Jim Schley

IMG_0671, originally uploaded by jimschley.

The weather threatened on Saturday, but the morning was pretty good. There were clouds, but it was warm enough for decent skiing on nice corn snow. Stein’s was great, and the bumps were HUGE! The rain started coming down while we were eating lunch, so we only took one run in the afternoon as it was pretty nasty. Sunday was a perfect Spring day without a single cloud in the sky. We headed over to Mt. Ellen for some human powered skiing. It was downright busy over there (for a closed ski area) with maybe eight to ten other skiers there. Danielle did a great job on the maiden voyage with her new AT gear. There was still tons of snow there, and we didn’t have to hike more than a quarter mile before we could put the skis on head up the hill. The conditions were stellar. The snow slowly thawed on our climb up, and was prime by the time we topped out. My first couple turns down FIS off the summit were a bit firm, but by the fourth turn, I was cranking on perfect corn. The turns were great all the way down to Glen House where we soaked up some sun on the deck before heading back down. I hope it won’t be the end of the ski season, but if it was, it was a great way to go out. 26/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 283 inches of snow for the season.

IMG_0656, originally uploaded by jimschley.

Despite the lack of snow in March and recent wet weather, there was still lots of snow at the mountain. In fact a good amount of new snow piled up over the beginning of April allowing for some of the natural snow trails to open back up. The weather was great with a couple of sunny days and temperatures just warm enough to soften up the snow for some good spring skiing. It never quite got warm enough for the upper mountain to soften up, but Birch Run was really good both days. Morningstar was fun on Friday, with snow like cheesecake consistency. Sunrise was variable and pretty thin on Sunday but still fun. The Mall was interesting on Friday with snow that was extremely variable, resembling sponge cake at the top and total mashed potatoes at the bottom. The snow ran out before the bridge forcing some dirt skipping in order to get down to the lift. Steins, of course, was the best with true corn snow that just peeled back about one inch of fine granular on top of a firmer surface and large moguls. It couldn’t have been better. 48/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 283 inches of snow so far this season.

Great day, great crowd, originally uploaded by pdbreen.

The month of March was pretty pathetic for skiers. It really just didn’t snow very much. On the plus side, we did get a bunch of beautiful sunny, warm days with decent Spring conditions. Saturday was killer. It was a beautiful day, and it was finally warm enough to soften up trails like Stein’s and Ripcord that had stayed in deep freeze for much of the month. It is always awesome to be outside on a day like that, skiing without jacket. Ripcord was in prime shape with super sweet corn snow and nice bumps. The annual pond skimming competition was great with a huge crowd of spectators. The crowds outside on the plaza listening to the band play were impressive too, and for good reason. It was just a really pleasant day to sit in the sun. Sunday wasn’t as good– the rain came, and things were pretty soggy. We skied it anyway because that’s what we do. 103/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 266 inches of snow so far this season.

Sugarbush - March 15, 2009, originally uploaded by jimschley.

March in Vermont has been lacking in the snowfall department which has meant an early start to Spring skiing. The upside is that we saw beautiful weather to be outside under bright sunshine and warm temperatures. The start of Daylight Savings Time and the conditions meant the beginning of the Spring schedule and we opted for late starts to allow for snow to soften up a bit. Temps on Saturday the 14th struggled to get above freezing despite bright sunshine, but snow did soften up nicely on trails that get lots of sun and have Southern exposure. North Lynx offered truly awesome Spring skiing. Sunday the 15th was significantly warmer, and more terrain softened up. Runs down Castlerock Liftline were supreme. Saturday the 21st was a replay of the previous Saturday with North Lynx again taking the cake. Elsewhere on the mountain, the skiing was pretty dicey with a slick frozen base. One exception was Castlerock Run, which also skied very nicely with great soft bumps where the sun hit it.The snow was very thin lower on the mountain, and I think days are numbered for skiing the ‘rock. The snowpack is pretty rapidly eroding at lower elevatoins, especially where there isn’t snowmaking, however it’s barely melted at all higher up on the mountain and on the North facing aspects. 104/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 261 inches of snow so far this season.

When we arrived in the Mad River Valley on the last Friday in February to 45 degree temps after driving through lots of rain, I knew the skiing wasn’t going to be great, but waking up a few hours later to 5 degrees temps was just a kick in the ass. Sugarbush did a great job grooming out the boilerplate moon surfaced trails to make them skiable. For the most part, they waited to groom until temps dropped and the wet snow froze solid, allowing them to till out a decent skiing surface. This meant that Gatehouse didn’t open until late in the morning, but the couduroy on Hotshot was pretty good. The skiing wasn’t great, but we spent some quality time in the pub. Sunday was a bit better with bright sunshine and warmer temps softening the groomed surfaces. March 7th and 8th offered full-on Spring skiing. It felt really odd coming so early in the year, but it was nice all the same. The weather was warm, the sun was bright, and the snow was soft. Castlerock was great on Saturday with good coverage despite the melt down. North Lynx was brilliant. Sunday saw more nice skiing once the sun got a little higher and the sky and things softened up. Some rain on Saturday night didn’t really hurt conditions too much. Stein’s was as good as it gets on Sunday with perfect corn snow under bright skies.111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 252 inches of snow so far this season.

As we took the long President’s Day weekend off from skiing to make a little trip to Florida, I was pretty convinced that we’d be missing out on stellar skiing because that’s normally how it works. Turns out the skiing was marginal while we were away, and we returned to what was unequivocally an epic powder day. It started snowing on Thursday and didn’t stop until Monday, dropping over 60 inches in the storm. The 16-24″ that fell on Friday night were light and fluffy, and they sat on top of a consolidated and denser 17″ inches from the day before. My first run down Ripcord was in the top ten at Sugarbush, for sure. Snow billowed over my head as I bombed down, floating weightlessly on top of the untracked powder. As I reached the bottom of Spillsville, I realized I needed to keep my mouth closed in order to avoid choking on all the snow hitting me in the face. The NECN Weather ski report was filming and caught some video of a couple of my turns. The next run down Paradise was just as good with plenty of untracked to be found despite the hoards of power fiends. From there, we moved on to Castlerock. The lines were long but not horrible, and it was entirely worth it. Middle Earth and Castlerock Run had been groomed ahead of all of the snow making for very fast runs through the fluff. We skied everything and didn’t stop skiing until 2PM when our legs couldn’t take it anymore. We were hungry! Rumble was definitely the pick of the day on Castlerock. Sunday saw another 5-8″ fresh by the time we hit the lift, and it was still coming down. We stuck to the woods looking for fresh tracks. I somehow managed to snap my Black Diamond Traverse ski poles while skiing the Orchard. Not sure how that happened. Probably will not buy BD poles again. Founds lots of fresh, deep snow in the woods across the mountain. Great weekend of skiing! 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 219 inches of snow so far this season.

Cold and dry weather in the week leading up to the weekend meant conditions were decent in most places and a bit worn in others. The wind was the big problem on Saturday, however, as a front bringing much warmer temps rolled in. We were able to get one run in on Heaven’s Gate before it shut down for the day, reopening only for a short time in the afternoon. North Lynx skied well, although that lift also had mechanical and wind issues that pushed us back over to Super Bravo. Lines were longer than usual due to the lift closures, but we found some great snow on the Mall, Twist, and nearby woods. I was surprised to find lots of untracked snow in the woods that was still skiing great.

