kcyanks1
New member
Where: Stowe
When: Sunday, February 25, 2007, around 10am - 3pm (and a breakfast bar for lunch on the lift in order to maximize my skiing)
Weather: I'd guess 20s and sunny, and thankfully no wind. That was the forecast, and while I didn't see a thermometer, it felt about right.
General conditions: Packed powder bumps on natural snow, ungroomed trails (perhaps not quite as soft as the bumps at MRG the day before though); packed powder/hard packed on natural groomed trails; more hard packed on man-made snow trails. Powder/packed powder off trail.
Report:
The highlight of my second day at Stowe ever, and first in good conditions, was my first trip up to the chin. I was with another skier who had never done it before, and we had the goal of catching someone who was about to hike up and trying to find out what we could. We ran into someone who was planning to go up alone, so it worked well for all of us to join together. He had done it once before. Soon after we started, another group of around 4 first-timers caught up with us, so there were about 7 of us doing the hike, thankfully taking the occasional break. We probably saw at least another half-dozen over the course of our hike. While I had my heart set on doing Hourglass, in the end we took Profanity from the Chin because some wanted to take the easier route, which probably wasn't a bad idea for my first trip there. The conditions were powder/packed powder.. Some nice soft snow on top, but we were following existing tracks. I was hoping to ski Hellbrook after getting down Profanity, but I was 0-2 in meeting my plans, as even our "guide" who had hiked the Chin before wasn't sure how to find it. We ended up on the Long Trail, past by the Taft House (? some little hut), and eventually on to Chin Clip. It was a pretty tight glade in their...Again we generally followed tracks, but there was soft snow floating around, and at one point a snowboarder who joined us sunk into some snow on the side of the path we were following up to his chest or so. As I test I pole-planted into some snow on the side, and my entire pole went in as well as my arm most of the way up to my elbow ... I'm not tall so I don't have big poles, but it was still plenty deep
Our whole adventure on the Chin probably took about 1 hour 45 minutes, though I didn't time closely. While it took a big chunk of the day, it was certainly worth the experience, and maybe next time I can ski Hourglass and find Hellbrook!
I attempted one more adventure by trying to find Riverbed, but what I thought was the entrance led us to a short glade shot that went right back onto a trail .. Oh well, another thing for next time
The trails were fun too, though. We skied goat from the Liftline cutoff down. The top was closed. We thought about poaching it (at this point I had poached one trail in my life, though that was soon to change), but decided to just take the cutoff. The narrow top part of Liftline under the chair was open and fun. A little sketchy in the last little pitch, but the obstacles were avoidable and it was good, packed powder bumps. Then we cut over to Goat. A quick look up the trail showed why it was closed it the top. It was quite windblown with a good amount of rock showing. It was very nice, though, from where we entered down. Then we hit Midway (I'm pretty sure..unless there is a trail that cross Goat at a different point), and mysteriously it was roped off. So that was my second poaching experience ever, and it was more of the same. My third lifetime poaching experience came on Starr. That was also roped off the top, and we just decided to go for it and cut around.. The top had a scratchy part, but not enough to close it, IMO - perhaps if it were heavily skied it would be an issue though. The rest was enjoyable. Other runs included Bypass onto Nosedive, a warm-up run on Hayride (clearly I'm describing my day out of order!), and run on Liftline to Lower National to Midway. Liftline was probably in the worst condition of any of the expert runs I skied as it was more hard-packed than packed-powder, probably due to the man-made snow.
When: Sunday, February 25, 2007, around 10am - 3pm (and a breakfast bar for lunch on the lift in order to maximize my skiing)
Weather: I'd guess 20s and sunny, and thankfully no wind. That was the forecast, and while I didn't see a thermometer, it felt about right.
General conditions: Packed powder bumps on natural snow, ungroomed trails (perhaps not quite as soft as the bumps at MRG the day before though); packed powder/hard packed on natural groomed trails; more hard packed on man-made snow trails. Powder/packed powder off trail.
Report:
The highlight of my second day at Stowe ever, and first in good conditions, was my first trip up to the chin. I was with another skier who had never done it before, and we had the goal of catching someone who was about to hike up and trying to find out what we could. We ran into someone who was planning to go up alone, so it worked well for all of us to join together. He had done it once before. Soon after we started, another group of around 4 first-timers caught up with us, so there were about 7 of us doing the hike, thankfully taking the occasional break. We probably saw at least another half-dozen over the course of our hike. While I had my heart set on doing Hourglass, in the end we took Profanity from the Chin because some wanted to take the easier route, which probably wasn't a bad idea for my first trip there. The conditions were powder/packed powder.. Some nice soft snow on top, but we were following existing tracks. I was hoping to ski Hellbrook after getting down Profanity, but I was 0-2 in meeting my plans, as even our "guide" who had hiked the Chin before wasn't sure how to find it. We ended up on the Long Trail, past by the Taft House (? some little hut), and eventually on to Chin Clip. It was a pretty tight glade in their...Again we generally followed tracks, but there was soft snow floating around, and at one point a snowboarder who joined us sunk into some snow on the side of the path we were following up to his chest or so. As I test I pole-planted into some snow on the side, and my entire pole went in as well as my arm most of the way up to my elbow ... I'm not tall so I don't have big poles, but it was still plenty deep
Our whole adventure on the Chin probably took about 1 hour 45 minutes, though I didn't time closely. While it took a big chunk of the day, it was certainly worth the experience, and maybe next time I can ski Hourglass and find Hellbrook!I attempted one more adventure by trying to find Riverbed, but what I thought was the entrance led us to a short glade shot that went right back onto a trail .. Oh well, another thing for next time
The trails were fun too, though. We skied goat from the Liftline cutoff down. The top was closed. We thought about poaching it (at this point I had poached one trail in my life, though that was soon to change), but decided to just take the cutoff. The narrow top part of Liftline under the chair was open and fun. A little sketchy in the last little pitch, but the obstacles were avoidable and it was good, packed powder bumps. Then we cut over to Goat. A quick look up the trail showed why it was closed it the top. It was quite windblown with a good amount of rock showing. It was very nice, though, from where we entered down. Then we hit Midway (I'm pretty sure..unless there is a trail that cross Goat at a different point), and mysteriously it was roped off. So that was my second poaching experience ever, and it was more of the same. My third lifetime poaching experience came on Starr. That was also roped off the top, and we just decided to go for it and cut around.. The top had a scratchy part, but not enough to close it, IMO - perhaps if it were heavily skied it would be an issue though. The rest was enjoyable. Other runs included Bypass onto Nosedive, a warm-up run on Hayride (clearly I'm describing my day out of order!), and run on Liftline to Lower National to Midway. Liftline was probably in the worst condition of any of the expert runs I skied as it was more hard-packed than packed-powder, probably due to the man-made snow.
