My end of season Vermont Skifari...Killington/Stowe/Sugarbush 4/19-4/21

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Hey All,

I'm back from a fun long weekend in Vermont. I left work at noon on Friday and immediately hit the road. I made it to Rutland VT in 5 hours and stayed at the Sleep Inn for $50 a night. It's a pretty dumpy place but it was only for one night. That night I went to the Tokyo House for Japanese food and then went to a dive bar for some pool and a screwdriver. Then I went back to the motel and watched some HBO and fell asleep.

I woke up early Saturday morning and was anxious for some spring skiing at Killington. I first stopped at McDonalds for a Sausage McMuffin meal with a Diet Coke..and I pulled into Killington a few minutes after 8:00AM. There were already a bunch of cars in the parking lot taking the prime tailgating spots at the base of Superstar. I bought a voucher from a guy in the parking lot for $35..They were charging $49..I began my day with a groomer off the K1 gondola down Blue heaven to Bittersweet and down to the Superstar quad. Then Superstar which still had some fresh cord but was getting beat up fast by all the Tom Dick and Harrys..Then cruise control and then Skyhawk. I then took the K1 Gondola back up and skied Great Northern to Racers edge to Highline which is their park run and had great corn. Then up the Gondola again and back over to Superstar. Then another Skyhawk and a cruiser on Cruise control which hardly saw any traffic so it was really smooth and fast. I skied upper Ovation sometime as well.

At 11:00AM after 11 runs..I met up with MadSkier and AllSkiing from AlpineZone. MadSkiers son Connor also joined us. We hit superstar and there were a few nice bump lines forming on the bottom with the middle section great for steezy GS crud turns. Then up the Superstar chair and down upper Ovation to Superstar...Lower Ovation had a rope across it but it looked like decent coverage from below. We were all uber hot and sweaty so we took a break in the lodge and I drank some gatorade. Then we took the K1 Gondola up and hiked up to the top of Catwalk which had interesting tight bumps and some skiers off in the woods having a safety meeting. You can never be too safe..lol..Then down the run to the skiers right of Big Dipper..possibly Cascade..where me and MadSkier took turns taking photos..Then up the Canyon quad and down powerline to racers edge to Conclusion which was nice corny bumps..then up the K1 and down Great Northern to Mousetrap which was smooth corn good for GS turns...it was around 1:00PM and the AlpineZoners decided to have lunch and I didn't want to go in..

I skied two more runs solo..The first being the K1 to Blue Heaven to Superstar and then one final cruise down cruise control. I peaced out around 1:45PM. It was a real festive crowd with temperatures in the 70s..and lots of scantily clad women and unfortunately shirtless men as well..oh well you get the good with the bad...I stopped at an Italian deli on the access road and got a wrap, chips, gatorade, and water...I was hella dehydrated and sunburnt..thanks MadSkier for some of your SPF 30..but sunscreen sweats right off..I was only wearing ski pants and a polo shirt with no gloves..gloves are for gapers when it's over 50 degrees. I then drove the 1.5 hours to Stowe and it was 81 degrees in the town of Stowe...

To be continued.....

 

[Greg]

I was only wearing ski pants and a polo shirt with no gloves..gloves are for gapers when it's over 50 degrees.

Correction: Polos when skiing are for gapers. :lol:

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

I rolled into Stowe around 3:45PM on Saturday and stopped at the Mountain Road resort..a sign saying it was rated 4 stars by Conde Nest travel magazine had me nervous about the price. The guy at the front desk ended up knocking 30% off their spring rates for $76 a night plus tax. I couldn't argue with that. He also mentioned that from 5:00PM-6:00PM was cocktail hour in the lobby. My room was really nice..king sized bed, big TV, couch coffee table, mini-fridge, wine glasses, and even robes and a phone in the bathroom. I watched a little TV and cleaned up..then I had a complimentary Long Trail Blackberry wheat and cheese and crackers in the lobby. I chatted with an older couple from Ontario who were taking advantage of the weak US dollar. I was offered more beer and wine as well but I didn't want to wear out my welcome so I left after one beer and went to Piecasso where I had two more beers and a sunshine vodka screwdriver along with a Mahi Mahi sandwich with fries. There was still some daylight left so I took a 2 mile walk on the recreation path. The views of Mount Mansfield and the setting sun were spectacular. Parts of the path were still covered with snow including one large drift that was 6-feet deep. I went back to my hotel..watched an Obama rally on C-Span and fell asleep early.

