Stowe and Bolton Valley 2023-2024

[echo_VT]

Opening day on Friday Nov 17. I didn’t get to go but Mr echo_VT did and he enjoyed it.

I went yesterday as I had return staff training. Caught a run before and caught a run after with fellow instructors. It actually wasn’t too bad my form was in good shape. I credit the strength training I’ve been doing since MTB ended, thanks to @empogo ‘s encouragement to do it. So thank you @empogo as my body thanks you!

Im excited for more snow and more days on snow! It’s like I never stopped! Granted we had a really late season last season and I still was doing days in May. I wonder if the multiple days on the mountain bike helped too…!

 

[empogo]

Yay! I’m so glad the strength training feels like it helped. Mountain biking also helps; I was talking about that with some people, it keeps you making turns down hills at high speeds, so if nothing else you don’t get too acclimated to slower stuff. :-)

I think strength training over the last six months has helped me immensely in countless ways. Really can’t emphasize this enough. Lift weights! It’s good for you!

 

[echo_VT]

It really is! Weighted squats, deadlifts and weighted lunges is what I’ve done — focusing on the core, and a bunch of arm stuff too. I’m going to make a sugarbush thread and tag you @empogo !

 

[echo_VT]

Whoops I forgot to mention what’s open and what’s not.

lifts: the fourrunner quad and the sunrise 6pack are open

Ridgeview had to close to blow more snow on it.

upper lord , lord and lower lord were in OK condition at the start and wore out over the day (scraped off)… the sandy snow ended up refreezing so that made things challenging.

Then we all funnel into North Slope where we could still pick a line on the edges or in the center in the morning, but by the afternoon there was like 50 ft of absolutely nothing to grip. Colleagues who said they had tuned said it did not help. Which is cool we just focused on sliding with purpose. :shrug: like let’s avoid getting hurt first day back! Mainly don’t do anything silly.

in the afternoon I had to rest mid mountain on the sides — but in the morning I was feeling good and would step aside to just avoid any yahoos behind me.

the best part was lower north slope heading to the lift. Got to do a little bend and send in the morning (it wasn’t too crowded to my surprise!). But less so in the afternoon due to the refreezing.

I CANT WAIT TO GO BACK!!!!!!!!! lol even the less than ideal conditions I’m like sign me up!! Haha! It’s that I missed sliding on snow so much.

 

[echo_VT]

We had great conditions on Wednesday with the snow and the rain precip too.

it’s been firm due to the cold and they’ve now opened Jake’s ride and centerline. I heard it was busy. I didn’t get to ski or ride there as I was teaching on Spruce. Mostly carpet and bunny lift rides for me from Friday to Sunday (today).

on Thursday the kiddo and I did ski on Mansfield and it was great skiing however there were rocks on north slope so it was interesting getting thru there. Also bumps the entire way down after the top. We did ridge view which I didn’t get to do before and it was empty. There were beginners on the sunrise six so not super ideal when merging. Even so, I very much enjoyed our time but I’ll say it wasn’t easy. The second run was easier than the first, the third easier than the second and so on. We just skied the morning and left around 12 noon on Thanksgiving day.

 

[echo_VT]

I haven't updated in some time!
We received a huge dump Nov 26 to Nov 27 (maybe Nov 28) and we had deep snow. In the backcountry on Mt Mansfield, about 1-2 ft depending.

School was canceled and there was a full day of touring done by family members. Pretty amazing conditions.

On Dec 3-4, exactly a week later, we started off with rain and then had another large dump of about the same amount on top of the first. There was additional rain on Dec 2. That said the snow on top, allowed for woods to open throughout the resort as I understand it, I could be wrong as to exactly when that happened.

Dec 5-7 were epic skiing and snowboarding. the snow was fresh, cold, and still cold smoke in untouched spots. The front 4 were open and ski patrol dropped ropes as each day progressed. I had never seen skiing this good early season. Folks in the area who have been here awhile said the last time this happened was 2018.

Sadly by Dec 8 it got warm and we began to see a melt freeze cycle. through the 10th.

Dec 10-11 we saw the same cycle again except more rain this time. There was still great snow to be had, but it deteriorated in spots due to the warmth.

Right now we are seeing the same weather event Dec 17-18 however it is warm and there's no chance that the top could escape the warm temps like in weeks past (the top was able to stay colder and under freezing previously)... and there is some anticipation of some trail closures to happen as well as wind hold today. It will be cold later this week so the hope is that snowmaking can get us back on some level.

 

[echo_VT]

I have been to Bolton for uphill touring and the conditions were not bad, due to the warmth, there are some water bars visible and rocks visible as well. It will not be great for the backcountry and sidecountry unfortunately. We will need precip when it gets cold to build some snowpack back.

 

[echo_VT]

The uphill touring I did at Bolton on Sunday was in wilderness as timberline was closed. Some people were in the woods toward the top and in the middle and we called out to them to ask them how it was and they called out to us and said “it’s $hit!” And then they proceeded to ski back to the groomer. We saw a lot of that. It was also Santa Day — if wearing head to toe Santa, can ride or ski for free. Bolton is awesome like that!

