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Stowe Opening Day

powderfreak

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One word: Awesome. Snowed all night and still snowing through the morning.
Super light and fluffy, upslope champaign, of around 6" on top of the dense
stuff from the prior day or two. Was in line before the quad opened, but
wasn't there as early as Allen and Ben who spent the night at the
Nest...Skied one run down the open stuff when the quad first opened then
moved from Nosedive to Bypass to Perry Merrill.

My run down Perry Merrill was one of the best east coast runs I've had in a
while. Its 9am, dumping huge fat flakes, and I'm standing 2/3rds up Perry
Merrill looking down at 1,500ft of boot deep blower. There's only one track
on the skiers right side. I cannot see any tall grass...just a powder
field. It was like the type of stuff reserved for cat-skiing. I noodled as
many freakin' sweet powder turns out of that as I could. Looked back up on
each pitch and saw only one set of S-turns through the powder. The snow was
deep enough that you left more of a small trench rather than ski tracks.

After several 2,000ft untracked runs, I met up with Jumpin' Jimmy who was
lovin' life just like me. While trying to wait for Allen and Ben to move
their car, we lost them in the transaction, so JJ and I skinned up to the
Cliff House. We then proceeded to ski some amazingly good snow, sometimes
quite deep where it had drifted yesterday, top to bottom on Chin Clip.
There were shouts of joy. While at the top, the sun came out on some
surrounding mountains and Madonna Mountain looked incredibly. Drenched in
sunlight and caked with snow. Bet there were some good turns over there,
too.

Jim had to head home, but sounded like he had some excellent turns with
Allen and Ben earlier. One run later I ran back into Allen and Ben so we
skied a few runs in the left-over powder. Nosedive became quite nice and
bumped up top. Perfect skier packed powder. By the end of the day, every
trail had seen considerable traffic and patrol didn't seem to care which was
nice...even ran into some patrollers at the bottom of Nosedive who just
smiled and gave a friendly nod.

My legs are toast. It was a fantastic opening day with plenty of
high-fives, a lot of hooting and hollering, and huge sh*t-eating grins.
Everyone knew everyone. Good times.

I didn't think it would keep snowing through this morning, but this 6am
radar shot shows the Mansfield Cloud...with 20-30dbz just north of I-89.

nov17%20Mansfield%20Cloud.JPG


-Scott

ps: I really need a new camera.
 
Last edited:

JD

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Agreed. Skiied national to lower nosedive just prior to the lifts opening, then up Nosedive to cliff trail. Up cliff trail to upper waterfal to an epic gondolier. Then over to spruce for sunny pow turns down the skiers right side on smugglers. Great little inbounds tour staying just ahead of the hoards of pow hungry ripper. And there was plenty to feed on. Looking back at Mansi from spruce was amazing. FARMED OUT POW. Can not remember a more sensational opener. Let's hope it's just a taste for this season.



The snow today was of serious high quality. Upper National was absolutely as good as it gets. Period. I want more!
 

powderfreak

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Agreed. Skiied national to lower nosedive just prior to the lifts opening, then up Nosedive to cliff trail. Up cliff trail to upper waterfal to an epic gondolier. Then over to spruce for sunny pow turns down the skiers right side on smugglers. Great little inbounds tour staying just ahead of the hoards of pow hungry ripper. And there was plenty to feed on. Looking back at Mansi from spruce was amazing. FARMED OUT POW. Can not remember a more sensational opener. Let's hope it's just a taste for this season.



The snow today was of serious high quality. Upper National was absolutely as good as it gets. Period. I want more!

Did you skin up Liftline just prior to opening? I was on one of the first chairs and saw a sweet skin track up middle Liftline above the 13th pitch. Thought maybe it might be yours if you skinned up just prior...

Cheers...here's to a great season man!
:beer:
 

JD

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Yea that was us. Wanted to get Slashinal before the lifts turned. Upper was as good as it gets. Hopefully this weeks event treats us as well.
 
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