Introduction and Details Your Skiing Ability List Of Participants Schedule Shuttles, Driving and Logistics Lodging Tips and Thoughts Social Activities Somewhat-related Videos Extra Reading Prior Multi-Day Trip Reports

CTA's 2025 "Multi-Day Tour #3" has completed, read here for trip reports, and check www.catamounttrail.org for more skiing opportunities. I'm Sam Bartlett, the volunteer Tour Coordinator for the CTA's 2025 "Multi-Day Tour #3", Sections 1 to 4, from Friday January 31, 2025 to Monday February 3, 2025. This is the site for dispensing information about the tour, both for people who are considering the tour and want to learn more, and for signed-up participants. My Assistant Tour Coordinators are my wife Marie and Alan Binnick, Sec 3 Trail Chief. Go to the bottom of CTA's 2025 "Multi-Day Tour #3" page or here to REGISTER. You need to completely fill out this form before you are a registered MDT skier. Then, begin your tour by going to the Your Skiing Ability page on this site. Please review this information so we can all have an enjoyable tour. Then, go to List Of Participants page on this site and make sure I have your days listed correctly. You have to be on the List of Participants to attend this tour. This tour covers four sections of the trail, from the Massachusetts border in Readsboro, Vermont to Grout Pond and Kelley Stand Road in Stratton. This is a series of day trips, you stay somewhere nearby each night and drive to the trailhead. Please follow the links on the left for more information, read everything if you are planning on joining us. EMail: sam@bart-tech.com, please start your subject line with "MDT3" for "Multi-Day-Tour #3". Phone: 413-834-0274 8am-8pm

Sam, Marie and Jeannie at VT/MA border 2004 Photo by Lynn Fisher

Sam and Marie at VT/QC border 2008 Photo by Lynn Fisher

12/15/2024 - Welcome, I've just revised this site for this tour, let me know if you find anything amiss. Right now there is not enough snow for skiing Sec 1 and it does not look to be getting better, but we have plenty of time.

01/06/2025 - I have updated the Participants page.
Here is a trip report for Section 2: On Saturday 1/4/2025 we had seven people for the Section 2 tour. We all met at Medburyville South at 10am. Three skiers started there and went south to Wilder Brook Bridge and back.

Four of us drove to Harriman and headed north a bit before 11am.

Crossing the dam was not encouraging, there was just a drift on the road, and dust-on-grass on both sides. And windy! Once we got into the woods it got much better. We had every possible combination of "dust-on-" conditions. We had dust-on-crust, dust-on-gravel, dust-on-leaves, dust-on-mud, dust-on-moss, dust-on-slush, and of course just crust where the wind got to it. We had a few drifts as well. So it was a typical CTA tour. We had to do a lot of ski scraping since it was nearly impossible to cross the wet spots without getting a tip or tail (or knee...) wet.

Of course, it was mostly perfect skiing, a few inches of crusty base to cover the roots and rocks and a few inches of fluff to quiet the crust. The trail improvements that the loggers did were very impressive.

We had a quick lunch at Wilder Brook bridge. Then we admired and appreciated the recent tread improvements on the old railroad cut.

We had a frozen snowmobile track to follow or avoid the rest of the way back to Medburyville picnic grounds. We skipped the southern part of the recent road-walk bypass but jumped in on the northern part, back to our cars. The three round-trippers had just finished when we got there. Four hours for eight miles, a typical CTA tour speed.

Then three of us continued on to the end of Section 2 at Rt 9. We had to turn around at Medburyville because the sometimes-beaver-dammed-stream was no longer dammed and was not crossable without wading. Perhaps with more freezing and snowing and blowing it will be crossable. So we did the road walk to Power Company Road and scrabbled down to the next section, which required some water-skiing to complete.

Getting around the power station was dicey too, mostly windblown crust and rocks. I kept saying "It is ok to take your skis off and walk these sections", but no one did.

Several of the wet spots on the final stretch got us frozen up again. We did appreciate the bridges and Steve's log piles to get across some of the wet spots and small streams that pour off the hillside, but others had washed out. Steve's mowing made this easy skiing in between the wet-spot challenges. Then, at dusk, we just had to hop over Rt 9 and reassure our waiting drivers that we were fine, just slow on the last leg.

01/12/2025 - A Section 4 trip report from Alan: Just wanted to let you know that on Saturday I skied with Jeff Nugent, Heidi Pancake, and 8 others for Jeff's tour around Grout Pond. We skied on Camp Trail, Pond Loop, down to Somerset Reservoir, and back on Hill Top. The skiing was excellent with much better coverage than I had expected. I would guess at least an 8 inch base and pretty easy to avoid the remaining wet areas. The Deerfield River in Wilmington is almost totally frozen after the prolonged cold spell. I think that if we get at least one reasonable snow storm before 1/31 we should be in good shape.

01/16/2025 - A Section 1 trip report from Alan: I took an inexperienced backcountry skier on section 1 from the Harriman Dam 2.5 miles south to the Wilder Brook Bridge. Plenty of snow on the northern end with less snow going south but enough snow to easily ski it. You will be pleased with the new bridge that Trapper and Pete made. As of now 4-6 inches of snow predicted for Sunday afternoon - night (and perhaps more south of Wilmington). Seems like a few days of light snow over the next week.

01/17/2025 - Marie and I skied at nearby Prospect Ski Area, it was just about perfect. A bit thin, but for groomed XC it was fine. On the drive home I could see that the south end of Section 1 is pretty brown. More snow in the forecast though!

