GrilledSteezeSandwich
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- Aug 23, 2007
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Hey All,
I just got back from a fun trip to Stowe. I lift at 8:30AM on Saturday and had a smooth drive up there. It took me 7 hours including a stop in Satatoga NY for food and gas along with a stop at the Cabot cheese store. The coolest part of the drive was going from the Champlain valley which was in the mid 40s with green grass..up the Appalachian gap which had 1-2 feet of snow and was in the upper 20s. Saturday night I went to Pie-Casso and had some mussels and I then went to the Sunset grill for nachos. I drank some beer and ended up falling asleep wicked early.
Sunday morning dawned cold and clear with temperatures in the teens. I pulled into the Stowe parking lot at 7:42AM..booted up and bought my two day ticket for the early season rate of $86. I was riding the Fourunner quad by 7:55AM. I was a three layer player..underarmour..polo shirt with the collar popped and shell. I first skied Ridgeview to Sunrise to Standard which was nice squeaky cord and some fun whales lower down. Then Lord to North Slope which was already starting to get scrapped off. It was time to do some poaching. I skied Nosedive which skied better than 80 percent of the time in the winter. The upper turns had smooth and chalky snow with a solid 2-3 foot deep natural snow base. Before the last turn I cut right which yielded untracked all the way down to the Sugar Shack..the snow was 2-3 inches of bone dry powder on top of a chalky base. I then skied Midway which was alot of fun with lots of untracked but a few tricky waterbars and areas of open water..then down lower National to the base. No redcoats saw me but I did see two guys get busted by the ski patrollers for skiing Hayride..they were idiots though..the one dude stood right near the bottom while his buddy hacked his way down and I cut through a cat-track in the woods to an open trail and was never busted. Hayride was so much better than Centerline which was scrapped off with a few irregular moguls. Natural snow trails open were Gulch, Upper Toll Road and Lord Too.
I beat myself up pretty good..as the morning progressed the line for the quad became about 8-10 minutes long..even in the singles line. I followed around a crew of jibhonks who were hitting every possible feature. I ended up following them into some sketchy woods off of Toll Road and other woods near the triple....the woods are nowhere near ready but I had to sample them. There were also some obvious powder shots off the sides of some of the runs that merely required a small traverse. I'll ski uphill to get one turn in fresh Poe. I ended up skiing 12 runs in total for 24,600 vert....I officially only ducked two ropes..I tryed to be sneaky about it by skiing closed runs by ducking through the woods to not actually duck a rope. Especially considering that I got clotheslined ducking a rope many years back at the Annual Ski Vermont Discussion List Partee. I quit around 1:00PM after about 5 hours..I drove down to the Matterhorn and had a Bloody Mary and some popcorn. Then bought an order of Wings to go and had them back in my room along with some Stella Artois. Then after a long nap..I went to Pie-Casso for a Seared Tuna sandwich, fries, and some Sunshine Vodka...
When I was done with dinner it was snowing outside..it snowed until about 11PM then it switched over to sleet. I was awakened at 6AM by the sound of plow trucks. There was 2 inches of the wettest snow imaginable..I got an early riser sandwich from the Stowe bagel...some water and applejuice and chilled for awhile while the rain continued. I finally checked out around 840AM and it was just starting to clear up. The temperature was in the upper 20s when I booted up and there were hardly any cars in the parking lot.
Skiing today was decent but nothing like yesterday. Anything off trail was offlimits due to a glaze on the upper mountain...Groomed stuff was fine and smooth hardpack on the top transitioning to mad applesauce on the lower mountain. Lower Lord was the best run of the day and I skied it at least 6 times. My legs were beat from yesterday and I only skied 8 runs today for 16,400 vert..there were lots of snowsnakes out and about as the snow transitioned from uber fast icy snow to slower spring snow in the span of a hundred feet. I saw lots of wipeouts and helped a little kid whose ski popped off at the top of a whale and was catapaulted off the way..yikes..I ended up leaving Stowe around 11:30AM..The drive home took about 30 minutes longer than normal due to some late rush hour traffic on 287 in NJ. There was also a slow spot on 87 in NY because a Christmas tree fell out of a pickup truck.
All in all it was a really fun trip to Stowe. I'm glad I was able to get hundreds of powder turns yesterday on reserved terrain without getting busted by the redcoats..one guy told me that poaching closed terrain is bad for the base..lol..on my next visit I want to check out the new hotel. I'd need to win the lottery to stay there but maybe I'll have a drink or something. Apparently the new hotel was 70% occupied over the Thanksgiving weekend. Sorry no pictures..just imagine a mountain with big evergreen trees covered in snow..lol..
