There’s apparently a Nor’easter brewing for this weekend, although there’s not a ton of cold air around for the system to use, so the current forecast suggest snow will only be up near the summit elevations and fairly limited in amount.
A weather radar image from midday on Sunday showing the continuous push of moisture from the northwest hitting the Northern Green Mountains and giving us continuous light snowfall.
“…once the snow showers got started in the morning, they literally kept going all day with that classic upslope flow from the northwest..”
This event was the second accumulating one at our house this month, and the fourth one for the mountains. Looking ahead, there seems to be some potential for snow in the midweek timeframe, and then again out toward the weekend.
“The data suggest that our first snow of the 2018-2019 winter season from this past Saturday (October 13th) is a few days on the late side of the mean for first accumulating snow (October 10th), but overall quite typical.”
There are a couple of seasons that I couldn’t include in the statistical analysis because of gaps in the data collection early in the co-op site’s history, but there were still 62 seasons in the data set that provided useful information. The data suggest that our first snow of the 2018-2019 winter season from this past Saturday (October 13th) is a few days on the late side of the mean for first accumulating snow (October 10th), but overall quite typical. The full results from the statistical analysis are below, so have a look and think snow!
“…it looks like we’ll have more opportunities for snow this week with accumulations potentially even down to the mountain valleys.”
Here at our house, I did a morning check to find that the cloud ceiling was still only about 2,000 feet and there were no obvious signs of snow below that level. I gave the clouds some time to think about clearing a bit, and then headed out in the neighborhood during the mid-afternoon period to see what snow might be visible. Indeed the cloud ceiling had risen by about another 2,000’ and I was able to catch Camel’s Hump as the clouds had just about broken away. The snow line at that point looked to be around 3,000’.
I had initially contemplated heading to Stowe for some turns in the morning, thinking the terrain above 3,000’ would really be needed to get into some good snow, but those low snow levels on the western slopes definitely had me thinking about Bolton Valley as good option. The overnight didn’t seem to bring about any substantial changes, so I stuck with that plan and headed to Bolton for a ski tour this morning.
“I could tell right away as I began my descent that the density and consistency of the snow called for steep terrain, so I dove right down Spillway and that really hit the spot.”
Low clouds were obscuring the mountains by our house, but it seemed like the snow line this morning was down around 1,000’. On my drive, the first signs of fresh snow accumulations were indeed right around the 1,000’ elevation on the Bolton Valley Access Road, and then the world just got whiter and whiter as I headed up.
I started my ski tour at the Bolton Valley Village, which is a bit above 2,000’, so with the way this storm accumulated that meant decent coverage from there on up to the summits. At the base elevations this morning the temperature was just edging above freezing in the 7:30 -8:00 A.M. timeframe, and the snow was definitely dense. The fresh snow was wet, but not slushy or sopping at that point. It was gradually falling of the trees on my ascent as the temperatures rose. I headed up into cooler temperatures, but it was still warming all the way to the summit and I bet temperatures in the mid-30s F tracked with me as I ascended.
Bolton Valley Village today
Here’s a summary of the accumulations I found this morning for various elevations:
The larger range I’m reporting at the 2,000’ level was simply because I had time to get a sense for accumulations atop the different surfaces, with the low end being on paved or gravel surfaces, and the high end being on the existing snowpack, elevated surfaces, etc.
In terms of what was out there on the trails for new snow, the numbers above show that there really wasn’t a huge bump in accumulations above 2,000’, so I’d say those elevations did fairly well in terms of maximizing whatever snow they were going to get out of the available moisture. We had ~¾” of liquid in the rain gauge at the house this morning, so presumably the mountains are somewhere north of that.
“Even with 115 mm fat skis I was still touching the subsurface at times, but this snow was definitely dense enough to hold up pretty well on steep, aggressive turns.”
Although it can’t compare to the drier snow we had with last weekend’s storm, the turns were actually pretty sweet today. I could tell right away as I began my descent that the density and consistency of the snow called for steep terrain, so I dove right down Spillway and that really hit the spot. Even with 115 mm fat skis I was still touching the subsurface at times, but this snow was definitely dense enough to hold up pretty well on steep, aggressive turns. I stuck with Beech Seal on the lower half of the mountain, and the pitch there was also quite sufficient for a lot of good turns.
