Bolton Valley, VT 11APR2020

An image of Erica and Dylan skiing powder together during an April snowstorm at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
An image of Dylan Telemark skiing in powder during an April snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
With additional snowfall overnight, depths of new snow on the mountain today were hitting a foot or more, and Dylan was making quick work of the fresh powder riding Mom’s fat Telemark skis.

Although I headed out on yesterday afternoon’s ski tour alone because I was unsure of just how good the snow was going to be, my concerns turned out to be quite unfounded.  With 4-5” of fresh snow at Village elevations, and 8-9” up top, the power skiing was already good to go… and Mother Nature was only making it better.  Yesterday evening, the upslope snow continued to crash into the spine of the Greens, and as temperatures came down, we began to pick up accumulations in the valleys again.  With the snowfall anticipated to continue overnight at all elevations, it was definitely going to be worth getting the family out for a tour.

A close-up, wide-angle image of Jay Telemark skiing in powder during an April snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in VermontMorning revealed some additional snow accumulation at our house at 500’ in the Winooski Valley, and as we climbed the road up toward Bolton Valley we could see that the snow levels had indeed come down compared to what I’d seen on my tour yesterday.  After whatever settling occurred since that point, total accumulations at 2,000’ in the Village were now up to roughly 8”.  We topped out at around 2,800’ on today’s tour, and accumulations are a foot plus from there on up.  The elevation profile from yesterday’s tour is updated below with the addition of today’s total new snow depth numbers, which are in bold below:

340’: 0” –> 0”
600’: —–> T
900’: T –> ½”
1,000’: ½-1” –> ½-1”
1,500’: 2” –> 5”
2,000’: 4-5” –> 8”
2,500’: 7” –> 9-10”
2,800’: 12”
3,000’: 8-9” –> 12”+

An image of Erica Telemark skiing on powder during an April snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
E said that she really enjoyed the peace and quiet of the skiing today – it was certainly the type of snow where you could just set yourself on autopilot and go.

So with depths of new snow hitting a foot or more in the higher elevations, and snow continued to fall during our tour as well, the skiing was of course even better than yesterday.  Indeed, the snow was deeper and drier, and the turns were even more bottomless and effortless.  We saw a few other skiers out there on the slopes, but traffic was quite light and fresh tracks were in great supply.  I gave Dylan my Canon EOS 30D with a Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM wide angle lens, so we had a couple of cameras available to document the outing, and it was great to be out with the family.  Ty was working in the morning, but he would definitely had been there if he was free.

Bolton Valley, VT 10APR2020

An image of ski tracks in powder snow on the Bolton Outlaw trail after an April snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of fresh snow from an April snowstorm at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
With the current storm ongoing, a trip to the higher elevations revealed that there’s already been a solid coating of fresh snow put down

As the forecasts have been hinting at over the past several days, a late season winter storm has moved into the area as we close out the week.  The forecasts have been suggesting the potential for a foot or more of snow along the spine of the Northern Greens, and as is common in these late season events, substantially lower accumulations were expected upon descent down into the valleys.

While the initial stages of this storm were focused in New Hampshire and Maine, producing more than a half foot of snow at relatively low elevations, the more potent part of the system for our area was expected to be the upslope precipitation on the back side of the storm.  The precipitation at our house at 500’ elevation down in the Winooski Valley had largely been rain for this event, but this morning we began to get some snow and a bit of accumulation.

The snow really struggled to accumulate in the valleys today, but up in the mountains it was a different situation.  By midafternoon as I checked on the Bolton Valley live webcams I’d say there was already an inch or two at 2,100’ in the Village.  For the local mountains, the slightly lower temperatures had definitely helped promote accumulations today relative to yesterday, where you could see the new snow down at the main base kind of accumulate and melt back to expose areas of old snow.  Those areas of snow were pretty well covered up this afternoon.  From images shown by the Vista Peak cam, it was clear that there had been at least a few inches of snow up at 3,150’, but it was hard to get a detailed sense for the new snow due to the winds.