I just got back from a fun trip to Stowe. I lift at 8:30AM on Saturday and had a smooth drive up there. It took me 7 hours including a stop in Satatoga NY for food and gas along with a stop at the Cabot cheese store. The coolest part of the drive was going from the Champlain valley which was in the mid 40s with green grass..up the Appalachian gap which had 1-2 feet of snow and was in the upper 20s. Saturday night I went to Pie-Casso and had some mussels and I then went to the Sunset grill for nachos. I drank some beer and ended up falling asleep wicked early.
Sunday morning dawned cold and clear with temperatures in the teens. I pulled into the Stowe parking lot at 7:42AM..booted up and bought my two day ticket for the early season rate of $86. I was riding the Fourunner quad by 7:55AM. I was a three layer player..underarmour..polo shirt with the collar popped and shell. I first skied Ridgeview to Sunrise to Standard which was nice squeaky cord and some fun whales lower down. Then Lord to North Slope which was already starting to get scrapped off. It was time to do some poaching. I skied Nosedive which skied better than 80 percent of the time in the winter. The upper turns had smooth and chalky snow with a solid 2-3 foot deep natural snow base. Before the last turn I cut right which yielded untracked all the way down to the Sugar Shack..the snow was 2-3 inches of bone dry powder on top of a chalky base. I then skied Midway which was alot of fun with lots of untracked but a few tricky waterbars and areas of open water..then down lower National to the base. No redcoats saw me but I did see two guys get busted by the ski patrollers for skiing Hayride..they were idiots though..the one dude stood right near the bottom while his buddy hacked his way down and I cut through a cat-track in the woods to an open trail and was never busted. Hayride was so much better than Centerline which was scrapped off with a few irregular moguls. Natural snow trails open were Gulch, Upper Toll Road and Lord Too.
I beat myself up pretty good..as the morning progressed the line for the quad became about 8-10 minutes long..even in the singles line. I followed around a crew of jibhonks who were hitting every possible feature. I ended up following them into some sketchy woods off of Toll Road and other woods near the triple....the woods are nowhere near ready but I had to sample them. There were also some obvious powder shots off the sides of some of the runs that merely required a small traverse. I'll ski uphill to get one turn in fresh Poe. I ended up skiing 12 runs in total for 24,600 vert....I officially only ducked two ropes..I tryed to be sneaky about it by skiing closed runs by ducking through the woods to not actually duck a rope. Especially considering that I got clotheslined ducking a rope many years back at the Annual Ski Vermont Discussion List Partee. I quit around 1:00PM after about 5 hours..I drove down to the Matterhorn and had a Bloody Mary and some popcorn. Then bought an order of Wings to go and had them back in my room along with some Stella Artois. Then after a long nap..I went to Pie-Casso for a Seared Tuna sandwich, fries, and some Sunshine Vodka...
When I was done with dinner it was snowing outside..it snowed until about 11PM then it switched over to sleet. I was awakened at 6AM by the sound of plow trucks. There was 2 inches of the wettest snow imaginable..I got an early riser sandwich from the Stowe bagel...some water and applejuice and chilled for awhile while the rain continued. I finally checked out around 840AM and it was just starting to clear up. The temperature was in the upper 20s when I booted up and there were hardly any cars in the parking lot.
Skiing today was decent but nothing like yesterday. Anything off trail was offlimits due to a glaze on the upper mountain...Groomed stuff was fine and smooth hardpack on the top transitioning to mad applesauce on the lower mountain. Lower Lord was the best run of the day and I skied it at least 6 times. My legs were beat from yesterday and I only skied 8 runs today for 16,400 vert..there were lots of snowsnakes out and about as the snow transitioned from uber fast icy snow to slower spring snow in the span of a hundred feet. I saw lots of wipeouts and helped a little kid whose ski popped off at the top of a whale and was catapaulted off the way..yikes..I ended up leaving Stowe around 11:30AM..The drive home took about 30 minutes longer than normal due to some late rush hour traffic on 287 in NJ. There was also a slow spot on 87 in NY because a Christmas tree fell out of a pickup truck.
All in all it was a really fun trip to Stowe. I'm glad I was able to get hundreds of powder turns yesterday on reserved terrain without getting busted by the redcoats..one guy told me that poaching closed terrain is bad for the base..lol..on my next visit I want to check out the new hotel. I'd need to win the lottery to stay there but maybe I'll have a drink or something. Apparently the new hotel was 70% occupied over the Thanksgiving weekend. Sorry no pictures..just imagine a mountain with big evergreen trees covered in snow..lol..
