Jay Silveira
New member
<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 1/9/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>Well, this was my first time back out on the hill since last week's meltdown. Sugarbush has gone from over 100 trails down to 49 
. I had planned to bag Saturday, and just go Sunday, but mother nature intervened and dropped a bit of snow on me to push me over the edge. Burlington received around 0.3 inches of snow, bringing our whopping seasonal total to somewhere around 4.4 inches. SkiVT-L tipped me off to some good snow reports from Jay Peak, and their reports says 7-10" new for today. Since this storm tracked across the middle of Quebec, it's not surprising that the greatest totals would be to the north. Still, I decided to save my pennies and go where my pass could get me in, southward to Sugarbush. I checked the report and they were saying 4 inches of new snow, not a huge dumping, but lately I'll take whatever mother nature can dish out. <BR>I decided to visit Sugarbush North for a change, and my plan was to catch the nice powder on the skier's right of Inverness (GMVS Poma line). Bah, with all the other trails closed aside from Inverness, they closed the lift off to the public and only let racers up . This unfortunately meant that I had to ride the old slow and low Green Mountain Quad. As I looked around, I noticed a dearth of traffic on all the trails except the one below the lift. I could see the trackless powder just waiting to be consumed. Well, first thing was first, and I took a trip up the North Ridge Express to check out the mid-mountain. I hit Elbow, which had surprisingly soft snow, very little hard pack at this early hour, and I'm sure they blasted the guns all over it to freshen it up. I then swung over to Northstar and found anywhere from 3-8 inches of powder off the side of the trail. Things were looking up! I finished off back at the top of the slow and low, now was the time for exploring the lower mountain powder I had seen. <BR>I was roped off at almost every turn, but finally found a way to the Sunshine Double by going down below the start of the slow and low. It looks like other folks were slowed up as well, because it was now well after 9:00, and there was only one other person visible in the whole area. The left side of Easy Street: one track. Sugar Run: one snowmobile track. I would have to spend some time here. First I hit the skier's left of Easy Street and found about 3 inches of new snow over the old base (or actually lack of base if you got too close to the woods). The snow was moderately light, although difficult to gauge since there were only 3 inches, I'll say 7-8 % water as a guess. Next it was off ot the right side. Here there were a few tracks, but the snow was a bit deeper and the base a bit more consistent. Next up was Sugar Run, which I think was technically supposed to be close from the top, but they had the connection open below it. The new 3 inches of snow here was on top of ice in many spots, and rocks in others. They had obviously not hit this trail as hard with the guns, and the meltdown had taken it's toll. I fled back to Easy Street about halfway down to let my skis live to see another day. After a couple more runs, I found that I could access the lower half of Crackerjack as I departed the Sunshine area. This was the powder I had seen from the slow and low lift. They had groomed one track down the middle, and left 3/4 of the trail untouched. Sweet turns with a plentiful (albeit very solid) base. I had to go and repeat that one again. I finished off the day around 11:00 with one more trip up the North Ridge, but the crowds were starting to form and the untracked on the sides was getting scarce. All in all, better than I expected. It may be nice tomorrow as well, most people were staying away from the stuff I mentioned. I was alone, but I got a couple of powder track pictures, just a reminder that things could be a lot worse! <BR> <BR>J.Spin <BR> <BR>Images associated with this report (3 images) can be viewed at: <BR>http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/08JAN00.html
. I had planned to bag Saturday, and just go Sunday, but mother nature intervened and dropped a bit of snow on me to push me over the edge. Burlington received around 0.3 inches of snow, bringing our whopping seasonal total to somewhere around 4.4 inches. SkiVT-L tipped me off to some good snow reports from Jay Peak, and their reports says 7-10" new for today. Since this storm tracked across the middle of Quebec, it's not surprising that the greatest totals would be to the north. Still, I decided to save my pennies and go where my pass could get me in, southward to Sugarbush. I checked the report and they were saying 4 inches of new snow, not a huge dumping, but lately I'll take whatever mother nature can dish out. <BR>I decided to visit Sugarbush North for a change, and my plan was to catch the nice powder on the skier's right of Inverness (GMVS Poma line). Bah, with all the other trails closed aside from Inverness, they closed the lift off to the public and only let racers up . This unfortunately meant that I had to ride the old slow and low Green Mountain Quad. As I looked around, I noticed a dearth of traffic on all the trails except the one below the lift. I could see the trackless powder just waiting to be consumed. Well, first thing was first, and I took a trip up the North Ridge Express to check out the mid-mountain. I hit Elbow, which had surprisingly soft snow, very little hard pack at this early hour, and I'm sure they blasted the guns all over it to freshen it up. I then swung over to Northstar and found anywhere from 3-8 inches of powder off the side of the trail. Things were looking up! I finished off back at the top of the slow and low, now was the time for exploring the lower mountain powder I had seen. <BR>I was roped off at almost every turn, but finally found a way to the Sunshine Double by going down below the start of the slow and low. It looks like other folks were slowed up as well, because it was now well after 9:00, and there was only one other person visible in the whole area. The left side of Easy Street: one track. Sugar Run: one snowmobile track. I would have to spend some time here. First I hit the skier's left of Easy Street and found about 3 inches of new snow over the old base (or actually lack of base if you got too close to the woods). The snow was moderately light, although difficult to gauge since there were only 3 inches, I'll say 7-8 % water as a guess. Next it was off ot the right side. Here there were a few tracks, but the snow was a bit deeper and the base a bit more consistent. Next up was Sugar Run, which I think was technically supposed to be close from the top, but they had the connection open below it. The new 3 inches of snow here was on top of ice in many spots, and rocks in others. They had obviously not hit this trail as hard with the guns, and the meltdown had taken it's toll. I fled back to Easy Street about halfway down to let my skis live to see another day. After a couple more runs, I found that I could access the lower half of Crackerjack as I departed the Sunshine area. This was the powder I had seen from the slow and low lift. They had groomed one track down the middle, and left 3/4 of the trail untouched. Sweet turns with a plentiful (albeit very solid) base. I had to go and repeat that one again. I finished off the day around 11:00 with one more trip up the North Ridge, but the crowds were starting to form and the untracked on the sides was getting scarce. All in all, better than I expected. It may be nice tomorrow as well, most people were staying away from the stuff I mentioned. I was alone, but I got a couple of powder track pictures, just a reminder that things could be a lot worse! <BR> <BR>J.Spin <BR> <BR>Images associated with this report (3 images) can be viewed at: <BR>http://www.uvm.edu/~jsilveir/08JAN00.html