Category: February

2015-2016 Season, February, Jay Peak

Jay: Fully Open

The Orchard

Jay just became the first major resort in the northeastern United States to be fully open this season. During the last week of February. With a rain event incoming later this week, this could very well be the high water mark for the region this season.

Conditions were packed powder with stunningly good (for Jay) groomed surfaces. I bypassed the woods on my first run from the Bonnie to rip Northway with near edge to edge perfect carves, a rare treat for any Jay Peak skier. But the reason I drove to Jay was to ski the trees, terrain that few other areas have available (particularly the off map variety).

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2015-2016 Season, February, Mad River Glen

Mad River Glen: Where Is Everyone?

Fall Line

Mad River Glen received two inches of dense snow overnight. But who’s counting? Any new snow is good this year. And two inches was good enough to open almost all of the Glen’s on piste terrain excepting Upper Paradise, Cat Bowl, Panther, Slalom Hill, and Partridge. I was amazed at how much terrain was open and how good it was skiing.

I began the day with two tentative laps down groomed terrain before venturing into the natural snow on Lower Glade. The rehabilitation of Lower Glade has substantially improved this once dreadful trail. I was amazed at how good the conditions were. Just two inches had saved the day. Conditions were thin, ice and rocks needed to be avoided. But the bumps were soft and engaging, the turns were wonderful. It may have felt like mid-spring rather than mid-February, but it was still quality skiing.

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2014-2015 Season, February, Jay Peak, Powder Day

Jay: Regarding Expectations, Consistency, & Surprises

Jay Woods

Jay has taught me to always keep my expectations in check. High expectations can lead to disappointment even when conditions are better than average. And some of my fondest days are those that I expected less than stellar conditions.

But today I got exactly what I was expecting, yet another six inch powder day. A base that never seems to fully consolidate off piste. Never ending packed powder with frequent but never substantial reloads. Without the highs and the lows, we just experience a dull constant. A few inches here, a few inches there. It is nice but never epic.

This is the season of the ho-hum powder day.

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2014-2015 Season, February, Middlebury, Powder Day

Middlebury: Flatline Powder

With a voucher valid on President’s Day weekend and potential day old powder in the woods, I couldn’t resist giving Middlebury Snow Bowl another try. My first and only previous day at Middlebury was also a President’s Day weekend crowd dodger, but with abysmal conditions preventing me from skiing the trees. I’ve since heard rumors of incredible off map glades. With potential day old untracked lingering in the woods during a holiday weekend, Middlebury seemed like the perfect plan. Would rumors of Middlebury’s woods live up to the hype? Read on…

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2014-2015 Season, February, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

MRG: Aggro Powder

Basebox

Yesterday’s mellow powder at Bolton gave way to today’s aggro powder at Mad River. Bolton crams insanely good terrain into short little packages. Whereas Mad River Glen kicks your ass all the way down the mountain. And that is just the way I like it.

An extra inch or two fell during the previous night bringing the storm total up to over a foot in the past two days. And more snow continued to fall throughout the day. While Mad River Glen is reporting four feet of snow in the past week, the season total is only listed at 101-151″ which suggests that the base isn’t quite perfect yet in areas that can get skied off.

That caveat said, the conditions were spectacular packed powder almost everywhere and untracked powder (cumulative storm total plus blow in) was easy to find in the woods. The Single Liftline was skiable top to bottom with all drops such as Tower 5 open (an extreme rarity).

Today was my first day of the season essentially skiing from open to close and I went for it. After two “warm up runs” (Ha!), I met up with some friends and we tackled some of Mad River’s best and toughest tree lines. Careful route finding yielded many shots of barely tracked and untracked powder. The skiing was absolutely phenomenal and today was easily my best day of skiing this season, just barely edging out the three day Cannon Trifecta during Thanksgiving Weekend.

MRG Trees

MRG Trees