01/18/2025 - I've updated the Participants List, please check that I have your dates right.

01/22/2025 - A Section 4 report from Heidi: It is AMAZING out there. I skied from GP parking to the new Blueberry Swamp Brook Bridge. I broke trail south from the beach to Blueberry Swamp Brook over soft and fluffy drifts in pure powdery bliss. There is coverage in most of the holes on the northern end. I know your MDT is still a little ways off but I thought I’d let you know where the northern 1/2 stands as of today. It is quite fabulous skiing!!

01/25/2025 - Another report from Heidi: This morning my friend and I skied Section 1 from Route 100 to the Harriman Dam and back. It was lovely! Enough snow for fabulous fast powder skiing! Only ski tracks so far and no one else out as of noon today, Saturday. Thank you Sam for the wonderful bridges!

01/26/2025 - From Jeff: The snow ranges from "enough" down by the Massachusetts border to "wow" at the upper end of the Deerfield watershed.

On Saturday I skied into Stratton Pond on Section 5 of the Catamount. There was a foot of fresh snow over a good base, as it's been snowing on and off up there all last week. (The Stratton road crew says a "dusting" in the forecast means 0-6 inches.) Conditions were superb. Most all wet areas were frozen and rocks were covered, and off-trail exploration was trouble free, (though I wouldn't want to be bombing down any hills just yet. The Lye Brook Trail re-route down to the west end of the pond and over to the Stratton View shelter might be my new go-to approach to the pond from now on. It's enjoyable and quite scenic.

I ran into the Section 5 trail chief who skied south to Somerset Reservoir on the west side, crossed over onto Section 4 of the Catamount, and skied back. She reported similar excellent conditions. And following that trend of trail chiefs skiing other sections, the Section 4 trail chief was on Section 1 from Harriman Dam to Readsboro. While there was considerably less snow down that way, there was certainly enough for some great skiing, in part thanks to the Section 1 chief's valiant efforts at getting new bridges built.

Today I skied the Flood Dam Trail in Searsburg. There was about a foot of snow there, less than Stratton Pond but more than Readsboro. DHASH has been making improvements to the trail, fixing or bypassing most of the previously unskiable sections. I did hit a few rocks, and there are still a couple tricky areas, but it's much better than it used to be. It's quiet out there: no one encountered other people on any of these four trips.

01/27/2025 - It looks like there is enough snow for the thinnest parts, and ought to be very good as we go north. And more snow coming! See the Social page for updates on get togethers.

Here is a little back-country skiing wisdom from the famous back-country cross-country skier Nelson Mandela:
“The greatest glory in skiing lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”*

And one final bit of entertainment, written over several tours:
The Old Back Country Skier's Lament
(with apologies to Janis Joplin)
'Sung' to the tune of Mercedez Benz

I'd like to sing a song of great social and political import.

Oh Lord won't you get me to the trailhead on time?
We meet at 8:30, or maybe it's 9,
To keep them all waiting that would be a crime,
Oh Lord won't you get me to the trailhead on time?

Oh Lord won't you find me a little more base?
I'm walking the downhills and losing my grace,
I keep hitting rocks and I fell on my face,
Oh Lord won't you find me a little more base?

Oh Lord won't you send me a little more fluff?
This scritching and scratching is sure getting tough,
I think 18 inches would be just enough,
Oh Lord won't you send me a little more fluff?

Oh Lord won't you buy me a new pair of legs?
My friends have all finished, they're back tapping kegs,
They'll drink all the good stuff and leave me the dregs,
Oh Lord won't you buy me a new pair of legs?

Oh Lord won't you teach me that telemark turn?
That's one of those skills that I still need to learn,  
I get in a few but it makes my thighs burn,
Oh Lord won't you teach me that telemark turn?

Oh Lord won't you buy me a new set of lungs?
I'm climbing these switchbacks, I'm no longer young,
These trails are like ladders that's lost half their rungs,
Oh Lord won't you buy me a new set of lungs?

Oh Lord won't you buy me titanium knees?
These old ones are hurting, there're swollen like trees,
So cut me and sew me, get me back on my skis,
Oh Lord won't you buy me titanium knees?

Oh Lord won't you buy me some stickier wax?
Or maybe a groomer that's leaving fresh tracks?
The sun's going down and I've finished my snacks, 
Oh Lord won't you buy me some stickier wax?

Oh Lord won't you lose me about 15 pounds?
I think they're from donuts and dinners in towns,
They hurt on the up hills but help on the downs,
Oh Lord won't you lose me about 15 pounds?

Oh Lord won't you buy me some edges of steel?
These trails are so icy I'm losing my zeal,
I'll give you my first born I'll make any deal,
Oh Lord won't you buy me some edges of steel?

Oh Lord won't you find me a nice skier chick?
These women are married, they don't want my love,
So make her a cutie and send her real quick,
Oh Lord won't you find me a nice skier chick?  

Oh Lord won't you let me just stay here and ski?
We're having a good time or maybe it's just me,
I don't want to go home and watch the TV,
Oh Lord won't you let me just stay here and ski?

That's it, heh, heh, heh.

I need to clarify that this is just a song, not an autobiography. I already have skis with edges of steel, a passable tele-turn, and a nice skier chick.

"What's the big hurry?" Photo by Ed Linton

* Alright, as far as I know, the late Nelson Mandela did not ever ski, and I changed 'living' to 'skiing', but otherwise it works.