Powder Archives - J&E Productions

April 4, 2024October 9, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 04APR2024

An image of the Devil's Playground area in April with plentiful fresh snow from Winter Storm Tormund at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of steep terrain in the Devil's Playground area in April with plentiful fresh snow from Winter Storm Tormund at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Dropping through the steeps of Devil’s Playground today at Bolton Valley thanks to 2+ feet of new snow from Winter Storm Tormund. Thanks to the density of the snow that fell atop snowpack from a long winter season, you could hit just about any terrain with reckless abandon and be well protected from any underlying obstacles.

I was too busy to get up to the mountain for turns this morning, but in terms of lift-served skiing at Bolton, that’s not an issue because their current midweek lift schedule is 12:00 P.M. to 7:00 P.M. It’s brilliant that they shifted to that schedule for lift operations, and they aren’t even using the lights for it because daylight simply lasts so long; their expansive western exposure really plays into that.

I did have time to get out for turns this afternoon though, and despite the substantial snows that are being deposited in the mountains and even all the way down to the lowest valleys, the road conditions have been quite nice with April sun intensity and temperatures near the freeing mark. It wasn’t until I was up around 2,000’ on the Bolton Valley Access Road that the road held any snow, and even then it was just a bit of slush with the help of plowing and salting, etc. It was snowing hard when I arrived at the mountain, probably in the inch per hour range, but nothing too outrageous, then it lightened up a bit as the afternoon wore on. There was some wind at times, but at other points it would be nearly calm, even up to elevations just below the ridgeline. Temperatures were in the upper 20 s F, or maybe a little lower than that in the summit areas, but it was comfortable in the way that you might expect April to deliver.

And the skiing… wow… what a resurfacing! I’m starting to lose count of the number of huge resurfacing storms we’ve had up here in the Northern Greens this season, but a quick look through my storm data from here at my site suggests the mountains have had at least 10 of them with an inch or more of liquid equivalent. That’s pretty impressive for a season that has been struggling to reach average snowfall around here, and it really gets one thinking about what an above average season can produce, since I don’t think we’ve had a solidly above average one since ’18-’19. In any event, I guess average to even a bit below average snowfall is certainly appreciated around here when it delivers like this.

So we’ve had a decent number of these resurfacing storms this season, but this one… Winter Storm Tormund, it really put down a shellacking of the slopes. As soon as I dropped into my first few turns off the Vista Summit, I knew; there had to be at least two inches of liquid equivalent in that snow. This wasn’t just your typical “nice, this is definitely keeping me off the subsurface” type of snowfall, this was on that next level. This snow laughed at the thought of you getting anywhere near the subsurface. We’ve had about an inch and a half of liquid equivalent in the snow thus far down here at the house, and with the way that snow skied on the mountain this afternoon, they’re obviously well above that.

The early morning report from the resort was 6 to 8 inches of new snow, so I was surprised with how deep it was when I was up there this afternoon. I routinely measured 16 to 20 inches off the Vista trails, with 24 inches common in some areas. I even got some 30-inch measurements, although those could easily have been in hollows or due to a little drifting. Bolton is reporting 24 inches as their top measurement as of this afternoon, and I’d say that’s right in line with what I found out there. The snow isn’t wet, nor is it super dense, but it’s dense enough that you are well protected from hitting anything below. As is typical with this type of snow, the best powder skiing required substantial pitch, and this type of resurfacing just begs for you to ski the steep stuff anyway, so I obliged and hit the really steep lines off Vista. The super steep sections of Devil’s Playground were a hoot – I always forget just how steep they are, but with this snow you can simply drop in and fly with reckless abandon.

An image showing a measurement of 20 inches of new snow from Winter Storm Tormund in April at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Winter Storm Tormund really meant business in the local mountains – I was finding new snow depths in the range of 20 to 30 inches when I was out for my session at Bolton Valley today.

With the amount of liquid that’s already gone into the snowpack with this storm cycle, this is a major boost for the spring skiing season – at least with respect to the natural snow trails. The snowmaking terrain always lasts no matter what we get for spring storms, but having storms like these just bring more natural snow options to the table for much longer. And Winter Storm Tormund isn’t over yet according to the forecasts – it looks like it continues right into the weekend, so the storm totals and contribution to the snowpack will hopefully increase further over the next couple of days. Bolton was at 324 inches of snowfall on the season as of this afternoon, so it’s at least shaping up to be in the average range at this point.