What I’d seen from the webcams by the afternoon was certainly enough to get me to head up to the mountain for an exploratory tour, but I wasn’t quite sure enough of conditions to entice the rest of the family to go.

At the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road at roughly 340’, there were no signs of snow accumulation, but right around 900’ you could see the first traces of white, and they quickly jumped up by the time you hit the Bolton Valley Welcome Sign at ~1,000’.  There were a couple of inches of new accumulation at the Timberline Base, and continuing on up to the Village. I found a solid 4-5” in the parking lots.  Heading farther upward with my tour in the Wilderness area revealed the following elevation profile with respect to storm totals:

340’: 0”
900’: T
1,000’: ½-1”
1,500’: 2”
2,000’: 4-5”
2,500’: 7”
3,000’: 8-9”

Right near the start of my ascent on Lower Turnpike, a skier cam swishing by through the powder on his descent and shouted “Don’t head up, it’s not worth it!”, but I laughed in reply because it was obvious he was being sarcastic.  The turns looked fantastic and belied his remark even down at that elevation with a nice 5-6” of medium-weight powder.

An image of the Wilderness Chairlift with a fresh coating a of April snow at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
The chairs at the bottom of the Wilderness Lift revealing a fresh coating of snow.

Indeed, despite this being a late season storm, the snow wasn’t really wet at all out there today (at least where I was touring in the 2,000’+ range).  It was reasonably dense and offered plenty of bottomless turns, but certainly not unlimited bottomless turns on all the steepest pitches.  We’ve had roughly 1.25” of liquid equivalent from this event down at the house, so there’s certainly a decent amount of L.E. in that snow at elevation where they’ve had little if any rain.  Today I toured up to the Wilderness Summit, then around to Bolton Outlaw and on back down toward Lower Turnpike.  The turns were excellent and there had been very little skier traffic.

It was interesting up on the mountain today because a bit of sunshine appeared near the start of the tour, but by the time I was finishing up it was pounding heavy snow made up of big flakes.  It was in the 20s F and snowing so hard in the Village at that point that it felt like it had to be accumulating down in the valley, but it was an impressive gradient as I headed back down the mountain and the snow still wasn’t really accumulating much below the 1,000’ level.

Bolton Valley, VT 07APR2020

An image of the upper part of the Brandywine trail near the junction with Intro below the Timberline Quad chairlift at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image of ski goggles with a reflection at the end of a ski tour by the Timberline base area of Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Catching a reflection at the end of today’s tour.

Today was even a bit warmer than yesterday, with temperatures in the valley this afternoon topping out around 60 F.  So, I decided to get in another round of exercise with a Bolton Valley ski tour.

The strip of snow just to the climber’s right of the Timberline Quad base station had broken up even a bit more than yesterday, but I still traversed the gap with skins to start my tour.  To mix things up today, I headed up Timberline Run and over toward Brandywine for my ascent.  That area is more shaded from the sun, but with the warmer temperatures I figured it might be softened up enough for some smooth turns.

“The slightly warmer temperatures today made the snow quality even better, so the trend has just been one of increasing snow quality of these last few sessions.”

The snow there was fine, but once I got back into the snow below the Timberline Quad near the top, I could see that the exposure to the sun had made the snow just so much better there.  I couldn’t resist that snow, so I ultimately ended up descending via Showtime as we’ve done on the past couple of outings.  The slightly warmer temperatures today made the snow quality even better, so the trend has just been one of increasing snow quality of these last few sessions.

It’s beginning to look more and more likely that we’re going to get a winter storm toward the end of the week with the possibility of substantial snow for the mountains, so hopefully we’ll be able to get back into some powder skiing.  The spring skiing has been very nice, but a change of pace with powder skiing would of course be welcomed as well.

Bolton Valley, VT 06APR2020

A view of a tower and some of the chairs on the Timberline Quad Chairlift during a spring ski tour at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont

We had another nice day of weather today with some sun and temperatures in the 50s F, so I headed up to Bolton Valley for another ski tour at Timberline.  The strip of snow just to the climber’s right of the Timberline Quad base station that we used for skinning during our ski tour on Saturday, was slightly broken up now with a small gap.  It was just a few feet of dry grass in the break though, so I easily continued right across it, and coverage was great from there on up.

