Posted January 31st, 2024 @ The Newport Daily Express, VT
So far, January has been a huge month for me in my progression as a backcountry skier. Starting on the morning of New Year’s Day, I kicked off 2024 with 10,000 vertical feet of human-powered skiing at Jay Peak, ascending and descending the mountain six and a half times over the course of seven hours. That adventure marked only the second time I had broken 10,000 feet of uphill on skis. I felt much better than expected throughout and after, a sign my training in the months prior was starting to pay off.
Next, my good friend Matthew Scheeler and I headed out to Lake Tahoe, California, for what proved to be an incredible week of education and adventure. The primary objective of the trip had us taking an American Institute for Avalanche Research and Education (AIARE) level 2 course.
This was an important next step in our avalanche education. It provided us with further skills needed to make decisions as a partner or group leader when traveling in complex avalanche terrain, the very terrain we as backcountry skiers are so often drawn to.
For the course, we spent two days in the field taking observations of the snowpack, learning how to formalize those recordings, and how, with that information, we can plan ski tours which aim to mitigate the given avalanche risk.
While in Tahoe, Matt and I also fit in an overnight backcountry hut trip on the Cascade Crest. After skiing several miles on a ridge laden with our heavy packs, we’d reached our destination: Benson Hut, a small two-story structure complete with a wood stove, situated at treeline (8800′) on Anderson Peak, and surrounded by ample skiing.
During high snow seasons, it’s not uncommon for the hut to become buried past its roof, requiring one to tunnel their way down to a second-floor window to enter. Luckily, or perhaps even unfortunately in the interest of adventure, we were able to simply use the front door.
The evening we arrived and before we left the next day, we skied from the hut, lap after lap of what was easily some of the best tree skiing either of us has done so far this season. Considerable avalanche danger kept us off the alluring terrain above, but Matt and I will surely be back.
Upon returning to VT, I found that winter had returned, and more snow was on the way. I spent nearly the entirety of the next week (the 17th-22nd) skiing an absolutely phenomenal stretch of snow in the Jay backcountry that was largely unforecasted.
All said and done, in an extreme example of the micro-climates that exist in Vermont’s mountains, select zones up high had received well over 40 inches with perhaps only a foot having accumulated down in the valleys.
This wasn’t just any snow though; it was some of the lightest, lowest density, and best-quality snow I’ve skied anywhere in the world. It truly was phenomenal. By far, some of the best turns I’ve ever taken occurred this past week during a storm cycle which seemingly came from nowhere. It was a week I won’t be forgetting any time soon.
