Catching some fresh tracks down from the top of Snowflake Bentley today
After a slow stretch of winter weather for much of February, the last third of the month has been picking up in that department. Three systems have been forecast to come through the area, each one with the potential for more snow in the mountains. The first one came through Tuesday night into yesterday, and dropped 1.7” of snow here at the house and a few inches in the mountains. The second system started up yesterday, and as of this morning we’d only picked up some rain here in the valley, but it was definitely a step up in accumulation for the northern mountains.
With only rain down here in the valley, it was difficult to assess what the mountains had picked up for snow around 6:00 A.M. when I was trying to make the decision about taking some runs, but fortunately Stowe was out with a nice early report indicating at least 5” up high. With fairly high snow levels, I wasn’t surprised to see that it was a steep accumulation gradient with elevation; Stowe was only reporting 1” new at the base. Still, the high-elevation number of 5” was enough for me to suspect that the main mountain at Bolton, which is all at 2,000’+, would be in great shape, so I prepared my gear and decided to stop in up at the mountain on the way to Burlington.
It was interesting to find that it was actually snowing way down at the base of the Bolton Valley Access Road (340’), but there was just a skiff of new white there. In fact, the snow line for getting into to good snow was actually pretty high. Even up at 1,000’ on the access road I’d say there wasn’t much more than a dusting of new snow, and there was probably only an inch up at the Timberline Base at 1,500’. In the Village at 2,100’ I found 2-3” of new snow on the ground, although that was probably the accumulation from the last two days because the cars that appeared to have spent the night in the lot probably had an inch or so on them. The temperature there at the main base was 31 F, and light snow was falling.
I was only about 30 minutes away from the opening of the Vista Quad when I started skinning up the mountain, so I stuck to the Wilderness side to stay out of the way of any potential downhill traffic. Wilderness wasn’t scheduled to open until 10:00 A.M., so I had a good cushion of time. The 2-3” of snow I’d seen at the base grew to 4-5” at ~2,500’ as I headed up Fanny Hill. I made my way toward Upper Crossover, and stopped my ascent at the top of Bolton Outlaw. Up there at around 3,000’, new snow depths were in the 5-6” range. It was past 8:30 A.M. by that point, and I was just starting to hear the hoots and hollers of folks descending off Vista, so I didn’t linger long before I dropped in to see how the turns were going to be.
The powder was medium weight, not sticky at all, but with plenty of substance. Still, I was touching down in spots, so it wasn’t completely bottomless with the steepness of Bolton Outlaw. Turns were great though, and if this is just a taste of what’s to come when the third storm gets here, the next couple of days are going to be great on the slopes. I continued on down to the Wilderness Lift Line, where turns became bottomless with the slightly lesser pitch. Nobody had been down to Wilderness by that point, so it was first tracks all the way down until I merged into the Vista Trails.
Catching first tracks on the Wilderness Lift Line today
I decided to stick around for another couple lift-served runs, and first hit Hard Luck. It had seen a few tracks, but the turns were excellent. I cut through to Show Off, which was untracked at the point, and the turns were generally bottomless. I finished off with a run below the Vista Quad above the Jungle Jib. I opted for Vermont 200 on my next run, where I actually found the snow depths topping out around 7”. I hit some woods, and then cut across on Deer Run to get to the top of Snowflake. I combined the top part of Snowflake Bentley, which was about half groomed and provided some nice turns, with Lower Foxy, which allowed me to ski past the Wentworth Condos and out the access road. The powder was excellent almost all the way back down to the main base, although I’d say the last couple hundred vertical were just a little thick – certainly enough that I noticed. It was easy to see that the main mountain was the place to be though; dropping down to the elevations of Wilderness would likely have seen a dramatic decrease in both the quantity and quality of the powder.
A touch of snow remained among the "UVM bushes" this morning.
The temperature was still at 31 F when I was leaving the mountain, and the light snow continued to fall as it has the entire time I was at the mountain. The temperature was in the mid 30s F back down in the Winooski Valley, and on the way into Burlington, I saw that there were actually pockets of accumulation even in the lower elevations, with a decent coating in Richmond, and another good coating at the I-89 rest area in Williston. There were even a few pockets of accumulation visible at UVM.
Enjoying some turns in one of the glades off the Catamount Trail
During yesterday’s outing at Bolton, we found decent powder above roughly the 2,000’ level, and ended up skiing several laps off Wilderness to take advantage of the good snow. With that in mind, we decided to head out onto the backcountry network today to get in some additional powder skiing. The plan was to begin by riding the Wilderness Lift for a quick elevation assist, then transit on Heavenly Highway to a glade along the Catamount Trail that I’d last skied on January 22nd, 2011. I’ve brought Ty out on Heavenly Highway before, but this would be the first opportunity to get out there with the whole family at once, so that aspect was very exciting. Dylan’s touring range has grown by leaps and bounds over the past couple of seasons, and it seemed like he was ready for a tour this size. With a planned route that would encompass 4 to 5 miles, it would likely be the longest ski tour that either of the boys had done, but with a mile of distance and 1,000’ of vertical coming from the Wilderness Lift, it seemed manageable. The boys each got two packs of GU energy gel, which were stashed in the side pockets of their ski pants to quickly mitigate any concerns about bonking out on the tour. The boys both like the GU (at least the vanilla bean) a lot; we’ve found it helpful for mountain biking in the off season, and it worked quite well for Dylan on our ski tour at Pico in October.
Although not quite as warm as yesterday’s highs in the 30s F, the forecast was for temperatures in the upper 20s F and generally clear skies, so weather wasn’t expected to be an issue on the tour. The Wilderness Lift wasn’t opening until 10:00 A.M., so we had plenty of preparation time in the morning. I cooked up a typical ski day big breakfast to ensure the boys would be maxed out on energy, and we loaded up all the gear. Arriving up in the Village in the mid morning period, we found that the resort was hopping with holiday visitors. I dropped E and the boys off at the ski patrol building at the base of Wilderness, and parked in the tennis court lot down along the Broadway trail. The village lots were filling up fast, but they hadn’t overflowed into the tennis court lot yet; it was just me and a couple other cars parking for Nordic/backcountry activities.
I got my gear on and headed up to find E getting the skis ready and helping out the boys with theirs. The boys’ Telemark skis are still in the three pin format, so getting them on can be a little tricky. That process combined with having to negotiate a lift ride with a backcountry pack plus a child, makes it E’s least favorite part of one of these types of outings, but everyone got loaded, had a good ride, and disembarked at the Wilderness Summit without incident. Once off the lift, E was able to relax and enjoy the rest of the tour.
