Bolton Valley 12/17/2009

[polski]

What better way to pass the time while warming up the toes in the lodge than to start a TR. On the drive up there was a dusting of snow as far south as about halfway between Concord and Lebanon on 89; by roughly Northfield VT the trees were white and passing lane periodically snow-covered; and here at BV they're reporting 4" (which seems right) with more in drifts. I've found some shots of at least boot-deep, a bit wind-affected but not too sticky.

So it's not the surprise epic dump I'd dreamed of but not a bad day at all to check out a ski area for the first time, especially with lift tickets just $15 this week and no crowd whatsoever. I will say though that yes, there are some awfully flat parts here ... even though I haven't freed my heels, I'm half-tempted to call this an earned-turns trip for some of the shlepping I've had to do on ungroomed. I like how low-key it is here though.

almost forgot - temp at the wind turbine when they started spinning the lifts was -8F. Frostbite warning signs up in the lodge. So it's also a good day for me to acclimate to real winter conditions; my previous trips this year haven't been any colder than mid-20s. There also have been occasional flurries as partly sunny has given way to mountain overcast.

 

[polski]

Odd place - lots of flats and then, on my last run, they'd opened the serious double-black Preacher with its steep trees and cliffy things and deep snow (I measured at least 16" piled up in there in a few spots). This alternated between run of the day and a bit over my head. Then at the bottom of that - more flats.

 

[speden]

Kudos for getting out today. It's pretty freakin' cold. Hope you've got the gear to deal with it.

Seems like when I read trip reports about BV, everyone complains about the flats and slow "high country" lift. I haven't tried it yet, but it's not too high on my list at this point.

 

[St. Bear]

Kudos for getting out today. It's pretty freakin' cold. Hope you've got the gear to deal with it.

Seems like when I read trip reports about BV, everyone complains about the flats and slow "high country" lift. I haven't tried it yet, but it's not too high on my list at this point.

Your loss. There's a lot of interesting terrain to be had. Sure, it's not going to give you steeps like WF, SL, or even Cannon or Stowe, but do you constantly have to be pointed 35 degrees down the trail to be entertained? BV lists their vert as somewhere around 1,600', however it skis more like two 800' hills on top of one another. It all depends on how you prefer to spend your day on the slopes, and for the snow, price, and lack of crowds, it's a quality resort.

 

[JD]

Most of the Central and NorthernGreen Mtns are hurting for sustained vert. Alot of places ski like Bolton, SBN, Jay....Burke, Big Spruce at Stowe, and pretty much any back country you do away from those big Mtns is short pitches of good vert with some shuffling in between. The Taconics is Southern VT, different story, and the whites and dacks of course. But NVT seems to get that crucial extra bit of snow for a consistant snow pack. It's nice there are mid stations to work the top half of the mtn there if it's dumping, that's fun.

 

[polski]

I didn't get any still photos because my aging camera didn't want to work in the brutal cold. Here's a grab from my Flip to give you an idea of how much snow was in Preacher woods.

speden, I was fine with the cold with the notable exception of my toes. I don't usually have problems with my feet getting cold; must have decent circulation. But I ended my day with five runs without a break (the last including Preacher) and it took me 15-20 min in the lodge before I could feel my toes again. Yikes.

Other runs I hit a few times each were Upper Vermont 200 and Schuss, both a mix of thin/wind-scour and pockets of deeper-than-average but wind-affected powder.

 

[zinger3000]

Just how flat are the flat sections at Bolton Valley? Are they so flat that you actually have to "walk" it for a bit ("Left Bank" at Jiminy Peak immediately comes to mind) or is there enough of a pitch/slope so that gravity will pull you down, even if slowly?

 

[polski]

First a disclaimer: This was my first time at BV so I really don't know the mountain, plus they didn't have the Wilderness chair open so I can't speak to the terrain on that side. I did encounter flats requiring "walking" at several spots including a big, pretty much unavoidable intersection at the top of the Mid-Mountain chair. Once I got to know what to expect I was able to deal with this better by opening it up heading into those areas but that was of limited use in some places like the bottom of Cobrass, where the ~4" of ungroomed and uphill winds conspired against gravity ...

p.s. most notably when you're riding up the Vista Quad all day, the two main trails under the top half of that - Show Off and Hard Luck - were too bony to be open. Those looked like they'd be fun, with some double fall-line action if I'm not mistaken. They still end up at that flat area atop Mid-Mountain though.