Thank you all for the advice on Stowe earlier. My buddy and I just came back from Stowe and here's a quick trip report:

4/1
Our plane was delayed from DCA to BTV which ruined my plan on skiing from 12 - 4 at Stowe. Due to the delay, I was less anxious in getting the rental car on time and checking into the hotel ASAP. It was a blessing in disguise as the inner kid in me had a blast at the Ben and Jerry's Factory Tour on our way to Stowe (not to be missed!). For $3.00, you get to sample their world-famous ice cream and a tour of how they operate. We hit up Matterhorn and the pizza was great. Although my buddy's stomach wasn't feeling so hot after eating some sashimi there...

4/2

We caught the hotel shuttle to Mansfield around 9:00 pm. I was unaware that the lifts start running at 7:30 am and missed first chair by 1.5 hours. We hit up the Gondola and started our Stowe experience on Perry Merrill. Although visibility was poor, the snow was great and dare I say it, rivaled the conditions at Solitude last month. I also loved how the gondola protected against the wind, had awesome trails you could keep skiing, and had the nicest people you could converse with. In fact, my buddy went back after 1 run with his stomach ailments and I met a cute girl on the gondola and we just both explored the mountain till my buddy met up with us for lunch.

I must also say that the trails were surprisingly LONG! Either I'm skiing more correctly or incorrectly, but I have never been so sore in my quads and calves than skiing at Stowe! I had to take multiple breaks off the blue trails from the Gondola. It seemed like they meandered through the trees forever! The only time I had to take a break from skiing a trail (other than me sucking) was my day at Alta.

We went over to Spruce Peak towards the end of the day and hit up Sterling. Sterling was by far my favorite trail of the whole resort. I thought I could ski this trail forever and never get bored!

Overall, I came away VERY impressed with Stowe. Although we didn't try any of the blacks (I had no legs!!! My buddy was hitting the bathroom more often than he cared to admit), but the overall vibe was great. I struck up conversations with an instructor was was living my dream life - she teaches at Stowe from November to April and then travels to Australia to teach skiing from June to October, met up with a cute snowboarder and she showed me part of the mountain, and found out the legend of chair 76 and how it's different than the rest of the gondola chairs. Overall, I found that Stowe had character and history that a lot of resorts lacked. I also loved their mountain layout. Finally, I have never been to a ski resort where there were so many great skiers. This was the one ski trip where I just skied and stopped analyzing my technical skills so I could "keep up" with the locals there. I would LOVE to go back and hopefully next year I'll be able to hit some of the blacks with fresh legs and better skills!

P.S.
On one of our chair lift rides, I mentioned to my ski buddy that Stowe might be better than Solitude in some respect. Here are my reasons:

Flight time from DCA to BTV is a lot shorter. BTV is a small, friendly airport.

Stowe's layout is better than Solitude's. You can access a lot of trails using multiple lifts.

People in Vermont seemed to be genuinely nicer. I've never seen so many people smile, talk with one another at a ski resort.

Welcome to hard core eastern skiing. Glad you enjoyed it. I was at Stowe today 4/4/11. Wasn't expecting much but had a very good day. I drove through occasionally heavy showers from my daughter's house in Williston to Stowe and just as I passed the Shed (restaurant and microbrewery, excellent) it turned to snow. The skiing was downright surprisingly good on anything that had been groomed before the 2-4" of new powder fell on it, pretty rough where the last warm day's ruts were frozen in. I got about 3 hrs. of excellent skiing on a near empty mountain before it turned to rain just before 1 PM. Before that fog, whiteout and wind driven snow. I abandoned the gondola and went to Spruce in order to see a few feet in front of my face. Finished the day with clam chowder & a beer in Spruce Camp. Much as I enjoy the west, it felt good to be back; I grew up with New England skiing. It gets in your blood.

And BTW, everybody's lift layout is better than Solitude.

