Skiing on Packed Powder

The weather forecast called for wind and cold temps with wind chills zero and below. So we were pleasantly surprised to find very little wind with temps tolerable after arriving at Bretton Woods. I'm not a fan of warm weather skiing or even cool. I like it cold when I ski. The snow conditions always seem better. This was certainly the case today and there was fresh powder and packed powder on all the trails with snow continuing to fall.

Snowy haze

Sun through cloud cover



Being a holiday weekend the parking lots were nearing capacity. It took a couple of trips around the lot close to the lodge before a spot opened up. We layered up, got our lift tickets and got in line for the Zephyr High-Speed Quad. Our first run was down the Coos Caper Trail and we tried out the series of jumps on this slope.

Zip line rider

Zip line rider in the treetops

We found that the lift lines at the bottom stayed crowded so we spent some time skiing the upper part of the mountain where the lines were a lot shorter and occasionally found no line. The glades were well worn down and it was a bit tricky in places due to ice or bare rocks but that's all part of the fun when you're skiing in the trees. At the bottom of one glade we watched as zip line riders passed far up in the treetops.

Sun still trying to break through

Presidential summits in the clouds

The sun tried hard to show itself today and managed to shine through the cloud cover toward the end of the afternoon. The summits stayed in a heavy cloud cover and were never seen. It was definitely not a day for stunning scenic photos of the surrounding mountains.

Mount Stickney

Final run

We finished the day with a run down the freestyle park. Even though the day was cloudy and cold we had a great day on the ski slope and it sure beat sitting in the house on a winter day.

Having Fun in the Great Outdoors!