<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 2/1/00. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>This whole tree skiing phenomena thing is getting to be a drag. There are just too many people in there now... skiing my snow. So to all those wannabe barkeaters out there I say this: <BR> <BR>STAY OUT OF THE WOODS <BR>YOU'LL POKE YOUR EYE OUT <BR>I know who you are, I can read your tracks..
<BR> <BR>With that said I was able to find little nuggets of goodness scattered about these two cream filled mountains this weekend. Reality fell slightly below expectations at Jay on Sat. We went there so I could use up my Youth Corps ticket and so my friend Greg could ski cheap -- many feet of natural snow didnt hurt either. <BR> <BR>Greg and I split at the top of the tram and I head down Pumphouse/Couloir Topless.. whatever you wanna call it. Top was still a bit stumpy but nowhere near as bad as last time around. There was enough snow to facilitate skiing the ledges below the shack. I pointed 'em straight off the biggest ledge at the start and warped through the upper headwall in one long YEEEEHAAAAA!. Dumped a little speed in the Michael Berstein Memorial section before rocketing out onto Green Beret. Fun. But I was left wondering -- where be all this powder? <BR> <BR>The same wind that makes Tuckerman a springtime playland can turn 2 ft of powder into 8 inches of slab. Accordingly, surfaces were almost identical to Saturday of the Swampfest. I found powder in the the same places but, sadly, Can-Am, Quai, and Vertigo were all opened to the hungry masses. Rather than raping and pillaging virgin snowfields I was forced to settle for soft bumps in fast trees. <BR> <BR>After making the usual rounds of on and off map stuff I deceid to get adventurous and ducked the rope onto Tucks Chute. The top was rough, as expected, but further down there were great swales of windblown powder. A few brave souls ventured out onto the Tram Face and, from the looks of it, got about a foot of good snow for every foot of bare rock they walked over. <BR> <BR>Adventures and Mis-adventures, Smuggs 1/30 <BR> <BR>It's all fun and games till somebody gets hurt, right? Well, luckily, nobody got hurt but we did our darndest to injure ourselves. It was my last day with health insurance so I figured I'd make it count (I'm kidding Mom). On the first run we played human slalom in FIS woods where a large gaper contigent had gathered. Some snowboarder baited us with some nasty sucker tracks and we ended up embarking on a rather lengthy extrication procedure. I think I may start carrying a small hatchet in my pack for such occassions, most of which seem to be in the company of Mapadu. Ten minutes of cursing later, we were back enroute and entertained ourselves on the big drops down below. <BR> <BR>Next run was an equally adventurous romp through the Back Bowls where we took the idiots entrance through a particularly nasty section of yellow icefalls. Jumping them really wasnt an option as the landings were nearly as yellow as the ice was. I dub thee Piss Poor Chute. Once into the wide open birches of the Bowls however we enjoyed good snow all the way to the road. <BR> <BR>After a brief lunch of dehydrated foodstuffs we set out to finish the job of bludgeoning our bodies beyond recognition in the Survey Chutes. Any sick pup who has ever cast an eye on Madonna knows where these are, and either knows or can imagine just how evil they can be. The overall pitch through the first few sections is probably in the high forties, with brief (usually snowless) sections that are steeper than that. Throw in rocks, stumps, ice, etc and you get the picture. All in a line so straight and narrow you could shoot an arrow from top to bottom. They make the Stowe pipelines look tame by comparison. <BR> <BR>We had picked up a camera at lunch and in a fit of Kodak Courage Matt launched himself into one of the hairest sections while I played Chris Nobel. One jump turn into it and his left ski exploded as he hurtled toward a 10 foot drop onto stumpy and rocky torture. It didnt look good for our hero. At the last second he flung an arm out and bear-hugged a lonely birch on the edge of the abyss. Somewhere in there he was able to stop his ski too. So in frame #2 our hero is now the damsel in distress, hugging a tree while his legs dangle off the edge with a look of stark fear in his eyes. Cant wait till they get developed... <BR> <BR>Somehow we made it through that run unscathed and knocked off a few