Starting off the descent with some powder turns on Spillway Lane
Today was the last day of April, but it’s certainly been a decent one for snow. It’s time to move on to May and see what it delivers for turns!
Our latest April storm brought another heaping helping of midwinter powder to the slopes of Bolton Valley.
April temperatures have been running several degrees below average here in Northern Vermont, and for those awaiting warmth, the winter weather must feel simply interminable. Some of us don’t have a whisper of complaint though, since we know when we’ve got a good thing going. While average April temperatures around here can bring snow, below average temperatures typically bring more snow, drier snow, and preserve the snowpack. With the approach of the current storm, the National Weather Service in Burlington was already talking about the potential for the snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake to get back up to 100 inches, and as of this evening’s co-op report, indeed it’s there. The snowpack is essentially wall-to-wall everywhere in the local mountains here, so topping that off with fresh powder is a recipe for some awesome skiing and riding.
“Well let’s just say, the turns were fantastic – we had medium to moderately dense midwinter powder covering everything, temperatures near 30 F, and an almost fully untracked resort to ski.”
It’s spring vacation week for E and the boys, so E was able to join me this morning for a tour in the new snow up at Bolton Valley. We’ve had substantial accumulations of snow all the way to the valley floors with this latest storm, so I knew the potential was there for some dry, winter-style snow up at elevation. We headed out this morning amidst light snow at the house, and arrived in the Bolton Valley Village to steady snow and temperatures in the upper 20s F. A quick check on the new snow in the parking lot around 2,000’ revealed accumulations of 5 to 6 inches.
We started skinning right from the car up the Lower Turnpike ascent route, and found a decent skin track in place with just a couple inches of additional snow in it. We eventually worked our way over toward Vista and the depth of the new snow continued to steadily increase with elevation. By the time we topped out above 3,000’ on Alta Vista, my depth checks on the powder were revealing 10 to 11 inches. We de-skinned by the trees out of the wind, and E was pretty slick with her ski-on skin removal.
Looking up Alta Vista with a fresh blanket of whiteE throwing around some of today’s powder at Bolton Valley.
On the entire ascent the snow quality was looking really good, but you never quite know how things are going to ski until you drop. Well let’s just say, the turns were fantastic – we had medium to moderately dense midwinter powder covering everything, temperatures near 30 F, and an almost fully untracked resort to ski. Wind effects were pretty minimal on much of the mountain so it really was a dense, velvety resurfacing that skied like a dream. It’s definitely a good time to get out there and enjoy those uncrowded slopes with all this new snow.
With the continuing snowfall during today’s tour, I went with our Sonar Blue lenses for my Anon M2 Goggles. They’ve got 46% visible light transmission and are recommended for graybird days and tree skiing, but they were definitely a good fit for today even with snowfall since we’re talking late-April light.
In an update from this afternoon, eyewall noted that he encountered about 7 inches of new snow at the Bolton Valley Village elevation, so it sounds like they’d picked up another inch or two with the additional snow since E and I had left. That would put accumulations near the summits around a foot, so it’s definitely been a nice April event for the mountains around here.
Enjoying the snowy April views from the valley – cool temperatures have brought snow accumulations all the way to the valley bottoms with this latest storm.
A bit of snow fell yesterday and overnight to freshen up the slopes at Bolton Valley.
A modest winter storm came into the area on Friday and left up to 8 inches of new snow at the Vermont ski areas. Bolton Valley was reporting 3 inches up top, which seemed like a fairly minimal covering over the base snow that’s seen plenty of spring cycling, but we figured it was worth heading up for a couple of runs to see how the accumulations had settled in. Sometimes 3 inches can ski like 3 inches, or sometimes it can ski like more, depending on how it was distributed and how densely it settled.
Ty and I headed up fairly early to find bright April sun among some on and off clouds, and temperatures in the upper 20s F. We took an initial run on the Snowflake Chair to make our way over to the Vista Quad, and while we found the groomed terrain was skiing nicely, we didn’t really find that the snow was enough to get the skiing shaped up off piste, at least down there below the 2,500’ mark.