We skied over to the Heavenly Highway entrance, and strapped on everyone’s skins for the undulating trip across to the Catamount Trail. As we started along, E commented that it seemed like we could do this part without skins if we wanted, but having done parts of that myself before, I assured her that it was much more fun having the skins on. There are enough dips and rolls that you appreciate not having to herring bone up every rise. Dylan took point on our travels across Heavenly Highway, and actually kept a decent pace. It wasn’t long before he decided that he wanted to remove his helmet to cool down a bit.
Checking out some of the thick snow formations created by the powder along Heavenly Highway
We found tremendous snow formations in the usual sheltered spots along the Heavenly Highway – some stacks of snow on the trees were two to three feet high, revealing just how much snow had built up from recent storms. Ty probed one stack by punching his pole way up through it, and then Ty and Dylan had fun with another thick stack by knocking it off the tree to which it was attached. Even though it’s been a low snow year, elevations up around 3,000’ have still taken on a lot of snow this season, and E was very impressed with how the snowy corridors through the trees made one feel like they were entering some sort of magical world. It was the first time E had been up there, but I’m sure similar experiences by those in the past played a part in how the Heavenly Highway got its name. We’d negotiated a few moderate drops in all the ups and downs of Heavenly Highway, and Ty was very proud that he’d been able to make some Telemark turns on those pitches – it’s certainly tough with the narrow confines and skins on the skis.
At the junction with Devil’s Drop we had to make a decision, whether to finish off our trip to the Catamount Trail on Heavenly Highway, or take on the quicker, but more challenging descent of Devil’s Drop trail. I gave everyone an idea of what the two routes were like, and we all joked about the nearly polar opposite names of our two choices. I pointed out that Heavenly Highway would finish off with terrain much like we’d seen up to that point, while Devil’s Drop was, true to its Machiavellian name, a fairly precipitous and tricky drop to negotiate on skis. I figured that everyone would be able to handle it though, and the momentum quickly seemed to shift that way. Before we knew it, Dylan was on his way down toward Devil’s Drop with the rest of the family in tow. We didn’t take off our skins, which actually made the descent kind of fun as the extra friction combined to make it both difficult, sort of like day with sticky snow on the slopes, and easier, almost like having your car holding you back in low gear on a descent. There were a couple of icy patches, and indeed the necessity of fitting skins so that one’s edges are left exposed was never demonstrated so well. I’d say that some pitches on Devil’s Drop are easily in the range of 30 degrees or so, but fortunately the trail has switchbacks to avoid having to ski it at that pitch. Ty did some impressive switchback short-cutting though, working his way through a steep slot that was much more challenging than I would want to take. There are actually some nice options for skiing Devil’s Drop and getting some great powder turns, but with the time for transitioning the boys out of their skins and them back into them for the return to the ascent didn’t quite seem worth it. Perhaps on a future trip we’ll add that feature into the tour. At the bottom of Devil’s Drop, after what had seemed like a surprisingly challenging descent to me, I realized that I’d left my Telemark bindings in free pivot touring mode. There’s much less stability in that mode than with the toes locked down – it explained why the drop felt extra challenging today, but I wished I’d realized it before the bottom!
Below Devil’s Drop we took a short snack break at the junction with the Catamount Trail, and I told the boys not to eat too much because we weren’t too far from our final destination where we planned to have lunch. With our snack complete, Dylan continued on point, and led us on the Catamount Trail through the wide, flat col between the height of land containing the Devils’ Drop area to the east and the 3,300’ spur of Bolton Mountain to the west. We cruised along through the flats thanks to Dylan’s abiding pace, entering back into the thicker trees in about 5 to 10 minutes and quickly coming to the north intersection with the Cotton Brook Trail. There were lots of people out in that junction area today, and everyone seemed excited to see Ty and Dylan out there. They got lots of encouragement from folks for undertaking such a substantial backcountry tour.
E and Ty approach the top of our ascent along the Catamount Trail.
We came to the final leg of our ascent, and I was able to show E and the boys the glade that I was thinking of skiing with them. Dylan continued in the lead, pushing up through the switchbacks along the glade. I could tell that he was getting a little impatient and/or tired, but we let him know we were just minutes away from our stopping point, and he pushed on. Ty was actually more impatient than Dylan at that point, and he clearly needed to be done with the ascent. At the top of the glade we found a beautiful powdery spot overlooking the ski terrain and the Catamount Trail, and set everything down to have lunch.
Dad finally gets that chance to sit down and enjoy lunch along the trail.
We’d packed a thermos full of tomato soup, and another full of hot chocolate, and I was really anxious to get some food and an energy recharge. Before I could relax though, I wanted to finish putting away all the skins and preparing all the gear for the descent. Ty and Dylan had clearly been more anxious for the end of the ascent than they were tired, because they were running around like animals having a big snowball fight, and E actually had to work on calming them down so that they weren’t too disruptive to other folks traveling on the trail. The boys played on, but finally I’d taken care of the gear; I fashioned myself a nice soft seat in the powder, and kicked back with some hot soup. I’d been waiting for that for quite a while. To sweeten the scene, just as we’d arrived, it had begun to snow. We had expected mostly clear skies earlier, but clouds moved in quickly, and before we knew it, big fat flakes were swirling all around us. One never knows what Mother Nature will throw at them up at 3,000’ in the Northern Greens, but the beauty of the falling snow was certainly appreciated. Sitting up there overlooking the glade with the fresh snow falling was quite a treat, and one of the folks passing by on the trail commented on what a great lunch spot it seemed to be.
Enjoying the snowy scene during lunch along the trail as big flakes of snow fall all around us
After a few rounds of soup, we were finally able to pull ourselves away from the superlative location for a descent of the glade. We found several inches of powder atop the base, but I was surprised that the snow wasn’t quite up to the standards that I thought it was going to be. There appeared to have been just enough traffic and or sun exposure that there was a bit of a crusty layer below the powder. That made the skiing challenging in those spots, but I was able to sneak in some nice turns in areas of untracked snow. Clearly I’m going to have to bring E and the boys back for another trip to experience the primo conditions that are often found there.
Enjoying some turns in one of the glades off the Catamount Trail
Once back on the Catamount Trail, Dylan took the lead again, and I told him that he could cruise as fast as he wanted down the trail. We came rocketing through the flats in the col, and Dylan continued to move along at a marvelous pace. While it’s generally a gentle downhill glide, there are a few short rises and I couldn’t believe how fast we covered the ground. The snow must have been a lot slower the last time I’d been out in that area, but before we knew it we were back at the intersection with Devil’s Drop where we’d had our first snack. We cruised further down the trail, and as soon as Ty and Dylan saw the Bryant Cabin, they headed right toward it like a shot. E and I hadn’t really planned to stop in there unless we needed to, but it was quickly obvious there was no way we were getting past it without a stop. Getting a chance to play around in the cabin is clearly one of the favorite parts of these trips for Ty and Dylan.