Sunday April 20th...

The temperature was in the upper 40s when I woke up. I went to the local mini-market and bought two cans of pork and beans for canned food day...then went to the Bagel for an early riser and some orange juice and made some coffee in my room. I got to the mountain at 8:15AM and it was already 54 degrees under sunny skys. I scored my 20 dollar lift ticket and began my day on the Forerunner quad. The snow was soft corn from the start. I started with a warmup down sunrise to standard to tyro which was pretty smooth and fast..then I rode the lift with a British guy named Mick who joined me for a run down a bumpy Hayride and then over to the Gondola for a combination of Gondolier, Perry Merrill and Switchback. The snow on the Gondola side was pretty mushy..then Mick said,"You ski too fast" and he split up.

I took Cliff Trail to Nosedive to lower liftline and there were some nice zipperlines on lower liftline. Then I tried Centerline which had nice smallish bumps and some stiff snow in the shade. On one of my early lift rides..I shared the quad with the infamous Boston Bob. Boston Bob is a sunglass salesman from Massatwoshitz who once skied Liftline 50 times in a day for over 100k of vert..there was an article written about him in Ski magazine a decade ago and he's a Stowe icon. He pretty much just skis Liftline like an out of control noodle..and I had many Boston Bob encounters when I was a Stowe regular in college. As the morning progresses there was a moderate length line for the quad and the ticket checker was dispensing sunscreen from a one gallon bottom..mad steezy yo..

Before lunch..I skied Upper National to Liftline...then Goat to the Goatdive woods to midway to lower Nosedive to the midway lodge. There was a BBQ setup along with a hippie band. I had two hot dogs, chips, and a gatorade for 14 bucks..I actually sat inside to cool off and get out of the blazing sun. I was baked from the sun and from a couple safety meetings..you can never be too safe. In the afternoon lots of people were drinking beer on the lift..and I skied a run down ChinClip which was small bumps to the Big Tits woods...then up the gondola where I doodled around in the kitchen sink and the goatdive woods..I also tried out the woods past sunrise which were really manky and I took one fall when my ski sunk in a foot into the rotting snow. The quad was scheduled to run until 4:20PM but I was beat by around 2:30PM so I quit after a long dilly dally down Toll Road to Sunrise to a still smooth lullaby lane to lower Standard below the crossover which doesn't get any traffic since it leads to the Idle mountain triple..down dirty snow to the lodge..then through the parking lot to my car.

The parking lot was jam packed with people celebrating the Holiday and lots of dogs running around..a combination of Regaee, Jam Bands, and rap were blasting from about 100 different cars adding to the festive atmosphere. I switched from my ski boots to my sandals..went back into town and had some Magic Hat number 9 and pizza with fresh sausage from Pie in the Sky..then I watched How High on comedy central..and had some SFRB..followed by a nap...when I woke up..I went to the Rusty nail for some drinks and the place was dead..then I talked to this girl I met on match.com for about an hour and went to bed...

To be continued..

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

April 21st...Sugarbush..final day of the ski season..

I woke up early this morning in Stowe and it hit me that today was my last day of the ski season. I putzed around and watched Saved by the Bell and had some coffee. I packed up my stuff and hit the road to Sugarbush stopping at the Village store in Waitsfield for a bacon egg and steeze sandwich and some sugar free red bull. I arrived at Sugarbush at 9:15AM and it was 57 degrees and sunny. As I walked to the ticket window I noticed a bunch of people in the swimming pool at the Claybrook resort and a few MILFs in bikinis..wow..what a warm morning. I noticed a sign that said that this week lift hours are from 10:00AM to 4:30PM...doh..so after buying my lift ticket for $29 I had more than 30 minutes to kill. I hung out in the lodge and took a powernap..then around 9:50AM I stood by the Sugar Bravo chair and waited for it to open.

About two minutes before me, a man in a full bulky one piece ski suit with about 25 lift tickets attached to it on 198cm circa 1999 K2 Merlins skied up to me. He asked if I was chilly in just a shirt sleeved shirt..lol..I said,"No it's going to be 75 degrees"...then he looked at my skis and said,"Doubletips"...lol..and he said he liked his long skis for the spring snow. So I rode the lift with the uber gaper and it turned out he was from Maryland. Onto the skiing...

