Between the Rains: Scoring Pow on the East Coast

Twelve-inch snowstorms that turned into rain, then thermometer-draining, 40-degree temperature swings—the recent Polar Vortex smacked down, creating air travel gridlock and leaving travelers stuck in airports for days. It goes without saying that the climate on the East Coast is volatile, and the Holidays can be a literal powder keg (if you’re lucky). “Don’t like the weather? Wait a minute,” advises the old Vermont adage.  

In the past two months, New Englanders have been alternately shivering and sweltering through the realties of this statement. What’s a rider or skier to do? 2014 could be, and should be, the year of Carpe Diem. In between the harsh blankets of rain and ice, we managed to pilfer closed resorts, shatter topsheets on submerged rocks, boost off of exposed stumps and generally seize the day, in case you don’t speak Latin.

Hiking for fresh snow at Sugarbush.  Photo by Geza Darrah.

The 2013/14 winter started off with a nice cold stretch this side of Thanksgiving, capped with the delivery of a solid foot and half dump in the mountains twelve days before Christmas. With some ski areas still not fully open, but a decent cover on the ground, it was game on for hearty folks willing to put in the effort and brave some near-zero temperatures. Motivated by the choking tourist traffic of the Holiday season just around the corner, and a lingering suspicion that nothing this good could last for long, I ditched all morning responsibilities to stomp out my runs on foot and approach skis and shred on an edgeless PowderJet. 

Damian Boyd-Boffa throws down a proper method at Sugarbush.  Photo by Geza Darrah.

Tucking into the stacked conditions, it was obvious from all of the fellow uphill travelers that I wasn’t alone in my assessments. By my last day of sending pow flying via the skin trail, temperatures were in the mid 20’s on the mountain. A few days later they shot through the roof, relatively speaking, hosing New England with three days of non-snow precipitation, enough to squelch anyone’s ambitions for a totally White Christmas.

But after the gifts had been unwrapped, New Year’s toasts given, and the snowpack reduced to the un-becoming status of “loose granular,” another storm lurked, waiting, we hoped, to start off 2014 on a good foot. This particular system brought with it plummeting temperatures, with the mercury dipping well below zero as an extremely low-moisture snowfall began to blanket the region. Windchill advisories were claiming -30 degree conditions on the mountains, but if anyone had learned a lesson from the pre-season, it was to grab that bull by the horns before it vacates the pasture entirely.

Jesse Huffman seizing the day.  Photo by Geza Darrah.

Traveling south of our usual haunts in order to harvest the best of this southern-track storm, our crew assembled at Killington, swaddled in doubled-up base layers and with fully covered faces. The accumulation was nearly knee-deep, but as we quickly found out, it sat on top of virtually nothing. My board was the first casualty, as a speedy heelside traverse into the trees ended with a bent edge and blown out sidewall. Randy Torcom, the head honcho at anon and Analog, pinged another boulder the next run, effectively focusing the nose of his board. Our third rider, native Vermonter Geza Darrah, enjoyed a close encounter with a submerged stump, denting his base hard enough to crack the top sheet on the other side. Taking the three-for-three hint, we stuck to the runs. This led us to discover what was unanimously considered the best trailside hit in Vermont—a gigantic snowmaking mound slathered with powder to slash—and numerous other features to make the most of the snow.

Two days later, a different crew assembled at Sugarbush. Temperatures had rebounded from the -20 dip 48 hours earlier, back to the 20-degree zone, and we jibbed, bonked and thrashed old trailside haunts. Then, the next day, the temperatures climbed into the 40’s, hosing down rain once again before crusting over into a fresh layer of ice.

Geza Darrah laying down a clean slash at Killington.  Photo by Jesse Huffman.

Geza’s flight back home to Florida was canceled, and then re-cancelled again. The yo-yoing of temperatures are enough to make any levelheaded rider insane, and for the folks that grew up here, the global warming rants are queuing themselves up. It’s a harsh time to live through, but there’s one thing for certain— 2014, more than ever, is the year to Carpe Diem.

Thanks to frontside airs like this, Geza Darrah doesn't seem too bummed to have missed his flights.  Photo by Jesse Huffman.