A window scene from up at the Bryant Cabin today
We pulled into the cabin, which was unoccupied and had no fire going in the woodstove, but with the fairly moderate outside temperature it was comfortable enough that the boys shed some layers. We got into the hot chocolate and snacks for a while, and the boys played around in the upstairs area that they like so much. We saw a couple of groups ascend the Bryant Trail and reach the cabin, but they congregated outside. Eventually the hot chocolate was spent, and we geared up for the final descent leg of the trip to the car.
We headed out on Gardiner’s Lane and onto North Slope, and my intent was to take E and the boys down through the North Slope and Gardiner’s Lane glade combination that I’d visited a lot last season. There hasn’t been a lot of traffic at the glade entrance though, so we sailed right past it and continued on North Slope. We ran into Kurt Ries, who was part of a large group collecting at the top of one of the drops on North Slope. Clearly they had a similar idea to us on this fine winter day. Having missed the glade I’d initially planned to visit, we cut off North Slope and simply explored the woods below. The snow was quite good, with 6+ inches of powder in many spots, and while we found a few good shots, there was nothing too outrageous in terms of providing an extensive amount of turns in open terrain. We connected onto Gardiner’s Lane, and recounted the last time we’d skied it where Dylan had had some binding issues and I’d needed to carry him. He talked about how much fun that had been, but I liked it better with him skiing. We finished off with a run through the Telemark Practice Slope and the associated glades, and cruised down Broadway to the car.
Today's 4.35-mile backcountry tour plotted on Google Earth, with the ascent tracks marked in red, descent tracks marked in green, and the Wilderness Lift assist marked in yellow
Checking the GPS at the car, it reported a tour length of 4.35 miles, with an overall elevation difference of 1,112’. It was certainly the boys’ biggest tour to date, and they continued to have energy at the end because they were quickly playing on top of the snowbanks in the parking lot while E and I packed up the gear. E said that she had a great time with her first trip on Heavenly Highway and the Catamount Trail beyond Bryant Cabin, and we saw plenty of opportunities for more exploration. Hopefully next time we can get even softer conditions and nail the route through those lower glades.
As Ty demonstrates, the Outlaw Glades were really delivering the goods today at Bolton Valley.
For much of January the weather pattern in Northern Vermont featured winter storms with mixed precipitation. The storms weren’t actually that bad in terms of how they affected the ski conditions, but with the mixed precipitation robbing some of the potential snowfall, they just didn’t have that oomph of full-blown winter storms. So naturally everyone was excited when February rolled around and the weather pattern appeared to be undergoing a change. The only problem was… it was a change to essentially no storms at all. That’s good for a few days to perhaps a week if it comes with good snow preservation, but soon the powder gets harder to find, and the groomed snow just gets old. We’d hit that point by last Saturday – the quote from Stephen was that the snow was “beaten down”, and I’d say he nailed the general demeanor of the slopes perfectly. To put some numbers on it, through today (February 18th) we’ve had just 5.0 inches of snowfall at the house for the month… a month that averages roughly 45 inches of snow down here in the valley. So when we got to mid February and it looked like the weather was going to switch back to the pattern of storms with mixed precipitation like we saw in January, I think there was some relief… we probably just didn’t know how good we had it before. The storm ushering in this change started up on Thursday, and it was pretty weak on precipitation overall, but by this morning the local mountains were approaching a half foot of new snow, which was more than enough to whet our appetites for the slopes. Powderfreak has been keeping us apprised of the conditions at Stowe, and based on his powdery pictures from yesterday, we knew that the good snow was out there. Combined with a weather forecast of partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the low to mid 30s F, it was looking like a mighty fine day to hit the slopes.
Bolton’sTimberline area finally opened last weekend, and although I suspected that the warmth this week was going to undermine the conditions on those lower elevation trails, we still wanted to base ourselves out of Timberline for the day due to the convenience it offers. It’s a holiday weekend, so parking in the village and dealing with the main base would likely be a bit chaotic. When we arrived at the Timberline Base (~1,500’) around mid morning today, the snow situation was actually looking a bit grim; the temperature was already in the mid 30s F and the snow surfaces looked like just a couple of inches of new snow over a refried base. I was optimistic though; I knew the higher elevations would be in much better shape, and our real goal was to get ourselves over to the main base area and up to Wilderness.
Just as we were getting our gear on we saw Stephen and his crew at the base of the Timberline Quad. I inquired about the snow conditions and Stephen didn’t sound enthusiastic. I asked him if he’d been over to Wilderness yet and he said no, so I was still holding out hope. While snow surfaces did look bland at first, they quickly improved as we rode up toward the Timberline Summit (~2,500’), and all my fears were allayed by the time we got off the lift. I checked off the side of the trail and found a good 4 to 6 inches of powder there for the taking, with still more in some spots. I even took a quick jaunt in the Timberline Run trees, and found the same stuff. By this point I knew we were in for some good powder skiing, and I was more than happy to share this thought with E. She was quite unimpressed with some of the off piste conditions last weekend, and her enthusiasm for today was painfully low at first. As I passed by Lower Bentley on our way to the main base, I saw some great looking powder off to the side of the trail and really wanted to dive in, but our goal was Wilderness and we had to stay on task.
Stephen and his kids were all on board for a run in Snow Hole, so we hopped on the Wilderness Lift with a group plan in hand. As we ascended through the Wilderness terrain, it was quickly obvious how good the snow was going to be. We began to see tracks in the powder on the Wilderness Lift Line, and the depths were increasing nicely. We found great snow in Snow Hole, a general 4 to 6 inches of powder outside of the high traffic areas where the snow had already been packed down. The hobblebush is sticking out a couple of feet in the big open area up top though – it could probably use a trim this off season, but it’s presence is also just a function of the low snowpack this year.
Stephen, Thomas, Johannes, and Helena had to head in for lunch after that run, but E and the boys and I went up for another Wilderness run to hit Bolton Outlaw and its surroundings. Bolton Outlaw had seen enough traffic that it unfortunately held a lot of slick areas, but the glades around it were fantastic. The boys ripped up some of the fresh lines in there and the snow quality had everyone excited. We poked around in some lower elevation glades as we descended back to the base, with some decent turns, but nothing quite up to the level of those Outlaw Glades. The Wilderness Lift Line provided some nice turns though, consistent with the quality-looking snow we’d seen from the lift.
