Stowe Thread

[hovercraft]

From the spruce side you really should go with someone who knows where to go. It is easy to get excited back there go left to soon and before you know it you are on a cliff. Once you get to the bottom it easy to ski or ride back to smuggs, going to stowe you need to hike a bit on the notch road to get back….

 

[Tonyr]

Then it would prolly never happen...unless..many moons from now..smuggs gives in and takes the money..

I listened to a podcast with the owner of Smugglers about a year ago. He spoke about the history of his resort, Vail next door, and the Stowe interconnect. It was a great interview. He was very complementary of Vail which leads me to believe that someday he could sell to them. And why wouldn't he, the Stowe Smuggs combination is a taylor made exist opportunity as long as the vision and finances are right. With good snow and updated infrastructure on the Smuggs side it would instantly become the top resort in the east and one of the top ski resorts terrain wise in the country.

 

[djd66]

one of the top ski resorts terrain wise in the country.

I definitely would not go that far. Once you go west of the Mississippi the terrain and snow is 10,000X better

 

[Tonyr]

I definitely would not go that far. Once you go west of the Mississippi the terrain and snow is 10,000X better

I've been all over out west, if your into tight expert tree skiing there is nothing better than Northern VT with good snow.

 

[Kingslug20]

Watched a video of the blackmore at smuggs..can't believe there could be anything steeper or tighter than that!

 

[Tonyr]

Watched a video of the blackmore at smuggs..can't believe there could be anything steeper or tighter than that!

Someone just posted a video of the Blackhole a few days ago. It's about as ridiculous as it gets for tight expert tree skiing, especially the top section. The trees to the left and right of Upper Starr and the left of Upper Goat (called Pipeline) are also extremely nasty......

 

[Kingslug20]

That's the vid...it's not even skiing anymore when you trying to slide down a chute on your ass. On rocks....and your skis don't even fit across it...
Screw that..

 

[ThatGuy]

Black Hole definitely deserves the triple black rating. No chance I’d want to ski it.

 

[Tonyr]

Yes that top section doesn't look very enjoyable!

 

[ThatGuy]

Just watched the video. That dude has no right to be skiing that trail (if I can even call half of the video skiing).
Not saying I could shred it but definitely wouldn’t need to ass shimmey down half of it…

 

[ThatGuy]

The trees to the left and right of Upper Starr and the left of Upper Goat (called Pipeline) are also extremely nasty......

Those woods by upper Starr are intense, I usually enter by S53 to avoid the worst part.

 

[Kingslug20]

S53 is my friend...

 

[Tonyr]

Those woods by upper Starr are intense, I usually enter by S53 to avoid the worst part.

Yes, looking down that top section of steep tight trees is a big deterant, not many drop in on either side. Even with snow the coverage isn't great either at the tops due to the steepness. I've hit rocks every time dropping in at the tops. S53 is definitely the best way to get in there. Pipeline to the left of Upper Goat is even worse. If you go down the wrong entrance, the trees get so tight you can barely move. Here is a short clip of a guy going down the correct entrance last season. You want to stick to the far left entrance behind the Octagon, do not go down what appears to be the skiers right entrance....

https://www.reddit.com/r/icecoast/comments/ltykxd

 

[Kingslug20]

I will never like tight trees....it's why I prefer western glades.

 

[Smellytele]

Followed my teenage son in there a few years ago. Very tight. Made it but wouldn’t do it again on purpose.

 

[urungus]

Yep. That was the Sterling trail - return from Smuggs. Both Snuffy's (to Smuggs) and Sterling interconnect trails were on/off the Stowe map until the early 2000's when Sensation went in (and depending on how the respective owners wanted to promote the ability to ski between resorts throughout the 80's, 90's etc).

Return on Sterling crossed the pond, so it had to be frozen to use and as ThatGuy mentioned, a cat broke thru the shallow edge, turning around one night and that was that (environmental sitch).

1999/2000 map

1999-00 Stowe Trail Map - New England Ski Map Database - NewEnglandSkiHistory.com

www.newenglandskihistory.com

Are these two FATMAPs mislabeled, it looks like the one called “Smugglers Notch Crossover” going from Stowe to Smuggs is actually Snuffy’s, and the one labeled “Snuffys” is actually the Sterling trail from Smuggs back to Stowe ?
https://fatmap.com/routeid/3085352/snuffy's-trail
https://fatmap.com/routeid/30362/Smugglers_Notch_Crossover/

 

[deadheadskier]

before i became completely anti-vail, i did want smuggs and stowe to come under the same ownership and really embrace the connection. smuggs and stoww with the backcountry between them on both sides of the notch would easily be the best ski area in the east. would still be sweet just not under vail ownership.

Hard pass for me under ANY ownership.

 

[deadheadskier]

Someone just posted a video of the Blackhole a few days ago. It's about as ridiculous as it gets for tight expert tree skiing, especially the top section. The trees to the left and right of Upper Starr and the left of Upper Goat (called Pipeline) are also extremely nasty......

Never skied Black Hole. Unless there are other, much better actual lines in there, I have zero interest in that.

I've certainly "skied" stuff like that in very tight, sreep areas on Mansfield, Wildcat and other New England mountains. Something like that is downhill hiking with skis on even for the best skiers.

For about 6 minutes of that video, I don't think the guy linked more than 3 turns together. No one could. Not my idea of fun and I'm a pretty big fan of technical New England tree skiing

 

[jimmywilson69]

That blackhoke video is ridiculous. I'm proficient in trees but know if I skied blackhole it would likely look like that. I'm glad that dude posted the video so I now know that I can skip it...

 

[SteezyRob]

black hole is definitely on my list. i like tight tree skiing and that's something I'd like to be able to say I skied (skied used loosely). Dude could have done himself a solid and cut out that middle part lol, but after watching some other videos I don't know if I'd be able to get past the 50 degree section without looking a little silly myself. couldn't come up with anything as tight as that, aside from straight up bushwacking