3/3-3/6/11 Stowe and Bolton Valley, maybe Smuggs

[emmaurice2]

Stowe 3/3 & Bolton Valley 3/5/11--Skiing solo from open 'til 2pm-- will probably do a lesson at Stowe mid-morning--need to break some bad habits.

Depending on how my legs and back feel I might do the morning of 3/6 at Smugglers Notch.

I'm not liking how the weather forecast has changed over the past couple of days, but these are the days I can get away so I'll roll with the punches. Hoping the rain/snow on Saturday will change to just

Skiing mostly blues and single blacks, double blacks if the snow is right and I'm feeling confident, mellow glades. Will be stopping a lot to take pictures for a project I'm working on.

 

[hobbes]

will be skiing Smuggs 3/6-3/11 if you end up going there.

 

[billski]

Damn, I'll be at Stowe a week later. I'll also be there 25-26.

 

[billski]

Skiing mostly blues and single blacks, double blacks if the snow is right and I'm feeling confident, mellow glades. Will be stopping a lot to take pictures for a project I'm working on.

If Stowe brutally grooms its blacks (which seems to happen fairly often), the blacks often skis better than the blues (due to the much lower traffic); Blues get scraped off quickly, at least on Mani.

 

[emmaurice2]

Damn, I'll be at Stowe a week later. I'll also be there 25-26.

That's too bad, I always seem to miss the other AZ skiers (except I did meet MadRiverJack briefly at Magic, in the parking lot, then didn't see him at all for the rest of the day).

If my ski buddy gets the green light from his doctor there's a possibility that I can get up there again 25-26.

If Stowe brutally grooms its blacks (which seems to happen fairly often), the blacks often skis better than the blues (due to the much lower traffic); Blues get scraped off quickly, at least on Mani.

Thanks for the tip, it seems to jive with my memory--but I was skiing much differently back then. Last couple times I was there I don't think I skied many blues after the first run.

 

[WWF-VT]

I'm at Smuggs on 3/5

 

[thetrailboss]

Hope you had a good day. Spring conditions at Sugarbush North today. Some nice soft snow. A real surprise for those expecting r*&n. Buttery groomed runs the first two hours, soft bumps after that. Throw in a North Cheesesteak at Glen House and you have my day! :beer:

 

[WWF-VT]

Good conditions at Smuggs today. We are spoiled at Mt Ellen with no lines and quad chairs. Smuggs lines are long and the chairs are slow. Feels like you spend way more time in line and on chair than skiing.

 

[thetrailboss]

Good conditions at Smuggs today. We are spoiled at Mt Ellen with no lines and quad chairs. Smuggs lines are long and the chairs are slow. Feels like you spend way more time in line and on chair than skiing.

Last Sunday at Smuggs the lines were not too bad and what really made a difference was that the staff was moving them along. The doubles are sloooowwwww and when you ski 6-8 runs in an afternoon you realize that those high speed lifts make a difference (on average I ski 5-6 runs in the 8-9am hour at Mount Ellen alone). And hey, the stuff at Smuggs is great to ski. Hope you enjoyed some of the steeper stuff on Madonna.

 

[emmaurice2]

Haven't been online to reply to anyone, too busy vacationing.

Some plans got switched around. I skied at Stowe as planned on Thursday and it was awesome. Parked right next to the midway lodge. The NSS settled in at the lodge to work while I went off to play. For whatever reason (maybe the -2 temps) the mountain was nearly empty. They had just gotten 3 inches of snow Wednesday so it was velvety smooth. The people that were there seemed to be lapping the gondola so I stuck to the quad which was ski-on all day. The only trails that were skied off were Ridge View and Lower Nosedive. I stuck to easy woods but peeking into some of the tougher glades, most looked pretty much untouched. The lower mountain birch glades offered tons of untracked jaunts through the woods.

Ended up at Sugarbush (Lincoln) on Friday because the NSS had to work and wanted a really nice lodge. I was happy to oblige as I'd never been. It was fairly busy, but only had a significant wait at the SuperBravo once. The snow was a little harder at SB than Stowe, so the skiing was fast and fun. I hit Lynx toward the end of the day and actually had my best run on Sunrise. The sun had been hitting it for the whole day and really softened it up. I'm not a great mogul skier but the moguls at the top were perfectly spaced for me, halfway down on the left hand side they tightened up and looked like they would have been fun for a more experienced bump skier. Really liked SB overall and definitely want to go back.

Heading home today. If I didn't have meetings and deadlines this week I'd stay to take advantage of the impending snowdump.

 

[thetrailboss]

Glad to hear that you tried Sugarbush. Glad that your wife enjoyed the free WiFi and facilities. Any comparisons between the two in your mind? Thoughts?

 

[emmaurice2]

Glad to hear that you tried Sugarbush. Glad that your wife enjoyed the free WiFi and facilities. Any comparisons between the two in your mind? Thoughts?

The Stowe Midway Lodge definitely has a more old-fashioned feel to it. The SB lodge has a better layout and is more up-to-date. The NSS had some problems with internet at Stowe, but they reset the system and it worked fine, then. The food at SB was superior. The quote regarding the pizza was "OMG, this tastes like pizza we get in New York City."

In terms of skiing? I've always loved the trail layout at Stowe and the challenge they offer, but I think a lot of the trails at SB are more interesting, ie clusters of trees in the middle of the runs, blind turns, curviness. My only problem with Sugarbush, and this is VERY minor, is that there is a lot of "walking" involved when you get off the lifts.

 

[emmaurice2]

PS. The staff at Sugarbush were unbelievably friendly and helpful.
(Staff at Stowe were very nice as well, but at SB they really seemed like they'd go out of their way to help)

 

[thetrailboss]

Great to hear! I've seen a lot of positive changes at Sugarbush in the last nine years or so. Win and the management have done a lot of work. Sounds like it has paid off.