The posts started appearing on my phone last weekend during a layover in Atlanta. As we were heading out of the country for a week, Vermont was starting to experience its best last week of October storm in ten years. Perhaps that bodes well because 2006 was a banner year for me with 22 powder days. But even that thought provided little comfort while enjoying a missed connection layover in Atlanta (thanks, Delta) on the first day of a vacation.
The second half of October is an attractive time for me to schedule tropical vacations. Hurricane season is almost over but ski season has usually not yet begun (or lifts will just be firing up upon our return). Travel prices are at their lowest point of the year and I am at my highest need of time off. Sometimes it works out well like two years ago when we flew in Logan during the first snow of the year. And sometimes, like this year, I miss several days of skiing amazing early season earned turn powder.
We got home after midnight on Thursday and I was drained from the travel. I had several errands to run on Friday (including having my snow wheels/tires installed) and then I had to work on Saturday. During Saturday, I watched from my window at work as the sky opened up and rain poured down. A quick glance at the weather suggested that no mountain and no elevation in New England would be spared the snow destroying deluge.
So ambition was quite low on Sunday, my first opportunity to reap what little remained of the week long bounty. I planned to stop at Cannon and see what was left but probably head to Jay. There was no reason to stop at Cannon for an inspection. As I drove past the Front Five, I could see almost no snow anywhere below the cloud cover at Extension.
The view from the base of Stateside at Jay was not reassuring: broken patches of snow and what appeared to be very shallow base depths. I figured at least Vermonter would still be skiable and I certainly wasn’t going to drive four hours round trip without giving it a shot. So I started hiking and eventually skinning just below Hell’s Woods.
Snow depths were not increasing much with elevation, I observed a scant 0-6″ average across broken patches of snow. In a reverse of normal early season logic (when the snow is fluffy rather than wet), the best snow was on the high side of the trails where the rain could drain. Normally, fresh snow would have loaded the low points in the trails. One benefit of the melting was that all of the rocks, obstacles, undulations, and water bars were fully exposed. I correctly surmised that aggressive turns on the wet patches would be safe despite only a few inches of snow or less.
The base of Vermonter looked promising. But as I ascended the corners and turns near Valhalla and Green Beret, I observed that half the trail lacked snow and the other half was an obstacle filled mess. I ascended past Green Beret despite knowing that the turns would be less than worthwhile. Unlike the rest of the mountain, the summit received a wintery mix instead of all rain and the snowpack was locked up solid. But I wanted a summit despite the resulting deplorable turns.
The descent went much as I had expected it would based on my observations while skinning. Desperation turns ensued down to Green Beret where the snow softened. Most of Vermonter involved technical oriented rock dodging turns and route finding. But the reward was the final pitch when the trail opens up and flattens. I enjoyed wide open carefree turns until I reached Montrealler where I hiked to the top of the Jet.
Haynes seemed to be the best of the worst options for the descent. Unlike normal early season skiing, the steepest aspects retained the best snow. And due to melting, the obstacles were exposed and uncovered. The snow was so wet and dense that even just two or three inches was more than enough for a full cutting turn without base damage.
I connected the patches and occasionally found some rip worthy patches where I opened up bigger arcs. Halfway down Haynes, the turns finally started being really fun and I couldn’t help but give a cry of “woo hoo!!” as I picked up some speed and rhythm. Despite occasional stops for route finding, the skiing was actually quite fun. Thin coverage always looks much worse from below than it does from above. With some careful grass skiing, I made it almost all the way to the base, down hiking only the final 100 vertical feet.
