Sun and Snow

Lots of people dream of beaches and golf courses at this time of year. The reality for many of us here in the northeast in March is sun on snow.

Something vaguely resembling spring, or at least the bare-ground part of it, has arrived in the “Green Zone” of coastal New England. You can head to that often muddy, cold landscape to try to get a head start on all the fun that will come naturally if you just wait a couple of weeks. Or you can use late March and April to enjoy that wonderful combination of long days, warm sunshine and deep snow, even if it means you have to travel up north to find the snow.

There’s no better place to enjoy that combination of sun and snow than right where I happen to be, which is in the Mad River Valley of north-central Vermont.

The Mad River Valley has three great Alpine ski venues: Sugarbush, Mount Ellen, and Mad River Glen. But I think the heart of the Valley is at Ole’s Cross Country Ski Center and Blueberry Lake Cross-Country Ski Center. These two areas engage in a friendly competition to see who can provide the best trails, best snow, best grooming, best scenery and nicest people.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s a tie. Neither area is big on steeps or tight woodland trails. Instead, both offer lots and lots of beginner and intermediate trails on gently rolling terrain with great views.

Since early February, central and northern Vermont have been piling up the snow. First there was a series of small storms that missed most other places. Then came the Valentine's Day Blizzard and the St. Patty's Nor'easter. So there's lots of snow.

Unfortunately, it rained a little the day before we arrived, then the temperatures dropped back to seasonably cold at night. This meant a crust in most places. Then with the heating of the day, the crust warmed and softened. In conditions like this, the groomed cross-country ski trails are in prime shape. It’s the off-trail skiing that can become more of a trial.

On a warm-but-cloudy Sunday afternoon, we hit the trails at Ole’s for a few Ks of muscle-warming, muscle stretching activity. We just about had the place to ourselves, though you could see by the tracks that more folks had been out earlier in the morning. We’d waited for the afternoon, hoping for some sunshine to keep us company.

We skied a long loop around what is, in the summer, a takeoff field for sailplanes. Then another loop took us through some open fields, probably hayfields. Everywhere we went, we found expansive views of the mountains to both east and west. The trails of the three Alpine ski resorts stood out in high relief.

At one point late in our outing, we tried leaving the groomed tracks to see how our wider-than-normal Alpina backcountry skis would handle the soft snow. The skis did just fine, but our legs and lungs, already tired out from a long stint in the tracks, rebelled at the extra effort required.

Of course after we’d used up the very last of our energy for the day, the sun came out . It just made us smile even more.