guitar73

we had an awesome time at stowe last weekend. here's my TR; pictures to follow just as soon as i download them. sat, 2/11: travel day. we left home around 10:20am, busted through NYC (no traffic!), and got to our b&b (auberge de stowe: $99/nite, located in the lower village, very nice owners, clean rooms, towels need replacing) around 5:45pm. didn't see any snow until we hit central VT....very wierd. my friends rob and scott were just a half hour or so behind us. we hit up dinner at this new place in town called o'grady's located on mountain rd. cool place, good brews, dinner's in the $15 pp neighborhood. i brought a bunch of brews up, so after dinner we retired to the b&b for some brewskis. called it an early nite. sun, 2/12: ski day 1. first day can be summed up in one word; cold. stowe's website reported 2 degrees at the base, but the thermometer at the overeasy gondola definately read 0 degrees. temp at the summit was -10 deg (-35ish deg w/ windchill). needless to say we were all bundled up and spent most of the morning lapping the gondola area. snow conditions were fast and furious. all the snow was either blown or skiied off, revealing a bulletproof layer of ice and hardpack. skis were sticking to the snow. mrs guitar and i went over to spruce peak to see if there was better conditions there. the snow at spruce seemed to be much better than on mt mansfield. we did 2 or 3 runs over there and then headed in for lunch. after lunch we lapped the quad....that was a cold ride. we were looking for moderate bump runs, found a short sections on lower starr and lower liftline. gulch was groomed flat, so no joy there. the upper sections of nosedive were quite icy and firm. best snow conditions on mt mansfield were down by the chapel area where the lack of skier traffic and protection from the wind helped to hold the snow. diner was at the vermont brewery in burlington. excellent food and beer. the highlight of the nite was seeing college aged girls walking around outside in the 10 deg weather with no coats or hats. we thought it strange, or at least stupid. mon, 2/13: ski day 2: 4" of fresh snow and highs in the 20's made for a much better ski day. my friend scot went off for a group lesson in the morning while rob, mrs guitar, and i logged in loads of turns before we met up again for lunch. we hit up gondolier first, since we missed it the first day. then we wandered over to the quad for a while. i hit up the demo shop, picked up a pair of the dynastar legend 94's (172) and then took a ride down lord. the 94's felt good under foot and held a good edge and was very responsive and edged relatively quickly. we then proceeded to liftline: what a fun trail. after lunch we hit up the gondola again, took cliff trail to nosedive to the quad, where i traded in for the volkl bridge's. took one run with them down north slope...didn't like them at all, except through the bumps where they were quick to turn. next up was the volkl kendo. they are very manuverable, but i found them to not hold an edge well. we the went out looking for trees. we hit up the chapel and birches glades: loads of fresh fluffy snow to be had by all. i wish we could have spent more time in them there trees. we then moved on to the nosedive glades. we skiied too close to the trail where the trees were very tight and the snow was very skied out. we were hoping to get one more run in, but we just missed the last chair up. on the way back to the b&b, we stopped by inner boot works so mrs. guitar could check out boots. while we were there, we ran into bushwackerinPA from epic. we chatted for a while (nice guy) and mrs. guitar got a new pair of boots. dinner was take out from pie casso followed by beers in the hot tub. tues, 2/14: ski day 3: bonus ski day. temps in the mid 30's, bluebird day and soft snow...my kind of skiing weather! since mrs guitar bought skis the previous day, we decided to ski the morning on spruce peak to see how the boots worked out. overally she thinks the boots are OK. also, we kept to spruce peak b/c we were feeling pretty exhausted by the time tuesday rolled around. we skiied most of everything on spruce in 2 hrs. main street was closed for a slolam race. our favorite trails on spruce are upper and lower smuggler's and sterling. both trails are kind of windy and each has grea views of mt mansfield. the smugg's trail is bumped up while sterling is a cruiser. overally, we liked spruce peak: it's a good place to rest up those tired legs after hitting mt mansfield all day. at 11:20 we called it a day, had lunch, got changed, and hit the road. overall we had a great time at stowe (as always). it was good to see that we were able to ski every trail we started. we def are making good progress in learning how to ski through the bumps. we were kind of suprised by the icy conditions, but that didn't stop us from having fun (the PA springlike conditions appeared to have spoiled us, lol). pictures to follow.