Dylan enjoys some of that powder in the Outlaw Glades.A yummy addition to lunch in the Tavern today
The boys were already talking about lunch by the time we got back to the base, and we headed into the lodge with a plan to go to the James Moore Tavern. Stephen and his group were ready to head back out onto the slopes, and had to leave by 1:00 P.M., but Ty and Dylan were just too hungry to be talked away from lunch. The lodge was really hopping though with holiday business; we even had to wait about 10 minutes to get into the Tavern. With the wait we had plenty of time to hang our ski stuff in the clothing area, and we made an impressive and compact assembly of all our gear, even the helmets. Lunch was a fun time; we sat next to a mom and her toddler, who kept everyone entertained for the entire meal. The boys got some impressive-looking hot chocolates to start things off, and for me, lunch was an easy choice. As soon as we entered the tavern I smelled that barbeque smell from the pulled pork sandwich, and my mind was immediately made up. I’ve had it before, but this one was especially good.
I knew I was going with pulled pork as soon as I walked into the Tavern today.
We headed back out to the slopes after our filling lunch, and Wilderness was all we had on our minds; there was no lift queue, the snow was fantastic, and there was powder to ski. Based on what we’d heard from Stephen about the Vista area, there was no need to go anywhere else. We ran the same couple of runs that we’d hit earlier, and powder pickings were a little slimmer, but the snow was still quite good. We did notice that areas of powder in the sun below about 2,500’ were getting a little thick, so presumably the freezing line was creeping up a bit in elevation. Those Outlaw Glades were again the standout of the afternoon, and E said that she had her best Telemark turns of the day in there.
We eventually decided to call it a day and headed over to Snowflake to get us back to Timberline. We were actually thinking of doing an extra run off Snowflake, but there was a lift queue of a few minutes so we just decided to skip that plan. A nice bonus on the trip back to Timberline though was Lower Tattle Tale. For whatever reason, people had not been skiing it from the middle entrance, and the skier’s left held lots of powder. I thought it might be too low in elevation to hold onto such good soft snow, but it was more than fine, it was sweet! Judging by what we found on the trip back to the Timberline Base, I’d say that around 2,000’ was the elevation at which the powder really started to peter out. The groomed trails began to get slick as well, so below that elevation was where temperatures must have gotten just a bit too far above freezing over the past couple of days.
Although temperatures had definitely stayed below freezing on the upper mountain, it was still above freezing when we got back to the car, so the lower elevation snow at Timberline will probably do a bit of temperature cycling tonight. It seems like everything above 2,000’ is going to continue to be mighty fine though, so all the holiday visitors should keep on getting those good turns. Based on the fantastic conditions we saw up high on Wilderness, we’re thinking of going for some backcountry skiing tomorrow – it looks like another comfortable midwinter day with sunshine, so there should be some opportunities for excellent earned turns. We may also get a couple more of those mixed precipitation storms in the coming week, and even if they’re not perfect, at least they’ll keep the slopes fresh – and we’re going to appreciate that as much as we can.
Greg and some of the boys riding Sensation today between laps in the powder below
There haven’t been any major snowfalls in the area since the storm that dropped up to two feet in the mountains around mid month, so when I assessed the monthly snowfall at the house through yesterday (27.2”), it wasn’t surprising that we were well below the January average I’ve calculated from the past five seasons worth of data (40”+). Even without any huge storms though, the Northern Greens have been doing their thing to keep the slopes fresh as they capitalize on the moisture from more modest systems or make their own upslope snow. Today was another perfect example, as we found ourselves amidst massive flakes when we arrived at Stowe around midday. It was a bit of a surprise to see all the snow in the air and the cars covered in white, since all we’d seen at the house were a few flurries, but that’s Mansfield being Mansfield.
Our snowy arrival in the Spruce Peak Village today
“Every week we seem to
get one of those mixed
storms to make a mess
out of the slopes, and
Mansfield pulls another
7, 8 , 9, 10 inches or
whatever out of the sky
to bring back the powder
skiing.”
The day was set up as a nice comfortable one with temperatures in the 30s F for the mountain valleys, and a high of around 25 F on Mt. Mansfield. Naturally, the combination of nice temperatures and fresh snow had us excited to hit the slopes, so with some extra time before our coaching session began, I grabbed Ty and Dylan and we rode the Alpine Double for a run in the terrain above Meadows. Consistent with the latest temperature fluctuations above and below freezing over the past week (which seems to be a theme this month) there was certainly a crusty layer under the powder, but the turns were very good with all the new snow, even down at the low elevations near the Spruce Peak Village (~1,500’). In fact the snow was nice enough that when we met up with our group for the day, which consisted of Jack, Luke, and Greg Pause as a second coach, we headed right back up to do the same run.
Catching Greg and the boys on one of our snowy Sensation runs
Seeing how nice the skiing was down low with the new snow, we didn’t want to wait too long to get higher up on the mountain, so we caught Sunny Spruce to make our way over to Sensation. While on the lift, we saw a few tracks on Spruce Line, but loads of untracked snow, so we worked our way through the trees to get there. The boys were challenged by some difficult routes through the trees, but Ty encouraged everyone, letting them know that they could really handle it, and they did. Indeed the powder skiing was excellent up at that elevation with the additional depth of new snow afforded by 1,500’ of increased elevation. One aspect of the run that had everyone grinning was the fact that nobody else was skiing the area, so we had it all to ourselves. We continued on down to Whirlaway, where the snow remained quite good, and then decided that it would be a shame if all the untracked snow on Spruce Line went to waste, so we did the exact same run again. We concluded our Spruce Peak session with one more Sensation run, hitting the steep terrain of Upper Smuggler’s down to Side Street, then back to the Spruce Peak Base Area to catch the Over Easy to Mt. Mansfield.
“It was a bit of a surprise
to see all the snow in the
air and the cars covered,
in white, since all we’d
seen at the house were a
few flurries, but that’s
Mansfield being Mansfield.”
The second half of the afternoon was spent over on Mt. Mansfield exploring areas serviced by the gondola. Waterfall continues to have good snow, so we enjoyed its somewhat steep terrain as a good variation down to Gondolier. We played around a lot in the Switchback trees, and a quick check on the powder there revealed 7 inches of depth for the mid to lower mountain elevations. We did a run on Perry Merrill as well, and worked our way back to Switchback for a variation on the trees we’d skied before. The snowfall had slackened during the middle of the afternoon, but it resumed for the end of the ski day, and gave everyone a renewed sense of excitement. The boys finished off their last run as they do with most gondola runs, the requisite trip through the small terrain park below Midway. We headed back to Spruce as the light began to fade and the snowfall ramped up.
