This report is a bit late, considering how things have turned sour in the East (hey, the Xmas week warmup is a New England tradition going back millions of years), but things were superb on Wednesday morning. =D>
Aftre having missed out on the last 2 weekends due to (1) the power outage from the ice storm, then (2) big storms coming at exactly the wrong time (Fri nite & sunday) for weekend warriors, I took Xmas eve day off, and hit it big. There was still plentiful boot-deep powder on the sides of ungroomed trails and all over the woods. As expected, all the "hike-to" runs off the Outpost chair (not running) were in fabulous condition; in fact, I scored some thigh-deep shots in the woods beyond Sidewinder (the furthest traverse out). \
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By 1 PM any precip (which mostly held off in the AM, thankfully, after an inch of snow) turned to the liquid variety, which, along with temps rising above freezing, made the snow feel somewhat heavier. I headed out around 1:45 after an outstanding day with not very many other folks (at least on the upper mountain). Hopefully the resorts will still do a brisk business during the holidays even as the slopes firm up considerably , and the weather gets drearier. But this past wknd and early week put an exclamation point on what was a very enjoyable December for VT skiing (and Upper Maine, apparently).
Aftre having missed out on the last 2 weekends due to (1) the power outage from the ice storm, then (2) big storms coming at exactly the wrong time (Fri nite & sunday) for weekend warriors, I took Xmas eve day off, and hit it big. There was still plentiful boot-deep powder on the sides of ungroomed trails and all over the woods. As expected, all the "hike-to" runs off the Outpost chair (not running) were in fabulous condition; in fact, I scored some thigh-deep shots in the woods beyond Sidewinder (the furthest traverse out). \
/ By 1 PM any precip (which mostly held off in the AM, thankfully, after an inch of snow) turned to the liquid variety, which, along with temps rising above freezing, made the snow feel somewhat heavier. I headed out around 1:45 after an outstanding day with not very many other folks (at least on the upper mountain). Hopefully the resorts will still do a brisk business during the holidays even as the slopes firm up considerably , and the weather gets drearier. But this past wknd and early week put an exclamation point on what was a very enjoyable December for VT skiing (and Upper Maine, apparently).