Rikkert Touring Center, Middlebury

I was fortunate enough to finish a job early and had the skis in the truck so I stopped in at the Middlebury College Rikkert Center. The snow cover was fantastic. No bare spots but the debris from trees was starting to show. Pieces of branches, pine needles, pine cones, and other crud was arriving on the surface. Not enough to effect the skiing but the signs of the end of snow are very obvious.

The surface was very moist to wet packed powder over a hard base. Trails with a high aspect for sun were a bit slow and I did encounter a few zones of rapid deceleration but overall the trails skied wonderfully. The staff believes there will be enough snow to ski until the end of March. Unless we receive a bunch of rain and high temps I can believe them.

I hope to ski in Hanover (Oak Hill and Garripey) today and will post a report if I can get down there. Rumor has it skiing very well.