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Sugarbush, Stowe, Jay Peak, March 21-23 2014

billski

Active member
Joined
Feb 22, 2005
Messages
16,207
Points
38
Location
North Reading, Mass.
Website
ski.iabsi.com
Sugarbush, Friday March 21
Stowe, Saturday March 22
Jay Peak, Sunday March 23

Pinch me. I must be dreaming. I said this each and every one of these days. I hit snow coming in Thursday at Montpelier. By the morning, 10” was on the ground.
Friday
We headed down to Sugarbush. It really wasn’t busy at all. The snows came, and came and came all day. Met up with a large group of hard charging guys, spending about half the day on designated trails and the other half of the day in the sanctioned woods. Best day of the season. Lots of loose snow on the groomers (Sugarbush apologized for this on their snow report that day!) began to form into small bumps. Everything was in play, it’s fair to say they were 110% open. The posse confirmed, there was definitely 10” up top. I don’t really remember too much more than that. We skied pretty much the blacks and double blacks and the woods. Ski on lifts all day

Saturday
More snow. Maybe 4” overnight (it’s all a blur, sorry), then it clouded up and another 4-5” during the day. Everything was good. We spent the morning with a rather conservative crew of skiers, most of whom characterized a bump run as an adventure. I opened it up wide on gondolier and flew, unlike my usual pace. Hero snow. All the trails were great, it was about as good as it gets. The quad and the gondi lines were building, we went in for lunch. We had planned our first trip down the Bruce for the afternoon. Jumped in and the fears and hesitation melted. We had the absolutely best conditions one could possibly ask for. The snow was deep and the pow plentiful. Lots of folks have been here before, it’s difficult to get lost. Steep and narrow at first, then moderate pitch. All natural bumps, an intermediate skier should not try this. I pinched myself down at the bottom. Is this really happening? Called it a day and did some household electrical work to pay for my grub.

Sunday,
5-8” was the JP report, so off I go in the snowmobile. OMG, it just keeps getting better. The woods, ah , the woods. Nothing bad in the woods at all. Everything was skiing superbly (well, Upper goat run sucked, as it always does. If they groomed anything, I couldn’t tell. Pack pow and pow everywhere. By about 11am I was getting pretty weary. I was mostly in mid angle woods, Andres, Beaver, everglade, vertigo, milk run, and god knows what else. I went down a really long deep drainage chute. All the water crossing everywhere were well covered. It was fearless skiing everywhere. By days end I was skiing in the baby woods. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.
My most memorable 3 day stretch in many , many years.

The photos others have posted speak for themselves.

Bush
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Next: The Bruce.
Go this way
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Last edited:

BenedictGomez

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
12,174
Points
113
Location
Wasatch Back
By days end I was skiing in the baby woods. The spirit was willing but the flesh was weak.
My most memorable 3 day stretch in many , many years.

You're older than me and lasted an extra day. Skied 9am to 4pm Friday, and was "forced" to stop after 9am to 2pm Saturday. The young 20s skiers I was with were going to take another slackcountry run off the Long Trail between Stowe/Smuggs and I bailed. Legs just couldnt link multiple steepish turns at that point. I REALLY wanted to keep going, but I knew that terrain would have been dangerous with jelly legs. :( Agreed, best skiing I've had in probably 5 years or so. DEEP.......EVERYWHERE.
 
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