An image looking west toward Lake Champlain and the Adirondack Mountains from the Timberline Summit area at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An afternoon view from the Timberline Summit out toward Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks

On Saturday, we stopped our tour at the Timberline Mid Station because it was our first outing in a little while and I figured it was good to take it easy, but today I headed right up to the Timberline Summit.  The views were nice with some late day clouds to the west over Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks.  The snow on Showtime was even a notch better than Saturday, I think thanks to a bit more sun to soften it up and create a smoother, more even surface today.

It looks like we’ll have more spring weather in the first part of this week before it becomes wintrier in the latter part of the week.

Bolton Valley, VT 04APR2020

An image of Ty and Dylan on a chair of the Timberline Quad Chairlift during a ski tour at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont.
An image of Erica Telemark skiing on the Showtime trail during a spring ski tour at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
E enjoys some spring exercise as the whole family got out for a ski tour at Bolton Valley today.

Our most recent winter storm cycle was Winter Storm Quincy, which took place over a week ago.  It brought a couple days of good powder, and D and I were able to get out for some fun turns, but since then we’ve sort of been back in the spring weather doldrums.  We haven’t had another significant storm, and it hasn’t really been warm enough to soften up the slopes.

Some warmer, sunnier weather moved into the area today though, with temperatures in the 50s F, so the family headed up to Bolton Valley for a quick tour and some soft spring turns.  Timberline still has plenty of continuous lines, so we toured from the Timberline Base, and up to the Timberline Mid Station.  Just to the right of the base of the Timberline Quad there’s a thin line of snow that supports skinning right from the base, but that will probably melt out in a couple more days of warm weather.  There’s solid coverage on the climber’s left of the quad base though, so that will probably be fine for ascents and descents for a while.

An image of Erica, Ty, and Dylan preparing their gear for a spring ski tour at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
The family gets their gear set for the ski tour.

Ty cruised right up the hill on the ascent, with Dylan not too far behind, so the two of them had the chance to hang out at the top for a bit before I arrived.  One of the chairs of the quad is nicely positioned at the mid station to make a convenient bench, so the boys really enjoyed hanging out there and enjoying the mountain views.

Showtime is doing the best with respect to coverage thanks to additional manmade snow, so we made our descent there.  The snow was nice spring corn that had softened on Bolton’s usual afternoon sun, so the turns were quite good.

An image of Dylan Telemark skiing during a spring ski tour at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Dylan out on Mom’s fat skis today.

We only saw a couple of other cars in the parking lot, although it was fairly late in the afternoon, so most people had probably gotten their turns in earlier. 

It looks like the weather is going to cool back down as we head into the latter part of this coming week, so we may be looking at more fresh snow coming to the mountains.  We’ll see what happens, but I know everyone would be psyched to get out for some more powder.

Bolton Valley, VT 24MAR2020

An image of Jay Telemark skiing in powder from Winter Storm Quincy in the Fanny Hill area of Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
An image of Dylan Telemark skiing in powder from Winter Storm Quincy at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Dylan out today getting some much needed exercise as we enjoy the fresh powder delivered by Winter Storm Quincy

Over the past couple of weeks, a lot of us have witnessed a dramatic change in daily life here in Northern Vermont as varying levels of social distancing and self-isolation are being practiced to slow the pandemic associated with COVID-19.  Measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 have been ramping up in the form of people doing extensive telecommuting, a state of emergency declared for Vermont back on the 13th,  the closing of bars and restaurants on the 17th, and beginning tomorrow at 5:00 P.M. an executive order to stay home/stay safe.

