Stowe and Bolton Valley 2022-2023

[echo_VT]

Starting off the thread for Stowe and Bolton Valley.

Stowe opened on Nov 19 (Saturday) and Bolton opened on Nov 25 (Black Friday). It was an early season bc we got a snowstorm on Nov 16, maybe 8 inches? But it was great

that said by that next weekend it got warm and we got lots of rain. Conditions were pretty bleak until Dec 15-17 when we got our second storm. But like the first we are getting rain this Friday so we’ll see some losses.

I have skied a bunch at Stowe and Killington. Tomorrow will be my first day at Bolton. The Stowe 6 pack (where the triple used to be!) is set to open tomorrow.

the Stowe forerunner quad was out for a week Dec 10-18 and a part had to be shipped (the engine?) the backup also broke. The part was electric and the back up was gas powered.

Stowe has also instituted paid parking. While not in effect in November, they went into effect in December. The parking lots have been empty! Except this week. It’s been so busy at Stowe once the quad came back.

So most people don’t seem to know that parking is free at all times if 4 people are in the car. Including during paid times Friday to Sunday. Also there is always free parking at the toll house and the XC ski center. The buses have been running smoothly and the traffic situation has improved as a result bc the shuttles are moving people instead of singular cars clogging up the roads. We will really see if it works during Christmas to New Years…! Busiest time coming right on up.

I am sorry to report that it appears someone assaulted the people from the company who were hired to run the paid parking. They’re just doing their jobs. It’s really sad to hear and heartbreaking to hear something like that. And it’s worrying for the coming week. I hope we don’t see more of that. And that people are calm and safe. Ugh.

 

[echo_VT]

I went for morning laps at Bolton and their grooming is on point! Terrific snow conditions and so much coverage which is great. Hardly a person to be seen which was nice! So low key. The views were unobstructed today, could see whiteface, camels hump and lake Champlain and the rest of the Adirondacks. That was pretty sweet to see from the top.

Some Stowe instructors did the 6 pack today for opening day and I got to see it on social media. It was great, I heard. Very scenic. I’ll attach a photo.

 

[echo_VT]

Not surprisingly this morning was empty post rain and wind storm knocking out power all over Vermont. That said people trickled in later for lessons. The lifts didn’t start running until 10 am. While it was cold there was plenty of skiing to be had.

 

[ilovepugs]

@echo_VT and I skinned up Easy Mile at Stowe! It was fun even if coverage was abysmal.

 

[echo_VT]

It’s been a couple of weeks! The warm weather has not abated and Stowe was losing snow for a good amount of time. There was maybe 1-2 periods where they could make snow but it was melted by warm temps. Grass was peaking out all over the hill.

Add to that some lift outages. The over easy was down for a period of 2 weeks, one of which was the holiday week. There were shuttles to get us around and they came often the main waiting part was loading and unloading people with their equipment.

that said we had some snow last weekend (1/7-1/8) to Tuesday 1/10 and some wind conditions. A bit of a powdery field of snow on nosedive (on one side due to wind loading!) which was great skiing on Tue. I think nose dive had maybe opened that weekend.

The week prior we made the most of the deteriorating conditions. I got out on Tue and Wed 1/3 and 1/4. There were some runs still open and a lot closed due to the melt.

The skiing I heard was good on Wed and Thu but Friday we got a melt situation again. We got snow but it got warm quick and so it was rain. Then back to snow. Just A mess of weather stuff these past few days. Today was well below freezing with wind to boot.

this morning the skiing was quite good. I did centerline quite a bit. Opted out of hayride due to low visibility. Did a variety today of Jakes ride, tyro, standard, t-line and north slope.

Did the gondola and cliff trail was open! Did that to rim rock to do Perry merrell. Perry merrell went from bare in so many spots on 1/3-1/4 to bring great snow on 1/10 due to snow blowing and it was pretty good again today. I got some great turns off of Perry today. Nose dive was less consistent than the powdery stuff we had earlier in the week.

On the spruce side did side street to sensation. Side street was great. Sensation — chose to do upper Smuggs due to the low visibility and the narrower trail to help with that. As I got off people were walking up. I’m not sure why except maybe they couldn’t deal with it. It was not in good shape. Add to that blistering cold wind and no visibility. Today the winds and low visibility was an issue on spruce and not on Mt Mansfield which is so strange! It’s typically the opposite when the two sides do not have the same weather conditions!

