Middlebury Snow Bowl - 2/28/08

[KingM]

Date Skied: 2/28/08

Resort or Ski Area: Middlebury Snow Bowl

Conditions: Packed Powder under cold, clear skies and a bit of wind, but not bad.

Trip Report: I skied Snow Bowl for the first time today. It's only a half hour away, but with Sugarbush and MRG so close and Bolton close enough to satisfy my occasional itch for something new, I had just never been.

It's a beautiful setting along Middlebury Gap and mountains rising around that would have been developed elsewhere, Thanks to Middlebury College's deep pockets, the base lodge and the lifts are all in great shape, not what you usually see with smaller mountains.

One of the three lifts was not open, but of the open trails (~11-12), we skied every one at least once and most trails two or more times. We also ventured into the woods a bit.

Conditions were great and it was a fun little mountain, nothing serious, with most trails rated a step harder than they would be elsewhere. Snow was in great condition everywhere, as it is throughout Northern Vermont at the moment, and even the woods had plenty. No lift lines, ever. Some runs, especially late in the day, it felt like we had our own private mountain. Most of the other skiers seemed to be college aged kids (I think they get a free pass if they're students at Middlebury College) or locals with their kids.

Accepting the limitations that a small mountain brings with it inherently, I only had two complaints. First, there are two many run-outs either at the beginning or end of runs. Second, the fresh snow was overly groomed. There were only a few trails where they left the fresh snow to bump up. It seemed really early to groom out the fresh snow that just fell 24-48 hours ago.

I mentioned to Billski the other day when he was here that my son Ethan and I were going to ski Snow Bowl for the first time and he was kind enough to give me a voucher. My son's ticket was only $18. Thanks Billski.

As far as I can tell, this is the first trip report ever for Middlebury Snow Bowl.

 

[WWF-VT]

I am a Sugarbush regular and skiied there on Feb 16th. Nice mountain and that day had all three lifts running and we had the chance to ski just about every trail. The backside area is all natural snow and had much less grooming than the frontside. There are legitimate steeps and some nice glades.

 

[Warp Daddy]

Nice report i was wondering how that place might be for my wife shes a low intermediate likes 'em green or easy blue ?

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Nice TR..I've driven by the Middlebury snowbowl a number of times but never skied there..How was the tree skiing?

 

[KingM]

Warp Daddy,

I think your wife would like it. I was thinking about making a return trip with my wife sometime as she's in the same situation and sometimes there's no point paying big mountain prices for someone who only wants to ski ~20% of the mountain anyway.

GSS, tree skiing wasn't bad. I mean, it doesn't have the variety that SB, MRG, or BV has (the other resorts in N. Vermont that I've skied), but the woods they had were fun.

I got my first good look of the mountain last summer when my son and I hiked through on the Long Trail and I've been wanting to give it a try ever since.

 

[thetrailboss]

Nice report. First non-alum to report on it...I filed a report here with pics last season...

Did you ski the backside?

And yes, they do groom a lot...probably because of the winds forecast.

 

[KingM]

Nice report. First non-alum to report on it...I filed a report here with pics last season...

Darn, I looked and thought I was the first.

Did you ski the backside?
And yes, they do groom a lot...probably because of the winds forecast.

The Bailey Falls Chair was closed, so we didn't ski back there. The only thing that wasn't groomed was Upper and Lower Loop off Proctor and the edges in a couple of places off the blacks. I'm not a huge fan of grooming everything after a storm, but the grooming quality was high. They didn't flatten every feature, for example.

I'm looking at their trail map and I don't see the woods skiing marked that we found off the top of the Worth Mountain Chair. It eventually joined with the trail called Voter. We also went through Proctor Glades and briefly through Kelton Glades, the last of which are absolute beginner glades.

A couple of other thoughts. Lake Pleiad looked like it would be a beautiful place for a picnic in the summer. There was a gnarly spot on the upper part of the Worth Mountain lift line that looked like a trail (the flatter part of which had clearly been driven over by a groomer), but had no way to get to it that I could see and is not marked on the map. I kind of wanted to go over there and poach it, but I'm too old and cautious for that.

 

[KingM]

One other question, Trailboss. I saw no bumps. Do they let any bumps develop? Greg would have run screaming for his car to see an entire mountain without a single mogul.

 

[thetrailboss]

They used to groom only one side of the trail and leave the other side to bump. And skier's right of Allen's is usually left alone.

 

[nelsapbm]

Too bad the backside wasnt open. There is some good terrain over there, and yes, they allow it to get bumped up back there-Without looking at the trail name, I think it's Youngsman that gets bumped up.