Category: Vermont

2006-2007 Season, Mad River Glen, March, Powder Day

Tree Skiing at Mad River Glen

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A really nice day at Mad River today. This was my first powder day at Mad River and it was super sweet. The storm total was about sixteen inches as counted through the entire afternoon and including last night. Some upper mountain trails fared poorly during the rain storm and some exposed mogul tops were in a sad frozen looking state. In a matter of fact, I side cut around the Waterfall on Paradise because the main line looked particularly unfriendly. But for the most part, everything filled in nicely with the best snow (of course) in the trees.

My morning started off just peachy. After a 5:30a alarm to account for slower then normal travel times, I went out to warm up my car only to find that the drive had yet to be plowed. After a pathetic attempt at driving up the drive way with almost a foot of snow on the ground, I proceeded to shovel out a lane for one of my tires doing the bare minimum work to allow my car access to the road. After half an hour and a couple attempts, I finally whaled my car up the hill, around the corner, and onto the road. Road conditions sucked heading out of St. Johnsbury on Route 2 but were better after getting through Danville. Made it to the parking lot only 10-15 minutes late and the initial line for the single was still working its way through the coral, so I didn’t miss much!

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2006-2007 Season, Jay Peak, March, Powder Day

After Three Brutal Days of Cold, Spring Arrives With Some Rain

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This was a weird, interesting, and occasionally really fun day of skiing. After a quick up and down the Jet Chair, I started off the morning with my skins on for the first time since December. Nice to be earning some turns again as the powder machine has finally been turned off and fresh snow required hiking. Unfortunately, temperatures were warm this morning and the fresh untracked was heavy and difficult to ski. Still a fun adventure was had with a combination of lift serviced and earned turns this morning.

Finally began my lift serviced activity around 11a after my morning jaunt. While switching to alpine gear at the car, the sun changed to rain. Not sleet, not hail, not freezing rain, etc. Nothing crystalline about the quality of the precipitation. The precipitation was being absorbed into my jacket instead of bouncing off. It was a fantastic two months of below freezing temperatures without a thaw, but the melt out begins today. Thankfully the base is still very deep. At one point today, I plunged my pole down into the snow below the handle!

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2006-2007 Season, Jay Peak, March, Powder Day

Banner Day at Jay: Untracked Powder All Day

If next week’s storm turns out to be rain and washes everything away and we do not get any more snow, I will end my lift serviced portion of the 06-07 season a very happy man. This was the day I had been waiting for since the lifts started turning. Easily the best day of the season and a top five day for my skiing career.

After having skied hard open to close at Burke on Friday and Cannon on Saturday, I originally planned to take it easy on Sunday. Probably only ski until noon time or so, then warp up the weekend. One of my little toes had been extremely sore lately from my neglect and abuse, and I knew Sunday would be painful. The original plan was Mad River Glen, but they did not report any new snow from last night whereas Jay reported eight inches. A no brainer, I changed my plans. Dare I say Jay under reported eight inches? Well, maybe that was the official number but the woods were socked full of goodies. When I got to Jay, eight inches on the trails sounded about right actually. It proceeded to snow all day long with a few puking sessions thrown in for good measure. Hard to even guess what the total was by the time I left at 4p, but lines were already been replenished for the next day.

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2006-2007 Season, Burke, March, Powder Day

Powder Day at Burke Mountain

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After an aborted Cannon Mountain attempt; which blew away in the 50 MPH winds, Sledhaulingmedic, NHPH, Dave, and I went with the next best closest option with the least likely chance of wind hold: Burke. Why I even thought Cannon would be open is beyond me. I was just so pumped up to be skiing Cannon at its prime with fresh snow… rather blind not to expect winds blowing south to north to knock Cannon off line.

We got going at Burke around 10 A.M. after working out the logistics. The Willoughby Quad was turning when we got there but we were warned it was being shut down soon. We got three excellent runs off the summit, including Willoughby, Doug’s Drop into Little Chief, and East Bowl before the plug was pulled. East Bowl was fantastic but it was hard to get up much speed with the nice and dense powder. Of course, the traverse back was brutal, but I had to show off Burke’s signature trail. The Poma lift was more than adequate for our needs and proved the surface lifts have their place.

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2006-2007 Season, February, Mad River Glen

Tree Skiing and Challenging Lines at MRG

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Not being religious, ascending the Single Chair at the end of the day with the sun beginning its descent directly over the top of General Stark Mountain was about the closest I will ever come to believing in a big escalator to the sky. I do know the Single Chair leads to heaven, that much is for certain. No wait, it leads to Paradise. I always get those two mixed up!

Having a Mad Card and a Work Day ticket burning a hole in my Parka, I decided it was past time to make the arduously long and taxing drive down Route 2 to Mad River Glen. I can not believe I used to drive between two to three hours without complaint! Most Vermont locals that have lived in the Northeast Kingdom all their lives probably could not identify where the towns of Warren, Waitsfield, and Fayston are located. Culturally, Eastern Vermont and Western Vermont might as well be considered too different states.

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