Category: Vermont

2013-2014 Season, Burke, March

(Q)Burke: Firm & Fast

QBurkeWhile at Jackson Hole, I received a comment on Facebook stating that I wasn’t missing much. As it turns out, I was missing something. I was missing some pretty shitty mid-winter conditions as evidenced by today’s attempt at skiing. Welcome home.

But don’t cry for me. After a perfectly timed trip yielded at least 6-8″ of fresh four out of five days, Jackson Hole’s summit today was in the mid-30s and the Village was in the mid-40s. I’ll take frozen hard pack over spending $1200 to travel more than halfway across the country to ski spring corn and have it freeze solid the next day. With an east coast storm lined up for later this week, the timing was as perfect as could be despite one weekend worth of setback.

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2013-2014 Season, February, Powder Day, Smugglers Notch

The Honeymoon Resumes at Smuggs

This past January was a horrible month for me personally, sub-par skiing was not the worst aspect. But with only four days of skiing including one terrible day, it was a mostly forgettable month of skiing as well. After two exhaustive weeks at work including a 13 day work week and a significant number of 12-15 hour days, I was ready for some fun.

I was expecting a decent amount of fresh powder with limited terrain. What I got was a decent amount of terrain with limited fresh powder. The official report came in at four inches but it was unevenly distributed with very little at the base and perhaps a little more at the summit. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to open up Freefall (for an hour), Liftline (excepting the steepest pitch), and many upper mountain off map trees. It was not what I expected but I was not disappointed.

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2013-2014 Season, January, Magic Mountain, Powder Day

Boot to Knee Deep & Cold: Magic

Sorcerer

Northern Vermont hasn’t been able to catch a break since before Christmas. Another storm slammed into southern New England and southern Vermont’s Golden Triangle was the big winner for ski areas. Magic picked up a foot and a half which opened everything except the trees.

Due to the cold temperatures, I expected light fluff over a questionable base. However, the powder was supportive though not bottomless. Supportive enough to merit excitement but the powder hid a thin base that occasionally punished said excitement with treachery. It was a sporting kind of powder, encouraging reckless abandon but rewarding cautious exuberance.

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