I first skied Downspout down to the HEavens gate chair and it was soft cordoroy..then up the Heavens gate chair and there was nobody for 30 chairs behind me..then down Upper Jester to Lower Jester to coffee run back to the Sugar Bravo..a nice 2400 vertical foot run. The main runout at the bottom of Organgrinder/birdland was all bare ground so coffee run and lower spring fling were the only ways back to the base. Spring Fling to Snowball was nice mushy corn with some bare areas and some cord. Then I hit up Steins run which was !$$$$$$...big widely spaced bumps and soft but firm corn..with a nice bite to it..since it's mostly manmade snow..it's more resiliant to the intense heat. Upper birdland and Murphys glade also had great smooth corn..

I took another run down Downspout and it was littered with little kids..in large part due to a spring vacation week for Vermont kids. Wow Downspout got mushy but I had fun using all the kids as a human slalom and spraying them with big abrupt turns..steezy..I dusted this one Mom really bad..lol..Then up Heavens gate and near the top I saw the gaper from earlier standing sideways on Ripcord....I don't think he linked two turns together before sideslipping. I skied down to him and shouted,"Hey Maryland"..and he was like,"This sucks it's all mushy"..and I said,"It sure is"..and then linked about 50 straight turns down a zipperline..then looked back up and he must have made it 30 feet. Ripcord is almost 1500 vert of side to side bumps and I needed to stop twice due to hot spots in my feet..so it probably took him an hour to get down...mad Homer Simpson...doh..I then skied down to the base and hit Steins run again. Steins was so saweet...

Near the bottom I saw a familiar face...Wesley Allen Wright..founder of the Ski Vermont Discussion list. He's the webmaster for the University of Vermont and I have many fond memories from college skiing with Wes and other Ski Vermont members. Wes was skiing with his 7 year old son William. I rode the lift with him and William announced that they were skiing Steins again. I joined them for a run and William freaking rips..serious kid stoke. I started out in front of him in the bumps then he passed me and I followed on his tails for half the run before my legs started screaming and at the 2/3s point I had to take a breather..wow..impressive stuff. I wish I had a season pass at Mad River Glen when I was 7..oh well..I decided to ski Steins a final run and then at the top of the Sugar Bravo chair..it was around 12:45PM and with an almost 400 mile drive ahead of me..I decided to make one last run..

I held back a few tears..and began my run down Spring Fling to Snowball with a few slow and deliberate turns..F that..GrilledSteezeSandwich doesn't like to ski that way so I straightlined and made a few big GS turns through the crud..the end of my ski season was at the bottom of the run...It was a great ski season for me..I skied 98 days including more than a sozen days in Vermont and 10 days in Wyoming. I changed out of my ski pants and clipped my ticket with a nailclipper and gave it to a Mom in the parking lot for free. Then I went to the Paradise store and got a diet coke, water, a cheesesteak, and chips..and began my 6.5 hour drive home. I took German Flats road to 17 west to 9 south to 74 west to 87 south to 287 south to 78 west to 33 north to 22 west and rolled into the A at around 7:30PM..exhausted..It's sad..this is my last trip report until November..:-(

 

[kcyanks1]

Great reports and fun to read. Thanks!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Great reports and fun to read. Thanks!

Thanks..I write these reports for all my fans and groupies..:-D

 

[Greg]

Wow Downspout got mushy but I had fun using all the kids as a human slalom and spraying them with big abrupt turns..steezy..I dusted this one Mom really bad..lol..

:roll: I really hope you're kidding...

 

[SkiDork]

Steeze - did you happen to see my son Iceman on Ripcord? Supposedly he was on it all day. He would have had grey predator pants, and a light green t-shirt. 10 years old...

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Steeze - did you happen to see my son Iceman on Ripcord? Supposedly he was on it all day. He would have had grey predator pants, and a light green t-shirt. 10 years old...

Possibly..does he have longish hair?

 

[SkiDork]

Possibly..does he have longish hair?

not really - he wears a dark orange helmet with a bunch of stickers on it, dark goggles. Hair is short.

Looks like this: (except without the jacket of course)

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

not really - he wears a dark orange helmet with a bunch of stickers on it, dark goggles. Hair is short.

Looks like this: (except without the jacket of course)

No Sorry..I usually don't pay attention to little boys..

 

[SkiDork]

you would have noticed him if you saw him. he slays the bumps for his age.

 

[Greg]

you would have noticed him if you saw him. he slays the bumps for his age.

I would guess GSS wouldn't even know what slaying bumps looks like.... :lol: