Had some unexpected change of plans and was able to hit up Bolton this past Saturday on way to an event on Lost Ski Areas at the VT Ski Museum. Bolton reported 2.5' of snow in November, and I can vouch for the veracity of that. Visually, the mountain looked more like mid winter, and there were no real bare spots on any trails.
Driving up the access road, the snow cover was shallow until you got within a few hundred feet of the base lodge, then bam! the snowpack dramatically increased in depth.
I was able to use my Indy pass at Bolton, and presented my new RFID pass issued by Indy. It was the first time they had seen one of these passes, and they were impressed by it (they did know they were coming, just hadn't seen a real one used yet). The RFID part of the pass is still a work in progress at a lot of mountains, so needed to get an RFID card.
3 lifts were open - Mid-Mountain, handle tow, and Wilderness. As always, it's a treat to ride those vintage Hall doubles. They made a big push to get Wilderness open, which is extremely early for them. So this was a treat to get to ride the lift (in the afternoon, more on that below).
While the snow was quite deep for so early in the year, temps had warmed up - so any ungroomed snow became quite wet, heavy, and sticky, though, the more skiers that chopped it up, the easier it was to ski.
Most terrain off Mid-Mountain was open:
Glades
Beech Seal and Mid-Mountain Double
After lunch, I decided to venture over to Wilderness. Bolton was very honest about terrain over there - that it was early season, lots of hazards/water bars, no grooming, nothing easy. They had 3 signs to warn skiers before getting on the chair, so nobody could say they weren't warned. Here's one of the signs:
I had waited to the afternoon to go over there so that there would be more time for the snow to get packed down. I rode the lift 3 times, to the midstation. The trails were tiring but fun - there were a lot of hazards like those water bars, bumps, etc.
Upper Wilderness Chair
Lower Wilderness Chair
Overall, had a great day at Bolton - staff is friendly, as is the overall vibe here. The snowpack is dense and should be a good base for them for the season. Should be able to get up there one more time this season on the Indy.
