2019 S4DT Reports - Catamount Trail Assoc.

2019 S4DT Reports

Catamount Trail Association's 2019 Southern Four Day Tour ("S4DT")
from Friday February 22 to Monday February 25 2019, Sections 1 through 4 Trip Reports:

This starts with pre-tour reports, jump to the actual tour reports here.

Executive Summary: The first two days were fun but crusty, the last two days were cancelled due to rain and wind and every other reason I could come up with.

01/06/2019 Sunday Jeff and I put up temporary trail signs at Dutch Hill. He walked, I skied. He was better able to pick up a lot of the branches that have covered the ground up there.

There is a 2-5" solid styrofoam base, edgable but uneven, with a faint dusting on top. In spots there is just 1/2" of sleet on top of bare ground. The glades and Lift Line look like ski-killers. We came down the Yankee Doodle, with hop, snowplow and parallel turns at the top, and some tele turns on the lower portions. Last fall's additional thinning on the Yankee will be appreciated by some who found it too thick, too fast last year.

The Meadows did not look like much fun to ski down yet.

A few inches of new snow would be fun on the lower sections.

02/07/2019 I have updated some information and added some new skiers. See the Schedule page for a change to our Monday meeting, because of a fire at our usual meeting place, Dot's of Dover. I have also added information on the Bennington Glutony Extravaganza at Jim and Chickie Goodine's, on the Social Activities page. Still hoping for some improvement in the weather.

02/16/2019 Three of us skied Section 2 of the Catamount Trail from Harriman Dam to Medburyville South today. Conditions were fast and easy, a bit crunchy and noisy but not a real crust, and a good solid base so there wasn't much trail breaking effort. Where there was an old track we found it better to make a new one as the old track was deeper and frozen. The primitive snowmobile trail north of the rock cut was not recently tracked for the most part and made a nice gentle descent. Oddly, where there were sled tracks, it was faster to ski beside them in the new snow. This was the first scheduled tour on the new reroute at Medburyville, and possibly the first folks to ski it, couldn't see any tracks. We skied over the stream crossing but clearly with a bit more melting the detour to the road will be useful. It was nice to get off the snowmobile tracks. With the current forecast I'm expecting very nice skiing for the S4DT#2.

02/20/2019 First of all, Marie, Lynn Fisher and I had a lovely tour on Root Beer Ridge today, out of Weston, along Sec 8. The few inches of powder on a firm base was delightful both up and down. This was our first time on RBR, but it won't be our last. It is currently snowing here, it may turn to sleet near the end. S'posed to be rather warm Fri and Sat, so bring your Maxi-Glide! Sunday is forecast for rain and 46F. I never cancel for rain but you don't have to go if you don't want to. Maybe some snow at the end, then cooler and sunny (26F) Monday.

02/21/2019 NEWS FLASH! We are swapping the Saturday and Sunday evening activities since it may be poor driving on Sunday evening. I've updated the Social page to reflect the changes.

Alan reports a bit of crust on top of a few inches of fluff from the last storm, but I predict the warm weather will soften the crust, and it will be nice skiing, especially if you are not breaking trail.

TRIP REPORTS

Here are Hilary's Section 1 photos and their swanky accomodations and nearby ice-covered views.
Here are Hilary's Section 2 photos.
Here are Sheri's photos from both days.
You can see Hilary's, Jim's, Sheri's, Brian's, Marshall's and Debbie's photos in the in the Group Album here. You can also add your pictures to the Group Album.
I've used some of their photos here in my report as well, thanks!

02/22/2019 Section 1 We had eleven skiers today along the Deerfield River. We had nice temps and some sun, a crunchy icy road walk for starters then a nice groomed SM trail to the border.

MA/VT line, southern end of the CT!
There we talked a little about places we'd skied before and places we wanted to ski in the future and did some weird ritual with skis before heading north.

How else do you celebrate being at the MA/VT border?

Luckily Sec 1 can be skied in very thin cover.

Sunny lunch at Tobey Brook.

One of the many scenic views along the Deerfield River.
Saw two bald eagles and some otter tracks. Stream crossings were pretty managable, not much snow but a good solid sleet base with a crust that got a bit slippery by the end of the day.

Didn't have to leave any skiers behind, this time.
The photographers in the group made sure the ice formations along the rock cut were well documented.

The ice formations along the old railroad bed always attract photos.

One short climb to the end.
A bit of relaxing at Alan's log cabin then a nice dinner at the Anchor Restaurant.

02/23/2019 Section 2 Folks usually call what we do on the Catamount Trail "Cross Country Skiing". Today was more like "Crust Crunchy Skiing". We had eleven skiers again today, and used our +/-10% allowance to have twelve skiers for a while.

Everyone's here, let's go!

Off to a dam good start.
After the breakfast and car shuttles (thanks Jim!) we started out on the well groomed snowmobile trail. There seemed to be some grumbling when we turned off to ski on the back country part of the trail.