Sunday was the USSMA Mountain Hardware Ski Mountaineering Race, and it was my first attempt at such an event. It was a lot of fun! yet very hard. We started off at the base of Mad River Glen with a “Monte Carlo” start that has us running to the start line where our skis were lined up. Wet snow was coming down as we started skinning up the Lower Antelope trail. The lower section was pretty easy, but as I got further up the trail, the steeper sections were heavily moguled making for pretty difficult climbing. Once I reached upper Antelope, the track was groomed, and it became much easier to ascend. I made it to the top of General Stark mountain and the entrance to the Long Trail in under an hour and started the traverse across the ridge over to Mt. Ellen. The wind was really blowing up on the ridge, but the trees did provide a little shelter. The skiing on the Long Trail was difficult. It was sufficiently up and down that it did require racers to leave skins on for the nearly two miles across. The trail was narrow, and much of it felt like a bushwhack. There were two short sections where we were required to remove our skis and downclimb. I ran into some skin adhesion problems that I was able to endure without too much difficulty, but it did make for climbing some of the steep sections a little challenging, and I lost a lot of time. I popped out of the Long Trail on Mt. Ellen at the top of Exterminator where I removed my skins and stashed them in my shirt to begin my descent to Lower FIS through dense fog. Unfortunately, temps had dropped and the trails became pretty icy following the warm up on Saturday. Skiing Lower FIS wasn’t super challenging, but it wasn’t great. I also froze as I was dressed really light for climbing, but I think this did help me ski it a little faster. Once at the bottom of Slidebrook it was a pretty easy climb following smooth work roads up and back to Lincoln Peak. It looked like the faster racers didn’t put their skins on at the bottom, and herringboned up the short hills so they could go faster on the short downhills before we got to the bridge– need to remember that for next year. I did the “Recreation Division” course which took me up Village Run and over to the top of Gatehouse. I removed my skins at the top of Castlerock Connection and cruised down to Header and herringboned up to Lower Downspout and on to the finish at the end of Coffee Run above the Valley House Lodge. My time was three hours and four minutes, good for a sixth place finish in my division. I hope I can do it again next year. 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 175 inches of snow so far this season.

Powder Day 1/31/2009, originally uploaded by jimschley.

A big storm on Wednesday and Thursday dumped 21″ at Sugarbush followed by a surprise 8″ dump on Friday night had me itching to get on the mountain. The first storm left a deep, dense snowpack of dry snow. It was a substantial dumping that did a great job filling in the nooks and crannies and burying just about everything in the woods. Much of the snow from this storm got wind buffeted and crusted making an even firmer pack in many spots, but the wind sheltered areas harbored nice powder. The Friday night snow was light, fluffy and dry. Everything skied brilliantly on Saturday, and those wind protected spots that remained untracked allowed for very deep, soft powder skiing. After some early turns in the low elevation woods, we waited with the fellow powder fiends for Heaven’s Gate to load so we could hit Paradise. The upper, steep, bony section was finally buried with no real rocks to speak of. Below the bend, it was actually quite spectacular. We headed up North Lynx, and after four runs on Morning Star, one on Sunrise, and one in the Orchard, it was time to head over North to get away from the crowds and find some untracked powder. It was the first day of the year that the Slide Brook Express was running, and we really appreciated the quick 12 minute ride taking us over two miles to the base of the Northridge Express where we skied right onto the lift. Exterminator was not untracked, but it was great. From there, we hit our favorite lines in an always overlooked section of protected woods and then headed up Inverness for a blistering run through the beautiful snow under the GMVS Poma. After a run down Tumbler, it was back on the Slidebrook to Lincoln Peak where we hit Twist and the Mall, wrapping up a killer day. Superbowl Sunday was windy, but there was still good skiing despite lifts on wind-hold. Castlerock was great, and the woods were still full of stashes. Lower elevation woods also offered copious untracked lines and some protection from the wind. We didn’t last long on Sunday, but we did pack in some great runs before heading back home to make our Superbowl wings and guacamole. 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 174 inches of snow so far this season.

Despite very cold temps on Saturday, we got in a very full ski day starting out with a recently groomed Steins. I’m not sure it got out of the low single digits, and frostbite was a big concern. Unfortunately, the warm temps that got slightly above freezing on Friday followed by the deep freeze really did a number on Steins and some of the other groomed trails. It was odd. It wasn’t icy, but I was unable to hold an edge on my fat (94mm waist) Salomon skis and mostly skidded my way down. I had better results on other trails although Ripcord had some serious slicks spots too. Sunday was good day to hit Castlerock, especially with no crowds and no liftline. Conditions were ok with reasonable cover, big bumps, and generally nice natural snow. Glenn and Bridget slayed Castlerock for the first time, and it was awesome to ski it with them. Snowguns were fired back up Steins to continue building the Spring glacier, and it skied fantastically. It was like night and day from Saturday with the copious snow being made at such cold temps. Multiple runs on Morning Star were really enjoyable despite the thin cover.111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 146 inches of snow so far this season.