Friday, March 19, 2010

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.

1 comment:

  1. 4 Archived Comments:November 3, 2010 at 10:06 PM

    Jamesdeluxe said...
    That doesn't look bad at all.
    March 19, 2010 7:17 AM

    nickz said...
    Just there this weekend, saturday it was bulletproof and sunday had somw fresh snow but it rained all day sat and sun. The tables have turned at mt snow since then.
    March 19, 2010 3:38 PM

    Harvey44 said...
    My question for Jeff ... your report draws a pretty stark comparison between the Southern Adks and SoVT. That extra 100" per season means more midwinter pow AND another 2-3 weeks of spring skiing at the end of the season.

    So... what mountain gets your money next year?
    March 22, 2010 8:54 PM

    Jeff said...
    Harv, I can't even believe you'd ask! Mount Snow was great, but my heart is in North Creek... I'll be back at Gore for sure.
    March 22, 2010 9:54 PM

    ReplyDelete