Jim Schley

Fifty-six inches of snow fell at Sugarbush from Wednesday through Saturday morning. FIFTY-SIX INCHES! It was pretty unreal. The bottom-line was that the snow was very deep everywhere on the mountain. The quality and consistency of the snow varied widely, though. It was very wet near the base, with a high liquid equivalent to the snowfall. During the course of the two storms that combined to hammer the higher terrain, there were periods of ice and rain, but the end product was great up high on the mountain with the deep base and about eight inches of fluff sitting on top where it was sheltered from the wind. Other places, where 60 mph+ gusts hit, were totally stripped of snow leaving bare ice, and other spots, like the top of Paradise and Spillsville had enormous drifts. On Saturday, we enjoyed Murphy’s Glade and Lower Birdland while the snow was still coming down in the morning. As the upper mountain opened up, we got in line to hit up Paradise, Spillsville, and some high-elevation woods which were all awesome. It was a busy day and the line got huge at Heaven’s Gate so we moved down to Castlerock where the line was also huge. It was worth it, and Murph and I enjoyed one of our best runs ever down Liftline followed by an incredible run through Rumble woods. We finished the day after another run through the high elevation woods off Heaven’s Gate. Was sore on Sunday! Had great runs down Castlerock Run and Paradise Woods and then spent the rest of the day at North Lynx. Awesome weekend!

Saturday was a pretty sweet ski day as several days of light snowfall added up to bolster the base of snow in the woods and generally freshen conditions. We spent most of the day finding nice lines in woods on Castlerock and Heaven’s Gate. We found some nice powder! We got a few more inches of new snow Saturday night, but unfortunately there was about an hour of light freezing rain in the middle of it that really screwed things up. Trails off Gatehouse and North Lynx were still pretty fun, but other trails suffered with a very slick surface underneath the three or four inches of new fluff. Stein’s looked super-nice at the top with a ton of new snow blown in, approaching boot-top in the troughs. The bad news was that the trail was unskiable with an unedgeable surface underneath that new snow. Woods remained pretty good as the new crust remained easily breakable where it landed on top of softer snow surfaces. More snow, please. 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 119 inches of snow so far this season.

President’s Day weekend at Sugarbush brought the usual big crowds, but unfortunately it did not bring the snow. Conditions really weren’t that hot, with snowfall about 100″ behind where we were last year and less than two feet of base in the woods, it was pretty challenging at times. This was coupled with the fact that many of the natural snow trails like Paradise and Middle Earth had large sections of glacier, blue-grey ice on them. It’s New England, and you just have to deal with it. The highlight of the weekend was the last hurrah of snowmaking on Sunday night on Stein’s Run making for beautiful soft turns there on Monday. 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 109 inches of snow so far this season.

Great snow, great town, incredible terrain, and bright southwestern sunshine pretty much sum up the trip. We pulled into the historic mining town of Telluride, Colorado which sits at the end of a box canyon in the Sneffels Range of the Northern San Juan Mountains and were immediately blown away by the surroundings. The town is surrounded by jagged, skyrocketing peaks, and the ski trails run steeply down the side of the canyon with two lifts and a gondola running right down to the valley floor on the edge of town. Talk about the good life! Wake up, grab a breakfast burrito, throw the ski boots on and head out the door with the skis for the three minute walk to the lift.

The ski terrain at Telluride is very expansive, yet at the same time, accessible. When we arrived, it felt like we’d never find a way to ski all the terrain, but by the time we left, we had, in fact, skied the majority of it. With 2000 acres of skiable terrain and over 4000′ of vertical, that is saying a lot. I was surprised by how varied it was, with the whole gamut of gentle intermediate trails to extreme off-piste chutes, bowls, and steeps and everything in between. I was impressed with the extent and quality by which they groomed some trails and left plenty of others alone. Revelation Bowl opened last season, and it alone was an expansive playground. The highest lift tops out at 12,570′ above sea-level which is also pretty sweet.

Telluride got a huge dump totaling 37″ the week before we arrived. We had lots of sunshine while we were there and most of the fresh powder had been tracked out on the trails and in the obvious woods lines, but we did get some snow on Wednesday night that made for great conditions on Thursday and Friday. Up until that point, conditions were not bad by any stretch, but we were mostly skiing packed powder with the occasional hidden powder stash here and there. I’m not sure exactly WHO it was that tracked up all that powder since it felt like the place was empty the entire time– we didn’t wait in a lift line even once.