March 15, 2024September 8, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 15MAR2024

An image of an outdoor bench covered in snow form a mid-March storm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of ski turns in powder snow underneath the Wilderness Double Chairlift after a modest mid-March snowfall at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Carving out some sweeping powder turns under the Wilderness Chair in this morning’s fresh snow

This morning I was seeing reports of 2 to 5 inches of new snow for the resorts of the Central and Northern Greens. Snow levels were high; thus, the accumulations were likely to be dense, but that would mean the liquid equivalent could be there for some decent resurfacing of the slopes. I wasn’t sure how much resurfacing would be needed, but the past couple of days have had some spring-like warmth and sun at times, and I haven’t been up to the hill during that period, so there would be plenty for me to discover about the state of the snowpack.

Heading up to Bolton, light rain in the valley didn’t change over to snow until just below 2,000’, so indeed snow levels were relatively high as expected. With the anticipated snow levels, I’d planned to ski out of the main base area, and the elevation of the snow line confirmed that I likely wouldn’t be heading down to the Timberline elevations for my outing.

An image of the upper portion of the Wilderness Double Chairlift disappearing into the clouds on a March ski day at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Gazing up toward the Wilderness Summit obscured in the clouds

The resort only indicated a couple inches of new accumulation in their early morning report, but that was either early and/or from the base elevations, because I found more than that up high. I started off with an Alta Vista run, and I’m not sure when it was groomed, but I’d say 2 to 3 inches of dense powder atop the groomed surface would be a good description of what I found there. Turns there in the untracked snow above the groomed surface were ~75% bottomless on 86 mm mid-fats, so I was occasionally touching down to the firmer surface below, but overall, it was quite a pleasant and surfy experience. Off piste, things were a bit different. At the Wilderness Summit above 3,000’ I measured what seemed to be 5 to 6 inches of new snow, but it was a little challenging to get exact numbers. In many areas off piste, especially up high, the new dense snow has simply bonded into the underlying snowpack, and you can’t find an interface. I can’t say exactly at what elevation that changes, but it’s most pronounced up high where the snowpack has seen fewer, or less intense freeze-thaw processes over the past couple of days. Off piste turns were especially good up in those high elevation areas, but in general I found that everywhere off piste except for the very lowest areas of the main mountain delivered consistent bottomless turns thanks to the dense snow.

The freezing line seem to sit right around 2,200’ for most of the morning while I was there, and that was because the snow got sticky for the last 100’ of vertical on my runs. As midday approached, the freezing line seemed like it began to rise because on my last run I’d say the stickiness of the snow started to appear about 200’ above the base.

An image showing a trail map sign and some recent snow accumulations from a mid-March storm at the Vista Summit area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view of the trail map sign and some recent snow accumulations up at the Vista Summit this morning

It was really quiet at the resort this morning, being a random March Friday without a major publicized snowstorm, but I did ride the Vista Quad with a guy who had come up from Northampton, Massachusetts. He’s an Indy Pass owner, his home mountain is Berkshire East, and with Bolton Valley being on the Indy Pass as well, it was a perfect fit for a trip. He said it’s been a rough season down there at Berkshire East, at least in terms of natural snow. Thankfully, they were able to get by fine on snowmaking terrain, but he was blown away by the natural snowpack at Bolton. From about Mid Mountain on up during our lift ride, when the surroundings really started to get white, he could not stop talking about all the snow. He said he really needed this trip for his overall state of mind because it’s been so long since he’s seen snow around his area, and from looking at the Berkshire East Webcams, I can see what he means. He’s really lamenting that fact that he thinks this is only going to continue to get worse with climate change. With the way the last couple of seasons have gone regarding snowfall down in Southern New England, I can understand why it’s so depressing. He’s a passionate backcountry skier as well, and I definitely wanted to ask if he’d considered the idea of relocating to somewhere like NNE or the Rockies etc. with more reliable snowfall, but I didn’t get a chance to go there before our lift ride ended.

Looking ahead on the weather models, it seems like we’ll have snow chances right on through to the end of the month and beyond. That’s typically par for the course during March and April, but getting snow becomes fickler toward the end of the season, and sometimes the supply of new snow just shuts off due to above average temperatures.

March 12, 2024September 7, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 12MAR2024

An image of Ty skiing in waist-deep powder after a March snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty jumping out of exploding powder as he skis a line in the Maria's area at the end of a March storm cycle at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty takes off as he blasts through another line filled with the powder from our recent March storm cycle.

As our most recent storm cycle progressed into its second half yesterday, it brought prodigious upslope snowfall, but heavy winds also pounded the upper mountain areas at Bolton Valley. That meant that the Vista Quad Chair never ran, so all that fresh snow would still be sitting there for today.

For Ty, today was one of his days off from work, so the two of us headed up to the mountain for a ski session. At this point in the ski season, we’re well past President’s Day and school vacation week; it’s mid-March, and today was just a random midweek Tuesday, so we didn’t expect a lot of visitors to the mountain. Apparently nobody told the skiers about that though – we arrived up in the Village within a half hour of lift opening, and we were already having to park all the way down by the Sports Center in an impromptu middle lane of cars. Where did all these people come from? What we eventually discovered was that every parent in the state had decided to pull their kids out of school for the day to get in some skiing. On our Vista lift rides, we literally paired up with multiple dads and their kids who had done this, so apparently it was the thing to do!

An image of a car covered with wind-driven drifted snow after a March storm cycle at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Winds had hit the mountain overnight on the back side of the storm cycle, so it was important to visit sheltered areas today for the most pristine powder and highest-quality turns.

The weather today was clear with brilliant March sunshine, so it was quite a contrast to yesterday’s snowy maelstrom, but winds were still brisk near the summits. Despite the bit of remaining wind, overall, today had that feel of the “day after” the storm. The new snow from the storm had been pounded and scoured in exposed areas like the tops of trails near the Vista Summit, but thankfully most terrain was protected enough to hold onto quite an excellent bounty of soft accumulations from the storm. There was a bit of wind crust in areas depending on exposure, but nothing that ruined the skiing aside from reducing the explosiveness of the powder relative to yesterday’s consistency in the more exposed areas. My snow depth checks revealed the same roughly two feet of accumulation that I’d found near the middle of day yesterday, so there was probably some additional accumulation and continued settling that left things about where they were.

An image of Ty skiing powder in the trees after a March storm cycle at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty works his way down through another powder line left by our most recent March storm cycle.

We prioritized hitting some of the steepest terrain to really make use of the resurfacing that the storm brought us, so we visited areas like Devil’s Playground and the Vista Glades, which I hadn’t yet visited at all this season. There were still a lot of nice areas of untracked snow, and areas that had seen skier traffic still provided top notch conditions. The storm was so potent that even the steepest terrain has the coverage to keep you from encountering the old base snow, so you can just drop into anything and anticipate your edges biting into packed powder without the worry of touching the crusty stuff underneath. Along with the steeps, we also visited some of our favorite areas for powder turns, and as long as the snow was protected from the winds, it was still delivering that cold smoke that we enjoyed yesterday.

March 11, 2024July 27, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 11MAR2024

An image of Colin on his snowboard inverted during a back flip off one of the jumps on the Intro trail during a big spring snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Dylan skiing through a cloud of powder during a late winter storm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Dylan puts up a cloud of smoke on Spell Binder as he blasts through the two feet of powder that our current winter storm has delivered so far.

With the storm cycle transitioning into its back half overnight, the upslope really turned on in the Northern Greens. Bolton Valley was reporting 20 inches for the storm total in their early morning update, so I headed up for some turns with Dylan and Colin. There was solid 1”/hr. snow falling in the valley and up at the resort, so I was worried about vehicles struggling to get up the Access Road like Ty and I experienced a couple weeks back, but the road was in nice shape and we made it up to the Timberline Base easily.

An image of Colin exploding through powder snow during a March snowstorm in the KP Glades area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Colin was on his snowboard today and simply exploded through the powder whenever he had the opportunity.

An image of Dylan halfway through a backflip on skis during a March snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Dylan arcing his way through a backflip during the boy’s jumping session today

The upslope winds were roaring all throughout the resort, and the Vista Quad was not likely to get off wind hold at all during the day, so we spent our entire session down at Timberline. Relatively speaking, the lower elevations of Timberline meant that the winds were at least somewhat gentler, and the temperatures a bit warmer. And, temperatures were low enough everywhere for even the lower elevations to continue pulling in cold smoke powder, so Timberline was definitely the place to be. Even calling the weather “cold” is relative though – we’re talking “March cold”, which is nothing like “January cold”. Temperatures were well up into the 20s F and quite pleasant. There were no lift queues for most of the morning, so it was simply hop on and run laps until we approached late morning when more people started to arrive and others realized that Timberline was the place to be. We did overhear conversations from people who were arriving from other resorts like Stowe that were having wind hold issues as well.

