FIRST
TRACKS
Courtesy of Sandy macys
EARLY WAKE-UP CALL
The early arrival of snow in winter is a great benediction for all
Vermonters. Of course ski resorts and ski shops rejoice, because
brisk December business typically sets the pattern for an up-
tempo run through the rest of the winter. But early snow lifts the
spirit of Vermonters at a more grassroots level, too.
Local skiers worship the early snow as if it were a heavenly
sacrament, a means to salvation. Early-season snow dispels
late-fall anxieties about when or even if snow will ever arrive,
and the first snows make possible those heady first turns that
are always among the year’s most memorable. There is a purity
about the first snow that can be exhilarating.
Even non-skiers feel stress levels dissolve when snow comes
early; the renewal of one of Vermont’s iconic seasonal changes
touches on deep-felt sentiments held by even the crustiest
old-timers. These are flannel-and-wool people, not Goretexers,
who find great comfort in the annual patterns of the seasons
that seem to validate long-established beliefs in rootedness and
tradition: the fall foliage, the muddy roads and the maple-sap
runs of spring, the hunting seasons, the arrival of snow. To
live according to the timetable of nature’s changes is to live an
essential Vermont life.
So when snow came early last winter, a palpable wave of relief
and even joy swept through the collective soul of the state.
Then the snow kept coming, not in big storms but in a steady
stream of smaller storms. By December 10, Vermont ski areas
were reporting that unusually high 59 percent of their trails
were already open, thanks largely to nature rather than reliance
on artificial snow. Cross-country areas in Vermont, most
without any snowmaking, were able to open a month or more
earlier than in the previous season. By the end of December,
many new snowfall records were reported throughout the
state. December could be best described in a single, three-letter word: Wo W.
Predictably, a thaw came in January, but it was barely a hiccup
in an inexorable snow continuum; the snow recovered quickly
and remained consistently plentiful and of a high quality
throughout the season. As more records fell, skiers kept skiing
into early May. Taken as a whole, the winter of 2007-2008 was
one of the best, in terms of natural snow, in at least the last 30
years. But it was that early start that, like the overture to a
great opera, set the mood and theme for the season. From early
December on, all of Vermont got psyched and stayed psyched.
Who knows when that will happen again. Maybe this winter
will be a repeat of last year’s good fortune. With the weather,
you never know. But one thing any Vermonter will tell you
about skiing in the state: It’s great whenever the snow is good,
but when it’s good early, it’s like a heavenly gift.
— Peter oliver
2 skivermont.com