Catching that last terrain park run in the fading lightSpruce Camp entrance
We headed to the Great Room Grill for après ski, and the snow continued to fall; the forecast calls for up to another 6 to 8 inches tonight on top of what fell today, so I suspect that conditions are going to be even better tomorrow. It certainly makes me want to hit the slopes instead of heading in to Burlington. I’ve got to say, Stowe really continues to impress this season in terms of conditions. Sometimes the heavy traffic at the mountain can really wear things down, but in this season of low snowfall, big temperature swings, and mixed precipitation, Mansfield just keeps coming through. Every week we seem to get one of those mixed storms to make a mess out of the slopes, and Mansfield pulls another 7, 8 , 9, 10 inches or whatever out of the sky to bring back the powder skiing. I really thought this was going to be the weekend in which the conditions wouldn’t make it back in time, with this week’s mixed precipitation storm coming so late in the week, but damn if there wasn’t some fine skiing out there today.
Watching the cold temperatures up at Bolton Valley today
Around midday, E headed off with Ty to Kenny’s house – Kenny was having a sleepover for his birthday, and Ty was part of it. Dylan and I hung around the house since I wasn’t planning to bring him out in the subzero temperatures, and it was well into the afternoon before E got back and I could get on my way up to the mountain. The temperature in the Bolton Valley Village was on the verge of getting into positive numbers though, so that was looking very good – temperatures around the 0 F mark are really quite nice for ascending in winter.
“…I found 15 inches of
powder on Spell Binder,
and the turns were blissfully
bottomless and smooth.”
Indeed the car thermometer gave a reading of exactly 0 F at the elevation of the Timberline Base (~1,500’) when I arrived. I didn’t have time to dawdle, since it was already after 4:00 P.M. and the sky was darkening by the time I started my ascent, but it looked like I’d have a good opportunity to see the winter sunset from the westward facing slopes of the Timberline area. I saw a couple of ski tracks at the very bottom of Doug’s Woods, and the coverage certainly looked passable. That’s a good sign to see the west-facing slopes skiable down to such a low elevation. When I probed the snow depths down near the lodge, I found a general 9 to 12 inches of powder above the base snow. The resort has been grooming the Timberline trails in preparation for their eventual opening, and that meant that there was a nice skin track available on Showtime. I didn’t get any pictures to do it justice, but it beautifully negotiated the Showtime Headwall and made my ascent very efficient. I kept checking behind me every few minutes to monitor the sun during the ascent, and I was able to catch it just before it went down to produce a nice shot of the sunset.
Tracks have started to appear in Doug’s Woods.
Available daylight pretty much negated continuing past the elevation of the Timberline Mid Station, so I stopped my ascent there and poked around to see which route had the best powder for the descent. There were a good number of tracks on Twice as Nice, so I settled on Spell Binder. It was hard to go wrong though with all the new snow – I found 15 inches of powder on Spell Binder,and the turns were blissfully bottomless and smooth. The powder we skied yesterday has presumably settled some, but it actually seemed to ski even better today, so perhaps it dried out with the cold temperatures. Those temperatures don’t seem to be going anywhere either, when I got back down to the car it was 1 F, and we’re looking at lows in the -10 to -20 F range down at the house tonight. Tomorrow’s looking good though, after the cold start, the temperature should be up around 20 F on the slopes at Stowe.
The downside of the new snow was that cold air came with it – it was approximately 10 F this morning at the house, and 3 F up in the Village at Bolton Valley. Fortunately, there wasn’t any wind, but we still brought hand and foot warmers for the boys in case they needed to take the edge off the chill while skiing. E wasn’t all that impressed with the conditions on Sprig O’ Pine after their preliminary run while I parked the car, but I was hoping that was due to effects of the wind and the exposure of that terrain. After a little debate, the boys decided that they were cold enough that they would head into the lodge to fire up some of the hand warmers and put them in their boots and gloves, and then we headed back out into the cold in search of more powder.
Leaving the Mid Mountain Lift, we quickly saw that the Enchanted Forest looked extremely powdery with little traffic up to that point, so we headed in. We found the coverage and powder to be pretty nice, but in general the snow just felt a little “slow” with the cold temperatures. With this in mind, we headed to Glades to get a little more pitch, and that helped move things along a little better. Glades had seen a fair bit of traffic to track up the snow, but we found some good shots of untracked in the jug handle area.
E arcing through a Telemark turn in the fresh snow on Bolton Valley's Glades trail
The snow was decent, but none of us really seemed to be grooving, and Ty appeared especially glum and ornery about the day up to that point. It turned out that his hands were still cold despite the hand warmers, so we decided to make another trip inside and have lunch in the process. When we got into the lodge, we were astonished to discover that all the hand warmers the boys were using were stone cold. That was extremely disconcerting, as we’d bough a big box of them at Costco, and were expecting them to work. We fiddled around with them for a bit, and I also headed down to the ski shop and bought a couple packets of a different brand for comparison. The new packets fired up right away and got quite hot. With a little more shaking and processing we were actually able to get our original packets going as well, but they didn’t cook like the new ones, they just seemed to be of the “slow burn” variety and only got up to lukewarm relative to the hot ones. Once we were done with lunch, we hooked the boys up with a combination of the “slow” and “fast burn” varieties of hand warmers, and headed out to see if we could finally get that groove going.
To get some challenge and potentially find Ty some “satisfying” turns, we headed up on the Vista Quad and descended via Vermont 200. That turned out to be a good choice, with generally great coverage, lots of good snow, and only a couple of icy ledges to navigate. Ty definitely got some of the turns he had been seeking, and everyone enjoyed the challenge and powder/chowder we found. Below Mid Mountain we headed back to Glades and hit the jug handle area as we’d done before. Both boys seemed to have fun ripping that up.
Ty cruising through that fresh powder in the Villager Trees
To continue with the positive energy, we sought out some untracked snow in the Villager Trees, and found an impressive snowpack for what has been a slow season for snowfall – I stuck my measurement pole in a representative protected area at ~2,600’ and got a depth measurement of 30 inches. While we explored around, the boys amused themselves by taking down some huge icicles from one of the ledges. On the descent, the powder was deep and thoroughly bottomless, and while many fun turns were made, the powder was almost too deep for some of the pitches in there. The turns were so good though that we were able to call it a day after that and finished off with more powder on the sides of Lower Bentley. It had actually gotten sunny and warmed up a bit as well, into the high single digits, and with the hand warmers cranking the boys didn’t have any more issues with the cold. Back at the car we found out that the “fast burn” hand warmers had already burned themselves out after just a couple of hours, while those of the “slow burn” variety were still going. At that point everything seemed to make sense – a combination of the two types would really be optimal. So after a slow start today, things really picked up and we managed some decent powder from what has been the biggest winter storm of the season up to this point.