As of last week, the ski areas in the state had ceased operations, which obviously has the potential to be a blow to many employees and ancillary businesses.  All things considered, this timing hasn’t been too bad for the resorts, since they would all be tapering down winter services and staffing in the next few weeks to some degree anyway.  From the skier’s perspective, the timing of these resorts hasn’t been horrible either – weather has been in that spring doldrums stage for the past couple of weeks.  The usual thaw-freeze cycles that we get at this time of year have taken place, and we haven’t had any big storm cycles to resurface the slopes nor beautiful warm days with copious sunshine to soften them up.  We last skied back on the 8th for the BJAMS ski program at Stowe, and regardless of the ski area closings, there hasn’t been much to entice us out since then.

“Our initial forecast called for a total of 2 to 4 inches of accumulation, but after we picked up 2.6 inches of snow in just a half hour (an impressive snowfall rate of over 5 inches per hour) yesterday evening, it was obvious that we were going to get more.”

That situation began to change yesterday though, as Winter Storm Quincy moved into the area and began dropping snow.  I was returning from a meeting at work in the late afternoon, and the roads were already taking on some fresh accumulations.  As of my 6:00 P.M. snow observations at the house we’d already picked up a couple of inches of snow.  Our initial forecast called for a total of 2 to 4 inches of accumulation, but after we picked up 2.6 inches of snow in just a half hour (an impressive snowfall rate of over 5 inches per hour) yesterday evening, it was obvious that we were going to get more.  I got a text alert around 7:30 P.M. that we’ve been put under a Winter Storm Warning here in Washington County, no doubt due to the continued heavy snowfall.  By midnight, we’d picked up over 8 inches of snow at the house, composed of 0.65 inches of liquid equivalent.  This storm was definitely entering the realm of a decent resurfacing for the slopes.

Since the resort is not posting snow reports now that they’re closed, we didn’t have a sense for how much snow Bolton Valley picked up in the storm, but Dylan and I finally had time around late morning to head up for a ski tour.  On the way up the access road we stopped in at Timberline to check on the snow depth, and found about 7 inches of settled new accumulation at the base.  We also noted that there were a couple dozen cars in the parking lot from folks that were out ski touring.

I was unsure of the base depths at Timberline, and figured they would be more substantial at the main mountain, so we continued on up to the Village.  New snow depths were similar there, and indeed fairly similar all the way up to the Vista Summit.  So overall, there really didn’t seem to be much change in accumulation with respect to elevations – from what we saw today, even up above 3,000’ the storm totals looked about the same as what we picked up in the valley at 500’

A wide-angle image of Dylan skiing in powder from Winter Storm Quincy out on a ski tour at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Dylan floats down through some of the powder today during our ski tour at Bolton Valley.

The turns we had today were very nice.  The powder was of medium to perhaps slightly higher density, and temperatures were well below freezing even in the Village at 2,000’.  The snow had a nice surfy consistency, with enough buoyancy for bottomless turns on even steep pitches in the black diamond range.  You could certainly hit bottom on the very steepest pitches, but we focused on medium-angle terrain and it was bottomless all the way.

“Despite the number of people up at the resort, it was clear that even resort ski touring is still a great activity for social distancing. As is typically the case, we actually saw only a few people while we were out on the hill, and you still never had to go within 50 feet of anyone if you didn’t want to.”

With many people not going to work right now as the state strives to minimize the spread of COVID-19, and a fresh dump of powder on the slopes, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at how many people were out for turns.  The number of people touring seemed notable though – between Timberline and the Village, there were at least several dozen cars out there.  Where we really noticed that ski touring traffic was up was by the number of tracks on the trails.  D and I definitely had to work a bit to find trails that had only seen a few tracks, but we just poked around until we found them.  Fanny Hill delivered pretty nicely with only about four or five tracks on it and plenty of untouched snow.  Despite the number of people up at the resort, it was clear that even resort ski touring is still a great activity for social distancing.  As is typically the case, we actually saw only a few people while we were out on the hill, and you still never had to go within 50 feet of anyone if you didn’t want to.

An image of Jay from behind as he Telemark skis in powder from Winter Storm Quincy at Bolton Valley Resort in Vermont
Dylan was behind the lens of one of the cameras today as well, getting some shots of Dad when he had the chance.

