2500'

[underbrush]

What's the current snow conditions at 2500' on your favorite ski hills?
Or whatever snow conditions at elevations you can give?


Mt. Cardigan: At 2500' on the west side of the mountain off the trail, 1/2" of glazed up freezing rain crust on top of two feet of soft powdery snow. Able to completely support snowshoes 75% of the time. Piles of ice cubes blown from tree branches sliding on the glaze and resting in the hollows.


Mt. Moosilauke: At 2500' on a shoulder of Moosilauke in the woods, light dust on easily breakable crust. No freezing rain glaze, the crust is noticeable but quite manageable on fatty waxless skis. 26" of soft, slightly sugary snow underneath the crust.

Mt Moosilauke could possibly be good skiing again with just a few inches of new snow, it's going to take something a little more special to make Mt. Cardigan good again, at least I got some untracked on the slabs before they froze over.

[flyingcow]

dust on breakable crust in the Greater Mansfield Metropolitan Area. Just enough to be annoying, but still worth skiing.

[yardsale]

3" on supportable, edgeable crust in the Bolton Area on north and east aspects. Low angle bc glades ski suprisingly well with boards large enough to stay on top of the crust. Most areas in northern Greens reporting 3-4" overnight. I suspect those are fisherman inches however.

[underbrush]

Went back up to the Moosilauke area to poke around a little more with the tele setup and see how manageable the crust would be on the down with a little more width under my foot. I managed to make it down and I managed to enjoy the the beautiful day and terrain but I didn't actually manage to make arcing turn. I looked in a couple spots on opposite sides of the mountain both on northerly aspects. The first spot had a thicker crust with 2" of dust on top but the crust wasn't supportable enough. Found a nice creek bed though!

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Each ski left a perfect trough through the snow. Just point em' and go! Low angle creekbed skiing at 2200'. Something a little wider than 99 under foot might be a little more fun.
On the way back over the mountain towards home I stopped in the spot I took the fatty waxless the day before. Thought the lighter crust might be a little more skiable. Took this low angle glade to a little over 3000'.

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The attempts at turns were only slightly better. Plenty of base just need another good storm. I'm probably heading to the Jay backcountry tomorrow to see what the crust situation is up there. They claim to have picked up 11" on the seven day. A long way to drive for that but there's nothing again in the forecast this week. Sorry about the pictures this is only my second post havn't quite got it figured out yet.

[underbrush]

It didn't take long to remind me why I take the three hour pilgrimage to the Jay peak area, the snow is still soft, it always seems to be soft. It's deeper too, my ski pole could push all the way into the snowpack. Skied east and south exposures, the east skied better, more of a dense, thick powder. No real crust to speak of. The southern exposure was starting to become sun affected. Still plenty of fresh shots to be had in the area.
Six hours in the car, five hours on the hill, want to go back, maybe after I mount my new Atomic Access skis that just showed up from Telemarkdown!
I will need to try them on the steepest and deepest I can find.

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[Dirk]

Great report underbrush. I too found turns yesterday, definitely better above 2500 feet than below.

[underbrush]

With my lower back seized up pretty tight from the long drive to northern Vermont I decided to try the new ski's out a little closer to home. I knew the snow wasn't going to be as good as the Jay bc but it was new territory for me and I'm always up for some exploration. I have been wanting to find a tour at the gate of Crawford notch for a couple years now. I've skied down in the notch, taking off from the Willey house, but now it was time to find something around the Highland Center at the top of the notch. It always seems to be stormy there, flurries and wind, pushing snow around the train station and pond. Rugged mountains rising up over 4000' in the distance, frosted in white, teasing an intrigued skier to venture a little closer for a more intimate look. So with the new ski's on the feet I headed up towards Mt. Avalon, Field, and Tom and the snowy looking bowl nestled between them.

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With 2" of fresh snow on sometimes supportable, sometimes breakable, denser and snowier crust it skied a lot better than the icy ski grabbing crust I've skied in NH lately. It was deep too!

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I looked around mostly on the north face of Mt. Field. Lots of things looked good from down below but once you were standing on top looking down they seemed to tighten up. The snow wasn't good enough to really enjoy the steeper stuff but I found some nice little wiggle lines on the lower angle glades and creeks around the main trail up the middle. It turned into a pretty continuous, pleasant glade/creek run to the bottom. It was a good starting point for my explorations in this area. I'll be back, need to find a good tour out of the Highland Center, it's too nice to not have one.

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The new skis with the powder rocker tip stayed on top and pivoted under my feet better than my other skis, more finesse less power, a good thing on the aging body.

[wallag]

Thanks for the report, Underbrush. I've been wanting to check out that area for a long time. Maybe now I'll have to do it!

[Caffrey]

i've wondered the same about Mt. Tom.
the broad east face lookers right of the trail looks "open" from a distance but haven't poked in to learn the hard way

[underbrush]

Low angle dust on crust with killer views at 2500'

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A couple more options across the road? This place is getting better by the tour.

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[yardsale]

I skied an overgrown carrage road coming down off Mt. Tom perhaps 10 years ago. Was a superb natural halfpipe and a lot of fun. Beautiful views down the valley from the top.

[Caffrey]

this deserves a woot!


[quote="underbrush"]Low angle dust on crust with killer views at 2500'

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Nick
i bet that carriage road is grown in by now

[Dirk]

I'm loving underbrush's photos. Keep them coming. Here's a couple from Saturday that I posted elsewhere that didn't seem to get much viewer traffic. This lovely glade runs from about 3,100 feet down to 2,300 or so, if you figure it right.

[underbrush]

Beautiful, open glade Dirk. I like the top photo, letting them rip! You seem to know your way around in the woods above 2500'. An 800' vert glade, that's a pretty long shot for the northeast. This in Vermont?

[Dirk]

It's in Vermont, has primarily northern exposure, and is relatively low-traffic despite its proximity to a popular section of the Catamount Trail. That's all I'll say about that. It's not very steep, so it skis best when there's a few inches of new snow on a consolidated base.

here's one from last April, same spot: