Varied Snow Conditions at Snowbowl

Vermont is known for its wacky weather, but lately it has been especially bizarre. First we felt the effects of the polar vortex with bitter cold temperatures, and now at the end of a thaw, much warmer temperatures have caused snow and ice. These weather extremes have taken an interesting toll on the Middlebury Snowbowl.

According to Peter Mackey, the Snowbowl manager, the mountain has lost around two feet of natural snow due to the wind, rain, and warmth of late. There has been plenty of snowfall, but the snow has not been maintained because of the weather.

Fortunately, the Snowbowl has the ability to make snow artificially. Currently, there are only five runs open — the only runs on which they are able to make snow.

“If we didn’t make snow, we wouldn’t be open,” Mackey said.

However, making snow isn’t always easy. The weather has gone from being too warm to make snow to too cold, and this shifting has been a huge challenge. Also, the mountain does not have a wide array of snowmaking — it accounts for only45 percent of the terrain in total.

“While there was a little bit of fresh powder, it was just covering up the ice,”  Emily Beneroff ’16.5, who skies at the Bowl. “Conditions could have been better and less icy, but they also could have been worse.”

As such, students or other skiers checking which trails are open before heading to the Snowbowl might feel discouraged.Additionally, the bare ground at the College tricks students into thinking there is an equal dearth of snow at the Bowl. Mackey said that 175 pre-purchased season passes have not been redeemed yet, which is a relatively high number compared to normal snow years.

Despite all of these difficulties, Mackey says the conditions are still “pretty good.” Although there have been some granular and icy conditions, the Snowbowl’s ability to make snow has produced close-to-normal surfaces on their ski runs.

According to Susan Davis, head of the ski and snowboard school at the Snowbowl, the mountain has been open everyday since the beginning of the season, except Christmas Day. She says that “so far, we haven’t seen a huge impact” in terms of people not coming to their lessons, partly because most lessons are prearranged.

“[Vermonters] know we get odd weather, so they tend to gamble on it,” Davis said, regarding ski lessons and attendance. She believes the mountain has not seen a great decrease in revenue, because most of their business comes from various ski programs from schools and race teams.

Davis believes that there is a “disconnect between what’s going on [at the Bowl] and what’s perceived as going on [on campus].”

Davis said that Jan. 13, for example, there was “incredibly good spring skiing,” but students from outside Vermont simply believe the snow is not up to par because of the dry campus grounds. She believes that if students would only inquire as to how the conditions are, by either calling the Snowbowl or looking at the website, they would see that the snow is definitely skiable.

According to Davis, when there is snow on campus, students believe the skiing will be better. After the recent snowfall on Jan. 16, many more students headed up to the Bowl to ski.

The staff at the Snowbowl wants students to know that there is a difference between the amount of snow on campus and the amount of snow on the mountain. Davis urges students to simply do some investigating before they decide not to ski, because they may find that the conditions are better than they might believe. Although the weather has caused the mountain some difficulty, overall it has been able to sustain a quality level of skiing.