One thing that definitely sets Telluride’s skiing apart is its hike-to terrain options. With the ability to climb another 750′ vertical above the top lift to the summit of Palmyra Peak (all in-bounds) and the endless options of chutes and steep faces off the peak and Prospect Ridge into Black Iron bowl, you really see the true expanse of the area. I used a combo of skinning and bootpacking to access the various options. My first hike took me down Mountain Quail with sweet carved turns into the steep wall of Black Iron bowl and then a traverse into Jello Bowl below the towering Palmyra where I found fresh tracks in deep powder before making my way over to Nice Chute. That chute was very narrow and very steep! whoa! Gold Hill Chute #9 was also a pretty spectacular run with a hike along a road atop Prospect Ridge to a short scramble up a jagged rock face. It was an exquisite run, unlike anything I’ve skied before. The chute dropped me steeply into Palmyra Basin which allowed for a long run through untracked deep powder. I had many other great runs over the course of the week, but these were definitely a notch above, especially as I was able to float the deep stuff.

With its location in the southwestern corner of Colorado, Telluride has one of the most pleasant climates for skiing with dry desert air and bright sunshine. This is a particularly sweet deal when it comes to aprés ski, and Telluride is particularly well suited to this with lots of options for hanging out outside in the sun when you’re doing sliding on the hill. There were great options for catching some rays with a frosty beverage. Our favorites were the Garrano Ranch at 10,000′ sitting above Mountain Village, and the outdoor bar at the Hop Garden where we had interesting conversation with the friendly localfolk.

Everyone we met was super-friendly, from the patroller who stopped his snowmobile to chat with me while I was starting out on my hike on Prospect Ridge to the bartender at the Hop Garden, to the lifties blasting their tunes. I loved the vibe. We were skiing on a 48″ base with 154″ of snow at Telluride season to-date. Next report from Sugarbush.

Awesome sunshine on Saturday! I had a blast out on my new skis, driving them for the first time with my Garmont boots. We started the day on groomers, enjoying the nice corduroy.  Sleeper, Birch Run, and Hotshot/Waterfall were fast and fun. After a few runs, I started to really feel the turn radius on the new skis and began to carve, putting the substantial girth on edge. Once we got our group together, we jumped into Slide Brook for a really enjoyable run. Once reaching German Flats, we caught a bug over to North where we had some great runs in the woods off Brambles.

On a sunny day like Saturday, it would a crime not to head up to the summit of Mt. Ellen, and the views were as clear as I’ve ever seen them. Of course, you could see Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks to the West. You could see over a 100 miles to the North with views of Mt. Mansfield, Big Jay, and up to Sutton in Quebec. Eighty miles to the East stand the mighty Presidentials in New Hampshire with Mt. Washington presiding. From there, we descended F.I.S. which wasn’t all that fun until we reached the bottom third and the boilerplate ice was buried. Lower FIS was really fun. Bravo wasn’t as good.

After riding the Slidebrook Express back to Lincoln Peak, we finished the day out with some soft turns on Sunrise and a fast run down Stein’s. That’s a ski day!

Sunday wasn’t quite as sunny but was warm with wet weather forecasted. We stayed dry, but you could tell it was coming despite sun breaking through most the day. A groomed Middle Earth was a rare sight, and it was very popular. We jumped into the infamous “poop shoot” woods for a great run on nice snow and beautifully spaced trees. It was the highlight of the day. More runs on Stein’s rounded out the weekend.

111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 83 inches of snow so far this season. Next report will be from Telluride, Colorado!

It was a very busy weekend at Sugarbush because of the Martin Luther King holiday combined with perfect ski weather with sun and temps in the upper twenties. It doesn’t get much better than that weather-wise in mid-January. The weather pattern had been dry, so snow levels remained pretty low but not terrible. Unfortunately, the morning started off with a snag on Saturday due to electrical problems with the Super Bravo lift that kept it from opening until mid-morning. They opened the Gatehouse lift early to compensate, and we were out early enough to get some nice runs on groomers before the crowds descended. Once Bravo did open, got some nice runs in on Stein’s, the Mall, and Christmas Tree woods. Despite the huge crowd, there was absolutely no line at all at Castlerock. Conditions there were a bit tough, and the trails did get pretty bony as the day went on, but at least there weren’t any crowds there. The waterfall on Middle Earth was pretty spectacular with very significant ice. I finished the day with another run on Stein’s, which skied very nicely.

Clouds and fog rolled in on Sunday making visibility very difficult on most of the mountain. Sunday was my first day on my new skis, and I gave them a try on a groomer to give them a whirl. Honestly, they didn’t do great on the icy hardpack– although the operator was mainly to blame. With the natural snow trails being pretty bony, I switched back to my old skis and hit North Lynx with a run on Morning Star. The big bumps were firm and not all that much fun, so after a nice run down Birch Run we moved over to Castlerock. After a ride up the lift where you couldn’t even see the chair in front of you, we found conditions were tough up there too, and Danielle took a bad digger bruising her leg up with the inside edge of her ski. She’s hardcore and kept on going as we took the runout over the Heaven’s Gate. We had heard rumors that the very summit of Lincoln Peak was poking out above the clouds, but I refused to believe it. It was pretty spectacular as the lift approached the top of Ripcord and we emerged from the clouds and the sun did shine on us. It was pretty amazing, and the view to the West looking out over Lake Champlain to the ‘Dacks was very cool, with low clouds on the New York side of the lake. Paradise, Paradise Woods, and Ripcord Woods were all awesome. Christmas Tree woods and Stein’s were fun runs once we retreated back down to the cloud. It was a good weekend of skiing.

111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 76 inches of snow so far this season.

Saturday was a beautiful bluebird day on the mountain, but it was VERY cold with temps in the single digits and some wind. Snow conditions were nice despite a lack of fresh snow. North Lynx skied nicely, and the Orchard woods were decent. We dropped into our first run in Slide Brook for the season, and had a great run. There were a lot of tracks, and the traverse was thin, but the skiing was great with some fresh tracks to be found here and there. Higher on the mountain, where fresh snow was found, you would see about five inches of fluffy powder on top of a very fragile crust with another six inches of powder below. After returning from Slide Brook we endured one of the coldest rides up Heaven’s Gate that I can remember. Cold! It was worth it, though, as the woods off the upper mountain were really in great shape with very few tracks.

Sunday was cold too, but not quite as bad, and the first part of the day was pretty much a replay of Saturday with more great runs off North Lynx followed by Slidebrook. We took a different path through Slidebrook and found even better snow and lots of fun things to jump off of. It was great. We followed with another woods run off the upper mountain that was every bit as awesome as Saturday. The route through the woods down to the bottom of Heaven’s Gate was pretty fun too.

Things went somewhat awry after this when Jim and I decided to revisit the super secret stash that we found back in March of 2008. We didn’t find it. Not sure what happened to it. Instead, we had over an hour of bushwhacking slog through very dense spruce. It was tough but we eventually emerged from the woods, and we definitely know where the stash is NOT. We did manage to get a couple good turns in there, and where we could actually ski, the snow was pretty sick. 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. only 76 inches of snow so far this season.

We arrived in the Mad River Valley late on the 26th and were raring to kick off our vacation but were greeted with rain on Sunday morning. Shocker. We headed out with Gore-Tex and with full intentions of having a great time despite the weather. It was touch and go at first as the rain really started to dump on us as we headed up the first lift ride, but the rain-softened snow was fun to ski, and the rain tapered off as the morning went on. The sun even peaked out late in the afternoon. Lower mountain trails like Stein’s and the Mall were great on that soft snow.

Tuesday was a total powder day. It was tough because it was profoundly cold. Temps didn’t get above zero at the base, and the winds were whipping. The National Weather Service reported wind-chills of 30-40 below zero. 65 mph gusts were clocked at the summit. It was impossible to stay warm riding up the Castlerock lift, and we were very thankful for the patrol warming hut at the top. The skiing was fantastic with boot-top powder in spots. There was a wind crust in some spots that needed some effort to power through, but it wasn’t bad.

Wednesday was cold, but there was a lot of snow to ski on. Some of it was wind-crusted, but it was all good. I demo’d some Volkl Gotamas, and they did the job with ease thanks to their girth and nice rocker. We weren’t early enough to get first chairs of the season going up North Lynx, but we were early enough for me to get first tracks. As I passed the first track hopefuls near the top, I jumped into untouched powder that had a pretty good crust on it, and those Volkls just floated. It didn’t even require any effort for me to keep the tips up– I just charged down. After that, we made our first foray to Mt. Ellen, and runs down Bravo and Hammerhead were incredibly good. Of course, as always, Mt. Ellen suffers more from wind than Lincoln Peak does, and it did show on many trails where the new snow was blown off leaving the icy crust exposed. For the most part, things were great, though.

We were very thankful as temps rose on Thursday, allowing us to shed a few of the many layers, and we enjoyed generally very nice skiing. We spent a fair amount of time up on North Lynx. The snowguns were pointed at Ripcord, and it was really fun skiing under the guns up there. Eden and Twist at the end of the day were great runs, too, although I did tweak a muscle in back while skiing Twist, and it did bother me but wasn’t a huge concern at the time.

My back felt ok on Friday morning, and after warming up on a few groomers, we moved to Ripcord. Still under the guns, it was skiing great, but we decided to move on and get away from the loud and icy bombardment. I started off a great run down Morning Star, linking some strong turns through the bumps when I hit one somewhat awkwardly and immediately felt searing pain in my back in the exact same spot as I felt on Thursday. That was it for me, and I struggled to make my way over to Birch Run to ski the groomers down to the base.

