Stowe, Smuggs, and a little Jay 17,18,19

[kingslug]

We got to Stowe on Saterday, so we missed the initial dump, it was puking Sunday so it didn't matter. We met up with Beanonyc and his friend Steve. It was snowing hard and very windy. Pretty much hit the whole place, with a lot of runs on Nosedive, one of the oldest runs in the east. While the powder was pretty tracked out in a lot of places it was snowing so hard that you're lines got filled in pretty soon. The wind was incredible, had to be 40 to 50 mph causing whiteouts even in the trees. Riding the lift I got a good look at some of the front 4. Nasty and steep with few people coming down . Out of my league though, exposed rocks and ice and very narrow. The Gondola was on wind hold so we didn't get to hit that part of the place. That would have to wait for Monday. Ended the day around 3, exhausted.
Monday turned out to be a bluebird day and the gondi was running...which meant all that powder was waiting, along with about 100 people on line. Mrs.S even met 5 patrollers from out west who where escaping the melting avalanches. Chinclip was the run of the day with over a foot and a half of freshies, which quickly got tracked into nice moguls. Spent half the day on that side then hit the rest of the place. Hardpack and windblown but still great there was plenty to hit. Lots of bumps to practice on. Awesome day.
Tuesday we decided to make the run up to Jay. The closer we got the worse it got though. Severe winds hammered the snow drifts on the roadsided creating small whiteouts. We arrived to 80 mph winds and most of the place was on wind hold. The 2 doubles where running and the sun came out. So we gave it a try, half price vouchers helped, thanx Bean. Didn't work. The sun went in, the temp dropped to five and the wind picked up. Gave up after 3 runs. place was frozen, camera was frozen and so where we. So we headed to Smuggs.
This is a tough mountain. Like a mini Jackson Hole. The upper runs on Madonna are truly scary looking and are reported to be over 50 degrees. They where closed, exposed rock and glare ice everywhere. Taking a run called cat track you can look up them...sick. Spent the half day touring the place. Powder, windblown, rocks ice, hardpack, pretty much everything you can think of. Very interesting. You never knew what was around the corner. We really liked the place and it's old school atmosphere. No high speed quads here just slow old doubles, about 12 minutes to the top. With enough coverage this place could be a blast and we will return next season. Our camera was frozen so no pics.And it's still not working so I can't even download what we did get.