There are a few early signs of another potential storm about a week out, but there’s nothing notable in the more immediate term, so we’ll be watching that timeframe to see if anything pops up.

Stowe, VT 18MAY2019

An image of the Spruce Peak Village area at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont taken from the Standard trail on Mt. Mansfield in mid-May
An image of the snow at the bottom of the Standard trail in mid-May at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont
If you’re looking a ski touring option that will allow your to ski right back down to the base elevations, the Standard trail has good snow right to the bottom.

While the upper elevation snowpack here in Northern Vermont got a bit of a boost from the snowstorm we had earlier in the week, the snow in the lower elevations is getting rather sparse.  So while there’s still plenty of snow available in the local mountains overall, it’s not easy to head out on a tour that will let you ski right back to the base elevations.  At the end of my tour on Tuesday though, the gentlemen I’d met out on the trail told me that there was still an impressive amount of snow available over by the Sunrise area of the resort.  The terrain in that area really isn’t visible from Stowe’s webcams, or from the valley in general for that matter, but when the clouds started to rise away from the peaks this afternoon, I decided it looked nice enough for a quick ski tour and I decided to see what the area had to offer.

An image of snow on the Gondola terrain at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont on mid-May, with leaves emerging on the trees at the base elevations
Some snow hanging on over by Stowe’s Gondola terrain while the leaves just start to emerge on the trees at the base elevations

As soon as I walked up the access road from the Mansfield Base Lodge to the bottom of the Mountain Triple Chair, the possibilities were looking promising.  A nice thick blanket of snow stretched right down to the base of the Standard trail, and coverage looked to continuous as far up the slope as I could see.  There was enough open ground that I decided to simply hike vs. trying to skin, so I walked up the essentially snowless Lower Gulch as it paralleled Lower Standard.  I did have to walk on snow at times as I got higher up the mountain and stuck more to Standard itself, but there were plenty of dry options as well if I’d wanted to take another route.  I had only a certain amount of time, so I stopped my ascent after about 1,000’ of vertical near the top of Standard.  There was plenty of snow to continue upward though for those interested in a longer descent.

“A nice thick blanket of snow stretched right down to the base of the Standard trail, and coverage looked to continuous as far up the slope as I could see.”

On the lower mountain it’s really the Standard trail that has the nearly continuous snow cover.  The resort clearly made a lot of snow there this season, no doubt due to supporting the terrain park that occupies the trail.  The snow cover isn’t quite 100% continuous throughout the entire length of the trail, but the only gaps are a couple of rather small ones that can be safely traversed without taking off your skis as long as you’re comfortable stepping across the ground slowly.  There are a couple more spots that will likely open up soon, so watch for that if you go over the course of the next week.  I do enjoy how every spring is a bit different with the trails that offer the best skiing, so being over on that side of the resort was a nice change of pace from the usual Nosedive options.  The snow on Nosedive is still holding out well of course, but it doesn’t offer the same level of coverage right to the base that you can get on Standard right now, so the terrain off the Mountain Triple Chair could be a good option for touring if you’d like to check it out.  It worked quite well for me, so hats off to the gentlemen I met on Tuesday who gave me the advice about the solid coverage on that side of the resort.

Stowe, VT 14MAY2019

An image showing the snow line on Mt. Mansfield at the start of a ski tour in mid-May at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
An image of some ski trails signs in the Nosedive area with fresh snow during a May ski tour at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Today was quite the snowy day in the local mountains as I got out for a ski tour in the fresh May powder on Mt. Mansfield.

It turns out that we likely get a substantial May snowstorm here in the Northern Greens about every other year on average.  It probably feels like May snowstorms are rarer than that, maybe because, well… it’s May.  By this point in the season it typically hasn’t snowed in a few weeks, we’ve had some warm weather, Memorial Day is approaching, and people are well along into thinking about spring and summer.  But I felt as though I’d been out on fresh snow several times in May since we’ve been back in Vermont over the past decade or so, and being curious about the actual numbers during the lead up to our current storm, I checked my ski report archives to see.  Indeed, with today’s storm that makes at least five significant May snowstorms in the past decade.  Here in the Northern Greens we also don’t catch the brunt of every May snowstorm that hits the Northeast, especially with the Presidentials in the mix, so I suspect that for the region as a whole the frequency of May snowstorms averages out to somewhere around a storm each season.

“…we likely get a substantial May snowstorm here in the Northern Greens about every other year on average.”

Whatever the actual frequency is for these May snowstorms, we’ve got one going on now.  We’ve been monitoring the potential of this current storm for several days in the New England forum at American Weather, and the mountain snowfall was well under way last night.  That meant that this morning was time to get a sense for what happened where and decide on a good location for some turns.  After checking out the accumulations on the various mountain webcams this morning, I decided to head to Mt. Mansfield for a ski tour.  I hadn’t seen any obvious differences in accumulations at the various resorts from the webcams, so I opted for Stowe because they seemed to have the most substantial existing snowpack right down to the base elevations.

An image showing a dusting of May snow at an elevation of 1,300 feet near the base of the Toll House chairlift at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
As I approached the mountain today, the first signs of fresh snow were at around 1,300′ just above the base of the Toll House Lift.

As expected, it was a cool, borderline wintry morning as I made my way to the mountain.  Temperatures were in the upper-30s F in the mountain valleys, and mid-30s F at the resort base.  I’d seen on Stowe’s web cams that the North Slope area had its typical late season residual snowpack, so I chose that for my ascent route.  By the time I got out on my tour, the snow level was certainly rising relative to its lowest point overnight or this morning when there were more optimal temperatures and snowfall rates.  New snow accumulations varied considerably depending on the underlying surface, with the best accumulations and retention found atop the existing snowpack.

“The amount of dense snow up high meant that you had plenty of cushion for some nice powder turns.”

Continuing up from the North Slope area, I headed through the Fourrunner Quad Summit and up the Toll Road past the Mt. Mansfield Stake to the Mansfield Summit Station at around 3,850’.  Precipitation was snow at all elevations on my ascent, and it was fairly light for the most part until I got to the Summit Station along the Mansfield ridgeline.  While I was hanging out there refueling and changing over for the descent, the intensity of the snowfall ramped up somewhat, with lots of tiny flakes at first.  Eventually though, the snowfall picked up to a pounding of much larger flakes.  There was definitely a lot of liquid coming out of the sky at that point, and my Gore-Tex® was getting a workout.

An image showing the Mt. Mansfield snow stake area during a May snowstorm near Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont
Stopping for a look at the healthy snowpack still present at the Mt. Mansfield stake as I pass by during today’s ski tour

Observing the new snow accumulations along my ascent, the big jump in depths really seemed to happen between 2,000’ and 3,000’.  Above 3,000’ I didn’t really see too much with respect to additional accumulation, so presumably temperatures were sufficient down to 3,000’ to maximize the snow from the available moisture right from the get go yesterday.

Here’s the elevation profile for the accumulations I found this morning:

500’:  0”
1,000’:  0”
1,300’:  T
1,500’: ½”
2,000’:  1”
2,300’:  3-4”
2,500’:  5”
2,700’:  6”
3,000’:  7-8”
3,500’:  8”
3,850’:  8”

An image showing the Summit Station/Visitor Center atop Mt. Mansfield in Vermont during a May snowstorm
Snowfall picked up when I was on the Mt. Mansfield ridgeline by the Visitor Center today, with huge flakes and reduced visibility for a time.

The amount of dense snow up high meant that you had plenty of cushion for some nice powder turns.  Of course, the density also meant that the snow was Sierra Cement/Cascade Concrete and you had your work cut out for you with respect to getting those powder turns.  I had my midfat Telemark skis, and let’s just say that the Tele turns in today’s snow were a lot of work.  It is mid-May though, so even dense powder turns this time of year are always a treat, and getting the workout is a big part of the experience anyway.

“…you had your work cut out for you with respect to getting those powder turns. I had my midfat Telemark skis, and let’s just say that the Tele turns in today’s snow were a LOT of work.”