I had to work on Saturday morning which was ok given how my back felt. It was pretty difficult to bend over, and I was pretty concerned about the expected struggle to get my stiff alpine race boots on, so I decided to go with the AT boots instead. It ended up being a good choice, especially given that it was a cold and windy day. I met up with everyone after taking the MadBus over to the mountain. We did a few runs off Gatehouse and North Lynx including a great run through the Orchard. My back was really stiff, and I skied like an old man, but at least I was skiing. We then made our way over to North and took a nice run through Brambles woods before I retired to the Green Mountain Pub. At that point, it was outright blizzarding outside with total whiteout. We left the mountain was great hopes for Sunday as the snow was dumping down.

Sunday was pretty disappointing. The mountain was reporting 4″ at the base and 12″ up top which sounded great. Things were delayed by wind holds, but Gatehouse, North Lynx, and Castlerock opened before 10AM, and Super Bravo opened later in the morning. We opted for a run down Waterfall and then Morning Star. My back felt ok, but I still skied like an old man, especially in the bumps. We then made the traverse over to Castlerock where we expected to find the 12″ of powder that the snow reporter told us about. Unfortunately we found nothing but wind scoured, icy trails, and some big windblown piles of snow here and there. The wind had its way with any new snow that fell, which was too bad, but it was a good day anyway, wrapping up a great holiday week. 111/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 70 inches of snow so far this season.

I have no pictures to post along with this entry! I wanted to take some, but it was too cold for camera to work all weekend!

It’s not that often that I get to ski on a non-holiday weekday, and I was more than psyched to hit the mountain with Murph on Friday with what promised to be a very quiet day there. There’s nothing like having the mountain to yourself. We took off as early as we could muster and made it onto the lift by late morning. It was super cold but sunny and bluebird skies. I’m not sure the temps got above zero at the top. Five or six inches of fresh, light snow sat on the consolidated packed powder base at high elevations. Lower on the mountain it was variable as it appears that some warmer temps and possibly unfrozen precipitation crusted the snow and making it slick in other places after the temps dropped.  Where it was good, it was really good, and there was plenty of untracked snow to ski on Friday. The packed powder base underneath was deep enough to cover most rocks. We started skiing off Heaven’s Gate, and Spillsville was decent. Ripcord was ok, but not great as it seemed as though the base was pretty slick and the new snow had mostly been blown off. We moved over to Castlerock and found the real goods. Three consecutive runs on Liftline later, we were happy campers. There were a lot of rocks lurking around, but there was also a lot of soft snow to ski in. John Egan was also out skiing Liftline, and when we spoke with him afterwards, he said that it was the best trail on the mountain right now and that it had benefited from a lot of snow being windloaded onto it. He was definitely having as much fun as we were as we watched him ski under us as we rode the lift. Saturday was another good day with more cold temps and sunshine. As the weekend crowds descended, all of the soft snow got consolidated and packed down, but conditions stayed pretty good. We did more great skiing on Castlerock as well as a maiden voyage on some groomed manmade snow off of Gatehouse. Saturday was Demo Day, and I tried out a bunch of skis with the K2 Sidestash coming away as the hands-down winner. Demoing skis on Castlerock required extreme care as I really did not want to bring any of them back to the reps with damage. I think I was mostly successful, although as the day went on and the trails got skied, the cover did get thinner making the rocks all the more exposed. Sunday was cold again but with a biting wind that made it less pleasant. Skiing remained fun on that packed powder with runs on Paradise and Liftline. Liftline was significantly bonier than it was on Friday causing some friends who saw us from the lift question our judgement. They couldn’t deny that we looked pretty good skiing it, though! Of course Vermont didn’t get any of the megalopolis blizzard that hammered Massachusetts and the rest of the East Coast. The 10″ we got at home in Stow skied pretty nicely on XC gear on Tuesday, though. Nordic skiing is fun too. 105/111 trails open at Sugarbush. 41 inches of snow so far this season.

What a difference a week makes! 29″ of new snow fell over the course of the week, dramatically changing the landscape. The bottom layers of snow consolidated nicely to form a nice base for the copious amount of lake effect fluff that dropped on top of it. The locals all said that Friday was a spectacular day, and it was clear that many had been out to track up the fresh, but there was still plenty to be found on Saturday morning.  All of the trails at Lincoln Peak except for the beginner terrain were opened, including Castlerock. Focus was on the upper mountain on Saturday with five runs on Ripcord, two on Paradise, and one on Spillsville before the early season, underconditioned legs gave out on me, and I retreated.  The natural snow skied fantastically, even after it tracked out. Early runs on Ripcord and Paradise with lots of pockets of untracked were sublime, especially with great coverage and no big bumps.  On Sunday, the focus shifted over to Castlerock. Packed powder was the rule, and the skiing was very nice. Coverage was a bit thin, and I did manage to nail quite a few rocks, but hey- it’s Castlerock. Also did a run down the Mall which was in great shape despite being somewhat thin. We skied hard. I felt like I had been run over by a truck on Sunday night, but in a good way. 48/111 trails open at Sugarbush and 34″ of snow so far this season.