, there should be at least another few inches out there by tomorrow morning for the mountains.

December 24, 2024December 26, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 24DEC2024

An image of Erica Telemark skiing in fresh powder in the Fanny Hill area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont on Christmas Eve.

An image of Erica on the Sprig O' Pine trail off the Snowflake Double Chairlift on Christmas Eve at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Erica on Sprig O’ Pine as we enjoy some of Bolton’s great Christmas Eve ski conditions thanks to 8 inches of snow from our most recent Alberta Clipper system

As of their early morning snow report, Bolton Valley had received 8 inches of accumulation from the clipper that began affecting the area yesterday evening, so I headed up for some morning turns with my wife and our younger son. We’re not fully into the holiday week yet, so visitation at the resort was still fairly modest – around the time of the opening of the early lifts, folks were parking in the second and third tiers of the main Village parking areas.

I’d say we found about 8 inches of new snow at most elevations, so that’s right on track with the snow report. The powder was dry, midweight snow – my snow analyses for the storm up to that point came in at 7 to 8 % H2O. Total liquid equivalent from the system stands at 0.42 inches at our site in the valley, so that’s very much in line with the forecasts, and the mountain was probably somewhere in the range of a ½ inch of liquid equivalent. While not enough for a massive resurfacing, it did a decent job of resetting the surfaces atop subsurfaces that are already of decent quality from the past couple of systems.

After a couple days of below average temperatures, we’ve warmed back up into the 20s F now, and with light snow falling and no wind, the weather was fantastic out on the slopes today. We started off with a run on the Vista Quad, and Alta Vista had nice powder and chowder available – it was enough to be bottomless in untouched areas on moderate slope angles. Our timing was perfect for catching the opening of the Wilderness Lift, so we did a couple runs there, then finished off with more runs off Vista and Snowflake. The resort even hit Spillway hard with snowmaking and it’s good to go – my wife and I didn’t ski it, but my son and his friend did and said it was fine for manmade snow.

Conditions on the slopes are certainly good, but the natural snow trails could still use more cover, and the resort will need that to expand terrain into areas where they aren’t making snow. They haven’t yet opened Timberline, most of the Snowflake area, or the Cobrass area, so there’s a lot of terrain still to be made available.

December 15, 2024December 20, 2024

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 15DEC2024

An image of ski tracks in powder snow in mid-December in the Big Blue area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty Telemark skiing through trees in the Cup Runneth Over glade as twilight approaches and we near the end of today's ski tour on the Nordic and Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty slipping his way down through trees in the Cup Runneth Over glade as twilight approaches and we near the end of today’s ski tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry Network

After the relatively warm midweek storm moved across the area, we picked up an inch or two of snow in the valley between the back side of that system and the lake-effect snow that followed it. While the storm wasn’t quite a net gain for the snowpack here at our site, we only lost a couple tenths of an inch of snow water equivalent in the snow on the ground, so it was fairly inconsequential in that regard. It did mean a thaw-freeze cycle for the snowpack though, so once temperatures came down, the snowpack was solid with just a bit of fresh snow on top. This was the first notable consolidation event of the season at our site, so we finally transitioned to a much more robust snowpack down at the house now vs. what was there before. It had slowly been settling and consolidating on its own, but it was still somewhat dry, and you could dig down to the ground fairly easily.

That midweek storm was likely a net gain for liquid in the mountain snowpack, but I assumed off piste surfaces would be quite hard after the thaw-freeze, similar to what we experience down in the valley. I’d been hearing some good reports out of the mountains with regard to the backside accumulations from the storm, but it was hard to image it would be enough to really get the off piste and backcountry conditions back to where there were earlier in the week.

With that in mind, E and I headed up to Bolton Valley for some snowshoeing yesterday. We always find that snowshoeing is a nice change of pace if the snowpack is likely to be punchy, crusty, or icy, since even Nordic skiing with those conditions can be unpleasant if the snow is too firm. We figured we’d mostly be using the crampons on our snowshoes during the tour as we expected something in the range of a dust-on-crust snowpack, but that wasn’t the case at all. I was amazed to find that at around the 2,000’-2,200’ elevations where we toured, there were 6 to 10 inches of powder above the base layers. And, the base wasn’t even rock hard, it was a crumbly interface with the powder above it that made for excellent touring. We couldn’t believe that we were actually having to use the floatation of our snowshoes because of the depth of the powder, and the crampons were needed only occasionally in packed areas. The resort was reporting 8 inches of new snow in the previous 48 hours, and it really wasn’t just eye candy; all that new snow set up some very pleasant snow surfaces.

The only major issues we noted yesterday were that some of the water bars had been blow out by the rain. Those areas required some extra navigation, and we could see that people had established routes around them on popular ascents like the Bryant Trail. I’d say our observations were right in line with the big washout on Gondolier at Stowe that Powderfreak talked about – the snowpack itself wasn’t damaged all the much by the rain, the more notable effects were on drainage/water bars.

An image of Ty Telemark skiing in some powder snow in the Big Blue area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty dropping through some powder in the Big Blue area on today’s backcountry ski tour at Bolton Valley

Experiencing the quality of the snow yesterday, it was obvious that the powder skiing would be great on low to moderate angle terrain, so Ty and I headed out for a ski tour on Bolton’s Nordic & Backcountry Network today. We toured up the Bryant Trail to about the base of the Big Blue area. We wanted to stick to more moderate and low-angle terrain that was a best fit for the depth and density of the powder, so we began our descent in the lower reaches of Big Blue, then worked our way through the relatively low-angle terrain between the Bryant and Coyote trails. Later on the descent we crossed to the west side of Bryant, skied the upper sections of the Cup Runneth Over glade, and finished out with turns on the untracked areas of World Cup. The resort hadn’t set formal Nordic grooming tracks up in those areas of World Cup, but there was a track line that had been made by skiers, and the rest of the trail was untracked powder. Those areas of World Cup were very open and provided some of the most consistent powder turns of the day. The pitch was also perfect for the depth and consistency of the powder, and Ty said those sections were actually his favorite turns of the tour.

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

December 7, 2024December 17, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 07DEC2024

An image showing a heavy coating of snow on the Ski Patrol Station at the top of the Vista Quad Chairlift at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of snow curling off the roof of the Inn in the Village after several rounds of snow have affected Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont — Snow curling off the roof of the Inn at Bolton Valley after many rounds of snow have hit the resort in the past week

It’s that time of year, and Bolton Valley started their lift-served ski season yesterday, so I headed up this afternoon for a few runs off the lifts to check out the conditions and get some exercise. It’s becoming a bit hard to keep track of the snow that’s falling because it’s nearly continuous with all these bread-and-butter systems passing through the area, but the resort is reporting 14 inches of new snow in the past 48 hours.

They have a very interesting assortment of lifts and trails available right now that is atypical of what they usually have going at the start of the season. The Snowflake Chair isn’t running, and Sherman’s Pass isn’t open, and those are often early season staples. Instead, the Wilderness Chair is running, and they appear to have the entirety of the Wilderness terrain open on natural snow. With neither Sherman’s Pass nor Bear Run open, there’s no beginner terrain currently being served off the Vista Quad or the Mid Mountain Chair, so the only beginner terrain is off the Mighty Mite. On top of that, the only way down from the Vista Summit is Hard Luck, which is a steep black diamond run. It is indeed a very unusual collection of early season terrain.

I decided to sample all the lifts that were available during my session, and I started with a Beech Seal run off the Mid Mountain Chair. The skier’s left side had manmade snow, and the skier’s right was natural snow, and the quality of the ski surfaces was of course night and day. The right side was a little thin in a few spots, but the snow quality was excellent since it’s entirely natural snow that has never undergone a thaw-freeze cycle. I next headed to the Vista Quad, and conditions on Hard Luck were disastrous. Coverage was fantastic, but being all manmade snow, very steep, and the only way down from Vista such that it got all the skier traffic, the quality of the snow was horrible. I’m sure racers would love it, but that’s about it. I watched multiple people try to turn and simply kick out, fall, and begin to slide down the slope because there’s just nothing to hold onto with your skis. Thankfully, about halfway down you can cut over to the Show Off trail, which is currently all natural snow. The coverage is a little thin in spots, but easily manageable and all the snow there was excellent packed powder.

An image of cars covered in fresh snow in early December thanks to numerous winter storms passing through Northern New England and affecting Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Every time I pop up to the mountain there’s another plentiful round of snow covering everything thanks to the series of winter storms we’ve been seeing over the past week.

There was lots of snowmaking going on with temperatures in the 20s F, so I’m sure they’ll be opening more of the traditional early season terrain soon.

December 5, 2024December 15, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 05DEC2024

An image of Ty skiing in the Snow Hole area in early December after a continuous flow of smaller winter storms builds up the snowpack at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty getting some early season Telemark ski turns in the backcountry after a series of small storms begins to set up the snowpack at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty getting in some early season backcountry turns during today’s ski tour at Bolton Valley

Ty was off from work today, so the two of us decided to head up to Bolton Valley for some turns. With the generally unconsolidated snowpack, it was a bit tough to tell how much new snow fell from this most recent Clipper system, but based on the resort’s snow report, it seemed like they picked up a few inches, similar to what we received down here in the valley.

With tomorrow being their opening day, there was a lot of activity on the mountain today as they made final preparations for opening. At the base, one of the patrollers asked if we could stay off Wilderness for touring and instead head over to the Nordic and backcountry network, so we were happy to oblige. Although there’s no snowmaking on Wilderness, there snowpack is substantial enough that they could open the area for lift-served skiing if they wanted to. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were doing some grooming and prep work/obstacle marking over there today, so I suspect they wanted to minimize skier traffic as much as they could.

I wouldn’t normally have defaulted to touring on the Nordic and backcountry Network at this stage of the early snowpack, since the Wilderness trails are just a safer bet for quality turns; they have been mowed and have a more substantiated base due to some skier traffic packing it down. But since I’ve been out on Wilderness for a few ski tours now this season, getting out onto the nearby backcountry terrain gave me a nice opportunity to compare the quality of the turns in both places. Although we made our ascent on the Nordic and backcountry Network terrain, we were actually touring in the area over near Snow Hole and made most of our descent on the edge of the on piste Wilderness terrain. That allowed us to directly experience the skiing in both areas today.

An image of early December snow accumulations from various modest storms recently affecting the Village area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Views of the recent accumulating snows in the Bolton Valley Village during today’s ski tour. We’ve had round after round of snow from a series of modest systems coming through the area, and they look to continue for days to come.

For overall skiing and powder turns, the experience was unquestionably better on piste at Wilderness. It’s not an issue of overall snow depth on the backcountry terrain; snowpack depths were closing in on 20 inches when I was out for my ski tour on Tuesday, and that was before the Clipper and the cold front brought a lot more snow to the area over the past couple of days. The depth of the snowpack has gone up substantially at this point – as of today the depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake is at 30 inches. What’s needed off piste to really improve the quality of the skiing is some consolidation. There is some base snow in the snowpack below the fluff, and it’s a decent base for on piste turns, it’s just not enough to sufficiently cover the contours of your typical off-piste terrain yet. Although a storm with above-freezing temperatures isn’t going to be great for snow quality, it would help in that consolidation. Alternatively, a nice dense snowfall storm would also help, and of course that would be much better for snow surfaces in general. It would temporarily ruin the current dry powder and might give us a bit of an upside-down snowpack, but it would really help set things up long term. The only other alternative would be to continue to get the type of dry snow we’re getting and wait a while for settling over time as the lower layers get compressed. This just takes a lot longer and requires a lot of snow, going the route of a continental/Colorado type snowpack.

From our experience touring today, it’s not that the off-piste skiing is horrible, it’s just that you need to stick to places that have seen a bit of skier traffic, or you know are well manicured with minimal hazards underfoot.

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