In some cases it wasn’t just the descent that added an extra challenge due to the dense snow.  I followed a pair of skin tracks on my ascent and noticed that in some spots the new snow had stuck to their skins.  I wasn’t having that issue with my skins, but I eventually caught up to the gentlemen who were making the skin tracks, and they said for them it was an issue when they traveled over areas without an existing snowpack.  I was able to pay them back for their helpful skin track by setting the track for the second half of the ascent, and while I didn’t see them on the descent, I saw them back at my car and at Edelweiss Deli where I grabbed a sub for lunch (great minds think alike) and it sounds like they had a great tour.

Wintry conditions in May are typically quite ephemeral, so I guess we’ll be back to spring skiing soon, but these late season powder days are always a treat.  There’s a certain mystique with these late season elevation snow event because it feels like you were in another world when you get back to the strong sun, spring warmth, and rapidly emerging greenery in the valleys.

Bolton Valley, VT 09MAY2019

An image of the Bear Run/Sprig O' Pine area of trails showing the remaining snow in mid May at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
An image showing snow coverage on the Spillway trail in mid May at Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
At Bolton Valley today I was able to ski almost continuous snow from near the top of Spillway down to the main base.

I looked out my office window at some point earlier this week and saw that there was quite a bit of white still visible on the slopes of Bolton Valley.  So, when I had a bit of time with decent weather this afternoon, I decided to head up for a ski tour to see just how much skiing was still available.

On the drive up the Bolton Valley Access Road, the first signs of snow didn’t appear until about 1,500’ elevation near the base of the Timberline area.  I was surprised to see that there were even skiable lines farther up on Timberline.  Up at the main mountain, snowpack starts right at the base.

“I’m not sure if it was the hearty snowpack we had this winter, the amount of snow the resort made, the lack of any hot spells this spring, or a combination of these factors, but Bolton definitely has a solid amount of snow on the ground for this far into May.”

I was expecting to make some turns up on Spillway today, since that’s the area that tends to melt out last with respect to fairly lengthy ski lines, but there’s far more snow available than just the typical late season Spillway stuff.  Multiple trails on the upper mountain have skiable snow, and the Bear Run/Sprig O’ Pine area on the lower mountain has quite solid coverage.  Starting from up near 3,000’ on Spillway, I was able to ski almost continuous snow to the main base.  There were a few small breaks in the snowpack, but nothing that required taking off my skis.  That wouldn’t be too surprising on the eastern slopes of the Greens this time of year, but that’s quite impressive for the western slopes.  I’m not sure if it was the hearty snowpack we had this winter, the amount of snow the resort made, the lack of any hot spells this spring, or a combination of these factors, but Bolton definitely has a solid amount of snow on the ground for this far into May.

An image showing a collapsed snow bridge in May in the mid mountain area of Bolton Valley Ski Resort in Vermont
I skied quickly across this snow bridge anticipating that it might collapse… and it did!

In terms of the snow quality, it’s now has gone through numerous spring temperature cycles and is well consolidated into corn.  The texture of the snow is excellent, with a couple to a few inches of loose snow peeling away from the surface.  The only issue is that melting has creating an inconsistent surface in many areas that results in bumpy snow.  The surfaces would actually benefit from a bit of skier traffic to smooth things out, so hopefully a few folks will get out there to enjoy it before it’s gone.

Stowe, VT 28APR2019

An image snowing some of the snow cats from Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont assembled above the Midway Lodge
An image of ski tracks in powder snow on the Perry Merrill trail at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont after a late April snowfall
A little more snow overnight topped off the accumulations from yesterday to produce some nice turns starting at around 3,000′ at Stowe today.

This weekend we took advantage of the great off-season rates and stayed slope side at the Stowe Mountain Lodge, which I learned has now been renamed “The Lodge at Spruce Peak”.  My sister and her family were in the area and staying at the Lodge for a couple of days, so this gave us a chance to catch up with them as well stay right by the slopes for some easy access to skiing on Mt. Mansfield.

