Stowe 12/3/07

[salida]

In line for the fourrunner at about 745, maybe 10th chair.

Skied nosedive to goat, first tracks on both. Then a wildly fast liftline with giant snowmaking whales and powdery soft landings, then skied gondalier from rim run. Then skied Lookout Liftline, which was insane, it was in the perfect place to get windloaded, and only got deeper and deeper, with giant wind lips and deep pow. Then skied, nose dive again. Then took a hike over to the gondi, where we skied from the cliff house down past the waterfall. Then hiked back up and skied chinclip. The gondola side we pretty untracked and quite deep, from 12-16 in the low spots and 2-3ft in the wind affected. It really couldn't have been any better, especially for December.

Last run of the day, one of the last chairs, skied Goat top to bottom, and it had refilled perfectly from high snowfall rates, and wind loading, I couldn't believe I could feel like I was getting first tracks down goat in knee deep pow at 4 PM. One of those days I'll remember for ever and ever. Pics to follow.

Porter

PS Day 11.

 

[Patrick]

PS Day 11.

Planning any more days this week? :shock:

 

[salida]

Okemo for a club trip Saturday.
Stowe Sunday and Monday probably. Maybe MRG instead though... We'll see how the snow falls.

 

[icelanticskier]

nice report.
i'll be at stowe tomorrow, it's still snowin.
friends skied stowe today and said it was 100 times better than jay was yesterday, more snow, better cover and way better terain, well that's obvious. we'll see.
rog

 

[Tony Crocker]

Remembering powderfreak's reports last year, this seems to be a pattern. Is the powder consistently less likely to be blown off at Stowe vs. the rest of N. Vermont?

So why isn't Stowe's gondola open with all this snow?

The Northeast does have the best skiing in North America at the moment. The snow level rose at the end of the PNW storm. Mt. Baker is closed until Thursday. Schweitzer got 4 feet, but then it rained there too.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

The Northeast does have the best skiing in North America at the moment.

Amazing how things improved once Skidog took his curse to a different part of the country.

 

[salida]

So why isn't Stowe's gondola open with all this snow?

The word I got is that they didn't have enough full time patrol on to cover the entire mountain until this weekend at the soonest, but possibly not until 12/15. They have been grooming gondalier, chin clip and parts of perry merril, trying to compact the snow they have.

 

[Patrick]

Amazing how things improved once Skidog took his curse to a different part of the country.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

This storm was pretty wide ranging. Info from post on ZS.

Massif received 67cm (opening on Saturday).
Mont Ste-Anne 45cm
Edelweiss 25cm (Ottawa)
Tremblant approx 40cm range.
Massif du Sud mentioned 202cm so far this season (opening on Saturday).
Bromont 45cm
Sutton 40cm
Orford 42cm

Cities?
Ottawa 25cm
Montreal 29cm
Ste-Agathe (Laurentians) 38 cm
Quebec City 41cm

 

[Spensar]

So why isn't Stowe's gondola open with all this snow?

The word I got is that they didn't have enough full time patrol on to cover the entire mountain until this weekend at the soonest, but possibly not until 12/15. They have been grooming gondalier, chin clip and parts of perry merril, trying to compact the snow they have.

It's not such a bad problem when there is enough early snow to outstrip an hill's ramp-up plan.

 

[salida]

I would agree. It has given us great snow on the gondi side for the past three-four weeks, by not opening it up. If they had it would have been tracked out much faster... One can't really complain.

They opened Starr yesterday, they've got plenty of snow to open anything up. The stake reads 40" this morning.

 

[Tony Crocker]

The stake reads 40" this morning.

Riverc0il's benchmark, as I recall. Next question: Patrick did a 500+ mile marathon 2 weeks ago for limited terrain at St. Anne. Now that Northeast skiing is worthwhile even by picky standards, will he make it to anyplace interesting this weekend?

 

[Patrick]

Patrick did a 500+ mile marathon 2 weeks ago for limited terrain at St. Anne. Now that Northeast skiing is worthwhile even by picky standards, will he make it to anyplace interesting this weekend?

No... I had lined up this Monday, however something came up + leaving in a snowstorm from Ottawa to Vermont and back. Had to be in town early Tuesday. Also had a chat with a coworker that as at Tremblant for the last 3 days too. :?

