Mount Snow, VT: 03/18 and 03/19/2010

Ten of us get together each year for a couple days of skiing at a ski area in Vermont. This year’s destination was Mount Snow, an area I had never been to before. I had expected to find mostly groomed cruisers. While Mount Snow has those, happily I also found some really great tree skiing, bumps and some challenging black diamonds on the mountain’s North side. Great snow and weather to boot.


Thursday, 3/18:
Today started out firm and fast. A couple of runs on frozen corduroy shook the fog that remained from Saint Patrick’s Day out of me. By 10 am, the snow softened up enough to do a bit of exploring. We enjoyed some moderate bumps and more cruisers on the Main Face, and then hit the North Side, where we stayed for the rest of the day.

We found some really nice tree skiing on the North side. We lapped one favorite tree run that went top to bottom - over 1000' vert - 3 times. I was surprised at how much snow there was in the woods, easily 4 feet. Coverage was great right to the bottom of the mountain. We also enjoyed some nice bump runs at North, with forgiving, well-formed moguls. The north-facing aspect kept the snow soft without turning it to mush or slush.

Friday, 3/19:
Today, the snow seemed to soften up right from the start. After a few runs on the Main Face, we headed back to the North side for more trees and bumps. We enjoyed some of the same shots that we skied on Thursday, and found a few new ones too.

My friend Howard, pictured above, is renowned for his butt-bag.

Greg's board was no problem in the beautiful open glades. A nice, laid back pitch, kinda like the Twister Glades at Gore, but longer.

We had several snowboarders in our group. Two of them happened to be named Greg. This Greg didn't like the trees so much, but loved the steeper terrain on the North Side.

We haven't decided where we'll go next year, but it'll be hard to beat the fun skiing we had at Mount Snow.