 

[ilovepugs]

How’s the coverage on the lower part of Mansfield? Think we can skin again soon?

 

[echo_VT]

Checking the map, the trails are still closed. That makes sense to me. Given that there’s no snowmaking at easy mile, it will need natural snow. Same goes for toll road. There’s a hotline to call. Last I checked nosedive is open for the early morning hours. And Perry merrell for afternoon to evening.

 

[echo_VT]

Just called now. Looks like Perry merrell is closed so it’s just nosedive for early morning. Specfics: https://www.stowe.com/the-mountain/about-the-mountain/uphill-access-policy.aspx

It looks like wilderness is open at Bolton: https://www.boltonvalley.com/the-resort/uphill-policy/

And the options at sugarbush: https://www.sugarbush.com/mountain/terrain-and-maps/uphill-travel

 

[ilovepugs]

Just called now. Looks like Perry merrell is closed so it’s just nosedive for early morning. Specfics: https://www.stowe.com/the-mountain/about-the-mountain/uphill-access-policy.aspx

It looks like wilderness is open at Bolton: https://www.boltonvalley.com/the-resort/uphill-policy/

And the options at sugarbush: https://www.sugarbush.com/mountain/terrain-and-maps/uphill-travel

I would be up for wilderness sometime! Hopefully Mt Ellen opens again soon

 

[echo_VT]

There’s also Lincoln Peak which I did recently!

 

[echo_VT]

The trails off the gondola are all open, with a complete black bump run with chin clip.

sterling, sterling woods are open in spruce as is spruce line. Most of all the woods is open now with the exception of one.

the front 4 (or 5) are all open. National - double black diamond bump run is open. The soft bumps are sensational.

the snow has been great at the higher mountain. Down low it gets into the freeze melt cycle so it’s variable outside of groomed sections. They’ve blown snow earlier this week but have had to wait for it to settle. We’ve had a lot of wind so they haven’t blown more snow even though it’s been cold enough.

The crowds are starting early this year. Mid week outta control crowds with several people getting taco’d.

It’s a struggle I think but when the snow is good it’s great

 

[echo_VT]

I had neglected to mention that there was a huge pipe burst on hill due to the temps. It broke up the snow pack at the entrance of lift line right after upper national. They fixed and filled it in but the snow pack above is unstable? So they’re having to fix that.

I know for certain burke mtn also had a pipe burst which affected the lower mountain. No bathrooms except at mid burke lodge this past weekend. So it’s been a mess at both mountains

I know that the ops team at Stowe did great work to reopen the terrain but a bunch of other terrain was closed due to having to make new snow.

 

[ilovepugs]

Hopefully Easy Mile and Wilderness will still be in play for skinning when I get back from L.A. I’ve done Cochran’s a whole bunch and I’m more than ready for a longer uphill adventure.

 

[echo_VT]

Wednesday report:
Upper mountain Mt Mansfield still had lots of untracked powder in trees, mid mountain it got crusty beneath the powder so that was interesting.

Lower mountain bumps (gulch) were a mix of icy and some soft (a bit). The small terrain park was in good condition but when we hit it they were regrooming the takeoffs.

We did Christy glades and they were mostly skied out but it was still good, lots of medium to hard bumps in those trees. It was still quite flowy and fun.

The ski patrol rode up the gondola with us and gave us a tip they had just opened up switchback trails off the gondola (from gondalier) and they were full of powder. so that was supremely fun.

we also skied spruce and the runs that we could manage along with woods runs. Plenty of snow in the woods. We worked on carves when we were on groomed trails, bumps tactics, short turns, and pivot slips.

A family hired me for a private with their advanced skiers since the parents had to work so it was ideal and we hit the mountain, discussed tactics for powder vs ice vs groomed snow. All in all a productive day of skiing. Also @Like2Ski skied at Stowe! Tagging her to see if she has anything to report from her days at Bolton and Stowe!

