# Bolton Valley, VT 4/9/2009



## J.Spin (Apr 12, 2009)

*Date(s) Skied: *April 9th, 2009

*Resort or Ski Area: *Bolton Valley, VT

*Conditions: *Elevations and new snow accumulations -  2,100’:  2 - 3”, 2,500’:  4”, 2,600’:  5”, 2,800’:  5 - 6”, 3,150’:  6”+

*Trip Report: *After catching some fresh powder up at the mountain on Wednesday morning, I could see that it continued to snow in the mountains (and even the valleys) throughout the rest of the day and into the evening.  The temperatures had stayed relatively cool throughout the period, so I decided to go back up Thursday morning and see what the additional accumulations had done for the skiing.  There had still been no substantial accumulation in the valleys, but as I drove up the Bolton Valley access road I could see that there was definitely some new up at elevation.  The new snow was more of the 6-8% H2O fluff that had topped off the skiing on Wednesday morning, but things were a little different on the weather front.  Whereas Wednesday morning had featured light snow and a temperature of 25 F at the village elevation (~2,100’), Thursday morning started with a temperature around 30 F and some sunshine.  There were still some thick clouds off to the south, but things were much clearer to the north and I got to enjoy the view of the sun lighting up some of the peaks and gullies on the west wall of Bolton Valley.

I followed my same skinning route as Wednesday morning, using Beech Seal/New Sherman’s/Sherman’s, which seems to be becoming one of my favorites.  There was another guy skinning up on the mountain as well, and he took a faster route with Schuss.  I’ve never enjoyed breaking trail up Schuss because of its steep pitch, but I’ll have to try it on some of these days when the powder isn’t all that deep.  In terms of snow accumulations and depths, it looked like the mountain had just picked up a couple of new inches at most elevations.  The Thursday morning depths are updated below.  The first depth is what I found Wednesday morning, and the Thursday depths follow after the arrows:

2,100’:  1 - 2”  --> 2 – 3”
2,500’:  2 - 3”  -->  4”
2,600’:  3”       -->  5”
2,800’:  3 - 4”  -->  5 - 6”
3,150’:  4 - 5”  -->  6”+

There were a few tracks around on the mountain, mostly buried under the newest coating of snow and presumably from folks that had been out at some point on Wednesday.  As I was finishing my ascent under S.P.L. Chute, I noticed that my favorite line there was untracked and looking very nice in the morning sunlight.  I decided to give it a go, so as soon as I’d ripped off my skins near the Vista Summit I dropped into the powder.  The new addition of snow kicked things up a bit and the turns were nice, but the depth was still only about 6 inches or so.  My initial plan was to ski Cobrass, so I quickly herring boned back to the summit and headed that way.  I was treated to nice, albeit cloudy, views of Camel’s Hump and other Green Mountain peaks to the south.  There were a couple of old tracks on Cobrass, but mostly it was unblemished powder that was primed for some shredding.  I worked my way over toward the Snowflake area and climbed to the Snowflake summit for some bonus turns on Bentley and Foxy.  My Suunto recorded a descent of 1,140’ so it looks my bit of additional work netted about 100 extra vertical vs. a straight descent of the main mountain.  The snowpack at the Mt. Mansfield stake hit 90 inches on Thursday, and based on *Scott’s summary of the week up there* it looks like the higher elevations were skiing quite well.  Some pictures from Thursday morning have been added below:



























J.Spin


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## billski (Apr 12, 2009)

you're killing me J!  I wish I was half my age!


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