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Stowe Pass??

BenedictGomez

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Do what I did when I lived in Burlington.

Work 1 day a week at Stowe for the free season pass, and pay the minimal amount for a Smuggs season pass.

Do that? VOILA!!! You ski back and forth over the top of the mountain at will and have access to both mountains.
 

Huck_It_Baby

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Do what I did when I lived in Burlington.

Work 1 day a week at Stowe for the free season pass, and pay the minimal amount for a Smuggs season pass.

Do that? VOILA!!! You ski back and forth over the top of the mountain at will and have access to both mountains.

Such a good idea! I work full time though and don't have time for 1 day at Stowe because I'll be skiing! =)
 

BenedictGomez

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Such a good idea! I work full time though and don't have time for 1 day at Stowe because I'll be skiing! =)

I worked 3pm to 11pm Monday through Friday in Burlington, and worked Saturday at Stowe. Would ski about 9am to 1pm and have plenty of time to hit the showers and make it to work. Life was simpler!
 

deadheadskier

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Does Stowe still do single ride tickets?

AFAIK they do on the Gondola. If the reason you ask is to catch a ride up on the East side and then ski Tear Drop etc. down to Underhill for your girlfriend to pick you up, I doubt you'd take advantage of it more than once. I've never done Tear Drop or other shots off the west side, but had friends in college who would skin the west side and do those trails. IIRC it was about 2-2.5 hour skin up from Underhill. It's about an hour and fifteen minute ride from Underhill to the Stowe Gondola during winter. From the top of the Gondola it's about a 40 minute hike to the Chin to access those same backside trails. Even if the one up pass was really cheap (I doubt it is, I recall it being $9 12 years ago) just in ascent time savings (never mind fuel and ticket expense), you'd spend 2.5 hours in a car plus a 40 minute hike from the top of the gondola and only save about 2 hours hike/skin time if you were just head up from the Underhill on skins.
 

steamboat1

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I'm going to date myself but at one time Stowe sold booklets with about a 1/2 dozen single ride coupons in it. We used them mostly for taking a single ride on the Big Spruce chair & then skiing over to Madonna for the day.

MRG used to have the same kind of single ride coupon books also.

I'm going back maybe 40 years or more.
 

deadheadskier

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Only ten years ago Stowe and Smuggs had a reciprocal relationship where if you skied over the ridge on Spruce they'd give you one complementary ride back up. I'd start my ski day pretty much everyday parking at the big pig and do the birthday bowls off the backside and catch a ride up from Smuggs. If you had a day pass, they'd just punch a hole in it to signify you had used the lift. If you had a season pass, you were supposed to go to the ticket counter where they would print you a complimentary one up ticket. We typically would play dumb and just go straight to the lift with our pass and try and milk it for a couple of laps.
 

Huck_It_Baby

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AFAIK they do on the Gondola. If the reason you ask is to catch a ride up on the East side and then ski Tear Drop etc. down to Underhill for your girlfriend to pick you up, I doubt you'd take advantage of it more than once. I've never done Tear Drop or other shots off the west side, but had friends in college who would skin the west side and do those trails. IIRC it was about 2-2.5 hour skin up from Underhill. It's about an hour and fifteen minute ride from Underhill to the Stowe Gondola during winter. From the top of the Gondola it's about a 40 minute hike to the Chin to access those same backside trails. Even if the one up pass was really cheap (I doubt it is, I recall it being $9 12 years ago) just in ascent time savings (never mind fuel and ticket expense), you'd spend 2.5 hours in a car plus a 40 minute hike from the top of the gondola and only save about 2 hours hike/skin time if you were just head up from the Underhill on skins.

Thanks for the info. The logistics of making a run on the teardrop via a single ride on the chair/gondola are less of an issue for me than you might think but you have valid points. I guess it all depends on how much fun those trails on the west side of Mansfield are.

I have a feeling they don't do the single ride lift tickets any more. Jay stopped doing it too but for reasons of their own. Now I hike from rt. 242 up the long trail.
 

Huck_It_Baby

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Only ten years ago Stowe and Smuggs had a reciprocal relationship where if you skied over the ridge on Spruce they'd give you one complementary ride back up. I'd start my ski day pretty much everyday parking at the big pig and do the birthday bowls off the backside and catch a ride up from Smuggs. If you had a day pass, they'd just punch a hole in it to signify you had used the lift. If you had a season pass, you were supposed to go to the ticket counter where they would print you a complimentary one up ticket. We typically would play dumb and just go straight to the lift with our pass and try and milk it for a couple of laps.

This sounds awesome! What happens if you head over to Smuggs now? They no longer allow this?
 

BenedictGomez

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This sounds awesome! What happens if you head over to Smuggs now? They no longer allow this?

My suspicion is they will allow you up the lift and 'X' your ticket to signify you've pulled this trick once.

Even back when the mountains did have this relationship, it wasn't promoted (at least not by Stowe). I was based at Spruce (where you'd do this from Stowe's end) and almost nobody even knew it existed. Usually it was ski clubs or folks on pre-arranged package deals that would get the Spruce ticket for the carriage to Smuggs.

In any event, I would speculate that it was Stowe and not Smuggs that killed this off, because it was obvious that we weren't encouraged to push or promote it. And that makes business sense. FAR more people would numerically come to ski at Stowe and do one day at Smuggs than the other way around = lost revenue for Stowe.
 

steamboat1

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Back in the day when it was affordable we would use the single ride coupon at Stowe then ski over to Smuggs & buy a lift ticket there to ski for the day. At the end of the day just take the Sterling lift up at Smuggs & ski back into Stowe. It saved a lot of driving time when coming from the south.
 

deadheadskier

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My opinion is probably not a popular one, but I'd love to see a day when Stowe and Smuggs are interconnected.
 

BenedictGomez

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My opinion is probably not a popular one, but I'd love to see a day when Stowe and Smuggs are interconnected.

Define "interconnected", do you mean like 10 years ago when you were allowed (sortof) to ski over Sterling Pond? Of do you mean you want Stowe to buy out Smuggs and make a mega-resort? I'd be all for the former, but loathe the latter.
 

deadheadskier

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Full on lift interconnect. I'm fine with a two way T-Bar cutting across the ridge trail from Spruce to Sterling. Give me both mountains on one lift ticket. Biggest, Baddest ski area in the east BY FAR. And throw in High Speed Quads up Sterling and Madonna. :lol:

Like I mentioned earlier, it wouldn't be a popular desire with many. :lol:
 

AdironRider

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Full on lift interconnect. I'm fine with a two way T-Bar cutting across the ridge trail from Spruce to Sterling. Give me both mountains on one lift ticket. Biggest, Baddest ski area in the east BY FAR. And throw in High Speed Quads up Sterling and Madonna. :lol:

Like I mentioned earlier, it wouldn't be a popular desire with many. :lol:

I would move back home today if this was the case. That would be a hell of a pass.
 

thetrailboss

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In all seriousness the Smuggs ownership has been at it for a long time and they may need to do some lift upgrades soon. I know that a few years ago they were contemplating a six-pack up Sterling and I think someone produced the Act 250 permit for the job. But nothing has happened. Those doubles are nice, but they will wear out since some of them are pushing 50 years old.

So the ownership may consider selling rather than keep going. But I don't think that Stowe's owners want to take it on.

Interesting fantasy. Maybe our buddy Les Otten may take it over :lol:
 
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