 

[echo_VT]

I skied Stowe between breaks from working as I had to take my daughter to the hill. Also, to check out the carnage and to get turns on my new equipment.

Well, Liftline is destroyed from the heavy rain we had, it’s skiable but there are holes everywhere and ski patrol has shut it down. If they opened it, it could be skied. That said, I assume they’ve also closed the other double black trails such as upper National (bumps galore!), and the Front 4. The mountain (and Stowe town!) did get an inch or more of new snow but it’s not enough to make up for what was lost.

I hear NH got hit harder by the big rain storm, some guests had to change their ski vacation to Stowe from NH — those that I had started a conversation with had said the NH hotels for the ski area had lost power. I hear also Sunday River got hit hard in Maine. They are closed for some days from what I hear until they can be set for reopening for the holiday week.

The gondola ran today and Perry Merrell was awesome. Gondalier was open but we saw people heading back to Perry and the people coming to Perry had said that Gondalier was icy and they wouldn’t recommend it. I suppose not groomed either after refreezing due to low snow levels or perhaps another reason.

Hayride and Centerline were open but I’m guessing just the top… we didn’t try it as it was quite foggy. We did not take Nose Dive either but I had heard from a friend it was icy on Friday. It was all bumps last I heard so mainly I would guess anything groomed has the potential to be good but anything bumped from before the melt freeze cycle this past weekend would have been icy.

Jake’s Ride (formerly Lullaby Lane) and the lower runs to the Sunrise 6 and back to the Quad were open, not much was closed to my surprise.

They revamped the park at Midway to have 6 features instead of 3 (they doubled the line).

Spruce Peak : Sunny Spruce lift is open however only Side Street is available, everything else is closed due to almost no snow. It’s not ski-able either even if they had opened it — more melted on Spruce Peak than on Liftline on the Mt Mansfield side. Ugh, it was really sad to see.

Despite that — All in all the conditions are actually quite better than expected. Can’t wait to go again!

 

[echo_VT]

Hi it’s been awhile!

well we lost a lot of snow during the warmth from day after Christmas thru new years. They had to close uphill routes for the morning and by the end they closed uphill routes for the evening too.

trail conditions were awful. That said here was still snow in the woods.

since then, there have been dumps of snow and warmth cycles so there have been refreezes.

I have been away for the first couple weeks of January. It looks like the snow that was lost was refilled, as have the woods been refilled.

These past two weekends it’s been shockingly cold like -10 F to single positive digits. And this past weekend was very warm and the conditions were terrible. Friday and Saturday we had so much rain, I had to shovel the rain bc puddles between snowbanks.

Sunday was certifiable mashed potatoes conditions.

we did get a new blanket of snow today (Monday) and it looks like the temps will get cold. Hope we get a new layer of freshies to mask this crusty frozen base.

 

[echo_VT]

Whoa where did the time go…? In January I got a lot of training done.

Feb:
- in early Feb got to do an event at Stowe with @empogo — it was pretty amazing. The conditions were excellent and we did all the ski runs.

- we had some powder days, just after Presidents week and before with warmth the weekend of Presidents’ Day. I don’t remember much other than the trees were awesome in that time. I had some great lessons during presidents weekend — however the trails were getting bare and we began to see rocks underneath on the well tracked runs.

- I worked some races end of Feb. I was also taking the kiddo to races at Stowe and also I went to Sugarbush for one and skied again with @empogo … from what I remembered, the skiing was amazing and for the Stowe races, I got to lap sensation with another race parent and do all the trails, including sterling. It was bare in spots but not completely. Really good coverage for sterling. Upper Main Street was also terrific. Sugarbush was in great shape and we got to do some difficult terrain when things softened up after some low angle earlier runs.

March
- I believe we got warmth again. By second week of March, got a huge dump however the family was at Stratton for a series of races while I was at Mt Washington for an avalanche course. No idea how Stowe was but I think folks were happy.

- got to do BV mid week in the early evening with @jthree and so much was open due to the new snow. The difficult run was amazing. I’d never seen in with such great conditions for night skiing — and the sunset was fantastic.

- 3rd week of March we had gotten some freshies on top of the storm snow and coverage was good again. I was at Smuggs for a race (great conditions) and Stowe for lessons on St Pattys day. Later that midweek there were freshies daily, and went to BV with @jthree. @ilovepugs was there and @yogiskier almost made it up the road but the access road was in not great condition due to the snow squall storm snow. The top wasn’t open when I got there due to winds but the fresh snow in the trees was fantastic. I believe BV got 30 inches over the week

- 4th week of March, another huge storm however again I wasn’t around due to a series of races. From what I understand another 30 inches fell. So I think blower and amazing but hard to say. The spouse taught lessons and lapped sensation quad and it was pretty excellent from what I gather .

- 5th week of March, wind and minimal new snow along with sun and warm weather. Stowe has been great, it’s all moguls and great coverage. Excellent spring skiing conditions, not excessive mashed potatoes.

let’s see how April goes!