Thursday report:
Spruce glades filled in and they were terrific. Luckily my daughter loves to ski woods and she knows all the entrances off the various trails. Her school was canceled due to the snowstorm so she slept in a little, then we went to the hill and got one of the last parking spaces, picked up another instructor in the locker room and we lapped spruce lifts for the woods and for the minimal lines since the lines on Mansfield looked really long. They opened up Main Street as well to the public and that was so fun and steep with great soft bump turns. We did pretty much every trail on spruce and their woods. Epic day, but short as we ended around 1 pm.

Friday morning:
Bolton uphill and Bolton woods coming down. A few surprises underneath but mostly flowy and fun and plenty of powder turns. It was seriously a magical wonderland with stormy snow blowing around us.

saturday:
Back to work for me, had Lessons on spruce green and blue terrain. Conditions were good. At end of the day, another instructor and I did spruce glades and in spots it was skied off…Still plenty of powder if we went hunting for it.

sunday (today): Had lessons again today (work) — plenty of powder today falling all day. Another 5 inches? Yes to refills!

 

[echo_VT]

Monday: freshies! I worked a race in the morning (U16 state championships, super G) and attended a snowboard clinic in the afternoon. We worked on bumps tactics (engaging edges on the backside of bumps instead of just steering on flat base) and took those tactics to woods. It was fantastic. At the end of the day we headed to the backcountry (side country?) between Stowe and Smuggs and it was phenomenal. Freshies everywhere. Such a great run with great people.

Tuesday: I taught snowboard in the morning and I had a level 4 adult. We worked on closing our toeside turns (and techniques to do so) and with all the new snow and the soft bumps we added forward lean to our high backs in order to efficiently switch between edges. He ended up way more confident in green terrain and soft bumps in green terrain. It was very rewarding! In the afternoon, I did laps/runs with fellow instructors in the woods as the wind was quite bad (squall-like and blustery with no visibility) — and we wanted to get out of the wind bc it was cold and unpleasant. It was like a completely different mountain when we went in the woods. After some laps, a colleague and I headed off in the backcountry (side country?) on the other side of Mt Mansfield to the XC center. It was fantastic with freshies. What a great day.

Wednesday: snowboard clinic in woods with freshies. Focus back to soft bumps tactics in double black and black terrain in trees. Specifically worked on pivot tactics going back up the hill (turn shape in trees). My legs were really screaming for a break at this point and I did what I could to hold on. It was so fun though. I also worked on some snowboard carve tactics in soft bumps.

Thursday: worked a race all day (U16 state championships, slalom). The lift broke down and delayed the completion of the race. Any hope I had to end early and get some runs in, died when the lift died. I heard some groups were trapped on the lift for an hour. Ugh. Other than that it was a very exciting race. I got to start each racer (say “Ready! Go!”), reset the starting gate wand, and get instructions from the race organizer — the cheers were deafening. I heard a lot of “Bend and Send!” And “Fly Like An Eagle!” and similar shouts. Everyone was so nice and a little stressed but that’s ski racing for ya.

Friday: I worked older kids Level 4 ski group. We worked on green and blue terrain — we worked on staying parallel by focusing on outside ski drills to get off the inside ski in our turns. we also worked on separation and bumps (no choice but to work on bumps this past week!). The class split was pretty big as 3 boys requested to be in the same group. The reality is that they’re on 3 different levels so it was challenging. Add to that, a tantrum-ing kid. Ugh. I did get a humongous tip. Totally unexpected but great nonetheless.

Sat and Sunday I will be at Jay Peak! I’ll be sure to report on conditions…!

 

[echo_VT]

I have reported Jay Peak conditions in a thread called Jay Peak '22-'23 !

Monday: went uphill at Sugarbush, on Lincoln Peak! I'll report on that thread what I experienced

Tuesday: MRG and Stowe
I'll report on MRG in the other thread!
Stowe was pretty amazing. The wind was strong so only the double triple (new six-pack) was running when I got there around 2:45 pm. The powder was unreal. Trails that don't normally have bumps had soft bumps. What fun. I met up with some instructors and their friends from a vocation school and we lapped the woods. It was cold and the snow was soft. Perfect conditions. We ended with some dinner together as some had friends/visitors from out of town.