Due to the heavy snowfall yesterday evening with rates of 3 inches per hour in some locations, Winter Storm Warnings went up for the western slopes of the Green Mountains.
E cruising through some fresh powder tonight on Sprig O’ Pine at Bolton Valley
The incoming multi-part winter storm started to affect the region today with the first round of snow. The snow started falling at our location in Waterbury right around 6:00 A.M. this morning when I was making my observations for CoCoRaHS, and there was probably a half inch of accumulation when I left roughly an hour later. There was the potential for downsloping on the western slopes of the Greens, and indeed, just a few miles west of the house, the snow really tapered off. There was little if anything falling in Jonesville and Richmond as I drove through, and nothing going on in Burlington. Later in the morning though, it did start snowing in Burlington, and there was roughly a half inch of accumulation when I left around 5:00 P.M.
When I got back to the house this evening, I found 3.7 inches of snow on the snowboard; the snow seemed fairly dense but it was still medium weight stuff at 9.2% H2O. Up in the mountains, afternoon reports were indicating about a half foot of snow from the event, with the higher totals toward Central and Southern Vermont where the snow had come in a little earlier and stronger. Here’s the north to south list of totals from some of the ski areas as of this afternoon:
Knowing that we’d picked up 3.7 inches down below in the valley, it was likely that Bolton had done better than 4 inches of snow reported in their early afternoon update, but even that was enough to get us thinking about an evening session of turns with the boys. There are only so many times a season when the right combination of new snow, comfortable temperatures, and minimal wind come together to make for that optimal night skiing experience, and tonight was looking like one of those nights.
After dinner we headed up to Bolton; we were in the dry slot portion of the storm system at that point, so precipitation was minimal and the Bolton Valley Access Road was in good shape. Arriving at the village (2,100’) we found a temperature of 30 F, and the only precipitation was some small snow grains/mist. I dropped E and the boys off at the Snowflake Lift so that they could take a run, and made it back up to the loading area before they’d even finished their descent. While I waited for them, I got to speak with our friend Matt who was checking tickets that evening. He said that the mountain had received a decent shot of snow, and that they were even thinking of opening up Timberline for the weekend. That will likely depend on how things look over there after the rest of the storm system comes through, but that was encouraging to hear.
When E and the boys returned to the lift, we headed up for another Snowflake run. They had taken the Butterscotch Terrain Park on their descent, and conditions didn’t sound all that inspiring in terms of softness and powder since they had taken the main area with the big snow whales. For that next trip we visited Sprig O’ Pine, and found some very nice powder off to the skier’s right before the area where it merges with Bear Run. The 4 inches that the resort had reported seemed about right for the lower mountain, although I suspected there would be a bit more on the upper mountain with the continued snowfall. We took one more Sprig O’ Pine run to enjoy that powder we’d found, and it continued to serve up some nice turns since it was dense enough to keep you from bottoming out. Our 3.7 inches of snow down at the house was made up of 0.34” of liquid equivalent, so with Bolton presumably picking up at least that 0.3” to 0.4” of liquid, that was plenty of cushion above the base snow.
Next it was time for a summit run off the Vista Quad. As we glided above Spillway on the lift, we were astonished by how good the coverage looked, and how many tracks were on it; it almost looked like it was open. We looked around for all the detritus that litters the trail, and it was really hard to find anything sticking out; I actually questioned if they had made snow on it because of how buried everything was. Clearly it wasn’t open though, as there was a patroller stationed at the bottom to catch folks who were bending the rules. More than likely, the new snow was just hiding all those object lurking below the surface, making for a very dicey descent. Up at the Vista Summit the air temperature had cooled a bit down to 24 F, but it was still quite nice overall. We took Sherman’s Pass, which generally had a nice surface for carving, and we had a really good time in the fresh snow off to the skier’s left above the Mid Mountain area. Ty was making so much noise and having so much fun coming down through there, that the patroller stationed in the area checked to make sure we hadn’t poached Spillway.
Dylan pauses on Sherman’s Pass as the night skiing lights illuminate some of the fresh snow on the trees.
Since it was a school night for the boys, we didn’t stay too much longer, but it had definitely been worth getting out for a few runs; it felt great to have the skis dig into that soft, fresh snow. The recent snow was deep enough that we were able to ski right across the access road to the parking lot, and in terms of ski conditions, that’s typically a great sign to be able to comfortably ski across main roads to your car. E had a good time and we’ll certainly be back for another evening session if circumstances line up appropriately again. This front end dump has already featured plenty of snow and liquid equivalent to get some additional terrain going, because there were plenty of areas that were very close. If some decent upslope comes in on the back end of this system tomorrow, that will provide additional help. I’d say everyone is excited about where the mountains will be after this event, which all told may bring up to a foot and a half of snow.
Natural snow terrain featured some excellent skiing today at Stowe Mountian Resort.
We kicked off our BJAMS ski program at Stowe today, and it really snuck up on me – it felt like we’d just finished this year’s December training day. We had to arrive early so that E could hand out everyone’s season’s passes, and once we were ready, I took Ty and Dylan out for some pre-session runs. It was the boys’ first chance to try out Stowe’s RFID lift pass system, and they were pretty psyched about how it worked as we hopped on the Sunny Spruce Quad. We saw a touch of snow yesterday at Bolton, but since the three small storms last week that dropped about a half a foot of snow, there hasn’t been anything huge. Powderfreak reported that the mountain did get another 2.7 inches overnight, and coupled with all the other recent light snows and wintery temperatures, the fresh tracks that Powderfreak snowed from the morning looked mighty fine. I was really worried when I heard PF mention some light rain in the lower elevations on Saturday, but it must have been pretty inconsequential because nobody is mentioning any ill effects.
We set out toward Lower Smuggler’s, hoping to find some “satisfying” turns like we found yesterday at Bolton. Lower Smuggler’s didn’t turn out to be that impressive; there was a lot of manmade snow on it that was rather firm, and not a lot of extra untracked snow off to the sides. With all the racing going below on Slalom Hill, we took the alpine slide tunnel and headed toward the meadows area to see how the natural snow in the upper meadows was skiing. We cut around the very top of the area in case it was crusty of coverage was poor, but once we cut back in we found that it didn’t matter – the snow was quite decent. Even though that area is south facing and very low elevation, there were a couple of inches of substantial powder over the base snow. The base was a little variable due to what seemed like wind and some previous melting, but the quality of the turns was impressive. At one point I believe I commented, “That wasn’t half bad… that wasn’t even a third bad!” There are still a few blades of tall grass sticking out here and there, but that’s really decent coverage for such a location with snowfall being substantially below average.
Ty catches some powder turns in the open area above Meadows at Stowe.
We had time for another run, so we took the Sunny Spruce again, and this time headed in the direction of Side Street. The skier’s left had some very nice snow, and when we passed the last exit from Lower Smuggler’s we saw that it looked great – it had several inches of powder on it, with just a few tracks. We added that to our hit list in case we got the chance to venture there later in the day. At that point it was obvious that there is some really good snow out there, and not just in the high elevations; when I probed snow depths in those middle elevations of Spruce Peak, I generally found 8 to 12 inches of loose powder before I hit a base layer. That’s great skiing for any time during the season. At the top of the Easy Street Double we cut over to the area above Meadows once again. The boys set down some more tracks in that powder, and were looking really good as they handled the variable snow that lay underneath.
When we got back it was time to start coaching. My partner for today was Mike, but as he was still working on getting his son Micah set up, I took all the kids out alone for an initial run. I had a good crew, with Luke, Jack, Alexia, Madeline, Ty, and Dylan. After what we’d seen on that last run, I knew the exact route to take; we headed toward Side Street, and traversed to catch that powder on the Lower Smuggler’s Exit. That snow was as good as it had looked. I then brought everyone into the powder above Meadows so that they could work on handling that uneven base, and they all did a pretty nice job.
We met up with Mike and headed over to the Gondola, finding that it was feeling especially wintery when we got up to the Gondola summit around 3,600’ or so. There was a bit of snow falling, some wind, and tons of snow on the ground; it was definitely a midwinter scene. Mike suggested that we hit the switchbacks along Gondolier, and as we headed down that way, I cut uphill from Upper Perry Merril to check out some of the snow on Upper Switchback – there was over a foot of powder up there over plenty of base, and if I hadn’t been coaching I suspect some off piste exploration would have yielded some really nice turns. The main issue keeping all off piste terrain from being accessible is just that snowpack is still somewhat low, so getting into the trees (especially steep stuff) isn’t quite there for all locations yet. With that said, Mike noted that yesterday he was out exploring the Goatdive woods and environs (on his super fatties and being very cautious) and had a good time. I’m not recommending this of course, since he’s very familiar with all those lines from hiking them in the off season, but things are certainly getting close for that type of terrain. The 26 inches of snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield Stake isn’t just 26 inches of fluff, there’s plenty of substance in there, and as Powderfreak and I talked about over in the American Weather Forum, that’s the snowpack depth where appropriate moderate-angle tree skiing gets going around here. We certainly weren’t planning to explore much off piste with the kids today anyway, but it was nice to find that there are some fantastic powder turns out there already. As we continued down below the upper mountain, we found that the lower sections of Switchback were OK, but for whatever reason they seem to be really icy in spots as I’ve often seen. One would think they’d get less traffic than Gondolier or Perry Merril, but something turns the snow bad in there – perhaps it’s the narrowness of the trail constraining traffic in a small area.
With another trip on the Gondola we decided to catch Cliff Trail so the kids could try out Stowe’s new Four Runner Quad. Cliff Trail, which far too frequently seems to be just an icy, concave mess with the way it is groomed and managed, was far better than usual – it was left bumped up! Neither Mike not I could remember the last time we’d seen it like that, but the conditions were so much better than what happens when they groom it. Perhaps it keeps people from skidding their way down the trail and turning it into an icy mess? Whatever the reason, the upper half that had been left bumped had far better conditions than I can remember from any recent outings. Farther down, Lower Nosedive was a return to annoying manmade snow… firm and not really that impressive.
We had a couple of runs off the quad, one down through to the Tyro area, and another in the North Slope area. There was some pretty nice snow near the top of the mountain, but neither trail was all that impressive with firm, Sunday afternoon, manmade snow conditions prevailing. I was surprised that Tyro was so firm, as it’s a little lower angle and out of the way, but for whatever reason it was pretty uninspiring. One trail that we didn’t ski was Liftline – but it looked pretty crazy with a lot of firm, snowmaking whales of all different configurations. On our final trip to the top it was really starting to get cold. We took a snack break inside the Octagon, but they were in the midst of closing so we headed out quickly and headed back to Spruce Peak. We managed to catch the s’mores session at the fire pit in the Spruce Peak Village, and the kids were happy about that, although we didn’t take any additional runs.
Looking out from the Octagon at a weather-battered evergreen high on Mt. Mansfield
Upstairs in Spruce Camp, the Great Room Grill and Spruce Camp Bar were closing early today, so E and the boys and I decided to stop in at The Whip for food on the way home. We were still a little early for the full dinner menu, which starts at 5:30 P.M., but the kid’s menu was in effect and E and I had soup and salad like we’d been thinking about anyway. I think E and Claire had a very good first outing for the BJAMS ski program today, and with the big season’s pass distribution week behind us now, thing will hopefully continue on a good track when we next meet in a couple of weeks.
Overall there is already some impressive skiing and riding out there on the natural snow terrain at Stowe; I can see why people are coming from all over the place to visit, since it’s been a slow start to the season in many areas. There’s not much to complain about, and hopefully next week’s system will be another net gain to improve the skiing even more. Having skied at both Bolton Valley and Stowe this weekend, I can say that one good synoptic storm with an inch or so of liquid equivalent is going to produce a huge bump in open terrain – if it’s big enough both resorts could be close to 100% open. For Bolton, it may also depend on how prepared they are to get areas like Wilderness and Timberline going, but we’ll see what Mother Nature does and I’m sure they’ll take it from there.
There weren’t any large snowstorms in Northern Vermont over the past week, but we did have three small storms that brought a total of 4.8 inches of snow to the house and probably a half foot or so to the mountains. Today was again expected to be one of those comfortable days in the 30s F, and since it appeared as though there was some warming in the middle elevations based on Powderfreak’s early morning report from Stowe, we got a relatively early start in case the powder on the lower mountain was going to thicken too much with the warming temperatures.
