Ski: Stowe VT

I've always wanted to go back to Stowe VT. It's been stuck in my memory for a long time.

Many, many years ago, I was a total beginner (not that I'm particularly good now), I once went with some fellow students. I remember being completely terrified of the steep trails and drop offs. I think it was my first time seeing anything really steep. Very much out of my depth. Obviously I survived. But it made a deep and lasting impression in my mind for decades.

I finally got to revist Stowe for a day. Unfortunately, I didn't pick the best of times. It had rained hard all day Saturday making conditions miserable. Just a few flakes on Sunday in northern Vermont. To make the most out of bad conditions, I ended up at Stowe.

Monday, the day of my visit, it was windy and really cold. A thermometer read 5F (-15C) inside the building at the top of the Gondola.

(A big contrast to the previous weekend when I had the lucky opportunity of visiting Okemo with two feet of snow.)

Back to Stowe, trails served by the Foreunner quad seemed rock hard and icy, and not much fun. So I only did Nosedive before retreating to the warmth and more pleasantly skiable terrain served by the Gondola.

As for the steep dropoff that had me quaking? I never found the spot.

Though since I'm sure my mind spent decades embellishing that memory, I could have skied right past it on Monday sans recall. (I didn't see anything really steep served by the Gondola.)

I'll close this entry with a few pictures of Nosedive on ice on Monday: