Whole Hog Hogback VT

[EdBacon]

Conditions are great. Like 2-3 feet of snow on the ground here in southern VT. But where to go? All this snow but if I go to Mr Snow I can either rid icy moguls, fast groomer boomers, or go into the woods and try to make jump turns between down rutted out tree runs. You know. Where are the goods? Right? 

So forget Mr Snow and PBRomley (Magic don't open till tomorrow but it's gonna rain RIP). Gotta go find those fresh lines. Yesterday I checked out Prospect and was very happy. Today I headed further down VT Route 9 (that's the Molly Stark highway if you didn't know, see Jon Stark said he didn't mind getting shot by the British to get away from his wife so they named a highway after her in the 60s or something). Before you start winding down towards peanut Brittleboro you'll come around a wide bend in the road with a pullout and a scenic view towards New Hampshire and Grand Monadnock Mountain. This is Hogback Mountain. The actual mountain is called Olga. The ski area is Hogback. Closed in the 1980s. They had like seventeen different T-bars. No chairlifts. The lodge is now a distillery. There's a gift shop. And the trails are open to hiking and skiing. 

Boy what I day. Spent a solid couple hours on the skins looking at the old T-bars. They still maintain a little shelter hut thing at the top to smoke the Mary Janes in or whatever. Seems like a chill spot. Lots of skin tracks all over. And lots and lots of powder. Real powder. Sink down to your thigh powder. What a day. Wish this place was steeper though. Very easy, mellow mountain. About 500 vertical feet from top to bottom. Made some nice floaty turns. What a feeling. 

The bottom of the trails is below the highway and the parking lot, so you have to hike back out to get back to the car. Ate a turkey sandwich and headed out as the sun started to come down with storm clouds building behind. 

It's been a great few days. You can find some good stuff out there if you work at it. 

[mbike-ski]

Nice, a few years back I had planned to ski Hogback but my back had other plans and spasmed the whole ride up from PA. Not sure if it’s still there but there was a distillery in the old lodge and spent the day medicatin’

Edited Saturday at 01:14 AM by mbike-ski

[EdBacon]

18 hours ago, mbike-ski said:

Nice, a few years back I had planned to ski Hogback but my back had other plans and spasmed the whole ride up from PA. Not sure if it’s still there but there was a distillery in the old lodge and spent the day medicatin’

Yeah its still there. And the restaurant gift shop thing next to it.