I checked in on the temperature history for the Bolton Valley Weather Station at 2,100’, and it had only gotten up to 35 F overnight at that elevation. As we drove up the Bolton Valley Access Road around 9:30 A.M., we could see that the mid level temperature inversion was in effect though; at the house (500’), the temperature was around freezing, and it was 37 F in the village (2,100’). That still wasn’t too bad depending on how dry the air was, and it was likely cooler than that above the base elevations.
Temperatures at the base of Bolton Valley rose to 35 F overnight, and the mid to upper 30s F during the day today, but the summit elevations stayed below freezing and the powder remained light and dry on the upper half of the mountain.
The resort had finally opened up the Snowflake Lift for the season, so I dropped E and the boys off there to let them take a run or two while I parked the car and got changed. When I finally met back up with them, they’d already taken a couple of runs, and the boys were really enjoying the skiing in the Butterscotch Terrain Park. The mountain hasn’t even created the big jumps yet, but they’ve started to amass snow in the area, and there are some knolls and steep drops. Ty enjoyed taking them at speed and sailing a good distance while being just inches off the ground. The embryonic terrain features were nice, but I was more interested in powder along the edge of the park. There were a couple inches of new snow atop the base, and it was skiing nicely – there certainly weren’t any temperature issues with the powder at that point. We met up with Stephen and his group of Helena and Thomas, as well as Claire and her group of Luke and others, and took a few runs in that area before finally deciding to check out the higher elevations.
E enjoying some of the powder along the edge of the Butterscotch Terrain Park
From the Vista Summit we decided to head down Alta Vista, and this is actually where I found some of the best turns of the day. I checked out the snow on the skier’s far left, and found an impressive accumulation composed of the recent rounds of powder, bolstered by snow that people had pushed off the trail. I told the others in the group to check it out as well, because it was really impressive. We’ve certainly had some good skiing so far this season, but it was something about the combination of steep, soft turns along that left side spine that really hit that next level. As I was composing my thoughts about the turns I’d just had in an effort to crystallize a description, Ty, who had followed my advice to take that line, came to a stop at the bottom of the steep pitch and said, “That was really satisfying!” I must have laughed out loud. That was the perfect description of that skiing – Ty had really nailed it. It was steep enough, and deep enough, and fast enough, that is just hit that combination that we hadn’t seem too much of yet. The mantra for the day became that “satisfying” line, and we deemed Alta Vista as our “go to” run from the top. Obviously, with the great snow we’d found, temperatures were not at all an issue up at the top of the mountain; it was easily below freezing and the snow was staying light and dry.
We headed over to Wilderness next to get into some untracked powder, and found that a few hundred feet lower the snow was still holding up well. The boys were in really good spirits after the great skiing we’d found on Alta Vista, and they next hit some untracked areas on the Wilderness Lift Line. Ty caught a nice jump on his line, and Dylan finished off his line with an impressive straight-line, figure-11 schuss. It was really nice to see him being so aggressive, although he did have an unfortunate end when he came into a water bar that wasn’t quite filled to the brim with snow and took a tumble in the powder. Fortunately, the biggest issue ended up being all the cold powder that got under his clothes. Below that, E had some really nice Telemark turns in the open areas of powder; the powder was a little dense, but without the effects of the wind, the snow was easier to manage than what we’d encountered last Friday. The boys and I popped into Wilderness Woods, and coverage is clearly adequate based on how heavily they had been skied. Still, one can’t quite go around with reckless abandon in there yet, and a big synoptic dump of snow is what’s needed to get that area to the next level of coverage with more comfortable skiing. Farther along, we ventured onto Lower Turnpike. Just like we’d seen last Friday, the kids were still there having a session on that backcountry kicker. There was still plenty of untracked snow to be found, although now that we were on the lower half of the mountain we could feel it getting thicker due to temperatures a bit above freezing.
Ty catching a little air on the Wilderness Lift Line
The boys called for lunch, so we headed into the lodge. Surprisingly, even though the holidays were over, the lodge was much more crowded than we’d found on our previous Bolton outing a week ago on New Year’s Eve. That day had low clouds on the upper mountain that probably kept a lot of people away, but a big factor in the number of visitors today was probably the fact that all the season-long kids programs were starting up. After a quick look for a table, we just decided that we’d grab a quick bite in the James Moore Tavern instead. It was our first time in the tavern this season and we had a pleasant lunch with the usual great atmosphere. The tavern was really filling up by the time we were done, so it looks like they were doing some really good business. Stephen popped into the tavern during lunch and said that he’d be free in the afternoon for some skiing; Helena was going to take a lesson, and Johannes would still be in his Mountain Explorers group for the remainder of the day.
Some ski area ambiance from inside the James Moore Tavern at lunch today
After lunch we did a Mid Mountain run on Beech Seal, and some precipitation started to fall. We actually thought it might be rain at first, but it was just a bit of sleet that soon transitioned over to snow. We met up with Stephen and Thomas, and enjoyed the fresh round of snowfall as we rode the Vista Quad and headed toward the summit. The snow was gradually transformed into higher quality flakes as time and elevation passed, and it was snowing hard enough on the upper half of the mountain that we put up our hoods to keep from getting covered. I was riding the chair with Ty and Dylan, and we all had fun with various methods of capturing snowflakes in our mouths. The snow didn’t last too long, but at least it put down a coating and brought in and extra dose of winter spirit.
Ty going for some snowflakes during one of our rides on the Vista Quad today
We introduced Stephen and Thomas to what we’d found on Alta Vista, and then headed back over to Wilderness. It had warmed a bit more, so the turns in the untracked snow on Lower Turnpike were more challenging, and we learned that we’d definitely been smart when we’d hit it as early as possible. While the skiing was still manageable, it was getting sticky enough that it wasn’t quite worth making the trek all the way over there, especially when contrasted to the way the snow was staying so cold in the higher elevations up on Alta Vista. With that thought in our heads, we headed back up for another go at Alta Vista. Ty actually nailed the steep, “satisfying” section better than me on that one, although I came right back at him and said that I’d like to see him handle it with some quality Telemark turns. On the lower mountain, E and I opted for the steeper turns on Beech Seal, while Thomas and the boys took Bear Run for its jumps. Even with the good snow, we were done at that point, so we skied on down to the road and headed to the car. I think Ty would agree that it was a pretty “satisfying” day – we got a taste of steep, natural snow and we’re ready for Mother Nature to deliver something that will allow more access to more. There could be a substantial storm in the later part of the upcoming week, so we’ll just have to see how that plays out. The mountain is primed and ready with respectable base snow at all elevations, even down to Timberline, so a big synoptic dump could open a lot of terrain.