easy runs on the Hershey Squirts to calm our nerves (more human slalom, the woods were choked with snowboarders sitting on their butts in the most blind and inappropriate places). <BR> <BR>For our last run we had a mission. Ski the most remote chute in the Birthday Bowls.. only there could we still find untracked fluffage. On the way up to Spruce we were stopped by a Stowe Patroller on sweep. He told us to turn around and we wondered just what kind of authority he held over us, as we were on a trail that both ski areas claim to be within their bounds. Matt made up a believable lie that our buddies were up ahead and he let us pass. <BR> <BR>The policy of one run per day at the Stowe with a valid Smuggs pass and vice versa with a Stowe pass has apparently been scrapped and many people were bitching about it with good reason. Now you are required to buy a 12 dollar one-ride pass at Stowe if you want to ski the Birthday's without hiking. Dunno what Smuggs policy is but the sign on the top of Spruce said Stowe tickets are no good on the other side. Anyone with a vactation booked at either mountain (both of which advertised the traditional poicy of one run/per person/per day in the pre-season) should be steamed. When will Stowe and Smuggs learn to get along and take advantage of the tremendous resource that is the Snuffies trail? <BR> <BR>We made a clandestine entrance at the top of Spruce and sped off toward the Elephant's Head. The bullwheel had already stopped and everything was very quiet up there. The traverse out there was beautiful, remniscent of the traverse to 20th but longer and with stunning views of the notch. It seemed a world away from any ski area. We got to the last chute and readied ourselved for the day's final adventure. The whole way down I just marveled at all the terrain I had missed and swore that I would try much harder to find a job in VT for next year. There is so much left at that mountain that I havent seen. I remain concinced that, between the two, Stowe and Smuggs have the best and most lift served off-piste terrain this side of the Mississippi. <BR> <BR>Unfortunately, Matt had some serious binding trouble on the last run and had a pretty miserable descent. He was one step short of tossing his skis in a snowbank by the time we got to the parking lot on 108 at 5 pm. A fitting end to a day filled with adventure and misadventure, estasy and misery, pain and wonderment.. such is the way of the Jedi...
<BR> <BR>With that said I was able to find little nuggets of goodness scattered about these two cream filled mountains this weekend. Reality fell slightly below expectations at Jay on Sat. We went there so I could use up my Youth Corps ticket and so my friend Greg could ski cheap -- many feet of natural snow didnt hurt either. <BR> <BR>Greg and I split at the top of the tram and I head down Pumphouse/Couloir Topless.. whatever you wanna call it. Top was still a bit stumpy but nowhere near as bad as last time around. There was enough snow to facilitate skiing the ledges below the shack. I pointed 'em straight off the biggest ledge at the start and warped through the upper headwall in one long YEEEEHAAAAA!. Dumped a little speed in the Michael Berstein Memorial section before rocketing out onto Green Beret. Fun. But I was left wondering -- where be all this powder? <BR> <BR>The same wind that makes Tuckerman a springtime playland can turn 2 ft of powder into 8 inches of slab. Accordingly, surfaces were almost identical to Saturday of the Swampfest. I found powder in the the same places but, sadly, Can-Am, Quai, and Vertigo were all opened to the hungry masses. Rather than raping and pillaging virgin snowfields I was forced to settle for soft bumps in fast trees. <BR> <BR>After making the usual rounds of on and off map stuff I deceid to get adventurous and ducked the rope onto Tucks Chute. The top was rough, as expected, but further down there were great swales of windblown powder. A few brave souls ventured out onto the Tram Face and, from the looks of it, got about a foot of good snow for every foot of bare rock they walked over. <BR> <BR>Adventures and Mis-adventures, Smuggs 1/30 <BR> <BR>It's all fun and games till somebody gets hurt, right? Well, luckily, nobody got hurt but we did our darndest to injure ourselves. It was my last day with health insurance so I figured I'd make it count (I'm kidding Mom). On the first run we played human slalom in FIS woods where a large gaper contigent had gathered. Some snowboarder