New England Backcountry Season Edit
by Jon MIller
The winter of 14-15 was really quite good in the northeast, including a couple of excellent stretches where the only sustained snow that fell in the lower 48 fell on New England. Simply put, the jet stream blessed us this year and folks made sure to take full advantage. Let’s hope the weather gods spread the love west next year so that everybody can get in on the party.
Things started well with several nor’easters prior to Christmas that had the backcountry well open in December. This was just the appetizer though; following a brief rain event around the turn of the year, we entered a stretch (at least in Vermont) where temps stayed below freezing in the mountains for 44 consecutive days, more than four feet of snow fell in two weeks and something like 100 inches fell in a month. The middle of January to the beginning of March was just awesome in the woods; I think i went out nine straight weekends and never saw anything but soft plentiful powder. And then, for a nightcap, April delivered even more snow to the White Mountains which set up some excellent spring days on Mt. Washington for the masses to enjoy.
What follows is both our season edit and a preview of a longer backcountry film coming later this Fall. Titled ‘The Way Up’ it follows a bunch of dads in our mid-30s who appreciate the journey as much as the reward. You can sleep when you’re dead, and when you’ve already been up at 3:30am changing diapers, you might as well jump in the car for a dawn patrol. Filmed in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York from November to May, we hope you enjoy.
#$%^ing LIVING!
I’m a skier going on his fifth year skiing – still love inbounds skiing but after the 10th day on groomers I really wish I could do something like this. Gonna take a bumps / trees lesson or two or three this coming season, I want to up my game…can’t even think about tight tree skiing until I can make precise on a dime turns. Did a little easy tree skiing out in Snowmass this past winter and I loved it. Until I’m a better skier I think the only trees I should be skiing are the loose ones out west!