Most of the troublesome wet spots were covered, but not all.
You either had to ski in the recent, but frozen, tracks, which didn't fit 3-pin bindings well, or break your own parallel trail through a breakable (mostly) crust on a few inches of sleet. Either way it was pretty noisy, but pretty, along the reservoir.

"Side-stepping or boot-packing is the recommended descent technique here."

Ready for lunch?
We had a bit of sun for our Wilder Brook lunch stop.

Another sunny brook-side lunch.

This was blasted through solid rock, just for the skiers of the CT!
More icicle pictures through the rock cut. We picked up our twelfth skier and headed into the long, easy kick and gliiiiide snowmobile trail descent back to reservoir level.

Thanks to Great River Hydro for the use of the land for the trail, and the picnic tables.
At the picnic grounds some folks opted for the snowmobile trail instead of the new backcountry reroute. The crust made the ups and downs pretty challenging on the new reroute.
At Medburyville South, we still had some die-hard skiers, so five of us kept going. The snow was so firm on the field that the only marks left were the ski pole tip holes. In places the crust was not easily broken or edgable, leading to some odd sideways skiing.

The shining path to Canada.

Who would nail a blaze to a rock?

The option to de-ski and walk the tricky parts was frequently used.
The scramble around Searsburg (power) Station was done on foot by the wise folks.

Sometimes there just isn't a tree where you need it.
Then, with a few tutorials on how best to cross watery trenches, we made our way carefully to the Rt 9 road walk, where we saw the folks who stopped skiing at Medburyville drive by on their way to the Bennington Gluttony Extravaganza.
Two skiers each managed a couple linked tele-turns in the salty, soft bank down to the cars, if you count a turn with a sitz-mark at the end as a turn.
It was at the sit at the end of this last turn that I seem to have sprained my ankle. The Doctor said "Ice and Elevation". I wasn't sure if he meant the cause or the treatment.
Most of us then headed to Jim and Chickie's Bennington Gluttony Extravaganza for more fun and gooood food.

02/24/2019 Section 3 and 4 are cancelled For a multitude of reason, I'm going to play my "fair-weather-skier' card and cancel Days 3 and 4 of the Southern Four Day Tour #2.
1) It is supposed to rain all day today (Sunday, Section 3), with freezing rain and ice accumulation,
-2) The snow might actually be pretty good, today,
3) But it might still have a lot, and maybe more, crust than yesterday,
iv) The main road driving is probably pretty bad,
a) The access road to Somerset Dam is probably a sheet of ice, with no cell service, for 9 miles, twice, (Thanks Alan for that pointer),
ii) The trail will be there another day,
7) The forecast for Monday (Section 4) is cold with gusts to 60 mph, so the crust might be unbreakable and shiny and it will be hard to dodge the falling branches when you can't get an edge,
c) Sections 3 and 4 are substantially harder than 1 and 2 (even harder than 2 north of Medburyville) and parts could be scary and dangerous in an un-edgable crust,
X) Remember the ski pole that slid down the bank?, that could be a skier (who signed a waiver, thankfully) sliding into the Deerfield River today or tomorrow,
D) The rain will make the stream crossings trickier than usual,
k) I have sprained my ankle and don't want to ski eight miles on one leg,
8) You didn't really want to ski in this stuff anyway!
If you add all those up you get 55(base 7), and that is above my threshold for cancellation.
It was great skiing with all of you (again, or for the first time, whichever). Be sure to pay back your time on the trail by volunteering for fall trail work on CT or somewhere else.

Summary Thanks to the CTA office staff for their support of the tour and the trail. Thanks to all the trail maintainers and landowners and members who make this trail possible. And thanks especially to everyone who came out and skied and made the best of what we were given. There is still plenty of 'winter' left, get out there and do your snow dances!
Here is the S4DT#2 by the numbers:
2 days of skiing,
2 days cancelled,
49 skier-days registered,
22 actual skier-days skied,
13 skiers skiing at least one day,
18.1 miles of Catamount Trail skied,
190.5 skier-miles skied (approx),
12, most skiers on any day,
11, fewest skiers on any day,
$400 dollars raised, at least (more is always welcome), for CTA,
0" of new snow overall,
5 skiers new to MultiDay Tours,
7 skiers who were already End-to-Enders,
5 skiers who skied every part of all days,
1 Bennington Gluttony Extravaganza,
4 trail chiefs who helped keep these sections of trail clear and available,
190 emails to or from the tour coordinators,
2 hosts who opened their homes for skiers,
1 sprained ankle,
2 bailout cars used,
2 bald eagle sitings,
1 otter slide track,
1 airplanes landing on the reservoir,
0 lost skiers,
0 skiers who went away mad,
0 skiers who missed a day due to communications mix-ups,
0 skiers left at a trail head,
0 car problems or accidents,
See you on the trail!

Pray for Snow!

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