Category: Vermont

2005-2006 Season, Bolton Valley, Earned Turns, October

First Significant Snowfall at Bolton Valley, VT

Steve at Vista Peak

The amazing thing about backcountry gear is it allows a skier or rider to over rule ski area management about how long the season will be. The operation of lifts no longer dictate when I can or can not ski. So when it snows at elevation in Vermont during October and half a foot of White Gold coats the mountain tops, I can head up and get some. My last day on skis was 113 days ago during early July in Tuckerman Ravine. My latest season to date has been followed up by my earliest season to date and my shortest off season.

Reports of potential snow in higher elevations of Vermont began filtering through the NWS reports and subsequently many Northeastern Ski Forums. The weather forecasters totally missed the call on this crazy snow storm. Slowly the reports came trickling in Sunday Morning. An inch in the Mad River Valley soon became half a foot. Claims of a foot of fresh were posted from Killington. A report of 3-6″ on the lower slopes of Bolton Valley caught my eye and had my car wheels rolling within the hour.

Early in September, I made a call in a most joking manner that October 23rd would be the first big snow storm for my area. With humorous bravado, I went one step further and claimed that I would be skiing on the 23rd as well. I am still amazed that my off the wall guess was accurate.

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2004-2005 Season, Earned Turns, Killington, May

Late May Earned Turns at Killington

Late May at Killington

Saturday May 29th found me running all over New England for Memorial Day Weekend festivities and moving errands. At 10 P.M., I found myself in my old apartment in Salem, Massachusetts cleaning the place up and dropping off the keys to the landlord. I was looking at a late night three hour drive home to Vermont which was not very appealing. Also, I was planning a run at Killington’s Superstar the following day. Killington being two hours away from St. Johnsbury had me doing over 12 hours of driving in a 24 hour window which was very unappealing. Fortunately, I had planned for the dilemma by already packing my gear and sleeping bag in my car. I saved a four hour round trip from St. Johnsbury by driving straight up to Killington that night and doing some car camping at Hotel Mobil.

Says the cashier when I walk into the store the next morning looking for breakfast: “Was that you sleeping in the car?” Says I: “Yes it was!”

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2004-2005 Season, Earned Turns, Jay Peak, May

May Earned Turns at Jay Peak

Preparing to Hike for May Turns

Killington claimed that this past Sunday marked the end of the ski season for New England. Perhaps for lift serviced it was, but for the dedicated turn earning enthusiast, there is still much more skiing to be had this season.

It was a toss up between skinning up Killington or hiking up The Jet at Jay. With Killington twice as far away as Jay, Jay Peak seemed like the better option since this would be the last week snow would be remaining on The Jet. Got a late start leaving work at 4:30 P.M. despite planning on leaving 3:30 P.M. No worries though due to the late afternoon day light allowing for late evening turns.

Recent reports indicated that Can Am was decent and had linkable turns down to the terrain park. Warm and damp weather washed much of Can Am’s snow away. Can Am was still doable with a few brakes in the cover but given my late start and desire for continuous vertical, I opted for longest continuous vertical under the Jet triple. The Jet patch also looked rather elegant and aesthetically pleasing.

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2004-2005 Season, AlpineZone Meet Up, Magic Mountain, March

AlpineZone.com Meet Up at Magic Mountain, VT

Brian & Steve on Magic Carpet

Another successful AlpineZone.com Meet Up was staged for Magic Mountain in Southern Vermont for late March. Bob, Brian, and I met in the lodge and we ran into MrMagic on the slopes. The morning began with beautiful weather and good conditions though it was cloudy most of the day with clouds burning off to allow for decent views towards the afternoon. Magic Mountain had 100% of its terrain open with about somewhere between a quarter to a third left ungroomed.

We begin with a warm up run down Medium to Vertigo with nice packed powder opening up to some big arcs near the bottom. Next we skied Trick to Wand to Showoff; getting in Trick before it scraped up too much. Over on Talisman, a thin groomed track was run down the center with natural and bumps on either side. I liked skier’s right up top and skier’s left down low while Bob and Brian tended to stay on the rough groomed patch. I wanted to show the guys Broomstick which is a great narrow trail off the top of the mountain. However, Bob’s knee was recovering and needed a stress free day of skiing. Despite Broomstick looking flat, I feared Heart of Magician and Lucifer were likely bumped. I volunteered to inspect by way of Master Magician (a guys gotta have his fun ). I took Master skier’s right and I think I overheard a fellow skier mention the words sick and nuts in the same sentence but I wasn’t sure. Skier’s left was fantastic! I only hit three rocks but I scored nearly untouched snow which was by far the best on the mountain. Later I hit Master again skier’s right through the trees which was dust on crust and dust on ice. Not so good. I found out Broomstick was unfortunately not doable without hitting very user unfriendly bumps on Heart or Lucifer.

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2004-2005 Season, Magic Mountain, March

Magic Mountain, VT

Master Magician

Awesome day done up proper at Magic Mountain. All trails were open despite some thin cover. Action on the groomers got the morning off to a fine start. You could say I began my morning by turning a Trick. Lower sections of the mountain featured ripping groomed snow great for opening up the turns and picking up some speed. Magic is extremely underrated for their groomed terrain. All the groomers except Wizard were great in the morning and stayed great all day. Wizard featured frozen granular surfaces that were not enjoyable in the morning but finally corned up late in the afternoon.

While riding the lift, I spoke with a college kid racing in the Thompson Division (my former racing division when I attended UMass Lowell). The kid skis Stratton all the time due to his girl friend having a Condo at the mountain. He had never skied Magic before and he was raving about the mountain! Another convert, I love it! You just have to ski it on a good day to understand.

For natural snow, things started out very hard with frozen granular surfaces. My legs were not moving quick enough as I was tired and undernourished. Essentially, I was making it look like amateur day on Talisman, Sorcerer, Twilight Zone, Heart of Magician, and Goniff. Talisman and Heart were pretty nice at lower elevations but I did not care much for the unforgiving frozen bumps of Sorcerer. Goniff was significantly better Twilight Zone which is rarely the case.

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