jamesdeluxe
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2020
After a rather uninspiring day at Bolton Valley on Friday -- hard and fast with stiff snow in the trees (reportedly the first time it's been like this in many moons) -- conditions at Stowe today were considerably better. Skies were cast-iron gray ahead of the precipitation that's supposed to arrive tonight.
I didn't get to the mountain until 8:45 and with lots of traffic heading up the access road, I figured that I'd be looking at a long walk to the lifts; luckily, the huge lot on the Mansfield side is right alongside the gondola and FourRunner quad:
Those two lifts already had small lines, so I took the Over Easy gondola to Spruce:
The last time I skied Spruce was 2004, which I'm pretty sure was the final year of the double chair -- allegedly the first of its kind in the U.S. when opened in 1954 -- so the village and lifts over there were all new to me. What a difference taking the Sensation quad (barely five minutes) instead of 15+ on the old double. which I kinda liked, but hey, that's progress. Sterling and Smugglers had softened nicely in the moderate temps and you could really attack them. I had forgotten how fun these long, twisty trails were:
Top of Spruce
Upper Smugglers
Smugglers
There was a race on Main Street with some kids from NJ:
Before heading back to the main mountain, I took a quick walk around the new village, which is still partially under construction. It looks pretty popular and the swanky grill there is known as <b>the </b>place to have lunch:
Like pretty much everywhere in the east, locals were raving about Stowe's conditions all the way up through this week's thaw and refreeze. Starr was a no-go given the scratchy off-piste:
Here are some nice pix from JSpin of his kids in the woods:
Even with sub-optimum conditions, Stowe is a lot of fun and certainly deserves its traditional standing in the northeast Top 5. It skis bigger than the 2,100 lift-served verts and the trails still pack plenty of New England personality. I'm hoping that tonight/tomorrow's storm delivers some fresh snow before I head home Sunday night.
I didn't get to the mountain until 8:45 and with lots of traffic heading up the access road, I figured that I'd be looking at a long walk to the lifts; luckily, the huge lot on the Mansfield side is right alongside the gondola and FourRunner quad:
Those two lifts already had small lines, so I took the Over Easy gondola to Spruce:
The last time I skied Spruce was 2004, which I'm pretty sure was the final year of the double chair -- allegedly the first of its kind in the U.S. when opened in 1954 -- so the village and lifts over there were all new to me. What a difference taking the Sensation quad (barely five minutes) instead of 15+ on the old double. which I kinda liked, but hey, that's progress. Sterling and Smugglers had softened nicely in the moderate temps and you could really attack them. I had forgotten how fun these long, twisty trails were:
Top of Spruce
Upper Smugglers
Smugglers
There was a race on Main Street with some kids from NJ:
Before heading back to the main mountain, I took a quick walk around the new village, which is still partially under construction. It looks pretty popular and the swanky grill there is known as <b>the </b>place to have lunch:
Like pretty much everywhere in the east, locals were raving about Stowe's conditions all the way up through this week's thaw and refreeze. Starr was a no-go given the scratchy off-piste:
Here are some nice pix from JSpin of his kids in the woods:
Even with sub-optimum conditions, Stowe is a lot of fun and certainly deserves its traditional standing in the northeast Top 5. It skis bigger than the 2,100 lift-served verts and the trails still pack plenty of New England personality. I'm hoping that tonight/tomorrow's storm delivers some fresh snow before I head home Sunday night.
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