Irish Day Weekend Report (Stowe & MRG)

Conditions were better than I had anticipated. That was a good thing. The storm I was routing for pretty much fell off the radar.

“Seeing” was a challenge. The mountains were completely socked in on Saturday and Sunday. I mean - you could not see a thing. I did not even bring out my camera for either day of skiing. Monday of course was different.

Saturday & Monday – Stowe
Sunday – Mad River Glen

S.G. Tip - the Mad River site has great weather on it...

Monday, St. Patrick’s Day, there was not a cloud in the sky.

the Stone Hut on the nose of Mount Mansfield, you can rent this place and spend a weekend up top, inquire at Stowe...

The sunshine made for a fantastic ski experience. The previous two days on the slopes, I worked the slow game. It is a good exercise, all about control and balance. A good time to do this is on some technical terrain with variable surfaces and of course ~ in pea soup. But Monday was better, seeing is a HUGE + out there.

The Chin - you can kind of make out the green waterall, if you look close...

Visibility – On Sunday, at MRG, on the single, you could only see the seat in front of you and one behind. You could hear people skiing and talking long before and after seeing them. For the better part of the both Sat & Sun afternoons, at least the upper two-thirds of the mountains were in heavy clouds.

That aside, I was more than impressed with the snow conditions. Those mountains have Enormous bases of hard pack. It is going to last a long time. They are getting more new and significant snow up there right now (Thursday/Friday).

Spring Skiing in New England is in Really Good shape.

looking over form the top of National at Spruce and Smugg's - lots of snow.

On the Slopes: There was still a bunch of windblown and fresh pow living out there. It flurried on and off every night in town, and the mountains did pick up legit accumulations. This boiled down to fantastic skiing, if you are able to make your turns—at least most of them—with better then average precision. Errors would result in unpleasant snow surface experiences.

Back to the sight issues: For aspiring experts, sometimes not being able to see more than 3 turns in front of you is a good thing. It takes a lot of fear out of the equation.

The lack of sight forces a person to focus on the few turns ahead. However, you cannot look very far down the mountain. It is a good way to get comfortable looking ahead, try it next time in the clouds. Making those turns accurately and being able to modify your line quickly to other areas of snow (not the other parts that make up variable) will pay dividends.

Once you get good at this practice, you will hit less ice and more pow. That is when you are in control and can hear others.

S.G. Tips for when you cannot see very far in front of you:

• Ski Slow
• Listen for other people
• If ycomfortable around the edges of trails, gain definition from the trees
• Speaking of edges, better snow also…
• Glades are great fog cutters
• Ski Slower

The Terrain Deal: For expert skiers and riders and pinners. Getting to know your way around Mount Mansfield and its neighbors could take you a decade. The amount of skiable acreage that is not on the map (or within the ski area boundary) at Stowe is unprecedented in New England. Well, actually combining the Bush & MRG gets them close...whatever. Point is there is a ton to ski at Stowe off the map.

the Nosedive trees were superb, notice steeps in background, those were a 9.5/10. I took this once I stopped...

Looking for a deal this spring at Stowe?

If you are into crashing at nice places the Stoweflake Moutnain Resort & Spa has got ski and stay packages they are unloading at 25% off. It is still expensive, but you get what you pay for. They have everything you could be looking for from a luxury Spa/Resort. The place is very nice, and it is a deal to get in there at a 25% discount. I called it my home last weekend. Stoweflake is a strong S.G. pick.

Check out this LINK for all the information and deatils on these deals. Then book and get up to Stowe this spring.

That was last weekend. New snow is falling for this one.

Get moving on your ski plans if you do not already have some. Spring is Now!

Think Spring Snowstorms,
Pics ~ S.G.

unidentified hiker taking an unconventional route up the Chin