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Bolton Valley 3/8 & 3/9/2014

dlague

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Nov 7, 2012
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8,792
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CS, Colorado
Bolton Valley

Conditions: MG PP & PP in the woods

Trip Report:

Skiing at Bolton Valley was a tale of two days: Saturday was overcast, real feel seemed cold (damp) but temps were not so much and foggy at higher elevation with great skiing conditions, Sunday was bluebird skies, firmer conditions and much colder. We originally were expecting a nicer day on Saturday with brief snow around noon but that never really materialized.

We started our day on Saturday by making runs down Hard Luck and Spillway then Cobrass. While Spillway is a fairly steep trail that looks long but skis short and my favorite at BV, Hard Luck on the other hand is a nice trail with a little steepness but has a number of turns in it that make you pay attention. Cobrass is fun trail with lots of twists and turns and short pitches. This trail (for some reason) seems to always have some thin spots and is narrow so traffic can be problematic. We lapped the Vista Quad five times before we opted to head over to Timberline side via Cobrass and Five Corners (another nice cruiser) and eventually on Timberline Run (yawn – like a super long run out). We got there and were excited about a few trails there but noticed from the chair a few were closed and Intro looked a little sketchy (but skiable). Once at the top we reconsidered and headed back to Vista Quad.

While heading back we were trying to meet with a fellow AZ’er based on apparel descriptions. After a few runs on the trails mentioned above we opted to hit the Wilderness Double and there was the color patterns we were looking for. Once up at the top I skied over to xwhaler! We introduced the wives and each other as well as Jeff from RSNE and my son! We proceeded to do a few runs on the wilderness side with an interesting experience on Peggy Dow’s due to exposed patches and glass ice spots. They were all easily avoidable though. We eventually made our way over to Vista quad for a quick run down Spillway to Spillway Exit (the way to go) to avoid a flat area where Bear Run and Deer Run intersect. Once back at the base we (my wife and I) had a nice lunch and adult beverages with xwhaler and his wife. It was really cool to meet someone from this forum again – last time was savemeasammy.

After lunch we hunted down some of my siblings and their families and ended up skiing with some of the RSNE card holders which we ended up losing by accident because my wife and I opted to make some gladed turns in an unnamed area to the right of Coyote and below Work Road. It was a tight path that we followed with a few challenging drops and we popped out on Wilderness. We ended up riding the Wilderness chair and decided to ski Wilderness Woods a few times which was really fun. Not real technical but a glade that can be skied fairly quickly for the most part.

We ended our day skiing with my brother, bother-in-law and niece (6 year old) and skied Hard Luck, and Spillway. As the day was drawing to a close, my wife and I skied Preacher which is a very narrow trail that seemed pretty good there is in pitch that is followed by a quick turn where I would not want to have other people ahead of me. This is a really cool trail which opens many options. We tried to make it up to head into Devils Playground off Preacher but we missed it since they were closing trails for night skiing. Nice thing is the lift ticket allowed us to ski until 8PM. However, we started skiing at 8:30 and were fourth chair, so we skied two more runs on Spillway and lastly a slow easy run on Sherman’s Pass to Swing to Fanny Hill back to the base for a few beers with the relatives and get primed for the Ride and Ski Party!
It was a great skiing Saturday with many different people all at different times.

Thank you xwhaler for meeting up for a few runs and meeting your wife – like to do that again.

Now Sunday the temps dropped and the son was out! We skied much of the same trails but glades got really firm and scrapy and were totally different from the day before so we skipped those areas. The sun was bright (spring sun) and we were soaking it in on the chairlift rides. We focused on cruising from 9 ish until 1pm skiing a variety of runs and closed the day out on Hard Luck and Spillway which were skiing very fast – not that they didn’t the day before but the MG PP was chunkier but still skied really good!

Trail conditions were great, glades awesome Saturday and a No Go on Sunday, bumps didn’t really see much except for what was in the woods. Some of those trails were thin in spots and will do well with the snow on the way – otherwise trail dropping would have been starting soon there.

Thanks Ride and Ski for a great weekend of skiing!

Fog Saturday afternoon
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Upper part of Spillway
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Wilderness Glades
photo 2.JPG

Cobrass - Five Corners intersection
photo 4.jpg

Ride and Ski Party
photo 3.JPG
 
Last edited:

xwhaler

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Seacoast NH
Fun day at Bolton on Saturday w/ my wife. Got on skis about 9 and lapped the Vista for about an hour until the Wilderness opened up. Fun runs in the 1st hour included Cobrass, Alta Vista, and Hard Luck. Kept in touch w/ dlague through texts and finally after a few runs over on Wilderness a friendly voice called out "xwhaler" at the top of the Wilderness chair.
As dlague/Dave mentioned we did a few runs on that chair before moving back over to the Vista Quad. Spillway was a great run before heading in to the James Moore Tavern for lunch and some beverages w/ dlague and his wife. Shared some laughs, great conversation, and a couple IPAs and then we split up for the afternoon.
We headed down to the Timberline pod where we found the pitch to be better then either Wilderness/Vista with a less severe run out. After a warm up on Showtime we headed into Lost Boyz. My wife was nervous about skiing a "double diamond" glade but we worked our way through it and was a good confidence booster for her.
A bit scratchy to be sure but overall decent coverage and a glade with nice flow with some cool drops and generous tree spacing.
Few more runs over on Timberline including Twice as Nice which was pretty bad with exposed ice/rock and overall crappy conditions before heading back to Vista for a run to end the day.

Really fun day---great to meet and ski with dlague and his family....we will absolutely do it again soon!
Return to BV after a 4 yr absence and a good warm up for the rest of our wknd at Smuggs/MRG. The run out at the bottom really limits things for them on days the woods arent really going off as the groomers can get a bit repititive.
We will likely be back and stay on mtn with our son in the next couple yrs as their ski/stay packages are a great value even if the lodging is dated.
Only regret was that the RSNE party didnt start until 8 as we would have liked to attend.
 

dlague

Active member
Joined
Nov 7, 2012
Messages
8,792
Points
36
Location
CS, Colorado
Well whaler you and you wife were missed at the RSNE party! It is always a good time! Nice that you tried some runs on the Timberline Pod we bailed on it just looking from the chair. We opted for the less threatening woods on Wilderness before attempting Preacher. Should have skied together I the afternoon.



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