STOWE <BR>Mt. Mansfield was a delight on Sunday. Temps nearing 20, a veritable heat wave, no wind, beautiful blue sky. <BR>Lot of people there early, many gone by 1pm. <BR> <BR>Blacks. Nosedive, Hayride, Centerline were groomed flat. Cats had pulverized the surface to ping-pong ball sized shaped crud. A lot of rattling and shakin' on the way down. Certainly couldn't be called anything but "frozen granular". Extremely fast, but no bumps at all. <BR> <BR>Blues - Perry merrill had a FG surface similar to the blacks. Gondolier had conditions closest to what one would call packed powder. <BR> <BR>Oddly, the shortest lift lines were on the Gondola. The Quad had the longest lines and for some unknown reason was running slower than normal. Ditto for Gondola's speed. No winds on sunday, dunno. <BR> <BR>I spent a good part of the day on the NASTAR race course. Fastest course I've seen anywhere this year. A lot of skill needed to do well. <BR> <BR>From reports I've heard, glad I didn't choose Saturday to ski Stowe. <BR> <BR>Stowe demonstrates how to make lemonade when given lemons. They take care of all their trails, make a lot of snow and spend a lot of time grooming each night. Day before, we went to Smugglers, which demonstrated how NOT to take care of your trails. <BR> <BR>SMUGGLERS <BR>First time to "Smuggs" in 20 years. Man, have they taken their eye off the ball. Dozens of trails were closed, lots of exposed terrain - rocks, shrubs, roots and glare ice. Very few ski choices. <BR>It's as if the mountain has become incidental to the big base operation - lodging and dining and recreation. I was suprised that all the lifts were small slow-speed stuff I remember from 20 years ago. Madonna was filled with skiers in the low-intermediate range. Not a good place to be if you want to cruise. It seemed that very few trails had snowmaking. At least at Stowe, they make an effort. <BR> <BR>Madonna was mostly filled with groups of 5 or 6 kids, some chaperoned, some unattended. Parents were noticably absent, but anarchy didn't prevail. <BR> <BR> <BR>Sterling was where the better skiers were. <BR>It's a hard choice to say which was worse, Madonna or Sterling. <BR> <BR>Smugglers doesn't seem interested in day-trippers. The signs are vague if not totally absent. We stopped in the first "village" parking lot to ask where the base lodge was. Everyone in the lot seemed to already have their boots on. The one lady (a skier) responded to our inquiry where the base lodge was "I don't believe they have one." <BR>We had to go a bit further up the road to find the parking lot. Not marked anywhere was a "Sterling parking" sign on any roadway. Only a hand-scribbled temporary sign for a PSIA function pointing the way. <BR> <BR>Once we got there we found the entire reception for day trippers to be inhospitable at best. The walk was as bad (though not as long) as that from the Waterville Valley lot to the lodge. <BR> <BR>the trails at Sterling were interesting, more challenging and fun, but again, a good chunk of the trails were closed due to lack of snow. The rhetoric about almost all the trails opened is a bunch of .... <BR>Now the good news, bad news. Bad news was we found out later, as others reported, Stowe only had the quad and lower spruce lifts running this day. Good news was, most of smuggs was opened. I felt like grandpa Jones inside, hardly anyone over 18. Now I know why they call it America's Family Resort - Ma and Pa dump the kids for the day, then go sit in the hot tub for the rest of the day. <BR> <BR>A lot of excessive pubescent testosterone levels evident on Saturday. <BR> <BR>Cold? did I say cold? Sat. was good for about 1 hour of skiing before going inside to warm up again. I venture to say it got up to 10 at the base, 4 at the summit. Sunday at Stowe, I thought I was in Miami... <BR> <BR>I love the relativity of trail grading. Smugglers has triple black diamonds. Then again, Smugg single blacks are equivalent to a Stowe blue. Just excessive granularity. I think triple black at Smuggs means "no snow cover. ever." <BR> <BR>It was good to get back to Stowe, where the serious skiers are.
Stowe VT 2/1, Smuggler's VT, 1/31/04
- Thread starter billski
- Start date
Sorry, We didn't get to those trails, but I heard from others who did run them that they were variable - some sections were great, then you'd run into exposed terrain and scratchy solid stuff. Where it was ungroomed it was always scratchy. Many of the ungroomed areas that bumped up /moguled were just plain icy. The wind seemed to have blown away most of the powder Stowe was getting each day. Bring sharp skis. <BR> <BR>Then again, Stowe is looking for 6" tonight, that could change everything for you. Wishin you a powder rule day....
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Anonymous
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Bill, <BR> <BR>Sounds like the weather had an effect on your overall mood while at Smuggs. FWIW, the day you were at Smuggs was just as cold at Stowe. They get the exact same weather as a rule. <BR> <BR> As per the trail ratings, hmmm, well the tripple black is a marketing ploy for sure, but that's really the only innacuracy on the Smuggs map. It is a legitimate single/double black. And you did get a look at the Madonna Liftline, right? What about Doc Dempsey's, Bootlegger, Robin's, Freefall, etc, etc? Equivalent to Stowe blues? I think not! And had you ventured into the Black Hole, you'd have found better snow cover than the trails you were on. <BR> <BR>A per the lifts: Lots of people complain, but not the locals. They prefer to keep the uphill/downhill capacity balanced. And "serious skiers"? The reason you didn't see any is because they generally don't ski the trails you did. They spend their time in uncharted territory, on some very serious terrain. Far away from the "pubescent testosterone" and the other things that you complained about being surrounded by. <BR> <BR>And you can ski to and from the lifts, no walking required. Even minimal research ahead of time would have shown you that, among other things - like where the base lodges are. You do have web access, right? <BR> <BR>In closing, sorry your experience and opinion of Smuggs was/is not favorable. You should give it another chance with more of an open mind. And BTW, the "serious skiers" in the area ski both Smuggs AND Stowe!
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Anonymous
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Forgot one pertinent point: <BR> <BR>"Smugglers, which demonstrated how NOT to take care of your trails" <BR> <BR>Exactly!! Not taking care of them is the best way to take care of them. Homoginization stinks.