Jay Silveira
New member
The Wednesday Lost Trail snow report said 11 new inches of snow, which was more than we expected based on the size of the storm. Unlike many of the past snow events, this snow had fallen during colder weather and made for nice light powder. Everyone in the valley knew that when Lost Trail opened back up, we were going to have our first big powder Thursday of the season. It's funny, but last year we had set a 12-inch rule before taking off work, and I know we even skipped a 10-inch storm. But, the way the flow of moisture has been this year, 11 inches definitely qualifies for getting out of work and on the snow. From discussions on Wednesday afternoon, it was obvious that many people were thinking the same thing. <BR> <BR>In the morning I met up with Derek, Bruce, and Jon, and we got in the lineup for Chair 1. Derek and Bruce got on a couple minutes before us, and as we approached the summit, we could see that they had already started down and were ripping up South Face. It wasn't too surprising, since Bruce doesn't like to wait around even when it's a not a powder day. Jon and I decided to head over to Thunder, and found that there were only two tracks on it. We dove right in and headed down through the pow. The new snow that had fallen felt like it was around 5-6% H2O, which meant that it was pretty light and even on my fat skis I was hitting bottom. The new snow was definitely not enough to erase the old bumps, so we had to navigate through them on the top of Thunder. It wasn't quite as easy as new powder over groomed, but the contours added some variety. After Thunder, we cut left and hit Lightning. The bumps were smaller here due to less traffic, and the skiing went a bit faster. I wasn't getting any face shots with this combination of snow and skis, although I think Derek and Jon got a few on their teles. Jon and I headed back up and then went over to the Secret Meadow instead of Thunder. Since it sees such little traffic, we figured it would be untracked and unbumped, and we were right. The entire right side was a smooth expanse of untracked snow, except for one launch in the middle of the field that was just begging to be hit. I took it conservatively the first time, just in case it had a flat face, but it was perfect and I knew I'd be able to nail it next time. <BR> <BR>Returning to the lift line, Derek and Bruce spotted us from up on the lift, and we made plans to meet up at the bottom. I shouted up to Derek “You go fast, we’ll go slow 
”, knowing that Bruce would be going fast anyway. Jon and I took another shot at Lightning, taking our time and working lines on the left side now that the trail was getting pretty tracked up. We finally got back together as a foursome, and did some runs on South Face, Moose Creek, Lower Thunder, and returned to the Secret Meadow. This time I was ready for the jump and just flew off the thing. With a nicely sloped outrun of perfectly untracked powder, the landing was like butter. Even with the bigger air I could hardly feel it. We did head over for a run on Slides, which had been well tracked out by this point, but it was still steep and soft. We followed that up with a traverse over to Femur Ridge and a run in the bowl, which still had lots of untracked snow on the far right. Coverage was great all around, even though the base is only 40 inches. <BR> <BR>At around noon, Derek, Bruce and I called it a morning and headed for work. Jon hung around and caught back up with his friends who were visiting from Boston. They’d spend the day taking it easy on some of the mellower trails and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Surprisingly, they hadn’t been out to try any of the great Vermont powder and this was their first day. Eleven inches of powder is a nice start for them I’d say. I got a message from Doug Slifkin over in Bozeman, and he said that Bridger pulled 12 inches out of the storm as well. That’s good to hear, because he said it was their biggest dump of the season and they need snow. Last I heard, the ridge wasn’t open, but I’ll have to check with Doug and see if the latest storm was enough to open it up. That’s probably it for snow here until Monday, at which point another system will start to move in. The middle of next week could be pretty moist, with a chance of snow Monday night through Friday morning. Another powder Thursday could be in the cards, but it will likely have to be a pretty big dump to go two weeks back to back. <BR> <BR>J.Spin
”, knowing that Bruce would be going fast anyway. Jon and I took another shot at Lightning, taking our time and working lines on the left side now that the trail was getting pretty tracked up. We finally got back together as a foursome, and did some runs on South Face, Moose Creek, Lower Thunder, and returned to the Secret Meadow. This time I was ready for the jump and just flew off the thing. With a nicely sloped outrun of perfectly untracked powder, the landing was like butter. Even with the bigger air I could hardly feel it. We did head over for a run on Slides, which had been well tracked out by this point, but it was still steep and soft. We followed that up with a traverse over to Femur Ridge and a run in the bowl, which still had lots of untracked snow on the far right. Coverage was great all around, even though the base is only 40 inches. <BR> <BR>At around noon, Derek, Bruce and I called it a morning and headed for work. Jon hung around and caught back up with his friends who were visiting from Boston. They’d spend the day taking it easy on some of the mellower trails and seemed to be enjoying themselves. Surprisingly, they hadn’t been out to try any of the great Vermont powder and this was their first day. Eleven inches of powder is a nice start for them I’d say. I got a message from Doug Slifkin over in Bozeman, and he said that Bridger pulled 12 inches out of the storm as well. That’s good to hear, because he said it was their biggest dump of the season and they need snow. Last I heard, the ridge wasn’t open, but I’ll have to check with Doug and see if the latest storm was enough to open it up. That’s probably it for snow here until Monday, at which point another system will start to move in. The middle of next week could be pretty moist, with a chance of snow Monday night through Friday morning. Another powder Thursday could be in the cards, but it will likely have to be a pretty big dump to go two weeks back to back. <BR> <BR>J.Spin