baited us with some nasty sucker tracks and we ended up embarking on a rather lengthy extrication procedure. I think I may start carrying a small hatchet in my pack for such occassions, most of which seem to be in the company of Mapadu. Ten minutes of cursing later, we were back enroute and entertained ourselves on the big drops down below. <BR> <BR>Next run was an equally adventurous romp through the Back Bowls where we took the idiots entrance through a particularly nasty section of yellow icefalls. Jumping them really wasnt an option as the landings were nearly as yellow as the ice was. I dub thee Piss Poor Chute. Once into the wide open birches of the Bowls however we enjoyed good snow all the way to the road. <BR> <BR>After a brief lunch of dehydrated foodstuffs we set out to finish the job of bludgeoning our bodies beyond recognition in the Survey Chutes. Any sick pup who has ever cast an eye on Madonna knows where these are, and either knows or can imagine just how evil they can be. The overall pitch through the first few sections is probably in the high forties, with brief (usually snowless) sections that are steeper than that. Throw in rocks, stumps, ice, etc and you get the picture. All in a line so straight and narrow you could shoot an arrow from top to bottom. They make the Stowe pipelines look tame by comparison. <BR> <BR>We had picked up a camera at lunch and in a fit of Kodak Courage Matt launched himself into one of the hairest sections while I played Chris Nobel. One jump turn into it and his left ski exploded as he hurtled toward a 10 foot drop onto stumpy and rocky torture. It didnt look good for our hero. At the last second he flung an arm out and bear-hugged a lonely birch on the edge of the abyss. Somewhere in there he was able to stop his ski too. So in frame #2 our hero is now the damsel in distress, hugging a tree while his legs dangle off the edge with a look of stark fear in his eyes. Cant wait till they get developed... <BR> <BR>Somehow we made it through that run unscathed and knocked off a few easy runs on the Hershey Squirts to calm our nerves (more human slalom, the woods were choked with snowboarders sitting on their butts in the most blind and inappropriate places). <BR> <BR>For our last run we had a mission. Ski the most remote chute in the Birthday Bowls.. only there could we still find untracked fluffage. On the way up to Spruce we were stopped by a Stowe Patroller on sweep. He told us to turn around and we wondered just what kind of authority he held over us, as we were on a trail that both ski areas claim to be within their bounds. Matt made up a believable lie that our buddies were up ahead and he let us pass. <BR> <BR>The policy of one run per day at the Stowe with a valid Smuggs pass and vice versa with a Stowe pass has apparently been scrapped and many people were bitching about it with good reason. Now you are required to buy a 12 dollar one-ride pass at Stowe if you want to ski the Birthday's without hiking. Dunno what Smuggs policy is but the sign on the top of Spruce said Stowe tickets are no good on the other side. Anyone with a vactation booked at either mountain (both of which advertised the traditional poicy of one run/per person/per day in the pre-season) should be steamed. When will Stowe and Smuggs learn to get along and take advantage of the tremendous resource that is the Snuffies trail? <BR> <BR>We made a clandestine entrance at the top of Spruce and sped off toward the Elephant's Head. The bullwheel had already stopped and everything was very quiet up there. The traverse out there was beautiful, remniscent of the traverse to 20th but longer and with stunning views of the notch. It seemed a world away from any ski area. We got to the last chute and readied ourselved for the day's final adventure. The whole way down I just marveled at all the terrain I had missed and swore that I would try much harder to find a job in VT for next year. There is so much left at that mountain that I havent seen. I remain concinced that, between the two, Stowe and Smuggs have the best and most lift served off-piste terrain this side of the Mississippi. <BR> <BR>Unfortunately, Matt had some serious binding trouble on the last run and had a pretty miserable descent. He was one step short of tossing his skis in a snowbank by the time we got to the parking lot on 108 at 5 pm. A fitting end to a day filled with adventure and misadventure, estasy and misery, pain and wonderment.. such is the way of the Jedi...