Re: {hoosac range skiing} Digest for hoosac-range-skiing@googlegroups.com - 2 updates in 1 topic

[Robert M]

I always wanted to check out Aiken Wilderness. Is there an old road network in there? Topo shows an access from south side of prospect summit heading to a pond.  Any intel appreciated.

On Thu, Mar 13, 2025, 1:12 AM <hoosac-ra...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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• Spring Skiing Reflection from Our Shared History - 2 Updates

Spring Skiing Reflection from Our Shared History

Phil <philipk...@gmail.com>: Mar 12 06:57AM -0700 Ornulf Poulsen's observations from 100 y.a.   "One thinks of midwinter, of January, as being the best season for skiing. But it is not so. March skiing is the finest of all particularly the weeks that are helped out with a moon for March offers the greater depth of snow and packed snow with firm surfaces which are unheard of in January; and the very fact that you must wrest your sport from apparently adverse circumstances gives it a greater zest."

Ron Gonzalez <iamr...@gmail.com>: Mar 12 09:04PM -0700 That's certainly true in the higher elevations and farther north than Albany and the MA/VT state line. But south of that, I don't know. Maybe that was accurate in 1925, but I'm not so sure about now.   On the summit of Mt Mansfield, the record shows the deepest snow depth is usually from March 1 to about mid-April. This year its deepest was on March 2 (103 inches).     [image: MtMansfield_SnowDepthAverage.jpg] I usually ski in the backcountry through most of March. That's usually in the Adirondack High Peaks or in the northern Green Mts, although some years there's better snow in southern VT. I remember not too long ago some excellent Nordic backcountry ski wandering in the Aiken Wilderness the first week of May.     On Wednesday, March 12, 2025 at 9:57:13 AM UTC-4 Phil wrote:

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[Phil]

I've got to believe there is someone who can answer your question with more detail and authority than I can. I will say I've skied out and back on that road. It was essentially flat and heavily snowmobiled. It was what I wanted at that time since I was trying to get as much distance as I could working up to do a ski marathon. I haven't felt particularly moved to go back though. It's not particularly scenic and on a sunny day you'll get no shade. 

The VAST interactive map will show you the snowmobile trail network that includes Aiken.

[Phil]

I would ask at Prospect about connecting trails. It seems to me I've seen something about them being used for organized trips that originated from there. 

[Phil]

From the NFS pamphlet on Aiken: "Aiken Wilderness is managed as trail-less to provide an opportunity for primitive travel and self-reliance skills.  Most of the Wilderness is forested with northern hardwoods, with the remainder mostly spruce and fir.  Travel generally is difficult, with mud and bugs in the summer and thick brush and fallen trees year round." There was also this:  “Few penetrate the core of George D. Aiken Wilderness, as it has no official trails and its campgrounds tend to skirt the marshland at its center. As a result, it has become the perfect sanctuary for animals of all kinds, and the unique topography allows for a great deal to go missing in its density. George D. Aiken is also one of the rare wildernesses that becomes somewhat more accessible in the winter.” (My italics) Not sure what the significance is of no "official" trails but it sounds like just the place for exploring, if you like map and compass work and don't mind bushwacking. If it's marshland that would explain the relative ease of exploration in winter. Who needs roads if you can follow frozen over streams and marshes.

[Ron Gonzalez]

I explored the Aiken Wilderness quite a few times about 5 years ago. There was one year in which there was deep snow and bluebird skies into the first weekend in May. A friend and I managed to ski into a swampy area of blowdown in the center of the wilderness, with a few impressive stands of red spruce to the west. It's not hard to find your way in there if you're used to bushwhacking on skis with map and compass. The snowmobile trail on the east side of the wilderness area gets you pretty far in before you go off exploring to the west. (You can see the wind turbines looming above you to the east above the snowmobile road.) It's flat to rolling terrain in the eastern and central parts of the wilderness. The western edge of the wilderness is the east-facing slope of Prospect Mt and its immediately adjacent high ground. I've never spotted a car at the wilderness area's southern end and skied all the way through from north to south, but that's something I've thought would be an interesting little adventure. 

RG