2007-2008 Season, January, Powder Day, White Mountain BC

Powdery White Mountains Backcountry

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With powder long since been tracked up and packed down at ski areas, it was high time to hit the backcountry and sample week old powder. Thus, I voyaged north to the backyard of my heart and sampled what the White Mountains backcountry had on tap. Offerings were substantially better than expected given how many days have passed since the last storm. Six inches of fluff was pillaged with deeper sections up high and in drifts.

Epic turns were had on a particularly sweet and perfectly pitched tight chute featuring sporadic trees and a meandering double fall line. The run ended with somewhat boring final turns on a switchback like route that ended with a skin out to white pastures. Evidence of recent animal tracks of all varieties were abundant in the snow. Most notably, at one point, I was following the tracks of a rather large moose which was somewhat concerning. The silence was blissful and the contact with nature and true rugged backcountry terrain was stunning.

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TheSnowWay.com’s Total Cost Calculator for the Season

The cost of skiing is rising dramatically lately. Not just the window rate of day tickets but also costs associated with getting to the slopes. Many solo day trippers will pay more for fuel than for a day ticket this season, especially mid-week day trippers. My hypothesis is that costs of fuel will exceed costs of tickets this season for many skiers, myself included. In an on going effort to calculate total season costs, TheSnowWay.com is proud to present our total season cost calculator using OpenOffice’s Spreadsheet program. Results from the first third of the 2007-2008 season have been exported to PDF format and linked to below for your viewing pleasure.

With an advertised 35 MPG for highways, my 1999 Saturn SC2 has provided amazing fuel and money savings compared to less efficient and more expensive vehicles. One trip involving consistent 55 MPH travel pushed MPG to nearly 40. Why pay extra for All Wheel Drive or Four Wheel Drive when a great set of snow tires will get you to the mountain just as fast and safe while paying less at the dealership and at the pump.

Given current environmental issues, we must not only consider the effects skiing has on our wallets, but also effects related to emissions. While reducing number of ski days is not an option, choosing a fuel efficient vehicle and driving at reasonable speeds that reduce gas consumption are paramount to reducing our environmental impact. It is not only the right thing to do, it is the affordable thing to do.

2007-2008 Season, January, Mad River Glen, Powder Day

Ringing in the New Year at Mad River Glen

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What a way to ring in the new year. While less dedicated skiers were partying and drinking last night, I was setting an early alarm and falling asleep just before 10:00pm on New Year’s Eve. I can understand the draw of New Year’s festivities and celebrations. Many years ago, I was into that scene myself. But as the saying goes, you snooze you loose. Or, rather… you don’t snooze because you are working up a world class hang over for the next morning. You get up late and miss skiing right onto the Single Chair for almost four hours. On a holiday. On a powder day.

I was expecting the skiing at Mad River to be good but not great. Maybe I would find some good powder early morning. Or, maybe I would be nailing boot to knee deep untracked at 2:00pm on my last run of the day. Or perhaps both.

Conditions on the trails were a delightful packed powder due to snow from yesterday and most of today. Groomers skied really nicely with the light powder softening things up, especially on trail edges. Moguls still had some crusties under the new snow which occasionally showed through on the surface. Snow started falling off an on by 10am and began in earnest around noon time. By 2pm, it was starting to come down. Hard.

Trees were skiing amazingly well. Lower elevations only had trace remnants of the thaw/freeze and were not that bad. Upper elevations contained dreamy powder and packed powder conditions. With no waiting for the Single chair until noon, clearly there was not much competition or skier impact to conditions. When lines started building on the Single Chair, I moved over to the Sunnyside Double after my lunch break. I simply could not be bothered to wait two to three minutes on a powder day. Boot buckle deep snow was the general rule. Hitting stuff that had been clearly missed yesterday revealed boot deep untracked with occasional AMAZING drifts of knee deep. Some serious jaw dropping untracked was pillaged this fine morning in the lesser known tree areas. But boot deep untracked was still being scored on my last run at 2:00pm which indicated a fine powder day at Mad River Glen.

Three-quarters down one run, I had to laugh. While sucking wind, I realized how much further I had to go to finish the run and get back to the Single. Jay Peak has turned me into a bit of a powder princess with its wide open mellow powdery trees. Not many runs at Jay truly challenge and those runs are usually scraped down pretty sore if not skied first thing in the morning. It was really nice to rough it up today with Mad River Glen’s challenging terrain offerings. You simply do not get that type of challenge at Jay. Or any where else, for that matter.

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2007-2008 Season, December, Jay Peak

Mixed Bag at Jay Peak on Saturday

Greetings holiday skiers. Welcome to the party. Just a few weeks too late. Today was a mixed bag of conditions ranging from two to four inches of untracked to frozen wet packed down concrete. Holiday crowds overall were minimal in volume but overbearing in terms of effect on the experience. Overall summary is Northern Vermont just dodged a bullet and early birds got some frosting before the warm weather eroded the fresh snow and glazed and crusted the snow. Which heading into New Year’s is only a minor set back given new snow and two nice powder days this week.

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Big Jay Coverage

Alternative Solutions to Big Jay Closure

While debate develops in the backcountry skiing and riding community regarding long term solutions to tree skiing and organization, Big Jay access from Jay Peak is restricted indefinitely. The backcountry skiing and riding community has yet to seriously address the problem other than a local petition and the Big Jay Access Restriction meeting question and answer session . The State of Vermont, the Green Mountain Club, and Jay Peak Resort all agreed to utilize the easiest and quickest short term solution to address the problem of people sliding down the scar and exacerbating the damage. However, there are several alternatives to the closure that could be implemented to address reducing sliding on the scar to near zero.

My suggested alternative solutions should be placed in context of the current situation as dictated to the backcountry skiing and riding community by the decision makers. The fundamental issue is protecting the scar to best allow successful regeneration with the least amount of damage to the environment and the erosion control measures. All solutions should be proposed and thoroughly evaluated with this goal in mind. No single effort will ultimately prove successful including, ironically, a complete restriction of access from Jay Peak Resort.

The community that attended the Big Jay meeting on December 15th was offered no opportunity for partnership, engagement, or participation in the process. The director of Jay Peak Ski Patrol noted that the decision makers were essentially “treating the community like babies.” Without a positive outlet for contribution to making the situation better through collaboration, it seems likely that many members of the community will reject the access restriction this season (proposed without an expected expiration date, essentially an indefinite restriction).

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