Wednesday: Stowe
Arrived a bit late. Happy that I timed it with the opening of the gondola. it was closed for 1.5 days at that point so we knew the snow was loading up with no one coming down on them except those skinning it in the early AM or after-hours PM. We waited in line for the gondola (the app said it was open). Saw supervisors and other instructors dressed in our regular clothes. They opened the gondola and it was a massive movement of all these skiers and snowboarders. The one ticket scanner was spinning around on his heels getting everyone's pass. With employee passes, it was like he was collecting gold coins in super mario brothers or something. Highly impressed with how fast he got everyone so that we could keep moving to the front of the line.

Got on the gondola. It stopped two times and we were concerned! yes. very concerned. luckily we made it. we hit the woods. it was untracked pow. We yelped with joy and hollered -- and we and kept an eye out for each other. We made a couple more runs to get the goods in all the woods -- and went in for lunch.

There we met up with another instructor. Went back to the gondola. Worked on some carve movements and headed back to the woods. We did it again several more times until closing.

As our cool down run, we worked on L1 tasks bc he will attempt it end of season and L2 tasks for me. We'll see how it goes! I think he practiced them again today.

What a great day.

Today:
I will head to Stowe for a run at end of day and then go to employee yoga at the toll house. A colleague waxed my equipment for me for an exam at Killington on Friday. Good luck to me, but right now, saving the legs for Friday.

 

[echo_VT]

Fri Feb 24, a more detailed Bolton report:

I went uphill on Wilderness at Bolton. This was after some freshies we got. The uphill climb was easy as pie. Grippy snow. we transitioned at the top in an old hut to get out of the cold. It was blowing and very wintery. I felt like I was in a wintry wonderland. I got comfortable with my equipment and boots, and I learned about splitboarding from a friend. She showed me how to transition the splitboard. That said it was a lot heavier than my skis and boots.

Coming down, it was powdery and awesome. There were some surprises underneath as I stated previously upthread, but it was freakin amazing otherwise.

There was an splitboard event at Middlebury that I heard was awesome on Mar 4-5. I'd like to test out some gear for sure in the future.

I will try to get out more to go uphill! I see others' posts and it looks awesome. I also picked up the uphill map at MRG.

 

[echo_VT]

Saturday: whoo it was crowded. It was a day for Jake (Jake Carpenter Burton) and it was an event — a group run down Jake’s ride in Stowe https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpqWkaojhIJ/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

snow conditions are firm. There were some melt freeze cycle on the lower mountain so woods were firm today on lower mtn… that said no idea how they were up top. Lately it’s not gotten warm up top so it’s stayed pretty good.

we are set to get a 3 day weather event Mon to Wed with the majority being on Tue. It will be a lot of snow or really a lot of snow from what I hear.

I was at Killington yesterday — I will write it up on a separate thread!

 

[jthree]

@echo_VT I’m living vicariously thru your posts since I can’t get out midweek! Love it !

 

[echo_VT]

Amazing @jthree ! I can't believe it's March already.

Sunday:
temps started at 15F and the conditions were firm and amazing. I had a group of L4 skier kids. 3 of them wanted to send it. 1 of the 3, kept falling as a result b/c he was attempting to power-wedge the entire way down. The other 2 were cautious skiers. They all liked the rollers on green terrain.

We worked on parallel skiing, getting on the outside ski between turns and then earlier in the turn, and I introduced side slipping so they can start on blue terrain and skating. I believe what I introduced was a little hard as most of them couldn't accomplish it. I have had L5 skier kids and had success. I may need to change it up and do some wedge to wedge christie and outside ski pressure in a wedge.

In any case, as the day wore on, it got warmer. it went up to 47F on Sunday afternoon. I was about to cry with the sudden extreme warmth. but the hardened over snow started to melt a bit and it was harder for the kids to push the snow. We ended the day back on the easier terrain (bunny hill) to refine the movements that we had worked on earlier.

I picked up my kiddo she said she had a great day of training and she felt really good. I'm so glad for her. I have her filling out this ski racing and practice journal so she can exercise mindfulness in her training and her racing b/c a lot of it is prep and mental strength/fortitude in addition to the physical.

A friend of mine (ski training buddy) had his 51st birthday and was going to do a side country trail. I totally spaced and forgot to ask the kiddo ahead of time. She was tired from training and she said she didn't want to do it. So I couldn't join him and the group. It would have been fun! Hope they had a good time.

I think the run out probably would have been slower than usual with the wet snow conditions due to the warmth. I will be sure to ask them!