My Vermont Tour 2010 (Feb 28-March 7 - Caution longwinded but w/cool pics!)

[marcski]

So, the last 8 years or so, I've taken my week skiing at Alta, but this year due to a few things, I was in Vermont. I left on the 27th and drove straight to Cuzzins and Mt. Snow, where my buddies were waiting for me. One lives up there full time and 2 others that I've known for years were there. My one buddy has a big, deep booming voice and 15 years ago would do a Doors Medley with Bruce Jacques, the Cuzzins' regular Sat. night entertainment. So, at one point, (after I downed a number of liquids) I jumped up on stage and asked Bruce in the middle of a song, if he remembered "the big guy that used to do the Doors Medley." His eyes lit up and within 30 seconds, my buddy was on stage, donning a wig with the mic:

The crowd was into it...and after Thomas was through, he pretty much closed the set and we got this:

The next day was all MAGIC: The first place I ever skied was Magic...almost 40 years ago. Every time I get there...I have an awesome time. When skiing alone or with my buds, I'm pretty much in the woods. We did two and a half trails during the day, otherwise we were in the woods. Magician, Black Magic from the top and half way down Goniff, we jumped into the adjacent woods. The woods just past Magician were unreal!:

Ted, dropping a knee in the woods:

After watching the US Canada game in the bar upstairs in the lodge at Magic, I drove upto my brother's house in Burlington. The next morning we woke up and drove the Shrine: MRG. When there is good snow, like there was last week, I can't think of many, if any, Mountains I'd rather ski, East or West. There was so much snow in the woods, that I was scared of getting swallowed by a few tree wells: Once again, the woods ruled the day....Except for one run down Chute, we were in Paradise and Octo all day. We even hooked up with Eric, the marketing director (and his son and son's friend) for a few runs at the end of the day. I went back on Tuesday as there is nowhere better: Tuesday was perhaps the best day of the week...the weather was beyond perfect..warm, sunny but the upper mountain snowpack stayed fluffy and cold. The pics are all from Tuesday as Monday was pretty fogged in....

A look down Paradise:

Octo, from Upper Grand Canyon:

Finally, the iconic Single with Chute in all its bumped glory:

I took a day off in Montreal and then headed over to Jay Peak. I was solo that day, but for $147 including taxes, I got a room at Hotel Jay, a full dinner that was pretty good (Nice piece of Sea-bass), a full hot breakfast the next day and a lift ticket. Not bad if I say so...Jay is beautiful. Despite "only" receiving 2 feet (as opposed to the 4' at MRG and Magic), the snow was still quite soft. The trees were pretty much tracked out but were still gorgeous:

View from Quebec (right by the border):

Tram and Face:

Closeup of the Face:

Cont'd:

 

[marcski]

The next two are from my favorite trail at Jay...Everglade and Staircase:

Burke and Mt. Washington from the top of Jay:

I then drove from Jay back to my Brother's place in Burlington and we skied the 'Bush on Saturday the 6th. We based out of Mt. Ellen, but took slidebrook over to Castlerock to check out the Extreme Comp. they were having..It was right down liftline..you can see the people up at the top waiting their turn.

Middle Earth bumps were sweet!:

Other than Middle Earth, which was super sweet, my favorite runs for Saturday were the woods off the North Ridge Quad. Bravo, Exterminator and Bravinator woods as well as Wayback.

Finally, I grew up skiing Berkshire East and hadn't skied the place in about 28-30 years. We had season's passes back then. I remember the place with the T-bar and the J-bar and I still remember when they put the lift up Flying Cloud! What a gorgeous day though..and I forgot just how pretty the surrounding area was as well as the drive down from the Mt. Snow area, where I spent the night again at my buddy's.

Every trail was open...except perhaps the Beast and East glade, but they were still quite skiable.

The Beast with some chocolate chips:

I think this is the glade next to Flying Cloud, Tomahawk I believe is the name:

A beautiful afternoon at the Beast indeed:

This was, by far, the best ski trip in the East for me in well over a Decade. Awesome, awesome snow conditions everywhere and picture perfect weather AND, at least IMHO, I skied some of the best terrain in Vermont during the best conditions of the season. I also spent a lot of time skiing on 3 classic chairs: the single of course, the Castlerock double and Magic's Red Chair.

(And the best thing about the trip is that I'm scheduled to to be skiing for the next 4 weekends too....but this NCP they're calling for this weekend sure does suck the big wazoo!).

 

[EOS]

Nice TR and pics!!
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silversurfer reviews

 

[wa-loaf]

Nice trip! The Bruce Jaque's dude gets around. He plays WA like once a week.

 

[snowmonster]

Epic trip. Someday. I'll do the same. Someday.

 

[WoodCore]

Awesome TR!

 

[maineskier69]

Great TR! With the pictures and the text I felt like I was there. You had some SWEET days on some great hills. Glad you got to nail it when you did.

 

[TheBEast]

Ah my two favorite places, the BEast and Jay!! Excellent trip!

 

[bvibert]

Great TR!

 

[jrmagic]

Nice TR and excellent pictures too. I know its not Alta but given the conditions we had, you didnt miss anything with that tour. Awesome.

 

[rocojerry]

VT Alpine Touring? Thanks for the TR!

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Awesome TR and pics, thanks for posting them! The pics of Jay, really beautiful. I was working at LP in the shop in Gatehouse Lodge on Sat, lots of smiles that day.

BTW, since you mentioned the Castlerock Extreme, my little buddy John Egan Jr won the Youth Division of the Castlerock Extreme Challenge, Johnny would have placed in the top five of the adult division based on his score. He turns 11, in about a month. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree in that family.