J.Spin
New member
Date(s) Skied: 1/3/2009
Resort or Ski Area: Bolton Valley, VT
Conditions: 12" Powder etc.
Trip Report: Here’s an update on the conditions we found at Bolton Valley yesterday. When I saw how much upslope snow was falling at the house in the morning, I knew I had to get E and the boys up and out for some powder, even if the temperatures were going to be a bit brisk. We left the house with a valley temperature of 20 F, and up in the village at around 9:00 A.M. the temperature was 15 F. There was some wind too, probably 15-20 MPH at times, but fortunately no wind hold on the lifts. With the wind we decided to stay on the lower mountain, and first kicked off a couple of fun runs in the terrain park areas. My measurements revealed between 12 and 14 inches at the ~2,400’ level, and the powder skiing was excellent. The mountain was eventually reporting 10-12 inches of new snow, and I found about 8-14 inches checking various spots around the lower mountain. The snow was quite dry, in the ~4% H2O range based on my valley measurements, and it skied great all over the lower mountain, which hadn’t been affected by much wind. It was fun to see Ty screaming down the terrain park slopes with the powder billowing up over his waist, and even Dylan went fast enough in a few spots to get the snow flying. We took a break after a couple of runs, and then went out for some more on the Mid Mountain Lift. The Enchanted Forest area had nice powder, but you still had to watch out for some items like stumps and sticks in a few spots. After a few more runs Dylan went inside with E, and Ty and I took a trip up the Vista Quad to the summit. I was mostly interested in getting over to the Cobrass Lane/Five Corners area to check out the powder, and didn’t expect too much out of the higher elevations in terms of snow quality (even from the lower mountain you could see that the Show Off area had been blown nearly clean of the new snow). Once we got up at the Vista Summit, we were glad we’d spent the morning on the lower mountain because the winds were much stronger and they had really ripped the powder away from the steep trails on the upper half of the mountain. Cobrass had some good snow after the first steep pitch, which was wind scoured but surprisingly had better snow than when Ty and I last skied it in mid to late December. The skies cleared out to blue after about mid morning, so it was a pretty nice day, but not quite up to the morning Ty and I had on December 20th. The powder was similarly dry this time around, and it was a bit deeper, but December 20th was 5 degrees F warmer and also had the sun but no wind, so it edged out today by a bit. A few shots from the day are below. I also took a look at what some of the Vermont resorts were reporting for 24-hour accumulations yesterday, here’s the list from north to south along the spine:
Jay Peak: 2 inches (7:45 A.M.)
Smuggler’s Notch: 10 inches (4:23 P.M.)
Stowe: 5 inches (12:30 P.M.)
Bolton Valley: 12 inches (9:15 A.M.)
Mad River Glen: 6 inches (8:45 A.M.)
Sugarbush: 8 inches (1:50 P.M.)
Killington: 6 inches
Okemo: 2 inches (2:24 P.M.)
Bromley: 6 inches (7:00 A.M.)
Magic Mountain: 3 inches
Stratton: 5 inches (2:46 P.M.)
Mount Snow: 5 inches
I was a bit surprised at Stowe’s lower accumulation since it is between Smugg’s and Bolton, but Scott filled me in over at EasternUSwx.com and indicated that it was likely in the same range and the number on the website was a tad low. Based on Dylan Gamache’s Stowe pictures from yesterday, it certainly looks like they got plenty of snow.
J.Spin
Resort or Ski Area: Bolton Valley, VT
Conditions: 12" Powder etc.
Trip Report: Here’s an update on the conditions we found at Bolton Valley yesterday. When I saw how much upslope snow was falling at the house in the morning, I knew I had to get E and the boys up and out for some powder, even if the temperatures were going to be a bit brisk. We left the house with a valley temperature of 20 F, and up in the village at around 9:00 A.M. the temperature was 15 F. There was some wind too, probably 15-20 MPH at times, but fortunately no wind hold on the lifts. With the wind we decided to stay on the lower mountain, and first kicked off a couple of fun runs in the terrain park areas. My measurements revealed between 12 and 14 inches at the ~2,400’ level, and the powder skiing was excellent. The mountain was eventually reporting 10-12 inches of new snow, and I found about 8-14 inches checking various spots around the lower mountain. The snow was quite dry, in the ~4% H2O range based on my valley measurements, and it skied great all over the lower mountain, which hadn’t been affected by much wind. It was fun to see Ty screaming down the terrain park slopes with the powder billowing up over his waist, and even Dylan went fast enough in a few spots to get the snow flying. We took a break after a couple of runs, and then went out for some more on the Mid Mountain Lift. The Enchanted Forest area had nice powder, but you still had to watch out for some items like stumps and sticks in a few spots. After a few more runs Dylan went inside with E, and Ty and I took a trip up the Vista Quad to the summit. I was mostly interested in getting over to the Cobrass Lane/Five Corners area to check out the powder, and didn’t expect too much out of the higher elevations in terms of snow quality (even from the lower mountain you could see that the Show Off area had been blown nearly clean of the new snow). Once we got up at the Vista Summit, we were glad we’d spent the morning on the lower mountain because the winds were much stronger and they had really ripped the powder away from the steep trails on the upper half of the mountain. Cobrass had some good snow after the first steep pitch, which was wind scoured but surprisingly had better snow than when Ty and I last skied it in mid to late December. The skies cleared out to blue after about mid morning, so it was a pretty nice day, but not quite up to the morning Ty and I had on December 20th. The powder was similarly dry this time around, and it was a bit deeper, but December 20th was 5 degrees F warmer and also had the sun but no wind, so it edged out today by a bit. A few shots from the day are below. I also took a look at what some of the Vermont resorts were reporting for 24-hour accumulations yesterday, here’s the list from north to south along the spine:
Jay Peak: 2 inches (7:45 A.M.)
Smuggler’s Notch: 10 inches (4:23 P.M.)
Stowe: 5 inches (12:30 P.M.)
Bolton Valley: 12 inches (9:15 A.M.)
Mad River Glen: 6 inches (8:45 A.M.)
Sugarbush: 8 inches (1:50 P.M.)
Killington: 6 inches
Okemo: 2 inches (2:24 P.M.)
Bromley: 6 inches (7:00 A.M.)
Magic Mountain: 3 inches
Stratton: 5 inches (2:46 P.M.)
Mount Snow: 5 inches
I was a bit surprised at Stowe’s lower accumulation since it is between Smugg’s and Bolton, but Scott filled me in over at EasternUSwx.com and indicated that it was likely in the same range and the number on the website was a tad low. Based on Dylan Gamache’s Stowe pictures from yesterday, it certainly looks like they got plenty of snow.
J.Spin
