billski
Active member
Date(s) Skied: 3/3/6
Resort or Ski Area: Bolton Valley VT
Conditions: PP - Powder
Trip Report:
Took the family to our annual 3-day Stowe (where we sleep) trip.
Since the family ranges from Beginner/underconfident , to a anywhere teen, I chose Bolton, since we simply wouldn't use the mountain Stowe has. Plus, I saved tons of money.
We left Stowe with a lot of gusty winds in the valley, worried we would find lifts on hold. A planned late AM start presented us with a pretty white knuckle ride up the access road. It was already snowing. The white knuckles were my wife, the passenger. "Close your eyes" I said. "not while you're driving I won't".
It snowed pretty much the whole day. Like you've seen from other reports, it was the driest powder I had seen in years. It was cold (single digits) made worse by a pretty good wind, but not like Stowe. Lifts were all running. Pretty much everything we skied on was packed powder. Apparently Bolton had a chance to pack down some of the pow before the remainder blew into the woods. It was really good turning stuff. Trails were almost all open. The day started with that stuff I love to call "squeaky snow."
My kids were getting bored with the groomers (like me) so we headed for the woods. Man, every piece of woods is fair game for skiing. While a lot of the woods was tracked, there was still a great deal of powder to be found all over the place. The kids like what I call "intermediate level glades", defining the pitch. We had a ball . We stayed at the main area and did the trails over there off the double and new quad. The double had the best woods skiing, but you could find it anywhere.
Oh, did I tell you my 9YO daughter and I fell off the chairlift? Ouch!
The double "Wilderness Lift" has hard plastic seats that are the slipperiest things you've ever seen. First run, me and my ski bud got on, he almost bought it but caught himself. After that, I got on the lift with my 9YO who is skinny as a toothpick, fast but not muscular. She has slipped off other lifts before (she has short legs, which makes sitting back difficult) Well, this is her first year with poles and I forgot to tell her to put them in one hand. She starts to slip as the lift continues to travel up. I grab her around the chest. I go to give her a yank up, and I begin to slip. Bar is still up at this point. The liftie stops us at about the 10' height. The rest was seconds but seemed like hours. I feel myself getting weaker and weaker, I finally drop my poles and she's still holding hers unbeknownst to me, I tell her to grab onto the chair. she turns, we both begin to slip, she has the slipperiest jacket known to man, I lose her. Oh s**t, the last thing i want is to have her traumatized. I hear a thump, I have no time to react, then I lose my grip and go down. Musta been 3' of powder. I could care less how injured I was , I was scared to death of her. Drainage ditch beneath us. I landed, big pain shoots up my back. S((t! I'm gonna fall on top of her, skis first/Missed. /Whew! I roll over, look at her, dammit, she's LAUGHING! Lifties came over , helped us get our skis off, she said she was fine, got up crawled out and walked away. Holy smokes! I was ok, but really bruised up on my shoulder and pulled neck muscle (you find out these things later). Good news, we got right back on the lift. Our family and friend who witnessed the whole thing from 5 chairs up said it looked really scarey. We were damn lucky.
Next time, she got the pole holding right and hangs on tight, loves to ski but is still pretty nerveous about the lifts.
Great place to take intermediates. Just sew sandpaper on your butt if you're gonna take the double.
Tommorrow: Burke
Resort or Ski Area: Bolton Valley VT
Conditions: PP - Powder
Trip Report:
Took the family to our annual 3-day Stowe (where we sleep) trip.
Since the family ranges from Beginner/underconfident , to a anywhere teen, I chose Bolton, since we simply wouldn't use the mountain Stowe has. Plus, I saved tons of money.
We left Stowe with a lot of gusty winds in the valley, worried we would find lifts on hold. A planned late AM start presented us with a pretty white knuckle ride up the access road. It was already snowing. The white knuckles were my wife, the passenger. "Close your eyes" I said. "not while you're driving I won't".
It snowed pretty much the whole day. Like you've seen from other reports, it was the driest powder I had seen in years. It was cold (single digits) made worse by a pretty good wind, but not like Stowe. Lifts were all running. Pretty much everything we skied on was packed powder. Apparently Bolton had a chance to pack down some of the pow before the remainder blew into the woods. It was really good turning stuff. Trails were almost all open. The day started with that stuff I love to call "squeaky snow."
My kids were getting bored with the groomers (like me) so we headed for the woods. Man, every piece of woods is fair game for skiing. While a lot of the woods was tracked, there was still a great deal of powder to be found all over the place. The kids like what I call "intermediate level glades", defining the pitch. We had a ball . We stayed at the main area and did the trails over there off the double and new quad. The double had the best woods skiing, but you could find it anywhere.
Oh, did I tell you my 9YO daughter and I fell off the chairlift? Ouch!
The double "Wilderness Lift" has hard plastic seats that are the slipperiest things you've ever seen. First run, me and my ski bud got on, he almost bought it but caught himself. After that, I got on the lift with my 9YO who is skinny as a toothpick, fast but not muscular. She has slipped off other lifts before (she has short legs, which makes sitting back difficult) Well, this is her first year with poles and I forgot to tell her to put them in one hand. She starts to slip as the lift continues to travel up. I grab her around the chest. I go to give her a yank up, and I begin to slip. Bar is still up at this point. The liftie stops us at about the 10' height. The rest was seconds but seemed like hours. I feel myself getting weaker and weaker, I finally drop my poles and she's still holding hers unbeknownst to me, I tell her to grab onto the chair. she turns, we both begin to slip, she has the slipperiest jacket known to man, I lose her. Oh s**t, the last thing i want is to have her traumatized. I hear a thump, I have no time to react, then I lose my grip and go down. Musta been 3' of powder. I could care less how injured I was , I was scared to death of her. Drainage ditch beneath us. I landed, big pain shoots up my back. S((t! I'm gonna fall on top of her, skis first/Missed. /Whew! I roll over, look at her, dammit, she's LAUGHING! Lifties came over , helped us get our skis off, she said she was fine, got up crawled out and walked away. Holy smokes! I was ok, but really bruised up on my shoulder and pulled neck muscle (you find out these things later). Good news, we got right back on the lift. Our family and friend who witnessed the whole thing from 5 chairs up said it looked really scarey. We were damn lucky.
Next time, she got the pole holding right and hangs on tight, loves to ski but is still pretty nerveous about the lifts.
Great place to take intermediates. Just sew sandpaper on your butt if you're gonna take the double.
Tommorrow: Burke