An image of Colin jumping on his snowboard amidst a cloud of powder snow during a March winter storm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Colin reaching for a grab on his board as he explodes out of the powder and through the air on Spell Binder

As expected with the beautiful right-side-up nature of this storm cycle, the powder skiing, and even the packed, on piste skiing, were excellent. We picked up 2.34 inches of liquid equivalent from the storm down in the valley at our site, so the mountains must have seen close to 3 inches of liquid from the event. When you get to those levels of fresh liquid equivalent on top of the snowpack, you’re looking at an unmitigated resurfacing of the slopes. And aside from the occasional scoured areas, a thorough resurfacing is just what we found. During our session, my depth measurements at around 2,500’ were indicating roughly 24 inches of accumulation, and I see that’s what the resort is indicating for their storm total as of their midday update, so that seems very much in sync with what I found. For our session, we made use of the solid resurfacing dump and jumped into just about all of our steepest favorites. There were really only a couple of very steep spots that we skipped (craggy cliff bands and super steep lines in very dense evergreens) that I knew wouldn’t quite be there since the snowpack below 2,000’ was a little too lean coming into this system.

An image of Dylan jumping off a cliff band in the Intro Woods area during a March storm cycle at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Dylan launches off one of the cliff bands in the Intro woods during today’s ski session. So much snow and liquid equivalent have fallen from this storm so far that you can feel free to launch yourself off just about any obstacle you encounter.

All in all though, it’s been an excellent storm cycle thus far, and the boys clearly picked a good week for their spring break.

March 10, 2024July 4, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 10MAR2024

An image of Dylan adding a ski track on the Vermont 200 trail in some March powder from a late winter storm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Dylan surfing in some of the plentiful March powder from a late winter storm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Dylan rides through the thorough resurfacing of snow that our latest winter storm continues to drop on Bolton Valley.

Dylan is on spring break this coming week, so he was home in Waterbury and raring to go for what’s been looking like a great stretch of skiing. Dylan joined us as E and I headed up this morning for a session at Bolton Valley to check out the snow from the front end of this current storm cycle, and as the resort snow reports from around the state have indicated, the higher elevations received a solid shot of snow. We’ve picked up roughly 1.4 inches of liquid equivalent in the snow and mixed precipitation that has fallen down at the house, so up on the mountain they’ve likely seen upwards of an inch and a half of liquid equivalent in their accumulations. That’s certainly enough for a solid resurfacing, and the resort seems set in that regard all the way from the summit areas above 3,000’ down to the lowest slopes at 1,500’.

An image of vehicles from the 4x4 Center covered in fresh snow from an March winter storm at the Timberline Base area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — As soon as we arrived at Timberline we could get a sense for how much snow had fallen down at the 1,500′ level based on some of the 4×4 Center’s vehicles parked by the base.

An image of Erica throwing up some March powder from a late winter storm while skiing at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Erica out on the mountain throwing around some of today’s new snow

The early morning snow report from Bolton was indicating 8 inches of new snow, but my own measurements while out on the mountain up above 3,000’ were already reading 10 to 12 inches by midday, so they’d obviously continued to pick up some substantial accumulations since that first report. Their midday report is now indicating 10 to 12 inches new, so that lines right up with what I was finding. As noted above, it was a solid resurfacing, and I’d say we were getting 95%+ bottomless turns on even the steepest slope angles, with just a few spots here and there where you might touch down depending on skier traffic, obstacles, deposition, etc.

An image of Dylan adding the first ski track below the Wilderness Lift in some March powder from a late winter storm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Dylan puts down a fresh track in some of this morning’s new snow.

The only knock against the snow at this point is that it’s rather dense, so the usual caveats apply with respect to the quality of the turns. We suspected that the snow was going to be dense going into today’s session, so we went with alpine setups instead of Telemark, and that was definitely the right call for stability and ease of turning in the thick snow. Snowboards would also have been a good choice for what we saw out there, and skiing in and on the snow today had me thinking fondly of some of those surfy turns on a board. The snow became denser the lower one went in elevation, so although we parked at Timberline in the morning, we stayed above 2,000’ essentially the whole time, and only returned back down below that elevation when were we returning to the car at 1,500’ at the Timberline Base. The powder turns out there are still great, since the snow is so dense that you can really lay into whatever you want and tackle any pitch with the confidence of not dealing with underlying obstacles, but both the powder and groomed conditions are better the higher you go. While the new snow was dense, it wasn’t wet or sticky until we dropped down toward the Timberline Base around midday. That was likely a result of both the initial snow being wetter, and temperatures creeping above freezing in the lower elevations by that point. If the snow transitions to a drier consistently for the next part of the storm cycle as the forecasts suggest, it should be an excellent topping off for what’s fallen thus far.

