Schif

Doesn't AJeff have one he could let us borrow?

I think every forum should be the skitzo forum. Its been a long time skitzo, where have you been and what have you been up to lately? On a side note I think I saw your mom at the Verizon store a few weeks ago.

1. HSQ top to bottom 2. Fix the current lifts 3. Free ski check 4. Better Lighting 5. Long top to bottom diamond

So with this being one of the last days in PA, I know boulder is going to be full of diehards like us. If you're gonna be there tomorrow throw your name on the list and we'll see how things go. 1. Schifdawg (Mike) 2.

I call one of the free tickets!!

Beckham's career is waning. He is no where near as good as he used to be. I'm not calling him a bad player at all, but he's getting older, and the other guys are as good as ever over there. He realizes this and took the absolutely ridiculous amount of money we threw on the table. He's leaving the European league on top, which in his mind (and now his wallet) is the best thing for him to do. So I guess you could call him narrow minded in the fact that he's doing this solely for his own benefit. One of the best quarterback's in the NFL would never go down to the Arena league out of the kindness of his heart to help a struggling league.

X2. If you went out west for groomers, I've got a nice pair or skiblades waiting for you when you get back to PA. Glad to hear you're having a great time though Chippy. I wish I was out there.

Sounds like we've got a little impromptu PASR day building up here.

Oh well, Honestly they could probobly get me to pay $45 this weekend being they're the only game in town.

http://www.visitpa.com/docs/ski_flyer.pdf

I checked that coupon on visitpa.com. Seems like it would still work, which reduces all tickets at Boulder down to $15. This isn't all that bad and I'll definitely be there this weekend.

X2

good point. I'm sure they would take it. Looks like I've got my Saturday planned now.

Sounds awesome CaptDave. I took a look at the trail map and kirkwood really looks awesome. Seems like there is a decent amount of skiiing above the treeline there, especially off of the sunrise lift. Glad to hear you had a great day on a sweet looking mountain.

Sounds like you would be pretty good at a King of the Mountain race.

Still at 25? Come on boulder.... us poor college kids need the college discount in effect on the weekends.

When are you going to be there? I'll probably be either there or hunter on Saturday.

I'm going to be glued to the webcam tonight to see if they start up the snow melters.

I'll give marketing some credit here. Pulling the old "We'll see you next week!" and then never opening again for the second year in a row, damn that late winter storm This means they never have to worry about setting a closing date and no one can get mad about the date because there isn't one!

