Podcast Write-Up

Shaking the sleep out of my eyes and struggling to regain my consciousness I stumble to my feet, as I do most late Saturday mornings, and stagger over to my window. Grass. Dirt. No fresh snow today, looks like it will be another mediocre day at the mountain. Despite the lack of snow we have received this year we still make the trip to the mountain to ski or ride on what the mountain has to offer out of the love of the sport. However it is done with a certain lack of enthusiasm that is felt by all who enjoy the snow sports for there is nothing quite like riding that new powder snow that only results from fresh snowfall.

This winter season seems to be especially low on snowfall compared to previous years. “Vermont is two feet under average for snow accumulation this year” Holmes remarks at the beginning of the podcast. While this may seem like a blessing to those who hate shoveling their driveways and cleaning off their cars, it can spell a death sentence to ski mountains.  Although every mountain has the potential to make man-made snow, it is a difficult and time-consuming process. Mountains must operate the guns all night long and smooth out the great piles they create, meaning that more staff is required to get the mountain up and running, and in the end it doesn’t compare to the quality of natural snow. Some of the mountain is not even open because of the lack of snow and making snow is simply too big a task.  Another negative side effect of this awkward weather is that warm temperatures during the day melt the snow and colder temperatures at night refreeze this melted water into sheets of ice, which are not fun for anyone.

            What this means to skiers and snowboarders is that conditions have not been as good this year as other years and the inner drive to make that trip to the mountain falls from the top of their goals. We spoke with Kyle Gould, a ski instructor at Burke Mountain, about this seasons lack of snow and the effect it has had at burke. He makes a good point about how people who like to ski in the woods cannot this year for the most part because of the low coverage compared to last years four feet. But the lack of snow is not only affecting which trails are open or how deep the glades are. The terrain park also suffers. With little fresh snow, the take-offs and landings to the jumps and features become solid sheets of ice making the park dangerous. What may have been fairly easy before has now become far different and could easily result in injury.

            For now there is no explanation for our spring-like summer, but some speculations include global warming, a freak occurrence, or maybe it just rained too much during the summer.