Sugarbush, VT 18NOV99

Jay Silveira · Apr 17, 2000

(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 11/19/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This week, the Northern Green Mountains received 2-3 feet of snow due to a storm that did a "sit and spin" maneuver up near the mouth of the the St. Lawrence Seaway. It effectively pulled moisture off the Atlantic Ocean, spun it in a counterclockwise flow around the center of the low pressure system and plastered the moisture on our mountains in the form of snow. 2+ feet is a great snowfall for any time of year, but for mid November, it's outstanding. Even with all the snow accumulating in the mountains on Monday and Tuesday, near the lake in Burlington we didn't receive much more than a dusting, even though we had a few periods of moderate snow. Ironically, a very small system that came through Wednesday night gave more accumulating snow (about 1/2 inch) on the ground in Burlington than the entire 2 1/2 day event. I had work to do in the morning, so I didn't get to the mountain until around 11:00 A.M., and I could see that all the trails were totally tracked up, even Spring Fling. I decided to first take a trip up the Gate House, then head to the top of North Lynx and see if any untracked snow remained in those reaches. I checked with the ski patrol at the top and they recommended taking Sunshine, good snow, but watch out for the cover. Sunshine was basically tracked up, but even when I did find untracked powder (sides of the trail still had some), it had settled quite a bit (even up at that elevation of 3300') and was really nothing like what I'd heard about the past two days. My Midfats were at the factory for a delamination, so I was on my Betacarves. If I stood on top of the untouched snow in many areas, I would only sink in about an inch or two, that's how much it had settled. It was actually darn tough skiing all things considered, trying to stay in good form amidst this thick stuff that wanted to make you go any which way. After finishing off Sunshine, I headed straight below the Gate House lift on Hot Shot to hit the steep section of Waterfall. I had my eyes on the skier's left hand side, which remained untracked near the snowmaking pipes and is always one of my roommates favorite shots. As expected, the snow here was well settled, and even with the pressure created by this steeper slope, I was only going into the snow about 6 inches max. I really had to muscle it and get up out of the snow to make good turns. Oh, where for art the light billowy stuff from the last two days?! I now came to the bottom of the Waterfall pitch and decided that maybe the woods would be better? I realized that I was now in the realm of the new gladed trail known as "Deeper Sleeper", so I hung a right onto Sleeper Road, and before I knew it, I was face to face with an untracked, unroped glade! Despite the excitement of this encounter, the skiing was basically hampered again by the snow consistency. With that pitch, and the consistency of the snow, it was basically all I could do to go straight line it and keep up my speed, the snow was just too thick. I will say this though, Deeper Sleeper was cut really nicely for folks that are just going to be getting into skiing the trees. The only things remaining were the big trees, and these ranged from probably 5 to 20 feet apart. There are lots of nice dips and rolls in there, it's probably 40-50 feet wide, and the pitch is perfect for learning. You need the right kind of powder, but I've skied those woods many times before, and 6-12 inches of champagne will set you just right and you'll float around in a dreamlike state

I realized that I'd had first tracks on Deeper Sleeper (for what they were worth) but I then later realized that these COULD be the first tracks EVER on the trail (since it had been cleared at least). I'm at least going to assume that until I learn otherwise. When my friend E heard about this, she was already groaning about how many times she'd have to hear me talk about it this season - I'm already thinking of doing a video segment on it, lol

I was thinking of checking out Castlerock since it was supposed to open, so I headed up Heaven's Gate and banked over to murphy's Glade to check out the snow on skier's right. As with the other snow, it had settled pretty well but it made for some nice turns anyway. It was certainly skiing more "on top" of the snow than in it. I stopped and talked a fellow on the trail who was using a metal detector to search for a ski that he had lost in the powder the day before. He obviously wasn't going to profit much from my help, so I wished him luck and went on my way. The entrance to the Castlerock lift was roped, although it seemed like people had been down there earlier. I headed on back down to the Super Bravo Chair, and found John Egan just removing his skis. He said that they had to stop Castlerock for a bit to work on the lift, but it would be opening back up. I knew that I'd have to be getting back to work soon, so I did a quick run down Domino (cut up powder and bumps - slightly lighter than the stuff I'd hit at Lynx) and hit Heaven's Gate. From there I finished off with a nice cruise of the Jester Downhill (Jester - Valley House Traverse - Snowball - Ravenna's Way - Snowball - Racer's Edge.) Even though the fluffy light powder of earlier this week is probably not going to be around this weekend due to warmer temps, there should still be plenty of soft snow and terrain for everyone. At last check (Friday), they were reporting 60 trails and the last I heard from the RSN Sugarbush Chat is that they are holding off opening North until next week. J.Spin

Sugarbush, VT 18NOV99

Jay Silveira

New member