Mary skiing towards the entrance of Bear Claw from Great Eastern.

Mary skiing towards the entrance of Bear Claw from Great Eastern.

It happens every year. Some times it arrives early (this year), some times it arrives late... but we almost always get one....a January thaw.

Warm temperatures have overspread the ski mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire. Temperatures today at Killington are in the upper 40's. Predicted high's for tomorrow are in the low 50's before seasonable winter weather returns later in the week.

Snow surface conditions on the mountain today were soft and creamy. Surfaces were generally flat with small soft bumps developing on many of the trails. If you enjoy spring like conditions, with the exception of a heavy fog starting at about 3000 feet, and a few brown spots showing in areas outside of snow gun coverage, skiing today was very good. It was not a powder day by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a day of nice soft snow.

Today was Mary's first day on the hill since the holiday's began. She needed to start a little later this morning, as we had a lot of guests stay with us last night.(She makes breakfast for inn guests in the morning.) We headed out to the mountain about 9:45. I convinced her to try my 1 hour loop, so we parked in the Vale parking lot and skied directly to the Rams Head quad, bypassing all of the base lodges.

We started with a run down Caper from Rams Head to the Snowdon quad. We hugged the tree line on skier's right at the top of Rams Head. Thick flog was blanketing the area. The trees provided some minimal visibility, and there was great snow coverage along the lightly traveled edge of the trail. From the Snowdon Quad we cut across Mouse Run to Highline. Highline was wonderfully soft with just the right pitch for little back and forth bump creating turns. From Highline, we got on the K1 Gondola and traversed across the back side of the resort to Bear Mountain.

Bear Mountain was basically just below the fog line with fog extending about 100 feet down from the top of the Outer Limits quad. Bear Claw had nice coverage down skiers right opposite the terrain park features. Lower Bear Claw, on skiers right underneath the tower mounted snow guns, was a wonderfully consistent ice cream texture. Soft, carving turns were the method of choice. Of course, as Mary had not been out in a couple of weeks, she developed a little leg burn along the way.

After a boost from the OL quad, we went down Wildfire. Upper Wildfire, while soft, was slightly firmer than the other trails we had been on. Mary actually passed me as she felt that she could run the trail a little (and her leg burn was telling her not to turn so much). The ice cream returned on Lower Wildfire. Several brown spots were developing in the high traffic area at Anti-Venom. But other than that, Wildfire was in great shape for spring like cruising.

From Wildfire, we traversed in front of the Bear Mountain base lodge to the Skye Peak quad. Mary's legs needed a rest after chasing me around the mountain. From the top of Skye Peak, we took Skye Lark from top to bottom. Upper Skye Lark was shrouded in fog. As the trail turns above High Road, there was some brown showing on skiers right which forced some evasive maneuvers. Lower Skye Lark was getting nicely bumped. The rest on the Skye Peak quad put a little extra back into Mary's legs. She had a great time (really) picking her way down lower Skye Lark.

One last trip to the peak on the K1 box and we cruised home down Great Northern back to the car in the Vale parking lot. We were not out for long, about an hour and a half, but we had skied all over the mountain. A really nice way to get some exercise after the holidays(I didn't gain any weight over the holidays...honest!).

I would guess from the weather forecast, and the huge amount of snow on the mountain, that tomorrows conditions will be similar. And maybe we will get a little sun thrown in for good measure.

Let it snow!