Friday March 23, 2007: Arrived at the Bryce Jordan Center right before 2:00 but did not get on the road until 3. Bus ride was pretty comfortable and I had a seat to myself. Got a little sidetracked and had to get off in Wilkes-Barre and get on the turnpike to avoid construction. We stopped only once in upstate New York for half an hour. Arrived at the Commodore's Inn in Stowe around midnight, and hour ahead of schedule. Got our lift tickets and went to bed. Saturday March 24, 2007: First day on the snow. Got up at 6:30, had a great breakfast buffet at the hotel and left at 8 for the mountain. It was an absolutely perfect bluebird day, with temperatures hovering around 40. I went straight for the gondola and got up rather quickly. First run was down Gondolier. The snow was firm, yet edgeable, halfway down, it was softened up much more, but was no where near slush yet. Second run from the gondola was Cliff trail to Lower Nosedive to the Forerunner Quad. By this time it was obvious to me that Vermont is a little bigger than PA and I wasn't about to drop into any of the diamonds or doubles. After a few warm ups on Lord it was time for the first diamond of the day. For this we went for Hayride. By this point the snow was softening up and it seemed like a good idea to try to drop into the trees. Well it became readily apparent that this was not the case when I lost an edge on some hard stuff and found myself wrapped around a tree. After this we decided to head over to "Sunny" Spruce, where it would most likely be softer than on Mount Mansfield, but would be slushy later. The runs were fun here, but some most notably main street had enormous patches of grass coming out for almost the entire width of the trail. Some were small enough that it was fun to jump, but most you had to go completely around. The snow was good for the sections that had it, but there were definitely a lot of bare patches over here. Upper Smuggler's which was closed actually had much better coverage in most areas than the open trails. We then went back to Mount Mansfield and right up the gondola for a run down Chin Clip. The bumps here were very tightly grouped and of decent size, nothing unmanageable, but I was definitely feeling some leg burn at the bottom of this one. Another trip up the gondola and a Cliff Trail run back to the quad for laps of the diamonds and doubles now. Nose Dive, Hayride, Lookout and Liftline were absolutely incredible. The snow was soft, but not sugary, and held a nice edge. Bumps formed in a lot of areas, and exposed rocks and grass made each run about as gnarly as possible. National was definitely one of the most insane trails I've done to date. I got a nice picture of me hanging my nose off of the edge of this one. I think its safe to say that the top part of this trail makes White Lightning look like a bunny slope. For the top 100 or so feet there was a lot of exposed grass and rocks. The only way down was a very narrow chute of snow on the left side that you really just had to bomb down. There aren't a whole lot of trails that make me stop at the bottom and say wow, but National is definitely one of those. After finishing the front four (minus goat because it was closed), I decided to change pace a little bit and head down Toll Road. This is another trail I won't soon forget. It was just incredible to cruise for that insane amount of time and never had to stop. I think it took right around half an hour to go from top to bottom. The slow snow had something to do with this, and after taking the excruciatingly slow double back up it was decided to avoid the Toll House area for the rest of the day. Afterwards we lapped the diamonds from the quad and took 2 park runs. The bus left from the mountain at around 430 and brought us back to the Commodore. We only had an hour and a half to get changed though, because UVM was having a rail jam and party in Burlington and invited us. In Burlington a few of our guys did the rail jam, but most didn't. The snow they had was too slow and the 2 boxes they had (really wide one and really wide C) weren't waxed very well at all because it took a lot for someone to get to the end very smoothly. We walked around Burlington for a while and after finding that everywhere for a quick bite to eat was either out of food or didn't want to do take outs we ended up eating (and drinking) at the Church Street Tavern. They had some pretty good food there, but it took entirely too long to get a table and for the food to come out. We left there and went to a convenient store to pick up some beer. I went with 2 cases of Magic Hat #9. They were only $12 for 12 bottles. The ride back to Stowe was fun with the first ever group shotgun on a bus, and the cramming of multiple people into overhead compartments. Back at the hotel we hung out in a few rooms, the down in the lobby and bar for a while until passing out around 1. Sunday March 25, 2007. After a repeat of breakfast we headed out to the mountain a little later than the day before. Weather was cloudy with some fog, mostly at the top, but within an hour this cleared up and we were back to bluebird.. It had rained a little the night before, but it had turned to snow and the mountain had a fresh inch on it. Knowing what I was doing today made it much more productive. Only 3 runs were made over on Spruce Peak, mainly to ride through the tunnel. The rest of the day was spent hopping around from the quad and other lifts and a few gondola rides trying to get the stuff we missed the day before. The snow was much softer today and bumps were forming everywhere. Spent some time in the woods and doing diamonds from the quad. Went back to the bus around 2:30, changed and we headed out. It took a little longer to get out of town than expected, because we had to stop at the hospital and drop off gear to one of the guys on the trip who broke his leg on spruce peak by hitting a lift tower. After another 9 hours in the bus and only one stop on the way back, we arrived in State College at 1:30 am. This was no where near the end of my night however as I still had webassign homework to do and spent the next 2 hours in a computer lab before beginning the trek back to my apartment. Due to the ridiculous amount of gear I was toting and the fact that I had been up since 6:30 and had spent the better part of my day snowboarding, I didn't get back to my place until 4:40 a.m. Needless to say I went directly to bed and slept through all my classes today. The Short Version: Trails: Absolutely incredible, some of the most fun ones I've ever done. Very long, some extremely difficult and they all had a great feel to them. Closed: Hackett's Highway and Goat Conditions: Very good for the end of March. There were a lot of areas with a lot of exposed grass, but it wasn't too bad, and most of it was on Spruce Peak. The snow was nice, definitely varied due to sun exposure, but never got sloppy, just very soft in areas. Lifts: Fantastic, The quad and the gondola run about as fast as I've ever seen a lift run, and even the fixed grips move at a good clip. The only line was ever at the quad, but they do a good job of getting 4 to a chair. Amenities: Very nice as well. I was only in the Octagon briefly, the deck offers some fantastic views, and the Mansfield base lodge once, but they are very nice places and have a very nice rustic feel to them. The People at Stowe were some of the most friendly I've ever met as well.

I was just about to make another thread for my report. Be patient, I'll have it up in 20-30 minutes.

Just curious, what would it cost to run just the lifts? Like if you closed the lodge completely, had one person selling tickets, people on lifts and thats it. Ski Patrol is mostly volunteer anyway so you don't have to pay them, no one comes in the spring as a beginner so you can eliminate ski school and rentals. Electricity for lifts + 5-6 People = how much for one day?

I'll be heading up to Stowe this weekend for the first time. I've been going over the map and noting what time each lift opens and closes. Just from reading stuff on the board I know I definately want to get on Goat, Hackett's Highway, Toll Road and Nosedive. From you guys who have been there and know the place well (Doug), what is the best plan of attack so I can get the most out of the 2 short days I'll be there?

Why would they close Widow Park?

I'd like to see a really nice top to bottom diamond run like Cliffy, but thats probobly just me. I'm a little curious on where exactly the new trails will go. Lower fast track is cut into a ridge with a fall line perpendicular to the trail's direction. The past 2 trips to Sno for me have included extensive riding beyond fast track. I guess a trail could be cut into the ridge above fast track, but there isn't a ton of room up there for more unless they routed them behind the ridge (where I was for the most part). Ski's right, the area right next to lower Fast Track is about as gnarly as it gets and there are some huge outcrops of rock up in there. To bring anything other than a diamond down in that area would mean having to swing it out pretty far to skiers right (well beyond the ridge) and bring it back lower on. I wish I had more opportunity to scout out the bottom better, but it was getting late so we decided to hike out (up and over the ridge) before it got dark. It will probobly have to wait for next year, but I would love to go over that ridge again and drop down it's fall line, It really looks like a great run, but the hike out would be pretty rough. (maybe a lift to access this area?)