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This season continues to be the ski season that was not. At less than twenty total days, my season came to an end on this less than stellar day at Sugarbush. AlpineZone.com forum members numbering about a dozen arrived at the bush to find a cold spring day featuring rather firm and unforgiving snow conditions.

I arrived early and stashed some food at Allyn’s Lodge. Immediately, I noticed the snow had set up hard and firm. Other skier’s said to avoid Heaven’s Gate. So I warmed up by taking the traverse down to Spring Fling twice before heading towards the Heaven’s Gate Chair to the meet up location. A meet up was the only reason for anyone to be heading towards Heaven’s Gate.

After a horrendous ski down a slick and icy Jester, we took the traverse to Stein’s Run which was just starting to get skied in. Bumps up top were widely spaced but better than a few weeks ago. I started finding a groove towards the bottom of the run. After finding a really nice line, I let the speed run a bit. But near the bottom, my legs stopped hammering and I got into the back seat causing a wheelie and a fall. My right palm hit harder causing a reinjury of my ligament damaged right thumb.

I knew right away that I was done for the day and likely for the season. A season that never really got started despite some good days early season. Jay Peak got less than a foot of snow from March 1st through the end of the season (normally, a very snowy period). I spent the best powder days on the disabled list or at work. With a total of just under twenty days on the season, I can rank this season as my worst in over a half dozen years. Even without the injuries, it would have still ranked rather low. This is one season that I am not sad to see end.

Original plan was a trip to Tuckerman. Almost a foot of snow on Wednesday into Thursday with high avalanche conditions throughout much of the ravine put that plan aside straight out. Earning turns at Cannon was a backup option. Ultimately, Sled and I decided to hit Jay for some lift service instead. I have not really given Jay high marks on spring skiing. I will eat my words as I obviously have never hit Jay on a good spring day. Today was simply stellar.

We started at the Jet lot which had ticket service and bathroom service only. Walking was required to get to the Jet which provided the only Stateside lift service (as was to be expected this late in the season). Stateside trails that have snowmaking were all wall to wall top to bottom coverage with only a few bare spots on non-snowmaking trails. Essentially, unbelievably good coverage for this late in the season.

We warmed up on Jet and Haynes which were already starting to cook and get chewed up by late morning but still provided great turns. Followed that up with Derick with much the same, ducking into Timbuk which still had ample coverage but not what we were looking for. Next up was bumps on Kitzbehuel. UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLY GOOD. Awesome lines with just a little weirdness where the trail pinches below the split. These bumps were better than anything at Stowe last week or Bush four weeks ago. Sweet. U.N. was also bumped up as was the liftline under Jet and Can Am for your Stateside bumps.

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Mother nature provided absolutely perfect weather and temperature for Stowe’s last day of operation for the season. And skiers and riders came out in significant numbers for the occasion (largely due to the cheap lift tickets for contributing to the Vermont Food Bank canned goods drive). College students from Burlington made up a significant body of the crowds and their obnoxious antics were on display in Caddyshack Caddy’s Day style.

Due to a recent rain/freeze event the day before, bump trails were not skiing well in the morning. So I enjoyed the groomers off the Forerunner. I really enjoyed the cruising, actually. Not normally one to feel satisfied with cruising around at mach 5 on trails rolled out flat as a pancake, I found it tremendously satisfying and enjoying to relax and zip around with a cool breeze and bright sun shine.

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Sugarbush was the chosen location for a sparsely attended AlpineZone.com Meet Up for spring skiing in late March. This was the last weekend for Mount Ellen and Lincoln Peak was holding a pond skimming. I got a later start than normal and suffered through quite a line at the lift ticket window. The combination of end of season festivities and good weather brought out the crowds.

Lincoln Peak was still 100% open on all trails but snow conditions were rough to start. A recent rain/freeze event made the non-groomed trails rather variable and interesting despite a warm start to the morning. After a warm up down Lower Organgrinder and The Mall, I met up with a small crew and headed for Heaven’s Gate.

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After a month sidelined due to a stretched ligament, I returned to the season on a cold late March morning at Burke. The skiing was hardly worth the drive. But after more than four weeks of not skiing and missing some really good days, I had an itch to make some turns regardless of conditions.

And the conditions were truly unsatisfying. Snow was firm, scratchy, hard packed, and fast. Groomers were quickly scraped off due to limited number of routes available for decent. Burke was claiming about 90% of the mountain was “open” but conditions off the groomers left much to be desired. I opted to stick to the groomers.

My runs were limited to Willoughby, Bear Den, and Warren’s Way with a few various combinations. Willoughby skied the worst with several icy and scraped patches. A fine day for a fresh pair of edges. The damage to the newly widened Willoughby was horrific. A classic trail and one of New England’s finest cruising trails has been ruined. Alas, yet another wide boulevard.