February 20, 2024May 1, 2024

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 20FEB2024

An image of the setting sun during an afternoon ski tour on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of a condominium in the Village along the edge of the Nordic and Backcountry network of trails at the start of an afternoon ski tour at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — The glow of afternoon sun hits the mountains as I set off past some of the Bolton Valley Village condominiums onto the Nordic & Backcountry Network for a ski tour.

I was fairly busy today, but I did have a chance to get out for a sunset ski tour up on the Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Network. I’d say powder depths were roughly similar to what I found on yesterday’s tour, with perhaps a touch of settling. The powder in the backcountry just seems to get better each day though as the lower layers of the surface powder settle and bond to the subsurface. This is one of the more impressive progressions I’ve seen in the improvement of the powder skiing over time, and as I was gearing up for my tour, I heard other skiers talking about it as well.

I didn’t have a ton of time before dinner, so I did a quick loop up Bryant to Coyote and on to Gotham City with a descent of Gun Sight and subsequent glades. As mentioned, the powder was simply fantastic, and by the time I was descending the sun had gone down and I was skiing by the light of the moon (with headlamp assistance at times). There are still plenty of untracked lines throughout the lesser used glades, although you have to work a bit more to get untracked lines in the more popular glades since it’s now been a couple of days since the last substantial snowfall.

An image of the Village area and night skiing trails after finishing up a ski tour on the Nordic and Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Finishing up my tour in the dark with a view toward the Bolton Valley Village and the ski trails lit up for night skiing

Since it’s a big vacation week, the night skiing was going full tilt when I got back to my car, and it seems like the resort is getting some solid visitation. For those who are on school vacation this week, they certainly got a doozy in terms of both snow conditions and weather.

A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data from a sunset ski tour in February on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A Google Earth map with GPS tracking data from this afternoon’s sunset tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Network

February 19, 2024May 1, 2024

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 19FEB2024

An image showing high quality powder from recent rounds of snowfall in February in the Gun Sight glade area on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of ski tracks in powder snow in the Devil's Drop area on a ski tour of the Nordic and Backcountry network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Leaving some tracks in the powder while dropping down out terrain near the Devil’s Drop area on today’s backcountry ski tour

I was too busy to get out for turns yesterday, but I had some time this afternoon and was able to head up to Bolton. Thanks to the arctic front that came through overnight, they picked up another 4-6” of snow, bringing their recent totals to 16” in the last 48 hours and 36” in the past week.

I was definitely interested in checking out the new snow, but between still being in the President’s Day holiday period, temperatures a bit on the chilly side, and the typical consistency of the subsurface I’ve observed in areas with skier traffic, touring on the Nordic and Backcountry Network seemed like the best option. Based on my experience out there today though, issues with the subsurface snow quality are rapidly disappearing. While we’re not typically looking for the champagne powder on the slopes to settle, it eventually does, and in this case the compaction of the lower levels of the surface snow is really starting to pay dividends with respect to the overall quality of the skiing. When we first began to get these latest rounds of fluff, it was just dry powder atop the old firm base. There was no bonding between the old and new snow, and if you weren’t in bottomless snow, you were hitting a very hard subsurface. Whether due to the new overnight snow, the settling of the lower layers in the surface snow, or more likely a combination of both, I noticed a dramatic change in that surface/subsurface interface today. There’s a substantial, denser layer of snow above the subsurface now, and contact with the old subsurface is far less frequent. Even when it comes to very dry powder, if you get enough of it, you will eventually get to the level of a resurfacing, and apparently, snorkel-deep levels of champagne are enough.

In any event, powder turns were absolutely fantastic out there today. With the lower levels of the powder getting crushed into denser snow, in undisturbed areas you’ve got a right-side-up snowpack that is reaching very high quality. The powder is so good that it’s now supporting great turns on low-angle, mid-angle, and even high-angle terrain. The addition of the new snow combined with settling seems to have held powder depths in the range of what I found on Saturday, with probably 12+” at 2,000’ and 17-18” around 3,000’. I’m amazed that the powder still works for low angle terrain with how deep it is, but it’s so dry in the upper layers that it just does – at least on 115 mm fat skis.

An image of the Bryant Trail approaching the Bryant Cabin on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — The snowy scene on the Bryant Trail today as I approach Bryant Cabin

With the powder hitting the depth for even high-angle terrain, I opted for exploring some steeper lines today. On my tour, I started up Heavenly Highway and set in a skin track out toward Devil’s Drop to get in some turns there, and also put in a track to get me out to some of the steeper terrain above North Slope. All the terrain out there is really good right now.