you'll have a good time a windham. not an overly challenging mountain, but it has a decent lift setup and some great views. oh, and the base lodge is pretty nice as well. i may take you up on that offer

thanks! we're totally looking forward to it

yo folks... the mrs. and i, along with two other guys i know from college, will be ripping it up at stowe next weekend (skiing sunday and monday). we got a room at a nice lilttle b&b in the lower village. i'm gonna try to remember to take some pics this time...last year i totally forgot to take pics while we were on the slopes, doh! is anyone else gonna be up there?

we rolled onto the slopes about 7:30-ish and wrapped it up at 9:40. as usual, the place was practically empty (just the way we like it!). conditions last nite were pretty good considering recent thaw. snow started out a little wetter than i care for, but by the end of the nite it had started to firm up a little bit. the snow was also generally chunky. once again, mostly lapped the F-lift. extreme started to get bumped up a little bit, so it was into the bumps i went. def need to learn how to do them.... last nite i was mostly focusing on my short radius turns, shape, edging, and tempo. sasquatch was fun as well. a little chunky in the middle, but skier's right was buttery smooth...def was able to lay some good rails on that one. mrs. guitar73 had a great nite as well. she busted out her new skis (146 dynastar idyl's) last nite and totally rocked it. before, she was skiing on a pair of 142 volkl luna's. she was getting tossed around a bit with those skis. her new skies a little wider under foot, and with the added length she was able to plow through all the loose cruddy stuff. overall, she is very pleased with her purchase. another successful and fun nite at bc!

I was out there a long time ago. we were out there visiting family & toas was on our sight-seeing hit list. it was the day after the ski area closed & they had like 3ft of snow on the ground. I was soo pissed. oh well...

ok, the wife and i are getting ready to head up tonite. if anyone's going to be around and wants to do a few turns with us, i'll be wearing a grey giro helmet, green marmot jacket, black pants, and blazing red atomic boots.

demo'ing equipment around here is very hard to do b/c none of the PA mtns have a "demo shop" (at least to my knowledge). your best bet is to head north to either hunter mtn, windham mtn, or killington. each of these mtns have demo shops in their base lodges and they have reasonble demo'ing fees. i'm sure other places up north have similar setups, but these were the locations that we researched this past fall.

well, the earliest i could get there is 9-ish. it all depends on when i am able to leave bear creek.

looks like everyone had a great time! thanks for sharing the pics and vids.

i think i will be up either sat or sun morning. mrs guitar73 is doing the women's clinic @ bc this weekend, so my plan is to drop her off there and then continue on up to blue. def wanna get some turns in with whoever's going to be around.

good to see you have your priorities straight

i sure hope you're right!

sweet goodness....we def live in the wrong part of the country. thanks for sharing the picture!

after missing out on the goods last weekend we finally made it back out to bc last nite. i was very concerned about the rain as we drove up, but by the time we got on the mtn the rain tapered off. it was generally a fine misty fog with some slight spitting....we were totally soaked by the time we called it quits. the snow was buttery smooth, just the way i like it! def got some good practice in. we spent most of our time lapping the F-lift. i really liked sasquatch: short, steep and sweet. i was pleased to see that bc has a decent base depth. hopefully that will withstand the heat and rain.... overall, another good time at bc!

hit up the catskills...hunter, windham, plattekill are all good choices and make good day trips. or you could just bite the bullet and head up to vermont. stratton's only 6 hrs away! this year's essentially a write-off for PA skiing.

joe paterno was a good man and an awesome football coach. he lived by his values and didn't let anyone change him. joe will be remembered for this instead of that jack a$$ and the media smear campaign. God bless his family and close friends during their mourning.

we're heading up to stowe in a few weeks. i'd love to find out about more hidden gems

ditto....o'hare blows. the last time i flew through there, our connecting plane left without us and i ended up sleeping on the floor infront of the gate. never again!

totally sucks. this is just another reminder of how fragile life is. our thoughts go out to her friends and family.

when's sasquatch going to open up? does anyone know??

well here's hoping the whole northeast gets pounded with snow from here on out. i'd love to get into the slides, but we'll see if they open up this year. we got a room at the stagecoach inn. it in town, but not on the main drag....so i don' t know if the shuttle would go there or not.

gore mtn was our first trip in NY. we had a great time there as well. another thing that's nice about gore is that it kinda flies under the radar so it's never really crowded there. sounds like a nice trip. mrs. guitar isn't into back/side country stuff....so that will have to be another time!

super stoked here: we just booked our lodging last nite. we're heading up to whiteface the first weekend in march. can't wait!!

word...gotta sharpen those edges