Over the past couple of days we’ve had a storm in the area that’s been dropping some fresh snow in the higher elevations, and my ski tour at Bolton Valley yesterday revealed 4 to 6 inches of fresh, dense powder up around the 3,000’ mark.  Powderfreak reported similar accumulations in the upper elevations during his tour at Stowe yesterday, and images of the powder skiing looked quite decent, so that bode well with respect to getting in some good turns in association with our visit to the Lodge.  While there was expected to be a lull in the snowfall on Saturday afternoon, the forecast suggested that it would pick back up in the evening with the chance to tack on some additional accumulations as well.

An image of people in one of the hot tubs by the pool at the Lodge at Spruce Peak at Stowe Mountain Ski Resort in Vermont
Erica, Jill, and the kids out for time in the hot tub and pool on Saturday afternoon/evening.

We arrived at the Lodge yesterday afternoon, dropped off the car, and then got settled into our room while we caught up with my sister’s family.  This time we tried out one of the one bedroom suites, similar to what we’ve had in the past at places like the Tram Haus Lodge.  It’s definitely nice to have a bit more space and the multiple rooms, especially now that the boys are older (and bigger).  The additional space was also convenient for when my sister’s family came over to visit.  During the evening we generally relaxed, the kids headed to the pool/hot tub area for a bit, and we all had a great dinner at the Hourglass Lounge.  There was snowfall all the way down to the base elevations in the evening, and as we had dinner we’d occasionally see windy whiteouts from all the blowing snow.  It looked quite wintry, but temperatures were fairly marginal at the base elevations, so there was really only a trace of accumulation visible by morning.

I was the only one planning to ski today, so after we checked out of our room and had breakfast at Solstice, E and the boys dropped me off at the Midway Lodge.  There were probably two to three dozen cars in the Midway parking lots, and people were heading out from there for ski tours along various routes.  Chin Clip Runout looked pretty quiet, and it, along with Switchback is one of my favorite ascent routes, so I headed that way and started skinning.

An image of rime ice on some branches high on Mt. Mansfield near Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont after a late April snowstormOn my ascent, I observed that additional snow accumulations seemed rather minimal below about 2,500’ – there was a windswept inch or two that was really scattered around atop the old base, and much of that was probably there from Saturday’s snow.  The new snow had collected in pockets here and there, but I didn’t really see any substantial consistency until I started getting into the upper half of the terrain.  Around the 3,000’ mark I started getting some solid 6 to 7 inch depths of reasonably dense, dry snow along the climber’s right of Perry Merrill.  I saw some folks continue their ascents up above the Gondola into the alpine via Cliff Trail Gully, but I was a bit leery of what coverage would be like with the new snow over previous melting among the rocks.  If the new snow depths continued to increase above the 3,600’ range then it could have been quite nice up there.

“The deepest accumulations I found were up around 3,500’ along the skier’s right of Perry Merrill, where 7 to 9 inches was pretty typical in undisturbed areas.”

Being underwhelmed by the accumulations I’d seen on my ascent of the main Gondi terrain, I headed toward Cliff Trail for my descent.  The deepest accumulations I found were up around 3,500’ along the skier’s right of Perry Merrill, where 7 to 9 inches was pretty typical in undisturbed areas.  That was really nice, and while the depth gradually decreased as I headed down Cliff Trail, the skiing there was quite good throughout.  There were a few tracks on the trail, but only a handful of skiers had been down at that point.  I’d say that the junction with Nosedive at around 2,700’ was right about where the best snow petered out.  The elevation was part of it, but the change to Nosedive with its more open nature and higher levels of skier traffic made for a very obvious break in the availability of the new snow.  That would have been an excellent spot to stop a descent if one was looking to lap the best snow up high.

An image of ski tracks in powder snow along the edge of the Perry Merrill trail up near 3,500 feet on Mt. Mansfield at Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont after a late April snowfall
Catching some nice powder turns off the side of Perry Merrill up around 3,500′

We’ve got some fairly cool days coming over the next week, so the new snow should stick around for a while up high, although the quality may deteriorate somewhat from the typical spring temperature cycling.