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

The clouds pulled away today to leave us with a brilliant, sunny, midwinter afternoon. Anyone out there touring in the backcountry was definitely getting a top 10-20% day, and the snow quality should stay great with these cold temperatures, so tomorrow should be just as good. As a bonus, I was surprised to see that despite the holiday weekend, traffic on the Nordic and Backcountry Network has actually been fairly light the past couple of days – I’d say 75% of the glades I saw had in the range of zero to three tracks in them when I was out this afternoon.

An image of snowy Mt. Mansfield in Vermont in February as viewed from the University of Vermont in Burlington, Vermont — Taking in the view of Mt. Mansfield while in Burlington today – the Northern Greens are simply loaded with fresh snow thanks to round after round of snowfall in recent days.

February 17, 2024March 9, 2024

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 17FEB2024

An image of Ty skiing in deep champagne powder from a February snowstorm in the Moose Glen area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of Ty on Telemark skis jumping off a rock into deep powder in the Moose Glen area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network during a February ski tour at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty launches into some fresh powder off a jump in the Moose Glen area.

With the off piste conditions being so much better than what’s available on the trails right now, Ty and I had plans to take a ski tour up to Stowe View today and hit some of the Moose Glen terrain at Bolton Valley. I was just up there a couple of weeks ago, and there are many acres of high elevation glades that I’d expect to have fantastic snow with the way the spine has recently been getting round after round of heavy snowfall.

It was dumping huge flakes at the house when we left this morning, and 1”/hr. snows in the valley turned to 1-2”/hr. snows as we ascended the Bolton Valley Access Road. The snow was falling so hard and fast that the access road was absolutely covered. Even down by the Catamount Trail parking area before the big S-curve below Timberline, vehicles were already lined up due to some cars not being able to get enough traction on the grade. I’m not sure where they were in the plowing cycle for the road because there wasn’t a plow around that we saw, but with the rate the snow was falling, it almost wouldn’t have mattered. Cars were turning around to descend, and some were evening having to back down in the downhill lane because they couldn’t turn around. Descending cars were moving at an absolute crawl to avoid sliding, and some still struggled with sliding just due to the crown of the road. After about 15 minutes we made it up to the base of the S-curve and started the ascent there, and I saw that a line of cars were stopped about halfway down from the top of the grade. That’s one of the steepest parts of the access road, and you don’t want to have to restart there from a dead stop if you can help it.

An image of cars backed up on the Bolton Valley Access Road as heavy snowfall from a February snowstorm stops traffic below the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Traffic was at a total standstill on the steep parts of the Bolton Valley Access Road this morning due to heavy snowfall that made the road too slick for most vehicles.

I could see that the whole situation was going to be trouble, and there was no immediate sign of the next plow, so we made the split second decision to turn around and simply park at the Catamount Trail parking area about 100 yards below us. We were going to be ski touring anyway, so we figured we’d just start our tour from there instead. It does add a couple of extra miles to the route, but we had the time, and it was far better than sitting in traffic and risking an accident on the road. And as bad as the driving was at that point, the snow simply continued to pound down and make the road worse. While gearing up for our tour at the car, we met another couple of guys who had decided on the same plan. They weren’t too familiar with the resort, but I assured them that the Nordic and Backcountry Trail Network connected right up to the Nordic Center and Village, and from that point they could head wherever they wanted on the network.

An image a cabin in heavy snowfall during a February snowstorm near the parking area for the Catamount Trail along the Bolton Valley Access Road below Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Heavy snowfall envelopes us near the start of today’s ski tour as we pass a cabin near the parking area for the Catamount Trail.

The ascent to the Village was beautiful along the Nordic trails, and the very heavy snowfall was with us for the first mile or so before it tapered down at least a bit. I’d actually never skied that full connection before, so it was great to be able to experience the route. We didn’t need to stop in at the Nordic Center, so we simply cut right up to the Bryant Trail along with a couple of women who were out on a similar tour. From there, it was just the usual route on up to Stowe View with some water and snack breaks. Ty hadn’t had any breakfast, so with the extra distance, he quickly made use of the snack he’d brought, and I dove heavily into the reserves in my pack to get him additional calories. It was about 4.5 miles and over 2,000’ vertical up to Stowe View by that route, so that’s roughly double the vertical and triple the distance relative to a typical tour to that area starting in the Village. That increase definitely required more calories.

An image of Ty slicing through powder while Telemark skiing in the Branches glade area of the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Ty slices through another powder turn as we make our way through the Branches glade area of Bolton’s Nordic and Backcountry Network during part of today’s ski tour.