Base of the Snowflake Chair
We still wanted to check out how accumulations had played out at the Vista Summit up above 3,000’, and Alta Vista revealed a few good turns off the usual protected left side, but they were in the minority. We headed over toward Wilderness and did find some nice turns in the Wilderness Woods, but as Ty nicely put it, “You just couldn’t trust it on every turn”. Indeed you could get a few nice turns on low angle terrain, but then you’d run into a spot that had been hit by the wind and you’d be back to contacting the hard spring surface below.
“I actually had some of my best turns of the day on the left side of Cougar, where several inches of new snow had settled in.”
The opening of the Wilderness Lift had been delayed a bit due to winds, but it had recently opened as we approached the bottom, so we figured it was worth at least one trip. It was running slow due to winds though, so we dropped off at the mid station and headed down Cougar. I actually had some of my best turns of the day on the left side of Cougar, where several inches of new snow had settled in. We had first tracks on the lower part of Cougar as well, and where the snow was undisturbed by the wind the turns were quite nice. We finished off dropping in and out of the Wilderness Woods, and for some reason, (perhaps the bright sunlight, or perhaps the deep spring snowpack?) they just seemed very open and smooth everywhere. There were very few tracks in there, so we had our pick of fresh lines. You still couldn’t “trust” every turn, just as Ty had said earlier, but we definitely had some good smooth lines through the trees in many spots.
In line with the bright April sun, Ty and I both had a chance to try out the Sonar Silver lens for the Anon M2 Goggles. It only lets through 6% of the visible light, so it’s even darker than the Sonar Red lens that we’d used last weekend at Magic Mountain, which lets through 14% of the visible light. We swapped between the two actually, but you could definitely notice the difference – you could easily look toward the sun with the Sonar Silver lens and not be too strained, and I can see it’s going to be another great one for these types of bright, late season days.
“…Bolton Valley is going to open back up for a couple more bonus days of skiing.”
We finished off with a trip to the Bolton Valley Deli & Grocery to grab some subs, and it was around lunchtime, so a crowd was building. Although temperatures were wintry today, and there was some wind, that April sunshine easily warmed you up and you could see that folks were generally quite comfortable out there on the slopes. It looks like temperatures will be warming up next week for some spring skiing, and Bolton Valley is going to open back up for a couple more bonus days of skiing. From what I can see in some of the weather models, we may not be quite done with snowfall in the mountains yet either.
Winter Storm Skylar just continues to churn out the snow in the Northern Greens, so Dave stayed around for some additional powder fun today at Bolton Valley
Being in the midst of this impressive storm cycle here in Northern Vermont, Dave decided to stick around for a bit more skiing today. We’d had an absolutely fantastic outing at Stowe yesterday with the family, and today the goal was to visit Bolton Valley for some runs. Like other local resorts, Bolton has been putting up some impressive snowfall numbers in the past several days, with 42 inches in the past 48 hours, and 62 inches in the past week. Another interesting note was that the Timberline Quad was slated to open today at 10:00 A.M. – for the first time this week. That had us intrigued.
“Like other local resorts, Bolton has been putting up some impressive snowfall numbers in the past several days, with 42 inches in the past 48 hours, and 62 inches in the past week.”
Although it was calm down at the house with huge fluffy flakes falling from the sky, I was definitely concerned about lift operations on the mountain with the anticipated winds. Dave had checked the snow report as we were heading out, and there was no note of any lift issues, but once we got up to the resort we found that the Vista Quad was on wind hold. The Timberline opening looked delayed about a half hour due to the time required to remove all the new snow from the lift terminals, but we were able to keep ourselves busy with some runs off the Snowflake and Mid Mountain chairs while we waited. The mountain had indeed picked up another good shot of snow overnight, but it was notably denser than what we were skiing yesterday at Stowe. You were still getting down in the powder to some degree, but you were definitely skiing much more “on” it at times as well.
Dave working his way through the upper section of Lost Girlz as Winter Storm Skylar has finally put enough snow in there to provide good conditions.