Nothing like a forecast for a big storm to bring the powder hounds out of the wood work. Especially considering how unseasonably dry and warm February has been, beginning with a late “January Thaw” which was followed by two dry weeks. Needless to say, I wanted in on first tracks during a weekend long storm and requested Thursday off from work.

Had I waited until Friday for my day off, I would have skied better snow and probably have survived the weekend injury free. Needless to say, I did not wait and paid a horrible price for my powder anxiety.

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My backcountry days are normally limited to late season on Mount Washington. But three days after more than a foot of fresh covered much of New Hampshire, it was a sure bet that even the most secret of stashes at the resorts would have been hammered into submission. It was time to take to the backcountry for a rare mid-season powder day via earned turns.

If a 5 minute hike keeps 95% of the skiers away, then a 95 minute hike keeps greater all but less than 1% of skiers away. Despite that fact, the skin track was already set and we were grateful. Temperatures remained cold but comfortable all day with almost no wind except near the summit. Sunny blue skies rained supreme with occasional cloud cover every few hours.

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Saturday was the culmination of a week featuring frequent snow and brutally bitter cold. Jay received a few characteristic inches overnight but not enough to call it a powder day. Stateside only received about two inches and riding the Jet Triple was an exercise in self discipline. After a few runs on the Jet, I gave the Bonnie a try and found the ride fairly wind free (even coming over the ridge above Liftline). Dropping into Liftline from the top and dropping the cliff, I found a few more inches of tracked up fresh, perhaps up to four inches, on top of previously hammered in bumps. Despite the fresh and having found a wind free lift, my energy was non-existent and the cold had seriously gotten into my bones. So I decided to call it an early day just as the hordes began massing at the lift.

Black Mountain! It has been a half dozen years since my last visit and I was LONG past due. Black is one of my favorite “smaller” sized mountains. Mostly a family paradise, Black Mountain in Jackson, NH has sensational character and charm (not to mention cheap lift tickets). Despite the general lack of pitch, Black has several short but awesome trails that ski exceptionally well on a powder day. Aside from my skiing partner and myself, I counted no more than a half dozen other powder hounds on the mountain. I skied untracked snow from open until I left at 12:30pm and for sure there will still be pockets of untracked snow left tomorrow.

Today was the first day the double was open to the summit. So I wasted no time in taking first of the season tracks on completely untouched Lostbo, Lostbo Glade, White Knuckle, and Carter Notch Glade. That involves three individual laps off the summit yielding three completely untracked first of the season runs. Boot to knee deep. KILLER!!! Three unadulterated face shots resulted from those first three runs. The cold smoke was blowing right over my shoulders and up into my face. SICK!!!

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Lots of uncertainty about a storm and how much would fall in Vermont. Storm projections decidedly favored southern New England with storm totals rapidly diminishing to the north. With a rare drive to southern Vermont tipping the day trip meter at two and a half hours on dry pavement, I only wanted to make the drive if it was going to be worth the effort.

And it definitely was! Words can not describe but I will do my best. After a harrowing drive that lasted more than three hours and involved knuckles from a virtually unplowed I-91, I got to Magic at 8:45am and hooked up with Kingsley. Magic opens at 8am on the weekends which I totally dig but did not work in my favor today!

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Not bad, not bad at all. What a difference a week makes. Last week at Jay just sucked. That day last week will probably be my worst ski day of the season. But today… it was all good! Not good as in a two foot powder day (which was two days ago) but good as in “damn, three days after the storm and I am still finding some untracked” good.

Some tree shots still need more snow to cover up the sticks. But we are back to where we were before the Christmas melt down. Perhaps even a little better. On map glades were packed and tracked and bumped per expectations. Off map trees ranged from breakable wind slab foot plus deep (meh) to buckle/boot deep occasional untracked (lots of bush thwacking required). The cut up and tracked up powder in the woods skied very well and had some fluff factor.

Nothing to rave about… just another typical day at Jay that I have come to expect when there is no pow left to be had at most other areas. I brought my skins but was tired and sore and wanted to save some juice for tomorrow’s romp at Magic, so I opted to cut out at lunch time and save my legs for Sunday. No crowds to speak of. Last run I went out to the D and hoofed it back. It was surprisingly tracked out already but still some quality snow. Low angle BC is probably sensational right now.

Nothing like ripping up two and a half hours of untracked pow before heading into work. I need to do this more often.

Cannon reported a two day total of 9-10″. This report seems accurate to me after accounting for wind effects. On the second day of the two day storm, it skied more like 7″. Though I certainly went 10″ deep in many places where no one skied yesterday.

