Author: Steve

2009-2010 Season, Cannon Mountain, February, Powder Day

Five Runs in Five Hours at Cannon

While the trailing weekend of the President’s Day Holiday period is much less busy than the opening weekend, one can still expect holiday crowds. And one can also expect not to find discounts. And one can expect to have prepaid vouchers blacked out making. Thus making the decision making process two days after a micro-storm rather difficult. After much consideration, I picked Cannon over Balsams (amongst other options), despite Balsams being a mountain on my “to do list” for this season. My decision was sound leading to spectacular results.

After grabbing my ticket, I took the first tram and began what would be the first of five hourly runs. I opted for one of my favorite stashes that reliably has “day after the powder day” freshies. My expectations were mixed. Yet I found extensive amounts of untracked lines through six inches of fresh. “Where were the powder hounds yesterday?” I wondered aloud before tearing up what they had missed out on.

Next I decided that Kinsman Glade could use an inspection. It was listed as open on the trail report but was roped when I arrived. I used the trail report as my guide instead of the rope. The upper section of Kinsman Glade skied fabulously well with plenty of untracked lines to pick from. The middle section was sketchy to say the least! By the lower middle section, I was making cautious and deliberate survival turns carefully placed and occasionally well executed. Whereas when I entered the glade I had been thinking this was a sure repeat, by the time I was nearing the end, it couldn’t be done with soon enough. Rare is the day that I can report that a rope was up for good reason.

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2009-2010 Season, February, Sugarbush

Exploring Mount Ellen

Having only ever skied Mount Ellen during the late spring, my knowledge and experience of the mountain has been limited to the Summit Quad. This was a sad omission in my skiing experience which was in need of remedy. With untracked snow from last week’s storm long gone at resorts across northern Vermont and with SkiVT Cards to burn, I pointed my car towards Sugarbush in pursuit of those wonderfully short lived feelings of novelty inspired by the wonder and bewilderment of new discoveries.

Sugarbush reported in with all trails open. But the reality is that most trails are really not worth skiing. My agenda this morning was to work the Northridge trails in quick secession before exploring the woods. But indications on my first few runs were that the woods should not wait one more run longer.

Groomers were fast hard pack with occasional scraped and frozen groomer tracks. Bumps featured either frozen or grass troughs, variable back sides, and often quite firm and unforgiving lines. Every time I started skiing a bump trail such as Exterminator, Bravo, Hammerhead, Cliffs, Encore, or Tumbler, I found myself pointing the skis into the woods in short order.

The trees skied wonderfully. Even the well traveled on map trails that were hammered had better packed snow than the exposed bump runs. But the best snow was in the trees off the map. Despite this being my first time tree skiing at Mount Ellen, my tree skiing radar is finely tuned and I found great trees on every run simply by keeping my eyes glued to the sides of the trails for those tell tale signs that rarely can be masked.

Amazingly, I found six inches of completely untracked fresh in several locations. Even more amazingly, those locations were sometimes very obvious shots in plain sight. Generally though, tighter lines in the soft woods were challenging and very thinly covered, and already hit hard enough to take out of commission until the next storm. Mid-mountain hard woods was where it was at. Lower Mountain trees were variable and often very thin. Skiable but with a snow pack that is not entirely safe.

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2009-2010 Season, January, Jay Peak

Major Slab Wind Buff at Jay

Sometimes even the best laid plans are not completely fool proof. It seemed like a no brainer at the time. Twenty inches in three days with seven of those inches falling the evening before an upper mountain lift hold at Jay. Temperatures plummeted into the single digit mark and most metro area skiers and riders had no idea that almost two feet of new snow had fallen in Northern Vermont immediately following the massive wash out last weekend. I was not expecting a jackpot and I was expecting some wind buff. My expectations were not high but they were definitely in the “powder day” realm of thinking for sure.

Only a dozen skiers were lined up for first tram which was eerie to say the least. I chalked it up to the cold and afore mentioned metro rain bias. But I soon learned that it was not those who missed first tram that were the fools. Rarely do I ride the tram and only started at Tramside due to my ticket requiring a visit to the Customer Service desk. I decided to start my morning with a rarity of sorts for me and that is the normally sure shot first tracks in the Beaver Pond area.

En route to Beaver Pond, I spied some wind buffed powder on the edge of the fast hard pack and I pounced. And I tip dove and ejected. “Nothing more than cold legs on a cold day,” I told myself. But three turns into Beaver Pond, I had difficulty on a turn, caught some foliage sticking up through the snow, and lost a ski. Hum. The snow was beyond simply being wind buffed. It was slab wind buffed with one to two inches of firm breakable slab on top of the wind buff. Breaking through the slab was variable from turn to turn creating a dire need for anticipating inconsistency. I quickly checked my speed and my ego and decided to take things in the trees very slowly. By the time I exited Beaver Pond, I was not deterred but rather determined to find the wind protected aspect the escaped the wind.

Alas, it was not to be found any where today at Jay Peak. (more…)

2009-2010 Season, January, Magic Mountain, Powder Day

Rediscovering the Magic

 

Magic delivered on MLK Day with the most new snow in Vermont. And while some locations in New Hampshire received the same or more new snow, Magic offered up the best combination of cost, terrain, and lack of crowds on a holiday weekend. Magic is always a safe (and cheap!) location on a holiday weekend for crowd avoidance. So this storm could not have been better timed.

Having said that, this was my first time skiing Magic during which they had a lift line attendant checking tickets and organizing the lift line. The two line coral backup up to a ten chair wait at one point. Wow! There were no chairs going up empty at Magic today until very late in the afternoon. It seems like the word is finally getting out about Magic.

Magic received half a foot of fresh. Powder consistency was fairly high moisture content but still rather of powdery. Great snow for packing down and improving the already ample base. My observations are that Magic did not receive rain prior to the snow. The new snow fell on a bomber but rather crusty base. The new snow was definitely much needed. Base is good but great conditions on a good base is better. All trails were open and skiing very well!

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2009-2010 Season, Earned Turns, January, Mount Washington

Washington Earned Turns via the Cog

With most of New England seeing above freezing temperatures yesterday into a freeze last night as we enter a long holiday weekend, I decided that earning turns would be the best option. I suspected snow at lower elevations might be manky so I ruled out explorations of local backcountry glades. I turned my attention to the west side of Mount Washington as a quick and easy option to get out and make some turns today.

I was not the only one with this type of plan as the parking lot at Marshfield Station had about twenty cars parked when I arrived. I quickly booted up and started my ascent looker’s right of the train tracks on a well established skin track.

This was only my third day earning turns this year and I felt winded and out of shape before even reaching the Waumbek  Tank. Snow depth was significant and I measured over 70cm in places using my pole. Coverage was exceptional with essentially edge to edge coverage minus elevated portions of the train tracks. Plenty of untracked snow remained. While it skied great, the consistency and depth of the snow was not good enough to merit a Powder Day designation.

After a short break at the Tank, I ventured on until reaching Jacob’s Ladder where I decided snow conditions did not merit further climbing above the tree line where weather exposure and visibility would be worse. Several other skiers were also there, some continuing on with plans for Ammo but most turned around at that point.

Skiing was not fun in the narrow pipeline right below Jacob’s Ladder but became increasingly more interesting below as things widened out. I opted to take skier’s left of the tracks which were not buried enough to allow easy crossing on skis once the decision had been made.  Untracked lines were plentiful but conditions made for interesting turns and had me wanting for fatter boards.