Stowe, Fri/Sat Jan 10-11, 2014

[billski]

Saturday
After a pretty intense day of skiing Friday, I packed it in and drove home this afternoon, Saturday. A no-ski day for sure. The skies opened up at 5:30AM today and the rain came and went in bands. The roads were quite icy. Not the trees, but the ground. It's hard to say if it was freezing rain, but probably. A neighbor's truck with chains could not make it up the road until the DPW came around with gravel (this was not your father's sand) and lots of salt. Really sad.

I-91 was closed for a few hours this morning from Waterbury north to Burlington - a veritable skating rink. So I hung around until about 9:30 and ventured onto the roads. Lots of ruts in the Left hand travel lane. Right lane was down to the pavement and wet. Passed two separate incidents involving 18-wheelers sliding off into the ditch. When I hit NH, for the duration of 1-91 the trees were all ice-covered. Amazingly the lift was spinning at Whaleback. I just didn't have it in me to stop. When I hit Concord it was all rain south to Boston.

So let's get back to the skiing
Friday

Spent the day on Mansfield. If anyone can make lemonade out of lemons, Stowe's snow making and grooming can. There were a lot of snow making whales all over. Wonder what the plan is for them.
In general, the trails were a mix of loose powder/granular mix (they do a nice job with the mix) and a very hard packed, edge-able. Not FGR, kind of like a Frozen, highly compacted (like windblown) snow. Without an aggressive edge, you would skid on it. Lots of boarders simply doing a LOT of skidding today.

To really enjoy the day you needed to have your A-game on. You couldn't just ski with abandon, you needed to scope and pick your turns quickly and often. Most all the trails skied the same - Liftline, Nosedive, Lookout, Hayride. I'd say Liftline was probably the best trail of the day and skied well thanks to a boatload of snow. Even the area that usually off early was skiing well. Some trails were closed, such as Goat. As we tired, we opted for some easy cruisers, such as Midway North Slope and Lord were good.

Off the gondi Perry Merrill skied well as did gondolier. Again, on all of these, there was scratchies to be found. It was clearly a day/week for groomers. Cliff trail was a Fugly ice skating rink. Too bad there isn't an easier was over to the quad. The triple was running.

Trails without snowmaking began to show their bones. Those with new boards from certain So. VT areas would not be pleased.

By the end of the day the trails were starting to show their wear. This was disappointing considering how few people were skiing yesterday. It was so empty that singles were taking quad chairs by themselves, with many chairs being simply empty. Scared away by the forecast. There were really no liftlines at all on the quad or gondi, so we got a tremendous number of runs in. We were fried by 2:30pm.

I was hoping we could get a couple hours of skiing in this morning as the quad starts at 7:30, but it was not to be.

I cannot imagine how bad things are going to look over there. They were pumping dozens of snowguns yesterday. You can be absolutely sure they will pummel the slopes as soon as the temps permit. No money will be spared. They posted a half hour delay in opening the quad and gondi for tomorrow. The rains won't stop until late. I think they are going to do their best to chomp at this stuff (I'm a little surprised since the rain wont have drained out) after it freezes. Maybe they are going to plow down some of those whales.

 

[Tin]

Good to hear you salvaged it, beats a day of work. Any coverage in the trees around Perry Merrill?

 

[billski]

Good to hear you salvaged it, beats a day of work. Any coverage in the trees around Perry Merrill?

Yeah, there was a base with tracks, but it was pretty solid from the looks of it, so we didn't bother.

 

[Tin]

Thanks. A few bus trips from RI are heading up soon. Only $80 for the ride to and from and ticket, was considering it.

 

[billski]

Thanks. A few bus trips from RI are heading up soon. Only $80 for the ride to and from and ticket, was considering it.

I think the majority of people will be uber-disappointed. Anywhere.

 

[Tin]

4 in the next 3 weeks. I might opt for the one on the 31st. Should have recovered and picked some snow up by then....hopefully.

If you have been to Whaleback before you didn't miss much. We were there yesterday, a good time but only a couple ways down.

 

[billski]

Here is what Stowe said this afternoon:

"Our snowmakers did a fantastic job burying several trails this week, such as Liftline & Nosedive, but due to marginal temperatures our snowmaking operations are on hold this weekend. Rest assured, once consistent & productive temperatures return, the crews will be back out there deepening base depths and resurfacing terrain. "
This is Stowe-speak for "we can't do much about it for the moment", that minimal repair work can happen this weekend and that it will take a few days to fix, so don't expect much."

"Due to dropping temperatures late tonight, and in an effort to provide the best possible surface conditions, we will have some delayed lift openings" This is Stowe-speak for , "we expect to have a mess on our hands tomorrow morning and will scramble as best we can to salvage some skiing for Sunday."

"
We plan to limit open terrain to mainly groomed trails only, as those will provide the best ski & ride experience. More terrain will reopen with additional grooming efforts in the next couple of days. - Stowe-speak for, "we won't have all our groomers open."

I love Stowe - if anyone can recover it will be then. Sadly, everyone is in the same pickle.

 

[Tin]

For what they have invested in the past few years (and now charge), I would hope they can recover quicker.

 

[billski]

For what they have invested in the past few years (and now charge), I would hope they can recover quicker.

It's really rotten timing since the temps won't drop and the rains stop until late, late at night. Give them a small margin. I feel really bad for weekenders with non-refundable commitments. The stores, bars and restaurants should do well.

 

[billski]

For what they have invested in the past few years (and now charge), I would hope they can recover quicker.

Stowe is doing a total rehab on the gondi this summer. The cars will be stripped down the the frames and refurbished. The best part is that the ski racks will be widened to handle today's fatter skis.

 

[KevinF]

I-91 was closed for a few hours this morning from Waterbury north to Burlington - a veritable skating rink. So I hung around until about 9:30 and ventured onto the roads. Lots of ruts in the Left hand travel lane. Right lane was down to the pavement and wet. Passed two separate incidents involving 18-wheelers sliding off into the ditch. When I hit NH, for the duration of 1-91 the trees were all ice-covered. Amazingly the lift was spinning at Whaleback. I just didn't have it in me to stop. When I hit Concord it was all rain south to Boston

You must mean I-89 right? I-91 splits the border between VT and NH and never gets anywhere close to Whaleback.

Most all the trails skied the same - Liftline, Nosedive, Lookout, Hayride

Lookout? Lookout is the trail underneath the double. It hasn't been open all year.

 

[mbedle]

Couple of things to remember about Stowe and some other bigger ski areas. Stowe will typically leave trails closed during the week in an effort to preserve the snow on them and reopen them on the weekends, when significantly more people are there.

Tin and everyone, just a heads up on the Stowe cost issue. Yes, the window price for a ticket is extremely high for the east coast. However, I have never paid the window price. Look into joining your local ski area and see what discounts they may have. I purchased all of the tickets from a local ski area council and only paid $64 per day. You can also get some good deals thought the Vermont Ski Club.

 

[Tin]

I usually do bus trips or find other ways. I have never paid window price either. Given their investments I don't find the cost outrageous but it is extremely high.

Also billski, did you check out the trail report this morning? Looks like they got hit pretty bad, even Liftline and Nosedive are closed. They went crazy blowing on each this year.

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

The best part is that the ski racks will be widened to handle today's fatter skis.

That's the best thing I have heard in years. So tired of dealing with racks that don't fit my skis.

 

[steamboat1]

If you just walk up to the window to buy a ticket yes Stowe does have the highest ticket price in New England ($98). If you buy a ticket online Stowe is actually less expensive than many other New England areas ($84). I know Killington & Sugarbush are $89 on weekends & I'm sure others are right up there to. They have a deal this month where you can buy tickets online for only $64. Then you have ski club discount coupons which I think were either $54 or $56 this year. They accept VT. Passes which cost a little over $40 depending on which pass you bought (3 or5). They also run ski club appreciation days for a few days every month from Dec. through April, this weekend (Fri.-Sun.) were the appreciation days this month. During appreciation days you can buy multi-day tickets for under $35 a day or a single day ticket for $46. So while I agree that Stowe has the highest walk up window rate there are other ways you can ski there for much less with only minimal effort on your part.

They do have the highest price hamburger in VT. in the Great Room though.

 

[steamboat1]

did you check out the trail report this morning? Looks like they got hit pretty bad, even Liftline and Nosedive are closed. They went crazy blowing on each this year.

I can guarantee you that Liftline & Nosedive are not closed because of lack of cover.

 

[Tin]

I was thinking it but am surprised they wouldn't roll groomers out there to fix the issue on a weekend.

 

[SnwBrdr]

Tin and everyone, just a heads up on the Stowe cost issue. Yes, the window price for a ticket is extremely high for the east coast. However, I have never paid the window price. Look into joining your local ski area and see what discounts they may have. I purchased all of the tickets from a local ski area council and only paid $64 per day. You can also get some good deals thought the Vermont Ski Club.

Thanks for the tip!

 

[mlkrgr]

+1 about the bus trips. For about $80, having your ride which is about 6.5 hours from Greater Boston and lift ticket covered is a great deal.

For those in the Greater Boston area, if you use promo code HAXNS on any Nacski.com trip, you can get a discount of $10 if you are a new customer to make a Stowe (or Jay, Loon, or Sunday River) day ticket and bus ride go down to $67. For existing customers, they usually post $5 off promo codes on their Facebook tab a few days before a "confirmed" trip, which reduces the price to $72. They used to run to more mountains but they've decided to just focus on four to offer the best value to people.

 

[j24vt]

I usually do bus trips or find other ways. I have never paid window price either. Given their investments I don't find the cost outrageous but it is extremely high.

Also billski, did you check out the trail report this morning? Looks like they got hit pretty bad, even Liftline and Nosedive are closed. They went crazy blowing on each this year.

I actually skied Stowe on the 12th. I was at the mountain to work a race that got cancelled. Already had my gear on and decided to take a run before I left. The conditions where groomed mashed potatoes with light snow falling. I ended up taking about 10 'last runs' because the skiing improved as the snow kept falling. Definately needed to stay on trails that had been groomed after the temperature dropped below freezing.

Did one run down Main Street (which I'm guessing had been groomed early to set up for the race) and it was solidly frozen corduroy. Liftline looked really shiny from the lift and I'm guessing it was closed because the groomers ran out of time (same thing for Nosedive). Coverage was fine but you would have needed ice skates to ski it.