Stowe, VT 30JAN2011

Stowe Mountain Resort in Vermont - An image from the Sensation Quad at Spruce Peak as we ride up amidst snowfall
Riding up the Sensation Quad amidst the snowfall and caked evergreens today at Stowe

E and Claire canceled Sunday Stowe program on the 23rd due to the cold, but today we were back at it.  After a fairly dry week, we’d received some nice new accumulation up at Bolton to freshen up the slopes yesterday.  Down in the valley at the house, we wound up with 1.4 inches from that event, and there was more on the way for today.  In my update from this morning, I summarized yesterday’s storm that had just gone through, discussed the next shortwave that was about to cross the area, and mentioned talk about a larger midweek system that might actually deliver something more substantial to Northern New England for a change.

We got up to the mountain around midday, and there was already some nice snow in the air.  Our group started off with Ty, Dylan, and Luke, and while Claire worked on organizational issues like Ethan forgetting to bring his skis and Sam having his skis taken by accident by someone with an identical pair, I took the boys for a run.  With plenty of untracked powder in the lesser used areas off piste, it was a great day to jump into the trees and get Luke more experience in there.  The boys gobbled up the fresh snow in the Upper Meadows trees, and Luke not only got some good tree skiing experience, but some practice extricating himself through a brushy exit.  Jack joined us next, and I brought all four boys through the Meadows East Glades.  The main lines were tracked or packed, but boy there was still plenty of fresh powder all outside the formal glades.  Even at that point before the subsequent pair of bigger synoptic storms, Stowe’s snow depths were getting to the stage where many of the natural tree areas open up just like the glades because the brush has been buried under the snowpack.

Claire continued to work out program issues, so I headed to the Sensation Quad with the boys.  From fairly light snow at the base of Sensation, we ascended into quite a winter wonderland as more vigorous snow and some winds quickly greeted us on the ascent.  The conifers were caked in snow just as if we were in the middle of a larger storm cycle, and Powderfreak had some great shots of the intense snowfall.  We kept gawking at the awesome powdery routes below us on Spruce Line, and lamented the fact that it was closed, whether due to coverage or the race that was taking place on Main Street.  I vowed that if those race or coverage issues were gone by the following week, we would definitely be hitting that terrain.  Even more than the main routes of Spruce Line, I was drooling over the steep shots dropping off the Main Street traverse into the evergreen glades that had been created alongside the trail.  I’m not sure if I just forget that this terrain exists every season, or if they keep improving it, but I’m immediately reminded of Red Mountain in British Columbia.  I couldn’t find any images of what I’m recalling in my collection, but runs like Cambodia and Short Squaw come to mind.  To read the full text and check out all the pictures, click through to the Stowe report from today.