Weird. That's the best way to describe today's ski tour on the backcountry trails at Bolton Valley today. Other words that come to mind are frozen, crusty and otherworldly.
While the high trails picked up some snow over the last week, they also got the deep-freeze treatment. Ice was everywhere. It coated trees at nearly an inch in thickness.
During our ski on Heavenly Highway, Birch Loop and Gardiner's Lane, the Skimeister and I navigated around many limbs and trees that were downed by the weight of the ice. Other branches and birches seemed to perform backbends under the heavy load.
I was glad that I had taken along my helmet because I heard heavy, icy branches crack against it several times as I ducked under them. Better than cracking against my noggin!
Now factor in some rather thick fog. Turns out it rolled in as we were rolling in to the parking lot at noontime. The combination of ice, snow and fog made for a surreal scene as we skied.
Every once and a while the wind would blow and the clanking of the ice branches created an odd windchime sound. It occurred to me that branches might still want to fall, so I turned my eyes upward when I heard the wind and whenever I looked for a place to stop.
As for the skiing, well it was tough with light backcountry ski equipment because of the crust layer that was under two to three inches of fresh snow. I didn't do much real turning today. It was just cool to be out among the glassy trees.
As we crossed small brooks, I peered down at them and noticed that in some places there must have been about four feet of snow on the banks. That's in start contrast to the lower elevations near Burlington, where the snow has been melting.
Now if only Mother Nature would give us a good, old-fashioned snowstorm to cover that layer of crust. That would be lovely.
I'm sure the groomed ski trails at the resort were fine, as the machines would have chewed up the crust. Drop me a line to tell me about your skiing experience this weekend. Good? Bad? Ugly?
I may have to check out the downhill slopes in the next couple of days when sunshine is expected. There's plenty of snow on the mountains of northern Vermont, we might as well make use of it!
