After the weather warm-up last week, we've had a frigid weekend. Much of the water that was flowing in the mountains of northern Vermont has turned to ice. The snow that was once soft is now frozen in place.
Sunday's sunshine beckoned to us so we did some Nordic skiing at Bolton Valley's Nordic center. We brought waxless skis with metal edges because we knew the snow would be very firm. Bolton had taken a full-size groomer to some of the trails and the corduroy ripples had frozen solid. It was tough to get "kick" on World Cup and our skis made a lot of noise over the corduroy on the very fast downhills!
On the side of the trails there were 1 to 2 inches of cold, fresh powder. Whenever we could get to it, we did. It was smooth and quiet! We headed over to the Telemark and Pika trails and found them ungroomed and looking better.
We skied in the bit of soft snow on the sides of those trails and in the woods a little. Can you say “crust cruising”?!? In the woods there is still a nice base of snow, but it has an extremely solid crust. It's OK when you find the smooth crust, but if its not smooth, it's a rough ride!
The sky was blue on Sunday and the bright sun felt great on my face, even if it was partially covered in a neck warmer. After the recent weather warm-up, we were very happy to still have snow to ski on!
FYI - SNOWMAKING: Several Vermont alpine ski resorts took advantage of the very cold weekend to pump out some manmade snow to rebound from the recent melting. That will help the resorts keep their seasons going. Let's all pray for some natural snow, too!
