Stowe - 2/3/12

[skierbum]

Stowe - 2/3/12

Conditions: Powder, Loose Granular, Hard Pack

Trip Report: Headed up to Stowe for the 1st time in a while. Decided to buy the tickets there as opposed to the hotel we stayed in. Bad idea! The line was only 6 or 7 people but the wait was 30 mins. Got suited up and headed for the lift.

Skied Goat (2x), Starr (2x), Hayride, National (2x), Lord, Chin Clip, Bypass to Nosedive, and parts of Liftline. The 3-4" received the other day made a huge impact! The natural stuff skied much better then the groomed trails. Goat and Starr were phenomenal! Almost no ice and a good 3 or 4 inches of snow from the day before on them. National was the same except for a few scratchy spots in the middle of the trail. Liftline was a disaster due to not being groomed, the wind, and high traffic. By 3:30 the whole trail was a sheet of ice. no snow on top. Just ice, and that was all you could see. Chin Clip and Hayride skied very nicely. Bypass was sketchy with rocks hanging out and we saw a 3 person pileup because people were going to fast over a rock, which was hidden by a sharp turn. That was the only trail that wasn't very good.

Awesome day, espicially for all the rain Stowe had earlier in the week. Took some pictures with my IPhone which aren't very good, and don't do justice to how good the skiing actually was.

First picture is looking up Upper Goat (closed). Second picture is looking down Goat.

 

[skierbum]

More pictures...

Hayride
View attachment 4892

Upper National
View attachment 4893

Looking down National
View attachment 4894

Starr
View attachment 4895

Last steep, sketchy part of Starr
View attachment 4896

 

[emmaurice2]

Thanks for the report and pictures. It sounds like they are faring slightly better than many mountains. I won't be going up until March, hoping they'll get walloped with a snowstorm just before, or while I'm there.

 

[steamboat1]

There's always snow at Stowe...:smile:

 

[BenedictGomez]

Decided to buy the tickets there as opposed to the hotel we stayed in. Bad idea! The line was only 6 or 7 people but the wait was 30 mins.

What in God's name happened?

 

[deadheadskier]

What in God's name happened?

The whole process of buying the RFID card sucks. I waited a considerable amount of time when only 3 people were in line during my one visit there this season. They have to enter all your information into a computer and then take considerable amount of time explaining how the card works for future visits.

 

[skierbum]

It's called the Stowe Evolution Card. It's actually quite evolutionary to say the least. The wait does suck, but you can keep the card forever, and buy days online on the Stowe website, therefore bypassing the ticket lines. I can't imagine how long the wait during a peak period would be...

Anyways, you get this plastic card, and you put it in a pocket above your waist. Then there are these turnstile things that read whether you have your ticket or not. It's quite cool. Once yesterday, I had my son's card and he had mine and a guy comes out of the control area and says that we have the wrong cards. Awesome technology, awful waits.

 

[kingslug]

Always wanted to hit those runs but they where sheets when I was there...have to make it up there again soon..

 

[BenedictGomez]

The whole process of buying the RFID card sucks. I waited a considerable amount of time when only 3 people were in line during my one visit there this season. They have to enter all your information into a computer and then take considerable amount of time explaining how the card works for future visits.

Sounds awful. I feel for the folks selling the tickets. Usually that's a great job at Stowe (free skiing, 95% of the people you meet are happy, and you stay warm), but I cant imagine how cranky this must be making people. Especially when they're already paying the most expensive price east of the Mississippi.

I had my son's card and he had mine and a guy comes out of the control area and says that we have the wrong cards.

That's a little frightening.

Awesome technology, awful waits.

If the technology results in "awful waits", I say pass. I can tell you how this should play out though. Most days it wont be a big deal, because Stowe gets a lot of repeat customers. But President's Weekend? Yeah, I wouldn't want to be anywhere NEAR those lines. MONSTEROUS. If they're having problems with small lines on February 3rd, I guarantee you PW at Stowe will be a trainwreck.

 

[Tin]

Upper Goat was open yesterday and with the conditions it was probably the toughest trail I've skied, was nothing but exposed rocks and ice. Sure was fun though.

 

[thetrailboss]

It's called the Stowe Evolution Card. It's actually quite evolutionary to say the least. The wait does suck, but you can keep the card forever, and buy days online on the Stowe website, therefore bypassing the ticket lines. I can't imagine how long the wait during a peak period would be...

Anyways, you get this plastic card, and you put it in a pocket above your waist. Then there are these turnstile things that read whether you have your ticket or not. It's quite cool. Once yesterday, I had my son's card and he had mine and a guy comes out of the control area and says that we have the wrong cards. Awesome technology, awful waits.

They use that at other places and the wait is not as long......