Tag: Spell Binder

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Bolton Valley, VT 20NOV2025

An image showing a westward view from the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont out toward Whiteface Mountain and the Adirondacks with low clouds hanging in the Champlain Valley
An image of icicles hanging off the Timberline Base Lodge in November at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Icicles hang off the Timberline Base lodge with some ski terrain visible in the background. While the lower elevations snowpack has consolidated some since our recent storm, the snow is still dry and the powder skiing is still quite good.

By midweek, our protracted period of snowfall was winding down here in the Northern Greens, and we finally began to get some views of the peaks. When the clouds broke away you could see that the mountains were absolutely plastered with snow – the snowpack depth at the Mt. Mansfield Stake topping out near 40 inches will attest to that. Also notable in the views was the very low snow line – it reached way down below 1,000’ into the valleys.

I hadn’t been out to the hill since Monday when the storm was still going strong, but I had enough time today to go on a ski tour for my workout. I was unsure if the lower elevations of Timberline were still going to be offering good powder turns, but when I parked and checked out the snow consistency, it seemed quite decent, so I decided to tour from there. The snow had definitely settled since Monday; depths at 1,500’ that were previously 15-20” on that outing were roughly 12” today. There hasn’t been any real melting of the snow, so that decrease in depth generally just represents settling of the snowpack, and all the liquid equivalent was still there to support skiing. Areas in direct sun showed greater effects of consolidation, but humidity levels have been low, so even the most affected areas still weren’t getting mushy.

An image from the Timberline Base Lodge in November showing the snow conditions in the Doug’s Woods tree skiing area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Looking up from the Timberline Base Lodge at the snow in Doug’s Woods

The depth of the snowpack definitely increased with elevation, and up around 2,000 – 2,500’ the snow depths were in the 1 to 2 foot range. I didn’t get any higher than that, but above 3,000’ the depths should be fairly similar to the depths at the Mt. Mansfield Stake.

By this morning there had naturally been a lot of additional skier traffic compared to Monday, but there were still plenty of untracked lines available. The very best powder was in areas protected from the sun, but that’s a lot of terrain at this time of year when the sun angle is so low. The snow may consolidate a bit more by tomorrow with the next system coming into the area, but as of today, fat skis were still definitely the way to go. There were some areas of deep, unconsolidated snow that could really throw you for a loop. To that point, I hit one especially deep pocket that was 2 to 3 feet of bottomless fluff, and even on my 115 mm boards, everything just dropped away from below me and I wound up going head over heels into deep snow. It was a chore to extricate myself from that. In general though, the skiing just offered more sublime powder turns that would rank right up there with the best midwinter days.

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Bolton Valley, VT 27DEC2024

An image of Jay Telemark skiing in excellent powder snow in December while ski touring in the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image taken from behind of Erica Telemark skiing in powder while on a December ski tour at the Timberline are of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
E joined me for today’s ski tour in that excellent Timberline powder.

I’ve been telling E about the fantastic powder conditions I’ve been finding on my outings up at Bolton Valley, so today she joined me for a ski tour. I returned to Timberline and brought her on the same tour that I did yesterday, and the powder continued to be just as fantastic as it’s been the past several days. She was definitely impressed with the quality of the powder, and we talked a lot about exactly what was making it come together for such perfection and effortless turns. It came down to the fact that the gradient in it is just ideal; it’s right-side-up with no intervening hollow or dense layers. The top also has a subtle layer of extremely delicate surface hoar, or surface hoar-like crystals, and that really finishes off the uppermost layer of the powder with extremely dry snow to set the starting point of the density gradient. Anyway, the turns were silky smooth, and the skier traffic was very light, so there are still plenty of fresh lines out there for folks who want to check out some really primo powder. Tomorrow might be the last day of this current weather regime though, since some warmer temperatures are coming. Our next potential snowstorm could be coming in just a few days though; the models suggest there could be something around the New Year’s holiday.

