Bolton Valley 2-27-08

Date Skied: 2-27-08

Resort or Ski Area: Bolton Valley

Conditions: Powder, packed powder

Trip Report: We had a great day at Bolton Valley today. We took the whole family and left the little guy in day care. It's the last family trip we'll take (counting my wife) before he's old enough to get on skis himself.

There was lots of fresh snow, no lift lines and a steady snow that fell all afternoon. It was a bit windy when we arrived late morning, but that cleared up as the day went on.

We started off with a few warm up runs on the greens and blues on the mid-mountain lift and discovered that the younger kids had graduated from the Enchanted Forest and wanted to try some more extensive woods and glades. We did some of this and took a couple of runs on the Vista Quad before my older son and I ditched the others and skied Vista Glades and Spillway.

We ate lunch, then skied the Snowflake lift, where the trails were gentle but almost completely untracked, before skiing across to the Timberline Lift. My older son and I again left the others on greens and blues and skied Brandywine, Spellbinder and Twice as Nice. These were my favorite runs of the day. A couple more runs off the Vista and we finished.

It may be that I've spent so much time at Mad River and Sugarbush but my impression of Bolton (this was my third or fourth time in the last few years) is that the trails are sometimes rated a step higher than they would be in the MRV. There were trails rated black that would have been blue down here. Vermont 200 pretty challenging, but some of that was how the moguls had shaped up and that there were still some hard parts underneath. We also didn't try the double blacks that they had, so it's hard to say how those would rate.

Having said that, I was impressed with the glades and woods at Bolton. They have a really nice selection and seem to be working really hard to develop this aspect of the resort.

I was very dissappointed w BV's trail ratings over Prez Weekend as well; stuff just wasn't steep...until we skied some of the double black woods trails (Devil's xxsomethingxx, Preachers, and the one all the way to skier left off the Timberline trail). There were certainly some hairy parts on these completely empty trails. Not the steepest I ever skied, but they did surprise the heck out of me. We were there when they were fairly tracked out, so protruding rocks and thin cover were added obstacles, and the lack of snow made them ski fast, so this may have added to the perceived difficulty.

Next time your there, give them a shot though. My gf is a very accomplished skier, and they made her freak, so...its not all bunnies and mooses.

but my impression of Bolton (this was my third or fourth time in the last few years) is that the trails are sometimes rated a step higher than they would be in the MRV.

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you can say that about a lot of New England Areas (subtract one from the MRG rating)

How were the winds today? It was tad too breezy on the Sugarbush summits.

billski said:

you can say that about a lot of New England Areas (subtract one from the MRG rating)

How were the winds today? It was tad too breezy on the Sugarbush summits.

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It was the opposite of what I was expecting. Early in the day it was windy up top but by the end the winds had died down. I was expecting it to get windier and windier.

Trail ratings are in relationship with the other trails of that particular ski hill not with other ski hills. That's why a blue at BV would be less dificult than a blue at Jackson, for example.