Friday: last music class before concert
Saturday: rehearsal
Sunday: concert

Was thinking Thursday at MRG...wife shot that one down with her monthly meeting that ends late, so even night skiing is out of the question. Both kids also have swimming lessons.

December is always lousy for me timing wise. Christmas parties, kids stuff, etc etc. When I was in University it was finals/exams. Oh well...

As I said in October and for Ste-Anne weekend, I have to go when I can and make the most of it, because I'm not entirely in control of my calendar (work, home, kids, etc). I'm sure some of you can relate.

And work risks becoming extremely busy in the next few months. :?

 

[Tony Crocker]

I can relate. In many years Mammoth rocks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. In the early 1980's when there were mid-season liftline issues it was the best time to ski there. And some of you may recall that I set my vertical foot record there Dec. 18, 2004.

But when kids were young it was extremely difficult to free up one of those weekends.

 

[icelanticskier]

i'm a stoweaway!
untracked all day on gondi side top to bottom, i love that it's closed over there-easy to get to. the least crowded i've ever seen stowe today. 1st tracks on nosedive t to b boot deep-unreal. so good i'm takin a sick day tomorrow. still snowin moderately. should pickup more overnight. snowed enough today to fill in morning tracks. icelantic nomads are the most rockin skis ever 140-105-130, carve like race board on hardpack and float the pow like a dream check em out, many stares of curiosity today. bruce trail tomorrow.
ski the east
rog

 

[salida]

i'm a stoweaway!
untracked all day on gondi side top to bottom, i love that it's closed over there-easy to get to. the least crowded i've ever seen stowe today. 1st tracks on nosedive t to b boot deep-unreal. so good i'm takin a sick day tomorrow. still snowin moderately. should pickup more overnight. snowed enough today to fill in morning tracks. icelantic nomads are the most rockin skis ever 140-105-130, carve like race board on hardpack and float the pow like a dream check em out, many stares of curiosity today. bruce trail tomorrow.
ski the east
rog

Surely all the backcountry haunts are ready to go. The above treeline business should be ready to rock.

I don't know about the length of the icelantic nomads, but I agree with the wider is better statement.

 

[icelanticskier]

why bother with backcountry when inbounds is untracked. people were doing hellbrook and it sounded thin. another 20 inches at stake and we're good to go on most stuff. nomads are 168 and i was a bit curious but first turn and i'm a believer. i raced snowboards as a sponsored athlete in the mid-late 80's and early 90's and these are the first skis that i can carve precisely and ride terrain as fluidly as i can on a snowboard and with plenty of float for me 170 lbs. what's better than a snowboard? TWO!
8AM quad
rog

 

[Skidog]

The Northeast does have the best skiing in North America at the moment.

Amazing how things improved once Skidog took his curse to a different part of the country.

Nice VERY nice...enjoy it while it lasts.....as you know i happened to have moved to pretty much the most reliable snow in the US if not the world...

Hope the typical east coast January thaw isnt too bad..... ;-)

I am jealous I will admit that...

Oh yeah and have you seen the weather reports for here lately??? Thinkin 2 feet or more by mid day saturday....and they're just lining up in the pacific.....MMMMMMMMM bring it on..

Again..TOTALLY JEALOUS!!!!

M

EDIT: oh yeah and thanks a lot admin for backing me up here...what a GREAT guy.!!!! :roll:

 

[Tony Crocker]

I recall that when admin moved in Jan. 2005, it immediately stopped snowing in Utah and cranked up in the East for about 3 weeks. But I knew admin would soon have the last laugh.

So will Skidog. But I think it's going to take a bit longer this time.

 

[Patrick]

So will Skidog. But I think it's going to take a bit longer this time.

Did Skidog moved out West in January 2007 or maybe on February 13th? :wink: If so, maybe he's really cursed. :lol:

 

[icelanticskier]

ski dog, don't feel bad, my two winter's in utah were 95-96 and 2000-2001, no crap! the two most epic winters in the easts recent history. we still had 500 inches in each of those seasons as i recall. it'll turn on out there. i wouldn't get too excited about a couple of feet in the wasatch though, it'll need to snow a 5 times that much to get the quality of skiing that we have here now, we'll take it!
have fun and stay on top
rog