Lots of trails were reserved and skied great. Some better than others. Minor base damage was had but no core shots. Over the saddle, definitely a lot less total snow compared to Cannon proper. Especially on the open slopes but secrets revealed plenty to make the sucky parts worth one run… but no more. Cannon lost almost all of their natural snow base on trials without snow making, so definitely not for the faint of heart. A dozen untracked runs in two and a half hours before work? Sweet!

The mountain looks great. Especially for early January. With good snowmaking temperatures to continue, Cannon should have all of their snow making trails online within the next two weeks even without any additional natural snow. For natural snow trails…. this storm isn’t going to cut it and by this weekend, it is not going to be worth it. As much as I love Cannon… you either go the day after the storm or you look else where.

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Ugh. UGH. UUUUUUUGH. UUUUUUUGLY.

This is a complete and total repeat of early January 2007. Thankfully, we have a much deeper base than early January 2007 so a recovery should happen fairly quickly after two big storms. It is going to take at least two feet to get conditions we experienced at Jay in mid-December.

A few inches (three on average, sometimes more sometimes less) covered up all the crap nastiness on the natural snow trails. Instead of helping non-groomed trails, the fresh snow made things worse because you couldn’t tell where the crap was located. I did two quick low angle glade options and decided to stick to the groomers for the rest of the day.

Not that things were much better on the groomers. Frozen groomer tracks and real legitimate ice all over the map. Tramside skied significantly better than Stateside, though Goat had some pretty nasty looking sections.

I met up with some friends and we banged out three down Ullr’s Dream before I left at 11:30am. Ullr’s had the best conditions of the day. If I hadn’t met up with some friends, I would have been out of there an hour and a half sooner after only three runs. Definitely worst conditions of the season so far.

The decision between Jay Peak and Cannon kept me up a little bit last night. Jay was going to get a few extra inches but Cannon is closer and has better terrain options when the snow is good. I settled on Cannon expecting to have to hunt for a small sampling of left overs from the storm. Instead, I got consistent untracked every run including a few boot deep shots. Not bad for three days after the storm!

Icelanticskier, L, and I met up in the lodge quite by accident, chance encounter style, and made our way to the summit after sampling some butter sweet wind blown powder skier’s left of Big Link. This was to be the theme of the day!

Where was everyone? Was the looming threat of late afternoon NCP preceded by more snow in the morning scaring every one away? Felt rather lonely being on the only populated chair on the Cannonball Quad early in the morning. But it made for refills along the edges all morning and a lack of competition for the untracked. Sweet!

We found varying amounts of wind blown untracked along the edges. Sometimes 2-4″ (Tramway), sometimes 4-6″ (Taft and Upper Cannon), and sometimes 6-8″ (Skylight). I thought I was going to have to search hard for some sloppy second left overs, but we just kept lapping the Cannonball Quad and finding delicious wind blown untracked on every trail. Skylight owned for the morning via skier’s left.

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Difficult decisions were made last night regarding plans for today. But ultimately, I think the best decision was made despite wanting for the most powder. Southern locations scored more snow than northern locations during the Friday storm, which had me leaving a foot of fresh in central New Hampshire to ski in only a half foot of fresh in Northern Vermont. However, the snow that fell was the lightest form of blower possible and fell on minimal base which essentially made the powder worthless except for one or two runs in central New Hampshire areas such as Ragged and Gunstock (Tenney remains closed this weekend). Desiring to retain my Ski Vermont tickets for later in the season, I also by passed Sugarbush and Killington so I could return to them later in the season when their terrain is fully open.

Uncrowded slopes was the other aspect I banked on in deciding to ski Jay today and I hit the jackpot with ski on chairs all morning. Between the lingering effects of last week’s ice storm and central/southern Vermont receiving more snow than northern Vermont, most Stateside skiers did not have Jay Peak on the map. Which translates into untracked snow on every run.

Trees are continuing to fill in with many of my favorite lines available but with caution. I took two spills today courtesy of hidden stumps and snow snakes. So full on tree skiing is still out of the question. But most trees are skiable though some bush whacking may be involved as not all obstacles are buried yet.

I worked the Jet Triple for the entire morning making tracks exclusively in the trees and on the run outs. One particular area came into play very nicely this weekend which I lapped numerous times. On a few occasions, I nailed untracked snow from both Friday and Saturday which was about eight to ten inches total. One sensational boot deep and perhaps deeper drift really made my day. Should be fully tracked out for Sunday skiers but another storm arrives Sunday night for a foot and a half of fresh with more on the way later this week. Look for Jay to be at or nearly 100% open for Christmas depending upon if the Face, Tux, Staircase, and Everglade have enough base depth or not.