AJ's Ski and Sports Blog: April powder brings May flowers

Grauple, it's like sand but its snow!

Rumors of biking and hiking are running rampant these days as April hits the midway point. Still, it is hard to deny the fact that it is winter in the mountains - grauple has been sighted!

Don’t be alarmed, no need to call the news, grauple is actually just small beads of ice and snow. A more technical description from a local was “Man, this snow is really weird, like tons of super fast ball bearings!” Overall, the main consensus on the slopes was, yes, it has been weird snow but also very fun.

Friday morning brought us the beginning of this odd spring weather. After a brief period of freezing rain, sandy pits of grauple filled crevices between icy peaks. As more ball bearings fell, it turned the trails into sandboxes full of local kids out to play.

Clouds shift through Smugglers Notch, into Stowe, as seen from Hayride Saturday morning

With a couple of inches falling Friday night, the groomers Saturday morning were top notch. Even with no edges, the soft corduroy and smooth, silent runs, pushed the most timid to mach speeds. The trees, on the other hand, gave the more adventurous a run for their money navigating the spaces in between.

With groomers at their finest, making lines was like making art

With the Gondola closing last weekend, cutting across Rimrock to Perry Merrill and Gondolier was an escape from the more traditional quad routes available. With few riders making the trek, fresh lines of soft corduroy were up for grabs way beyond the noon hours.

If the snow wasn't in the pictures, this would be an iconic spring photo

Sunday morning brought more of the same fun snow. The denser layer of pow the mountains received was more than enough to make most of the glades super fun. With more snow in the forecast later this week and the snow stake still at 75 inches, winter might never end.