2026 MDT #1 Reports
Catamount Trail Association's 2026 Four Day Tour MDT #1
from Friday January 16 to Monday January 19, Sections 24,25,26,27
Trip Reports:
Executive Summary: We skied all four days! Beautiful conditions throughout and a great bunch of strong skiers.
Thanks to all the skiers for making it so much fun. Thanks to others for offering help with shuttles, route-finding, parking, lodging. Thanks to the Trail Chiefs for keeping the trails ready.
The MDTs are offered to all CTA members free of charge, but that doesn't mean a donation to the CTA isn't welcome. I used the "office" a lot in getting this ready, and it wouldn't happen without their behind-the-scenes support.
Here are my daily trip reports:
01/16/2026 - Section 24 - Ten of us skied section 24, starting about 9:30 at Edson Hill with temps in the teens. Section 24 has a little bit of everything. It has groomed cross-country ski trails, groomed and ungroomed snowmobile trails, backcountry trails through the woods, backcountry trails across fields and golf courses.
Leaving Edson Hill trail network - Photo by Sam
Beautiful hardwood forests, beautiful views of Mount Elmore where we'll be headed tomorrow. There's at least a foot of solid base with several inches of fluff on top up high, but down low it gets a little thin.
Trail Chiefs Michael and Julie in matching orange - Photo by Sam
We were rewarded for our early climb with some good downhills through fields and woods. One skier needed his nose band-aided after too much off-trail descending. Three skiers used the bail out car at Mud City loop. We all got adept at stepping over barbed-wire and electric fences.
We were following some days-old tracks much of the time - Photo by Sean
Snowmobile trails, fields and lots of fences on Sec 24 - Photo by Sam
Some nice long views on this section - Photo by Jamen
The skies cleared in the afternoon - Photo by Jamen
Crossing the Lapine Farm - Photo by Sam
Looking north toward Canada! - Photo by Sam
Somehow we lost the trail near Stage Coach Rd, but with a little bit of thrashing around we were able to find our way back to the Golf Course. There were a few grassy spots on the golf course, but everything was skiable. We got back to the Golf Course parking at about 3:30.
We saw turkey tracks, deer tracks, cow tracks, skidder tracks, boot tracks, and lots of snow-covered trees.
Thank you to Michael and Julie for guiding us through the beginning part and for all their work on trail maintenance on this section.
01/17/2026 - Section 25 - Section 25 is a long, hard, beautiful section.
Ten of us left the Ryder Brook Golf Course at 9:30 heading across cornstubble with dust on crust and a light snow falling.
A foggy snowy start at the Golf Course - Photo by Jamen
It was very lovely dust and somewhat rotten crust which improved as we gained elevation. We could see where the trail maintainers had been out just ahead of us clearing out ice-storm damage. We had one short bit that was dust on pine needles. We put our skins on after crossing Elmore Mountain Road and started our ascent to Elmore saddle.
Elmore ridge in the distance - Photo by Jamen
A hearty, happy band of skiers on thin cover - Photo by Jamen
We put our skins on to climb over Elmore ridge - Photo by Jamen
The base and the snow on top were deeper here but still not enough to make skiing down what we were climbing seem at all appealing. One skier managed the entire climb without skins, just good wax and determination. I was glad to have my skins on because the trail here is quite narrow, rocky and difficult to herringbone in. Luckily for us, the fabled Elmore snow effect kicked in and we had much better snow for the descent down the other side than we had had for the climb. The many open drainages and wet spots made for slow going at times. The landscape here is remote and rugged with cliffs all around. The pace picked up as we got to the unplowed park road which had enough powder on it to be an enjoyable descent.
We encountered a lot of stream crossings - Photo by Jamen
Mother and daughter enjoy the downhill and fresh snow - Photo by Jamen
Three skiers decided to end their adventure for the day at the bottom of the mountain. The rest of us skied across a corner of Elmore Lake to avoid a road walk and made a quick stop at the Elmore General Store for cookies and other snacks.
We had another shorter climb and then a rollicking downhill, mostly on snowmobile trails. It was fun to see where some skiers were skating down the snowmobile trail and others were doing snow plows and others were telemarking. We joined the Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and got back to our cars at about 4:45.
01/18/2026 - Section 26 - Today seven of us skied southbound from the Eden/Craftsbury townline all the way "down" to Route 15, starting skiing at 9:30.
There is a lot of snow up in Eden. We had about 4 inches of new fluff on top of a solid and deep base. The town had very nicely plowed out a parking space for us at the edge of the field so we didn't have to park on the road.
Crossing the field in Eden - Photo by Hans
Plenty of snow here! - Photo by Hans
The deep snow at the beginning made the many small stream crossings challenging but nobody got wet.
Tricky stream crossing - Photo by Jamen
Another tricky stream crossing - Photo by Sam
Day 3's skiers, minus photographer - Photo by Sam
Signs at the snowmobile trail junction - Photos by Hans
The sky would start to clear and then it would cloud up again. Temps stayed below freezing, just enough that everyone kept putting layers on and off and back on again.