When it was time to head over to Timberline, we caught first tracks on Tattle Tale. Indeed the new snow was dense, but it was a lot of fun planing our way down through the untracked expanse of white. Dave was definitely excited to get some of that feel today at Bolton, vs. the much busier slopes of Stowe from yesterday. We spent the rest of the morning there, hitting lots of other favorites like Spell Binder, Brandywine, Adam’s Solitude, Lost Boyz, Lost Girlz, etc. We headed back to the main mountain a bit after noon, and I headed out, but Dave was planning on a few more runs before heading on his trip back to Boston.
Down in the sheltered areas along the Bolton Valley Access Road there were some nice snowy scenes
I got home to a driveway which needed to be cleared with the snow thrower again, after just having cleared it late yesterday evening. We’ve passed two feet of accumulation now with Winter Storm Skylar here at the house, and it just keeps snowing. We’re looking at some potentially great conditions continuing right into the weekend with snow showers around in the mountains.
As Dylan demonstrates, there was a lot of white room action today at Stowe as Dave joined the family to ski the bounty of Winter Story Skylar
With so much potential snowfall on the horizon, Dave sent us a text on Sunday inquiring about the best days to come up for some skiing in Northern Vermont this week. The forecast was still a bit up in the air at that point, but by Monday he was set to go, and just needed to decide on when to come up. He ultimately decided to make his drive on Tuesday evening, once Winter Storm Skylar was pulling away from Southern New England. He battled his way up from Boston, having a slow go of it during the first hour, but quickly found himself cruising along as the only one on the road.
“Depth checks around the mountain revealed roughly 20 inches of powder at a minimum, with many areas at 30+ inches.”
We didn’t know until this morning that E and the boys would have a snow day, but once we knew, the plan was secured for all of us to head to Stowe together. That meant that we’d want to get on the road pretty early, since when it comes to Stowe and its fast lifts and ravenous powder hounds, one definitely needs to be an early bird to get the worm. That meant we’d have to get the boys up and motivated. Dave hasn’t been up in a while, so when he saw Ty in bed this morning, the exchange went as follows:
Dave: “Do you remember me?” Ty: “Yes.” Dave: “Good… get up.” That’s classic Dave, and we LOLed about that exchange all day.
We were indeed able to get the boys motivated for an early start, and got to the mountain with no travel problems. We had a quick breakfast at the Mansfield Base Lodge, and headed right up to the Fourrunner Quad. Within a half hour of lift opening, the trails, and even the glades off the quad had been devoured. The skiing was of course still fantastic, but if you wanted untracked lines of any length, you were already having to head for those more obscure spots. We all had a tremendous time in the Tres Amigos Glades, highlighted by the boys dropping whatever ledges and cliffs they could find with powder below. And indeed it was that kind of day where you could launch just about anything you wanted. Dave really found his groove when we hit the Nosedive Glades, and had a blast.
We moved over to the Gondola so the five of us could ride the lift together as a group, and had a great couple of runs on Waterfall, Perry Merrill, and surrounding environs. Whether we were on piste or off, the conditions were simply ridiculous. On piste it was bottomless chowder and packed powder, and off piste it was waist deep powder. Ty and I took the crew to an area we’ve nicknamed “Stella”, because we discovered it during our Winter Storm Stella outing and delivered such great lines of steep and deep powder.
Dave definitely catching the powder day he’s been seeking today
We had a nice lunch at the Great Room Grill, and since we were over at Spruce Peak we decided to take Dave on some runs there. What a great decision that was! Spruce Peak served up tons of untracked powder in all our favorite locales off Sunny Spruce and Sensation. Let’s just say, the skiing was so good that we spent the rest of the day there. Dylan said he really had fun skiing with today’s “crew”.
In terms of overall snow, I believe the resort was reporting a storm total of 18 inches, but it snowed throughout the day and there was already much more powder than that available from previous storms. Depth checks around the mountain revealed roughly 20 inches of powder at a minimum, with many areas at 30+ inches. We’ve still got snow falling here at the house this evening, so the resorts should be reporting additional accumulations by tomorrow morning. It’s interesting to note that we’re once again at the “S” winter storm of the alphabet with Winter Storm Skylar, just as we were last year around this time with Winter Storm Stella.
