View Single Post
Old Mar 24, 2008, 6:52 PM   #26 (permalink)
KevinF
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Marlborough, Massachusetts
Posts: 162
I was at Stowe all weekend; not exactly central or southern Vermont, but:

Chin Clip off the gondola was in awesome shape on Saturday morning; the freshies from the storm on Friday were still present. Stowe on Saturday was a mob scene though, so the bumps got scraped down pretty quickly. On Sunday they were a little shiny in the troughs (especially on the steeper bits), and the bumps themselves were "solid", but had enough loose snow on them to make it a fun trail.

Bypass (around Nosedive) had awesome bumps. That trail is so narrow and is avoided by the masses, so the bumps are sah-weet!

National: you need a death-wish to take it from the top; the first four or five bumps are clear. Taking the traverse in from Liftline got you below the worst, although the bumps to the Liftline crossover were still pretty funky with a weird easily breakable crust on them. Every turn would send another pile of crust chunks sliding to the bottom. Once you crossed Liftline the bumps were decent; a little scraped, but not too bad.

Liftline: there are some bumps along the side. Skier's right: bring ice skates. Skier's left: not too bad, but the bump pitches were pretty short.

Goat: didn't ski it, but heard from multiple people that it sucked.

Starr : closed off the top, but taking the traverse in from National got some decently soft bumps, nice lines, etc. I guess it's narrow enough that the wind hadn't scoured it. The bottom pitch (where it runs into Lookout) was rather scraped.

Hayride: skier's left is bumped pretty much the whole way down. A little scraped, but not too bad.

Gulch : good practice for your ice bump skiing skills is the most pleasant thing I could say about it.

Whirlaway (Spruce side): first 10 bumps were awesome, the rest of it was filled with a bizarre crust that felt like it would give away, but it never did. A good teeth-rattling experience if ever there was one.

Smuggler's (Spruce side): sweet the whole way down. If there were softer sweeter bumps anywhere, I didn't find them.
__________________
Arc \'em or park \'em
KevinF is offline   Reply With Quote