Monday – 1300 yard swim (base intervals)
Tuesday – OFF
Wednesday – 40 min run
Thursday – 1600 yard swim (fartlek)
Friday – 44 miles/31,000 vertical snowboarding at Ascutney
Saturday – 43 miles/20,000 vertical snowboarding at Bolton Valley
Sunday – 57 miles/35,000 vertical snowboarding at Stowe
Week Summary
Swim – 2900 yards
Bike – 0 min
Run – 40 min
Other – 144 miles/86,000 vertical snowboarding
Still waiting for daylight savings time to start riding.
Snowboarding Report
Day 1 - Ascutney
Never been to Ascutney, but it worked perfectly into the 3 day plan and there had been fairly recent snowfall so decided to give it a shot. The biggest thing Ascutney has going for it, unlike many other southern Vermont mountains, is it’s proximity to the highway. Another apparently is the lack of crowds.
Views to Killington and Okemo.
Immediately on the chairlift it is obvious that there is a lot of interesting terrain, and judging by the number of tracks there is a lot of potential for challenging lines.
Unfortunately, I wouldn’t get to try any of them because the recent snow had frozen solid. It seems the lack of traffic and temperatures that weren’t quite warm enough meant real hardpack ice-like snow. They were running a groomer during the day which is pretty unusual, but even fresh tracks in his wake did nothing to loosen the snow.
Couple more shots of some trails:
So, Ascutney ended up being a bust. Had to stick to the same couple of trails. Positives were proximity to the highway, lack of crowds, interesting terrain, and a fast lift. Negatives were poor grooming and a lack of truly open trails. I’d give it another try with better conditions.
Day 2 - Bolton
After staying the night in White River Junction, it was off to Bolton Valley and another new resort. On the way got some a cool shot of Camel’s Hump.
Bolton has a progression terrain park with nice medium features which was right at my level, as well as some big jumps that were not. Hard to see, but the medium park is behind this large park.
Views were spectacular from the summit. This is as bluebird as it gets. Views to Camel’s Hump to the South, across Lake Champlain to White Face to the West (55 miles away) and towards Mt Mansfield/Stowe to the North.
Bolton, unlike Ascutney the day before, had excellent grooming. So the day started out, like many Spring days, on some fast perfectly groomed trails.
As the day went on, moved over to the Wilderness Peak area which had some nice low angle trees on the runout. View towards the summit and back across to the main part of the mountain.
As the snow softened further, also hit the Timberline area and a few runs through the summit glades.
Wrapped up the day with multiple laps through the medium park hitting all the boxes, rails and jumps on offer.
Excellent day at Bolton and can’t wait to return. It has a mix of nice long runs with some easy trees and a terrain park I can handle. Best of all its completely uncrowded – and this was as it good as it gets for conditions and weather. Only minor negative is they have no fast lifts.
Day 3 – Stowe
Stayed in Williston just outside Burlington on Sat night and Sun morning it was onward to Stowe. First impressions, now this just “looks” like a mountain.
Stowe is known for their “front four” trails which are some of the longest, steepest terrain I've seen. They open up the quad that serves this area at 7:30 am so it was an early start. Crowds were very light to start so got a few runs off this chair before it got a little more crowded.
Looking across at the Spruce Mt area, which has an expansive beginner area, and down the North Slope trail.
At the bottom of North Slope was Stowe’s medium terrain park. Notice the difference in size versus Bolton. These were too big for me, although I did take a few runs through the small terrain park. First thing in the morning, perfectly groomed.
From the top of the Forerunner quad, I traversed over to the Gondola area before it was loading and scored 3rd tracks down Perry Merrill. Best snow of the day was here early on, buttery sugar which was perfectly groomed out. Shots of the traverse on Rim Rock and my tracks.
Hit a few runs off the Gondola before it got crowded. The gondola brings you in just under the summit Mt Mansfield, which is the highest mountain in Vermont. The terrain above the gondola is very gnarly but I did see some people hiking up the slackcountry later in the day.
Headed back over to the main face and did a run down Toll House which is a super long trail. Long straight lift back to the main area.
Time for a few more runs on the steeper terrain of the main face. The traditional front four are too much for me as they are moguled double diamonds, but just to the side trails like Nosedive and Hayride were nice cruisers. Hit some of the low angle Nosedive glades as well.
From the summit, looking at the “Nose” part of the Summit. The steep entrance to Nosedive, Nosedive glades, and a view back to Nosedive from the Gondola area.
In the afternoon, took the transfer gondola across the street for some runs on the Spruce side. Very soft conditions here as it was baking in the sun. With three days in the legs it was a lot of effort to make it down, even with easier trails. Looking back to the summit, the front four, and the main face, and some soft moguls on Upper Smugglers.
Spruce has one of the nicest lodges I’ve ever seen, but I didn’t take any pictures of that. Shot down towards the lodge and the huge beginner area.
Great first day at Stowe and I can’t wait to go back. The length and sustained difficulty of their trails is something I haven’t seen at other mountains. On a Sunday at least, the crowds were manageable and easily avoided by rotating lifts. Given that I predominately like to blast down trails and score a lot of vertical, this is a perfect mountain for those sort of days.
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