I hit Stowe gondola side today at 9; bad traffic on account of the snow. Started skinning up and one by one skiers and riders came past me headed down trailing 30 foot powder rooster tails. Cool, I thought, looks like time to take off the skins, ski down and buy a ticket which I did. Trouble was by the time I got to the top half the student body of UVM were there and the powder was mostly tracked out. What to do? Take the Over Easy lift to spruce where the hard cores never go and the green & blue skiers avoid powder. There is a beautiful knoll there that gets no snowmaking and no grooming and it sits almost under a lift. It was untracked. When I left at 3 as snow turned to sleet & freezing rain there were about 2 dozen sets of tracks and all except 3 by snowboarders were mine. Grass & saplings stuck up through it promising ground and maybe rocks. I found some of both and also had many perfect silky linked turns. I rediscovered why I love telemark. Bases? Yes there is some damage but not much. I learned a long time ago that the secret to avoiding base damage is to not worry about them & just ski. The ski gods take delight in damaging the bases of those who care about their bases.

A return to snow is predicted for tonight and hopefully many inches will fall.

Thanks for that little snippet Denis...I will keep it in mind.

Daughter and I heading up there this weekend...she is comfortable on all Mid-A terrain and I am beginning to ski more blacks.

Any advice on trails to try and ways to avoid crowds?

If we find powder, which we have never skied on really, should we try it with our basic all around skis? Or do we need some instruction first?

Stowe is reporting 16-20" of new powder this morning. It should be a great weekend.

My recommendations:

Get there early. Stowe is very popular and early morning conditions are the best. It can get skied out quickly.

The triple gets good morning sun, is sheltered from the wind,and has light crowds. When it starts to get tracked out head for the gondola side or spruce.

There is supposed to be more snow this weekend but not a big dump. Perfect time to try powder. 4" of powder skis pretty much like a well groomed slope but quiet and smooth. At 6" you begin to notice a real difference. Go with the flow. Don't lean back,that's a myth,just stay well centered and make your turns with patient commitment. A good intro to powder is to go to the edge of the trail, ski off the groomed into the powder and make one good turn back out to the groomed. Think about how it felt. Make small adjustments, repeat many times. Go to the other side of the trail and do the same number of turns there. Pretty soon you'll find yourself wanting to make more than one turn in the powder. Go with it. The gondola runs, particularly the one that follows the lift line, usually have a decent amount of ungroomed powder at the sides. Spruce will have plenty.

Thanks for the advice Denis...we will give that a try.

We will get a late start Saturday due to our arrival time. Hoping extreme cold will cut down on crowds a little. Sun/Mon look to be warmer and hopefully Monday will not be as busy.

We will let you know how it went

Glenn

GRK,

You shouldn't have any trouble with Stowe powder with non-fat skis. I skied at Alta in fresh powder for a day with my little basic skis last March and did fine. Rented the day I went to try the deep stuff in a bowl though.

Have fun!

Marz