We skied various parts of the Moose Glen glade areas as planned, and the powder was simply fantastic. Even down at 1,200’ there was a solid 12” of settled powder, and up around 3,000’ it was typically in the 17-18” range. It was champagne light, so it actually worked well on a variety of different slope angles. As long as you had first tracks, even steeper terrain was in play for bottomless turns. We had a long, long run, with glade after glade of powder, down through areas like White Rabbit and Branches, and eventually we reached the Village where we could take a quick break and plan our next move.

We were on contact with Dylan, who had parked at Timberline and we decided that instead of heading back to the car via the Nordic and Backcountry Network, we’d complete our tour using the alpine trails. We got a lift assist off the Vista Quad, and made our way from Cobrass to Maria’s where there were still plenty of untracked lines to ski. Lower Tattle Tale was also still really good along the edges where we found untracked snow.

An image of the Timberline Base Lodge through heavy snowfall from a February snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Another round of very heavy snowfall was pounding the resort today as we were finishing up our ski tour near the Timberline Base area – Mother Nature has really been on a roll with the snowfall in the Northern Greens over the past couple of days.

We found Dylan at the Timberline Base Lodge and caught up over some El Gato burritos. We’d planned to ski down to our car at the Catamount Trail parking area if necessary, but we just caught a ride with Dylan and it made for pleasant finish to a tour that was almost 10 miles in total and brought us literally from one end of the resort to the other using the Nordic, backcountry, and alpine trail networks. It was a great way to make use of all the recent snows and great powder conditions that have developed.

An image of a Google Earth map with GPS tracking data for a ski tour out on the Nordic and Backcountry Network of trails at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — The map of today’s ski tour on the Bolton Valley Nordic and Backcountry Network with GPS tracking data on a Google Earth map

February 16, 2024March 5, 2024

Bolton Valley, VT 16FEB2024

An image of the Mid Mountain Double Chairlift obscured by heavy snowfall from a February Alberta Clipper system at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of two skiers walking through heavy snowfall during a February Alberta Clipper snowstorm near the base area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A couple of skiers trudge up toward the Vista Quad amidst the very heavy snowfall delivered by our most recent Alberta Clipper system.

The clipper that began affecting the area yesterday evening was definitely potent – by the time I headed up to the mountain early this morning, we’d already picked up 7 inches of new snow at the house. I couldn’t really get a sense for accumulations heading up the Bolton Valley Access Road, but up in the Bolton Valley Village elevations around 2000’ I was measuring 8 inches of new snow. That was definitely a transient number though, because it was snowing at a rate of at least an inch per hour. Visibility was so low in the heavy snowfall that you could only see a distance of about a dozen chairs on the Mid Mountain Lift – beyond that the lift simply disappeared.

An image of a snowcat returning to the operations area amidst heavy snowfall from a February Alberta Clipper system as I set off on a morning ski tour using the Wilderness Uphill Route at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A snowcat returning to the operations area as I set off on my morning ski tour from the based of Wilderness

I started off my session with a quick tour up to about 2,500’ using the Wilderness Uphill Route. Powder depths didn’t seem to increase drastically with elevation, as I measured about 9 inches at the 2,500’ level. Being a weekday morning, it was very quiet and I don’t recall seeing another soul until a lone rider appeared as he descended the Wilderness Liftline off in the distance. The Vista Quad had started loading, and the appearance of the rider meant that people were starting their first descents. It was a good sign that it was time for me to descend as well. I descended on Lower Turnpike, which hadn’t seen much skier traffic, so there were plenty of fresh turns to be had. I’d brought my 115 mm fat skis, and they were definitely the right tool for the terrain, keeping me surfing at a nice pace on the lower angle slopes. My analyses from down at the house indicated that we’d picked up about a third of an inch of liquid at that point, and assuming something similar for the mountain, that meant the powder was somewhere in the 3 to 4% H2O range. It offered little resistance with respect to slowing my descent, and fat skis were more than enough to keep the turns bottomless.

An image of the Miso Kome food hut viewed through heavy snowfall affecting the base area during a February Alberta Clipper system at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view of the Miso Kome hut as I return from my morning ski tour and the heavy snowfall continued to hit the resort

An image of Stephen and Johannes walking up from the base lodge to the bottom of the Vista Quad Chairlift amidst heavy snowfall from a February Alberta Clipper snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Stephen and Johannes head up through the snowfall to meet me at the base of the Vista Quad

After my descent I caught up on texting with my colleague Stephen about getting together for some turns. He and his son were just finishing suiting up in the lodge and they met up with me near the base of the main mountain lifts a few minutes later. We rode the Vista Quad and hit Alta Vista followed by Fanny Hill. The subsurface out there is really firm due to the extended period we recently went through without much snowfall. Aside from the areas of powder along the trail edges, Alta Vista was really firm. Fanny Hill was much better – after the initial steep chute area, the rest of the trail was out of the wind and had seen little skier traffic. It had a mid-angle pitch that skied perfectly for bottomless turns in the available powder. I couldn’t stay too long at the mountain, but from what I was able to sample, that mid-angle terrain was great. You really wanted to be getting fresh tracks though for quality turns – there just wasn’t enough liquid equivalent down at that point to really hold up to multiple skiers before you’d be contacting the base. A third of an inch of liquid can’t go too far in that regard, but thankfully it was midweek, so there were plenty of opportunities for untracked snow.

February 4, 2024March 2, 2024

Bolton Valley Nordic & Backcountry, VT 04FEB2024

An image looking to the east from the Stowe View area on the Nordic and Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont

An image of evergreens covered with a light coating of snow in one of the glades below the Moose Glen area on the Nordic and Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A view of some of the evergreens as I glide my way through some of the terrain below Moose Glen on Bolton Valley’s Backcountry Network

Today was gorgeous, but we’re definitely in a dry spell with respect to winter weather events. Relative to the usual frequency of winter storm in the Northern Greens at this time of year, the period we’re in right now feels like being in the middle of a desert. The little clipper system that came through at the end of the week would typically be just a blip in the storm parade, but in this case it was a much appreciated mini oasis for this stretch of winter. I wasn’t sure if I was going to ski at all this weekend, let alone get out for two sessions, but the way the new snow set up the low angle terrain for powder turns wound up creating some respectable conditions. And then of course there was today’s perfect midwinter weather with clear blue skies and temperatures pushing into the upper 20s F – that really sealed the deal to get out for another ski tour.

On yesterday’s tour I hit a good collection of low angle terrain and explored some new spots that don’t typically lend themselves to great turns in deeper powder. Whereas yesterday I’d topped out around 2,800’ on Heavenly Highway, today I pushed out a bit father out toward Stowe View and topped out around 3,200’. Even up at that altitude, I wasn’t detecting any notable increases in new snow depths, so the general 2 to 3 inches that I’d encountered yesterday was still the rule.

An image of recent snow on a railing by the Backcountry Tent area on the Nordic and Backcountry Network at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — Recent accumulations of on a railing in the Bolton Valley Backcountry Tent area at around 2,750′

My target terrain for today was some of the lower angle slopes in the Moose Glen/White Rabbit area. I hadn’t been up there in a while, and it turns out there was a lot of terrain that was steeper than I’d remembered, especially in the initial parts of the descent dropping down from Stowe View and Moose Glen. Although that terrain was a bit steep for today’s conditions, the visit did serve as a reminder to get out there when the powder is a bit deeper, because the terrain is quite expansive. I eventually got into more of the lower angle terrain that I’d remembered, and that offered some nice powder turns with similar consistency to what I’d experienced yesterday. Overall I’d say yesterday’s tour had a slightly higher yield in terms of catching smooth, bottomless turns on the right terrain, but today being Sunday, it did mean another full day of visitors getting out there in the snow. Even on the backcountry network, traffic eventually tracks up the snow, and with these conditions, you really needed untracked snow for the best turns. Just one pass through the snow by another skier makes a big difference with these lighter accumulations.

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

One neat thing I did see today while heading up Birch Loop was a skier returning from out on the Catamount Trail heading toward Bryant Cabin. There’s a bit of rolling terrain there that isn’t optimal for having skins either on or off, and what he did was to have a skin on one ski but not the other. When he was skiing, he was one-footing it on the ski with no skin for maximum glide, and then he could use the other ski with the skin on it for better grip going uphill. I thought that was a pretty slick compromise for that sort of rolling terrain. Being on Telemark gear, I typically just go without skins on rolling terrain since herring boning on the uphill sections is simpler with the light gear, but that guy’s technique could be a nice way to go on a heavier setup like alpine touring gear.

A copy of the 2018-2019 Nordic and Backcountry trail map from Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont — A copy of Bolton Valley’s Nordic & Backcountry trail map which lists the trails and many of the official glades

The snowpack out there is midwinter deep and ready for prime time as soon as we get another decent storm – let’s hope something pops up before mid-month so we don’t have to spend another ten days in this veritable snowfall desert.

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