As we got lower the conditions were more like dust on crust. It wasn't a glassy crust, more like Styrofoam, pretty good skiing if it wasn't rutted, and even the old excavator tracks made pretty good skiing on the easy grades.
We encountered other skiers and other ski tracks as we approached the Green River Reservoir State Park, and had a nice view for our lunch spot.
Today was warm enough for a more leisurely lunch - Photo by Jeannie
This beaver pond was our view from our lunch spot - Photo by Jeannie
Sam and Jeannie enjoy Lexi's trail treat, lemon bars - Photo by Jamen
The really challenging parts were the steep narrow descents with old frozen snowmobile ruts in them.
We were able to ski most of the plowed roads, although I don't think our skis benefited from that.
Nice bridge, tough approach - Photo by Hans
The trail description, written for northbound skiers, describes one hill as the "Telemark practice Hill". Skiing southbound we climbed this hill, and although I know it was calling to me to ski back down, I couldn't hear it over the screaming from my legs. We did have a few nice open downhills in our southbound route as well though.
Not the "Tele Practice Hill" - Photo by Jamen
"Nice Turn" - Photo by Sam
We missed a few turns due to missing blazes but quickly regained the trail each time. Some new right-of-way clearing through the lower section may have cut down a lot of the blaze trees.
Most of us did find the energy for one more climb after Rt 15 came into view to try our turns on the field above the farm. "How many tele skiers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Four, one to screw in the bulb and three to say 'Nice turn!'".
Here are three short videos from Jamen of our final turns of the day by
Hans,
Jeannie and
Sam.
We saw all kinds of new and old tracks in the snow today: otter, cat, canine, grouse, excavator, moose, deer, truck, ATV, snowmobile, skier, domestic dog, snowshoes, rabbit, hiker, and one spot where apparently an owl or hawk had swooped down to pick up a squirrel or something, leaving its wing tracks in the snow.
The section description says this is 12.3 miles, even "downhill" it is a long day, we reached the cars about 4pm.
Then some of us gathered at Jamen and DJ's for a chilli dinner.
01/19/2026 - Section 27 - We were nine skiers today, leaving Eden/Craftsbury townline northbound about 9:30 again. It was a cold start, if any of these folks were leaving Eden with fig leaves, it didn't show. The snow was heavenly though.
Skiing along the Wild Branch River - Photo by Hans
Wild Branch River from the bridge - Photo by Hans
Logging truck bridge over the Wild Branch - Photo by Jamen
We had some old ski tracks to follow, made in wet snow so they were deep and firm. Often we could ski on the side of them. We easily followed the trail along a logging road through the woods and over streams, very deja vu of the last few days.
Climbing out of the Wild Branch valley - Photo by Marie
Day 4 skiers except photographer - Photo by Jamen
Skiing above the Black River valley - Photo by Marie
We had some climbs through farms and fields and some fun downhills with great views over to Craftsbury.
Not much base, but enough! - Photo by Jeannie
Blueberries! - Photo by Jamen
After crossing Rt 14 we had a short road walk then up a snowmobile trail and then Craftsbury Outdoor Center groomed trails.
End of the day at Craftsbury Outdoor Center's trails - Photo by Hans
This is a "short" section, 7.4 miles, and we finished by 1pm.
Thanks to Sean, Jamen, Hans, Jeannie and Marie for photos! Here is an album of all the photos and movies.
Here is the 2026 MDT #1 Multi Day Tour by the numbers:
4 days of skiing,
0 days cancelled due to frozen crud and thin cover,
4 days with new snow on the ground in the morning,
55 skier-days registered for,
35 actual skier-days skied,
16 skiers skiing at least one day,
45.8 miles of Catamount Trail skied, (by the guidebook)
341.3 skier-miles skied,
10, most skiers on any day,
7, fewest skiers on any day,
9 women skiers,
7 men skiers,
~5" of new snow overall,
3 couples skiing together,
1 mother, father, daughter trio,
8 skiers new to MultiDay Tours,
4 skiers who were already End-to-Enders,
2 skiers who skied every whole section every day,
3 skiers who skied at least part of every day,
8 trail chiefs who helped keep these sections of trail clear and available,
4 trail chiefs on the tour,
~250 emails to or from the tour coordinators,
20 sections that I've been an MDT leader for,
1 hosts who opened their home for skiers,
1 post-ski dinner,
1 boot failures,
0 ski failures,
0 pole failure,
2 bailout car used,
0 days of rain forecast,
0 days of actual skiing in the rain,
0 injuries (if you discount a scratched nose),
0 forgotten pack,
0 skiers who went away mad,
0 skiers who missed a day due to communications mix-ups,
0 shuttle mix-ups,
0 skiers left at a trail head,
0 car problems or accidents,
These things were all uncountable, as they should be: smiles, laughs, thank yous, calories burned, help offered, beautiful vistas, tracks in the snow, interesting trail conversations.
A scene from Section 8 in 2017.
Don't forget to look around and enjoy the scenery when you are skiing along the CATAMOUNT trail....
Pray for Snow!
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