Category Archives: Alpine Skiing

Winter Endures: Lincoln’s Throat

Recently, as I go about my daily routine, I’ve been hearing all sorts of hushed utterances from passersby, people around the office, news anchors and others regarding spring, snow melt, warmth and other such unsavory notions.  To anyone guilty of such blasphemy, this post is for you.  I present Exhibit A:

Winter Endures!  Undeterred by the recent rainstorms (or, for that matter, the rain that we woke to yesterday morning) we ventured back into Franconia Notch in search of steep, exciting lines.  

A few weeks back, we set out to the same area with the aim of skiing Lincoln’s Throat, one of the slides running down from Franconia Ridge.  Upon getting there we realized that the unnamed line to looker’s left of it might actually be more fun: it was a powder day and we just wanted to make huge fast turns.  This time around, we decided get back to the original plan and see what it was all about.  We loaded the car, picked up some breakfast, talked to some sales clerks about how they “don’t know about the skiing because of the warmth and the rain” and headed up into the notch, where the rain promptly turned over to snow.  
The skin in was relatively easy going, as per the last time around.  We made sure not to go a mile out of the way time, and quickly found the stream bed which leads up to the slides.  We found the stream to be completely opened up in many places and had some difficulty crossing.  We resorted to tossing skis across a shallow section and quickly running over a few exposed rocks.  AT sole blocks and trekking poles for the win.  We eventually found that the stream was intact at higher elevations and were able to come out of the woods and head for the slides.
Cliffed out: the ice bulge at the top of the skiable part of the slide.
Photo Credit: Rob
In classic Franconia Notch style, the weather became progressively worse as we approached the summit.  The wind picked up, the clouds sunk in around us and the snow continued to fall.  All florid prose aside, the conditions turned out to be close to perfect.  It was a touch on the warm side toward the bottom, but once we got to decent elevations it dipped below freezing – much more comfortable for a long climb.  The recent rains and warmth had created a thick rain crust layer, and solidified the snow pack to the point of negating any avalanche concern.  Anticipating these conditions, we took crampons and ice axes along.  For most of the ascent, trekking poles and some carefully places steps were sufficient protection.  Close to the top, I starting to get nervous and pulled out my mountaineering ax.  Rob used a whippet self arrest pole to fill that role.  Despite these few difficulties, the travel uphill was actually considerably easier than the last time, conspicuously lacking any wallows through thigh deep snow and deeper drifts.  However, the snowfall was steadily coating over the firm rain surface.  The crust was providing just enough support for relatively easy climbing and the new powder (2-6 inches) was looking to be just enough for some soft turns.
Our staging area.  It was pretty steep.
And we couldn’t really see.
Photo Credit: Rob
We arrived at the top of the chute and were struck by how cool this place really was.  We were surrounded nearly on 3 sides by steep, icy rock.  The top of the chute was steep enough that we had to kick into the slope and build ourselves little platforms to work from.  It was probably close to 40 degrees at the very top.  The fog was now full blown pea-soup.  Rob snagged a few pictures, we finished messing around with our gear, clicked in and got ready for the skiing.
Ready to shred.  Photo Credit: Rob
Concerned about scraping away too much of the new snow surface and ruining Rob’s run, I do a quick jump turn, and take off straight down the fall line.  It turns out that the snow was pretty fast that day.  Between the low visibility and tight line, it felt like things were coming at me pretty fast – this was some exciting skiing!  Eventually, I figure it’s time to speed check and pull over.  
As Haigh would say, ‘Point ’em and pray!’
As I come to a stop I notice a big swath of slough pouring past me.  By now, I’m really starting to worry that I’ve ruined Rob’s line by taking all the snow down with me.  A few seconds later, Rob tears past me, laying down some fast, hard turns.  Apparently there was plenty of snow for the two of us, despite the large volume of slough.  We leap-frog our way down, alternating who takes first tracks.
Emerging from the fog.  Photo Credit: Rob
The pow wasn’t quite so epic, but the line was just a little bit steeper and the snow, just a little bit faster.  Bottom line: great run.  By this time we’d each worked up a serious thirst, so we cracked open a couple cans of stout, quenched ourselves, and started to find our way back to the Old Bridle Path and eventually the parking area.

View Lincoln’s Throat in a larger map

Gear List (click links for more product info):

Black Diamond Sabretooth Clip CramponsBlack Diamond Raven Ice Axe Gray, 55cmBlack Diamond Axe Protector Bd Orange, One SizeBlack Diamond Spike ProtectorBlack Diamond Guide Glove - Men's Natural, LBlack Diamond Havoc SkiBlack Diamond Ascension Nylon STS Skins One Color, 95mmBlack Diamond AvaLung IIBlack Diamond QuickDraw Tour Probe 190Black Diamond Deploy 3 Shovel Cinnamon, One SizeBackcountry Access Tracker DTS BeaconBlack Diamond Whippet Self-Arrest Ski PolePOC Lobes Goggle Black/White, One SizePOC Synapsis 2.0 HelmetBlack Diamond Factor Alpine Touring Boot - Men'sBlack Diamond Contour Elliptic Carbon Trekking Pole Ink Blue, One SizeFree Shipping on Orders over $50

Jay Peak Sidecountry

Another long overdue post from February 12th.  This time we returned to the mecca of east coast powder skiing and tree skiing: Jay Peak.  As usual the best skiing was in the woods and out of bounds.  The two main areas of interest were the woods to skier’s left of Beaver Pond and the woods to skier’s right of Timbuktu.  What was wrong with the woods actually inside of the ski area you might ask?  Nothing.  Except that they don’t have as much fresh pow 🙂  Here’s an overview of the area:

View Jay Sidecountry in a larger map

Me getting fired up for
 the descent.

Our first foray our of bounds for the day was off to skier’s right of Timbuktu.  The nice part about this, is that contrary to what you might expect about skiing out of bounds, you can’t really screw this up.  In the worst case you just wind up on the road and hike/skin/ski back.  If it’s a snow storm, beware of highway trucks – we nearly got clobbered by one and had to jump out of the way quickly.  But the slog back to Jay was otherwise uneventful.  Highlights of this area are: lots of untracked pow and a few cool drops.  Their precise locations are unknown to me, unfortunately.

Rob surveys our
newly found line.

Some time in the afternoon we headed over to look for more sidecountry accessed via the Long Trail.  Our info indicated that you should enter the woods over by the Beaver Pond, find the Long Trail and follow it as far as North Jay.  Any time between North Jay and entering the woods is candidate for powdery woods.  We ended up wasting all sorts of time trying to find the long trail, which was buried in snow making it pretty hard to find.  Finally we just decided to go North which was the general direction of the LT.  The route we found was nice, but it wasn’t as long or as steep as we’d hoped.  On the upside there was no shortage of untracked.  In hindsight we should have done one of two things differently.  There was a steep knoll just south of where we dropped in which would probably have been more fun, if not the same length.  If we had had the time, the best option would have been to head all the way up North Jay and find something off of there.  It would certainly have been longer and the topo seems to indicate several routes of decent pitch.  Eventually all of these runs mellow out and you have to skin or hike back to the ski area.  There is a network of x-country trails which we found helpful in filtrating.

Bottom line: anyone who says there’s no powder skiing on the east coast ain’t lookin’ hard enough.

A glimpse of the bottomless pow.

Gear List:


Black Diamond Contour Elliptic Carbon Trekking Pole Ink Blue, One SizePOC Synapsis 2.0 HelmetPOC Lobes Goggle Black/White, One SizeBlack Diamond Guide Glove - Men's Natural, L

Bolton Valley Sidecountry and treeskiing

Rob and Christine hunting
for some sidecountry
powder skiing

Over a month overdue, here’s my report from the Bolton Valley sidecountry. We’d heard a number of things about this place, aside from the fact that it’s flat and full of kids and old people. Those things are true, but what many do not know is that not many people go there looking for tree skiing or sidecountry, so when it snows (which is pretty much all it did this winter) Bolton holds onto it for a long time. We headed up there on January 29th, did some digging around and found a few cool places to ski.

There are three real areas of interest at Bolton Valley. The main area of interest is the region to skiers right of the actual ski area. The x-country network comes close enough to the alpine area that you can follow it out of bounds and along the ridge. Once on the ridge, the idea is simply to find a clearing in the woods with enough of a pitch to make some good turns. The pitch eventually mellows out and runs into a brook which leads you back to the ski area. We blew it and dropped in too soon and missed a portion of the run, but an inspection of the topo maps shows that some decent turns are to be had in this area. We managed to find fresh tracks for a good part of the way down.

View Bolton Sidecountry in a larger map

View Bolton Sidecountry in a larger map

The second area of interest is a face above the top of the ski area and just below the actual summit of the mountain. It’s supposed to be steep and tight, requiring a skin or hike from the top of the lift to the summit. Unfortunately we didn’t get the chance to check it out.

Me coming off a cool little drop deep in the woods.
Photo credit: Rob

The final area worth mention is the lengthy tree run all the way to skier’s right. It seems to follow a long drainage down the side of the mountain. It’s not super steep and it’s more open than say, Hatchet at Wildcat, or Beaver Pond at Jay, but I found the terrain interesting. There are plenty of small drops, large rocks, rolls and fall aways in the chute. We were nearly a week (I thing) after the most recent snow and there was still plenty of soft snow to go around.

View Bolton Sidecountry in a larger map