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Bolton Valley, VT 26DEC2024

An image of a December sunset viewed from the slopes of the Timberline area while ski touring at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of ski tracks in powder snow with afternoon lighting during a ski tour in the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Late day sun lights up some ski tracks in the absolutely stupendous powder currently covering the slopes of Bolton Valley’s Timberline area.

High-quality powder snow is generally ephemeral; it’s best skied when it’s fresh because it loses loft as it settles, and the bubby “champagne” effect is reduced. I say “generally” because there are times when powder can improve over time. We’re in one of those weather regimes now, and every time I head out, the areas of untouched snow just seem to ski better and better. The humidity is low, and each night we’re dropping into the single digits above or below zero F; it’s a recipe for great powder preservation. I already noted the improvement in the snow between my ski sessions on Monday and Tuesday, and here we are on Thursday and the powder just continues to impress.

I had some time to get out for a tour this afternoon, and I managed to catch some sunset skiing on Timberline. Since I’d had such good snow on Tuesday, I actually followed that same route today and stuck to Spell Binder. The top layer of the powder is just feathers, and it gradually gets denser the deeper you go into the snowpack, which is just the way you want if for skiing. I hadn’t been sure if the skiing could be any more effortless than what I’d experience on Tuesday, but perhaps it was today.

An image of powder snow lingering on evergreen branches near the Timberline Base Area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A view of some of the powder near the Timberline Base Area that continues to linger on everything

Touring skier traffic hasn’t been too busy at Timberline in the past few days, but as always, another storm would be welcomed. It’s certainly not that the quality of the powder needs a reset, but we could use a reset of the ski tracks on the trails. Untracked lines are still there, but they won’t hold out forever, and eventually new snow will be needed.

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Bolton Valley, VT 23DEC2024

An image of tree branches covered in powder snow in December on the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Powder lingers in the trees as cold conditions have preserved the snows from recent storms in the Northern Greens.

The turns yesterday at Timberline were quite good, so I headed back up to Bolton Valley again today for more ski touring. Compared to yesterday, temperatures were about 10 degrees warmer today when I arrived at the Timberline Base. Even though it was cloudy all afternoon ahead of our next incoming storm, the warmer temperatures were quite apparent.

Yesterday I toured in the Twice as Nice and Showtime areas, so today I decided to mix things up a bit and spent most of the tour on Spell Binder. With our sub-zero F temperatures overnight, the snow was extremely well preserved, so the depth and quality of the powder was essentially the same as what I encountered on yesterday’s tour. There may have been a subtle bit of settling in the powder overnight, but I’d actually say today’s turns were better and even more consistent than yesterday’s. It’s hard to say if it was just better overall snow deposition and protection in the Spell Binder area, or the pitch was just right for the conditions, or the snow just settled a bit and set up an even better density gradient in the powder. Perhaps all those factors contributed to varying degrees, but whatever the case, the powder skiing was excellent out there today – bottomless turns with about 8 to 12 inches of medium weight right-side-up powder that made the skiing nearly effortless on fat boards.

An image of snow drifts and chairs covered with snow behind the Timberline Base Lodge after December storms at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Drifted snow and snow-covered chairs out behind the Timberline Base Lodge

Conditions are likely to change by tomorrow though, since another winter storm is moving into the area tonight. Winter Weather Advisories started appearing in the area yesterday afternoon, and both the advisories and projected snow accumulations from the National Weather Service in Burlington have been ramping up since then. While I while strolling along during my tour today I figured I’d see what my watch had to say about the weather, so I asked for the forecast. Since what comes from the watch is typically briefer than the phone, all it said was “The National Weather Service Office in Burlington has issued a Winter Storm Warning through tomorrow; it should be snowy tonight.” My first thought was, “Well, huh, that’s new; projections for this system seem to keep escalating as we get closer.” In the verbal forecast there was nothing about temperatures or anything else beyond the Winter Storm Warning and the fact it was going to snow, but I certainly like the way the watch prioritizes things. Anyway, indeed Winter Storm Warnings are up for the Northern Greens now ahead of the next system with potentially a foot of snow at elevation. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but it could be another great ski day.

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Bolton Valley, VT 08DEC2024

An image of Ty Telemark skiing in 20 inches of powder snow in early December at the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of Ty Telemark skiing in 20 inches of powder snow in early December on the Spell Binder Headwall at the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Ty blasts his way down the Spell Binder Headwall through 20 inches of powder during today’s ski outing at Bolton Valley.

Today, Ty and I headed up to Bolton Valley together for some turns, and since the resort has been offering lift-served skiing off Wilderness now, we decided to do some touring down at Timberline. With Timberline’s lower elevations, the snowpack wasn’t really reading for touring earlier in the season, but with day after day of snow since Thanksgiving, the snowpack depths just continue to climb at all elevations. The mountain snowpack is taking off, and the depth at the Mt. Mansfield stake is pushing 40 inches,. At our house at 500’ in the Winooski Valley, the snowpack has already hit 14 inches, so we knew Timberline at 1,500’+ was more than ready to support some quality ski touring.

An image showing measurement of the snow depth during a ski tour of Timberline in early December at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Today we found snow depth of 20 inches at the Timberline elevations, which was more than enough for skiing the on piste terrain

Indeed, Timberline was ready for prime time – at least in terms of overall snowpack depth if not yet its subsurface base depths or the density gradient of the snowpack. Down around 1,500’ at the Timberline Base, the snowpack depth was 20 inches, so that was plenty of snow for skiing. But unlike much of the snowpack up at the main mountain, there wasn’t really any settled base below that snow. So, there was a bit less flexibility in terrain choice, assuming you wanted to ski reasonably safely or didn’t want to risk damaging equipment. However, there’s more than enough coverage for the mowed/maintained trails. The only other issue with the snowpack was that the powder was of roughly equal density throughout its depth. It certainly wasn’t upside down, but without a density increase in the deeper layers, skis are prone to sinking quite far, and you can get bogged down or experience tip submersions. We’d both brought 115 mm fat skis, so that really helped to mitigate that issue in terms of overall floatation and the ability to have fun on any lower-angle terrain, but it’s something to consider right now when you’re choosing which equipment to use for an outing. We saw some folks out on snow surfers, and I bet these were fun with decent floatation as long as they were on slope of sufficient pitch.

An image of Ty Telemark skiing in 20 inches of powder snow in early December on the Spell Binder trail at the Timberline area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
There hasn’t been to much touring activity at Timberline, so fresh snow and fresh powder turns are everywhere.

We got out in the morning because we knew that there was the chance for temperatures to go above freezing later in the day, but if temperatures did go above 32 F, it seemed to be just marginally. I’ve mentioned in some of my recent reports that we’ve needed a consolidation event for the snowpack in certain areas, so in that respect the warmer storm that is expected to come into the area this week is helpful, but getting an inch of liquid as dense snow would of course be superior to getting it as rain. I can’t say if the storm will be a net gain for liquid in the snowpack down at our site in the valley yet, but it should be an increase in the snow water equivalent in the mountain snowpack.

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Bolton Valley, VT 05APR2024 (A.M.)

An image of the Timberline Base Lodge area covered in plentiful fresh powder from ongoing Winter Storm Tormund in April of 2024 at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of the steep headwall area of the Spell Binder trail in the Timberline area during Winter Storm Tormund in April 2024 at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The powder has definitely dried out a bit as Winter Storm Tormund rolls on, but I still took advantage of the nice steeps of the Spell Binder Headwall on today’s tour, and it definitely delivered.

With Winter Storm Tormund still churning out the snow today, I decided to head up to the mountain for some turns in the morning. For Bolton’s schedule at this time of year, the lifts don’t start running until noon on weekdays, so ski touring was the natural choice for morning turns. I was initially undecided about whether I was going to tour at Wilderness or on the Backcountry Network, but I ultimately didn’t end up touring in either place. On my way up the Bolton Valley Access Road, I was passing by Timberline and suddenly realized… duh, that was the place to tour! I’ve been touring almost exclusively out of Bolton’s main base area this season because of the access to the superior snowpack depth and snow quality provided by being able to start above the 2,000’ elevation. The snow depth and quality down at the base of Timberline at 1,500’ just hasn’t been there until very recently, and it had been so long since I toured down there, I’d almost forgotten it existed. But when the snow is good, you can’t beat the convenience of ski touring at Timberline with its shorter drive and immediate access to nicely-pitched terrain, so once I was reminded, I jumped at the chance to start my tour there.

An image of chairs outside the Timberline Base Lodge adorned with a bit of snow from ongoing Winter Storm Tormund in April 2024 at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Partially-sheltered chairs lined up behind the Timberline Base Lodge have take on a bit of snow from ongoing Winter Storm Tormund

Skier traffic was light when I arrived at the base of Timberline, with about a half dozen cars or so in the parking areas. There was some snow falling when I started my tour, but at that point we were in a rather light phase of the ongoing storm cycle. I took depth measurements of the accumulations right at the Timberline Lodge as I was just beginning my ascent, and settled snow depths were right around 18 inches. From there, it seemed to increase by a couple of inches for each 500 feet of vertical gained. The resort was reporting 26 inches for a storm total at that point, and that would make sense for accumulations up around 3,000’ based on my measurements from those slightly lower elevations. Temperatures had cooled off overnight, so the most recent accumulations were drier and knocked the skiing up a notch relative to what I’d found yesterday afternoon. Overall, it was still a moderately dense accumulation of new snow, but it had a little better gradient of density for powder turns.

An image of a chair buried in fresh snow outside the Timberline Base Lodge during Winter Storm Tormund in April 2024 at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
This chair outside the Timberline Base Lodge was a sign of the recent snows from Winter Storm Tormund that had hit Bolton Valley even down at the 1,500′ elevation.

As I ascending the Timberline skin track on Twice as Nice, I was gauging my options for the descent. Even with the slightly drier snow topping off the ongoing accumulations, I knew from yesterday that having enough pitch was still going to be important for optimal powder turns. I was leaning toward descending on Twice as Nice itself, since it has one of the most consistent pitches among the trail selections – it doesn’t have any heavy steeps, but it also doesn’t have the required compensatory flatter sections. My leaning changed when I watched a snowboard descending the trail with his dog, and I saw that he was bogged down and coming to a near standstill in one of the lower pitched areas. That was enough to convince me to head toward Spell Binder, where I knew I would at least get to sample the steep headwall section for some solid turns.

An image of evergreens adorned with heavy amounts of fresh snow from Winter Storm Tormund at the mid-mountain elevations of the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Evergreens near the Timberline Mid Station elevations adorned with hefty amounts of snow from Winter Storm Tormund

As expected, the headwall of Spell Binder absolutely delivered. The turns were surfy and buoyant in the roughly two feet of fresh powder, and I could absolutely feel the improvement that had come with that most recent drier snow topping off the rest of the accumulation. Just like yesterday afternoon, it was another session of plowing into the powder as deeply and aggressively as you wanted, and you were still nowhere near the subsurface. As a bonus, even the powder in the lower pitched areas skied fine, and I didn’t have any issues with speed. Either my 115 mm boards had surface area to spare for my weight relative to the snowboarder I’d seen, or he had some other issue (wax, etc.) keeping him from planing on those lower pitches. It was a great powder session to kick off the day, and with the storm continuing to roll along, it looks like there will be more fresh snow sessions on the way as we moved toward the weekend.

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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.

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Bolton Valley, VT 03MAR2024

An image of Jay making a Telemark turn in some early spring snow in the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of the Timberline Quad Chairlift and the lower slopes of the Timberline area in early March at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Today we found a quiet afternoon with spring snow at Bolton Valley’s Timberline area.

I didn’t expect yesterday’s cloudy conditions and temperatures in the 30s F to do much in terms of softening up the snowpack, but with today’s forecast calling for temperatures in the 40s F, there seemed to be much more potential for softening the slopes. Temperatures looked optimal in the afternoon, so E and I headed up to Timberline for some runs. The weather for our session started out with a mix of foggy and cloudy conditions, and even a light mist of rain, but that quickly dissipated and moved on to produce mostly sunny conditions by the end.

An image of Jay making a Telemark turn as he drops into a run in spring snow on the slopes of the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Jay dropping into some Telemark turns in Timberline’s soft spring snow.

When I checked the snow report earlier today, I saw that some of the natural snow trails were closed down at the Timberline elevations, and that initially had me worried about the available coverage. When we got to the mountain though, coverage was actually much better than the trail report had led me to believe. Twice as Nice was indeed closed, but it wasn’t as if it was devoid of snow – there were bare spots on the back sides of some of the rolls that would have made the skiing challenging, so I can see why they had it closed. I though Spell Binder was going to be closed, but it wasn’t – they’d made snow on the steep headwall section at some point, so it had an incredible amount of snow. The lower parts of the trail that have not seen any snowmaking were under a sort of “soft” closure – they had signs suggesting it was closed, but no rope and most people were skiing it. From the Timberline Summit, Intro was open with wall-to-wall coverage, and they blew in so much snow in the gap above the Timberline Mid Station that the ledges aren’t even visible.

Conditions were definitely soft enough to get in some nice corn snow turns, but it wasn’t really warm enough to soften the snow too deeply into the snowpack. We found that terrain that had not been touched by other skiers was the best, because you could peel away a couple inches of snow without encountering the firm subsurface too much. Areas that had seen higher traffic revealed more of the firm subsurface and resulted in louder turns that were much less spring-like.

An image of Jay making a Telemark turn on the slopes of the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Stretching out for another Tele turn in the soft March snow
An image of a Rome snowboard in the snow from within the Timberline Base Lodge at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A view from inside the Timberline Base Lodge today during a break from afternoon skiing

It looks like the coming week will feature some warmer spring-like days in the first half, which should be enough to get the snow softened more than today. Later in the week, the weather cools a bit and becomes more unsettled with snow chances. There’s nothing in the modeling yet that indicates a slam dunk March storm with solid mountain snows, but some runs show the potential. We’d need a decent shot of liquid equivalent to get much of a resurfacing, but the base is ready if we do get enough, and the more that falls as snow, the more terrain that would be in play for quality turns.

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Bolton Valley, VT 10FEB2024

An image of Erica Telemark skiing in soft snow during a warm February day on the Spell Binder trail in the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of the Mid Station area of the Timberline Quad Chairlift with a lift attendant and a pair of skis stuck in the snow on a warm February day at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A pair of skis and the lift attendant at the Timberline Mid Station give hints of a spring-like view to go with today’s temperatures and snow

Today was forecast the be the warmest day of this current stretch, and while there was a chance for showers, it was sunny most of the morning. We had an appointment in the afternoon, but with sunshine and valley temperatures expected to get into the 50s F, it seems like too nice a day to pass up the chance to get in some turns.

We headed up to Bolton’s Timberline area, since the relatively low elevation and exposure there make it the best bet for the snow to start softening up. I think even snow on the main mountain would have been fine though – the snow was already nice and soft all the way up to the Timberline Summit at 2,500’ when we arrived in the midmorning period. With the soft snow and sunshine, today on the slopes had more of a March feel than a typical February feel.

An image of drops of melted snow falling off the roof of the Timberline Base Lodge on a warm February day at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Deep snow on the roof of the Timberline Lodge creates a symphony of drops as it begins to melt with today’s warm temperatures.

I don’t think the snow has seen too much freeze-thaw cycling over the past couple of days, but in general it was skiing quite well. I felt that my skis were sticking just a touch at the start of my first run, but that seemed to disappear quickly, so it was likely just an issue of working off some old wax or maybe some residual skin glue that had been left over from last weekend’s ski tours. We found the best turns to be where others were churning up the snow and getting down a bit into the cooler layers, but in general you could go anywhere. In terms of coverage, even the natural snow trails down at Timberline elevations are doing well, with a few bare spots here and there that were inconsequential in general. They’ll need some additional winter storms though for those lower elevation trails to maintain robust coverage into March and April.

An image of decorations by the El Gato Cantina station in the Timberline Base Lodge at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
Stopping in for some après Mexican food today at the El Gato station in the Timberline Base Lodge
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Bolton Valley, VT 12MAR2023

An image showing a snowboarder on a curve of the Blauvelt's Banks race course at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of a snowboarder on the Blauvelt's Banks race course in the Timberline area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
A rider out on the Blauvelt’s Banks course today at Bolton Valley. Temperatures in the 30s F made for a great day to hold the annual competition.

With no obvious fresh snow in the past few days for the Northern Greens, there wasn’t a huge extra incentive to head out for turns this weekend, but as PF noted with his report on the conditions at Stowe, the quality of the snow that is out there on piste is tremendously high.  We’ve had a few decent resurfacing events this season, but this most recent series of winter storms including that low pressure from the Ontario/Quebec border passing southeast across the region on the 26th, Winter Storm Piper on the 28th, that quick moving system that came across from the Great Lakes on the 1st, and then Winter Storm Quest on the 4th, has probably been the best.  We picked up roughly 30 inches of snow in the span of that week at our site in the Winooski Valley, and of course the mountains did substantially better than that.  Moreover, being the late February/early March period, all that snow came in with a strong snowpack in place, more so than any of the previous resurfacing events.  The snowpack at our house currently has 5 inches of liquid equivalent in it, so the mountain snowpack must be absolutely loaded.  Suffice it to say, the past couple of weeks has been a setup for great ski conditions.

An image of a snowboarder in a turn facing the camera at the Blauvelt's Banks competition at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VermontE and I found ourselves with some time yesterday afternoon, and the skies were clear with temperatures in the 30s F, so we headed up to Bolton Valley for some on piste Telemark runs at Timberline.  The first thing we noticed was that Timberline was a very popular place for a Sunday afternoon, and that was because the third annual Blauvelt’s Banks competition was taking place there.  Dylan had mentioned that he’d seen them building the course there earlier in the week, and that was an interesting change of pace because they’ve held it up at the main mountain in the past.  This year, the course was on the lower part of Showtime, with an excellent view for those riding the Timberline Quad, and the course looked great.  The placement of the course did mean that access to Showtime and Twice as Nice was restricted though.

An image of some of the tents found at the Timberline Base area for the annual Blauvelt's Banks competition at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The Timberline Base Area was filled with visitors this afternoon for Bolton Valley’s annual Blauvelt’s Banks competition.

In terms of our ski session, we hit just about everything else that was available off the Timberline Quad.  Even after a number of days without fresh snow, the quality of the ski surfaces continues to be fantastic.  The snowpack can certainly take a beating as we get farther into spring with those seasonal temperature fluctuations, but even with temperatures edging a bit above freezing, the snow just seems to stay beautifully consistent.  Most terrain has soft, winter snow, and even in areas at lower elevations in the sun where the snow was transitioning to a more spring-like surface, it continues to retain that winter-like consistency and softness.  You can just lay into every turn and get a beautiful, smooth, quiet carve out of it.  We stuck to on piste terrain on this outing, but I did check the snow off piste, and it still seemed quite light and powdery, even down near 1,500’ elevation.  It looks like yet another system, Winter Storm Sage, has the potential to affect the area in the next couple of days, and the ski conditions will hopefully continue to be strong because any snow it brings should be going down atop the current quality snowpack.