Stowe, VT: 04/19/08

riverc0il

New member
Why are you reading this? Go get your gear ready, pack up your gear, make a sandwich, and check the weather! No need for any more information! If you didn't ski today, you really should be out there tomorrow.

Okay, with that aside, a little more information regardless. Sunday the 20th is Stowe's last day. Any one that follows my limited amount of Stowe reports knows that I only ski there on canned good days, earned turn days, discount days, or when I have a comp. Today was a comp day. But tickets are a relative "bargain" at $54 or something like that.

Yet another blue bird day *yawn* I think this is almost getting old. Yea, you know the type of day... not a cloud all day, bright sun shine, soft snow, yadda, yadda, yadda. What I wouldn't give for it to be -10F, crowded, and frozen hard packed snow conditions. Why any one skis this late into the season is beyond me. Bunch of wackos.

It never got below freezing last night so the snow was really soft to start and temps were excessively warm from the get go. Having never been up on the ridge before, I took a hike up and poked around a bit. Being solo I just played it conservative and skied back down one of the climbing gullies but it was nice to get the lay of the land. Looked like a few options might have still been in play barely via the chin but like heck I was going route finding by myself without good coverage. Good first run up top then a wicked soft and slushy Perry Merrill back to my car where I switched to alpine gear and ditched most of my clothes opting to ski in a T-shirt with no gloves. I swear it had to have hit 70 today. Fashions on the hill were easy on the eyes as folks stripped down to beat the heat. :D

Hammered the bumps from the Forerunner for the afternoon and just went back and forth choosing various hits from Hackett's to Goat. Upper Liftline was really nice and Lower Goat was also to my liking. As was Lookout where I enjoyed some of the best lines of the day. Hackett's was pretty thin and barely passable without going into the woods in places. Upper Starr is toast and was not fun. Hayride was enjoyable and as per usual, Liftline was a bore below the upper section. Many locations with poor lines and bad bumps, especially those areas that received the most traffic however decent lines and bumps were most of the skiers were not. Almost 100% coverage except a few minor bare spots. Even the base area looked great. Needless to say (but I will prime the pump a bit any ways ;) ), Stowe could certainly go at least one more full week or at the minimum open next weekend with only a few trail closures and minimal need to push some snow down to the lifts at worst. No chairs went up empty today and there was a short two to three minute wait through most of the morning and early afternoon. Though I will say, I would estimate over half the customers were not paying day tickets.

20080419stowe4.jpg


Few more pics here.
 
riverc0il":3ao6oq8i said:
Almost 100% coverage except a few minor bare spots. Even the base area looked great. Needless to say (but I will prime the pump a bit any ways ;) ), Stowe could certainly go at least one more full week or at the minimum open next weekend with only a few trail closures and minimal need to push some snow down to the lifts at worst. No chairs went up empty today and there was a short two to three minute wait through most of the morning and early afternoon. Though I will say, I would estimate over half the customers were not paying day tickets.
We used up a couple of vouchers and hit Mansfield lift-served on Saturday with Ty, and then skinned Spruce on Sunday with both boys, so we were in Stowe a lot this weekend, and this topic was on my mind. One of the things I don't enjoy about Stowe (vs. places like Sugarbush, Bolton, etc.) is that you typically have to wait in lift queues for the main Mansfield lifts (certainly on weekends) and that the trails often feel crowded because there are so many people on them. I'd never noticed this as much in the past because I'd be off in the trees, in the sidecountry, skiing midweek, etc. But with the boys, we’ve been skiing Stowe’s trails more, and I’ve felt some crowding. This same popularity has seemed to be an asset this spring - I've been amazed at how full the parking lots have been over the past couple of weekends at Stowe. This season has certainly seen above average snowfall in the area, but even in an average year the northern resorts are often closing with plenty of terrain left to ski, so I’m not sure that it’s just a snow issue. The general consensus is that once you hit March and April, the crowds really fall off because most people aren’t interested in skiing anymore, but that hasn’t been what I’ve seen this spring. Both Bolton Valley, which closed a couple of weekends ago, and now Stowe, have been loaded with people (relative to each area of course) for the final weekends, and at both places it seemed like they could go longer. I’m not sure if this is just a phenomenon this spring or if people are finally realizing that these months have some of the best (for many people THE best) skiing of the season. I’m sure that many closing dates are time-tested financial and weather optima, and the resorts will know if they are making money at this time of year, but it will be interesting to see if this trend of increased spring skiing will continue. It can’t all be simply derived from people that are disenchanted with the new Killington management and are taking their business elsewhere, although that may account for some of the folks visiting Stowe. Have other areas in the northeast seen the type of busy spring seasons that I’ve witnessed at Bolton and Stowe?

J.Spin
 
This same popularity has seemed to be an asset this spring - I've been amazed at how full the parking lots have been over the past couple of weekends at Stowe. This season has certainly seen above average snowfall in the area, but even in an average year the northern resorts are often closing with plenty of terrain left to ski, so I’m not sure that it’s just a snow issue. The general consensus is that once you hit March and April, the crowds really fall off because most people aren’t interested in skiing anymore, but that hasn’t been what I’ve seen this spring. Both Bolton Valley, which closed a couple of weekends ago, and now Stowe, have been loaded with people (relative to each area of course) for the final weekends, and at both places it seemed like they could go longer. I’m not sure if this is just a phenomenon this spring or if people are finally realizing that these months have some of the best (for many people THE best) skiing of the season. I’m sure that many closing dates are time-tested financial and weather optima, and the resorts will know if they are making money at this time of year, but it will be interesting to see if this trend of increased spring skiing will continue. It can’t all be simply derived from people that are disenchanted with the new Killington management and are taking their business elsewhere, although that may account for some of the folks visiting Stowe. Have other areas in the northeast seen the type of busy spring seasons that I’ve witnessed at Bolton and Stowe?

I think that part of the reason a lot of people are on the mtns this spring is due to the abundance of snow left at lower elevations. I have not been able to get out on my mtn bike other than on a road yet this spring due to a lot of snow still kicking around in the woods. People still want to do outdoor stuff but until the snow leaves their yard/melts off the edges of the golf courses, they will decide that skiing is still a viable option.
 
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