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Bolton Valley 4/6/2013

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
Conditions: Frozen PP with a dusting

Trip Report:

We like Bolton Valley since it is laid back! It has slow chairs and today they only chair running was Vista Quad. This day felt like Winter with temps in the twnties and winds ranged from 15 to 30 MPH. It was cold for April 6th! Skiing was extremely fast!

We knew it was going to be cold so we arrived later hoping that the trails would soften up - nope! Our runs through the day criss crossed the mountain and edge control was key! We basically made top to bottom runs with out stopping! Some of the trail combos were Alta Vista to Shermans Pass to Moose Run or same first two then Mousehole and Fanny Hill to Abenaki. One time we went onto a short trail called Enchanted Forest and that was an icy small glade that popped out on to Bear Run which was also not groomed and frozen. After four runs we headed in for lunch and drinks! Their food is generally great but the menu was limited since they were shutting down.

Our second set of runs were down Cobrass a couple of times - there were a couple of icy patches but nothing terrible, One trip down we headed into some glades that are not on the trail map off Cobrass Lane. They were actually in great shape since the snow from the night before was still not scraped off! We then decided to make another run zig zaging on varous trails. We saved out last run for Spillway. It is a nice steep trail that often gets wind blown of snow. We saw many scraping earlier with many falls, but by going later all that scraping left a nice layer of snow that could be easily tracked. We actually picked up a friend off the lift that wanted to go down Spillway as well so she tagged along with my wife and I. Unfortunately, a woman ahead of me was a beginner and should not have been there! Well she took a hard fall and my wife, our tag along and I stopped to help! We took off her other ski she tried to get up and low and behold her knee gave out! Since I have experienced a torn ACL - I recognized this tell tale sign! We got ski patrol to help her out. Unfortunately, our last run got broken up and though it was stil fun it is never fun to see some one injured. This raises a question, why do so many beginners and intermediates attemp steep trails or black glades, bump trails and so forth with out having the skills to get them selves out of tricky situations! Does not make any sense to me! I have taught my kids and my wife to always ski with in your limits and progress with confidence! We now ski most terrain and never have to worry too much! It does not mean that something bad can't happen but preparedness is 90% of the fun!

It was a cold fun day that was relaxed! We did not have our kids so it was more of a ski date!

Spillway

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