Stowe is great and you must go back if you haven't skied the trails on Mansfield. Nose Dive and Liftline are often groomed and if you like steep trail skiing National, Starr and Goat await. I understand that a lot has changes at Spruce and the trails there are nice but if you enjoyed the long trails on the Gondola then you must get back and ski Mansfield off the Four Runner Quad.

The first winter I ever skied Stowe I later went to Vail. The whole time I skied Vail I was comparing it to Stowe and Vail came up short....until it snow several feet then the Back Bowls blew me away.

A good hill breeds good skiers/riders.

Jim, I don't think that was the only reason. I'm guessing all of the good skiers he saw were all students of BushWacker.

Today I had just one great run. It was raining cats & dogs this morning and I would not have gone to the mtn. at all except to meet my friend Rich from the SkiVT-List at the Octagon at noon. Rain changed to snow at the Matterhorn at 11:30 with gusty winds at the near-empty quad parking lot. Guest services said the quad had just reopened from windhold and the other lifts were still closed. I was almost blown off the steel staircase on the way up to the designated meeting place. I was the only lunch customer of the day up top. No sign of Rich. I ate a leisurely lunch while watching a half dozen chair stoppages. They were brief but gave me the idea that I did not want to get back on that chair. When Rich hadn't appeared by 1 I headed down something blue, Lord or North Slope, or Hayride or some combination thereof; couldn't see well enough to tell. The top was blown bare in spots with other spots of heavy, almost sand-like, powder. After descending a bit and gaining some shelter from the wind it was gorgeous. I never saw more than a couple of tracks all the way down. Of course I couldn't see much. Visibility was in that weird transition zone between vertigo inducing whiteout and not quite. It added to the wild feeling but was also a bit scary. Several times I'd gain a bit of visibility, became alarmed at how fast I was moving, and had to stop to regroup.

Retirement with a pass means never having to say you're sorry even if you get just one great run. It could be good tomorrow morning!

Ha,Denis. I know that feeling from the same mountain. The first time I took my ski buddy Marcus to Mansfield the visibility condition were as you described, maybe a little worse because we both felt a little vertigo. I skied there a lot at the time so I knew the trail well, it was Nose Dive. I talk Marc down the switchbacks until we finally made it to the Slalom Glades (as they were still called at the time) and we now had some better reference points to judge our turns. We skied in the trees until the visibility improved but a downpour followed. We skied until we were soaked through then found a laundromat in town and dried our clothes then ate lunch. By that time the rain stopped so we went back to the mountain and skied until closing. You never know when you're going to have a memorable day. Even the most questionable conditions often provide the setting for some really great times.

Another great day - Stowe 4/6/11

I knew it would be good when I left yesterday. Storm total of about 6" but it was meaty powder and skied more like 12. I got there early but not early enough. The plan was first tracks on Goat. It is the crown jewel of Stowe's trails. Cut before snowmaking was invented by people who knew the mountain and where the snow fell deepest. Narrow, steep, twisting, on the leeward side of a shoulder of the mountain; the snow always drifts deepest there. My dream was shattered when I saw 6 or more sets of tracks entering the gap in the fence. That's about 5 too many for a lazy old coot who has been skiing easy stuff in UT for 6 weeks. I settled for Liftline 1.5 rather than Goat 2.0. It was easy to aim for and turn in untracked powder. I cut into the woods at the top of the second pitch. It was good! For run 2 I planned Nosedive, Bypass, and the glades. Being lazy I went past the Stone Hut rather than climb over the hill. There was an instructor there with a group of UK folks on the annual "British Invasion". They were looking over the rope at a beautiful white carpet on the Bruce. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~doc/backcountryskiing/brucetrail/ I asked him, "Are you going down the Bruce?" 'No, are you?' "I was thinking about it, looks beautiful" 'How about you take my class and I go down the Bruce?' He then explained a bit of Stowe history to his class, that the Bruce was cut in 1933 by the CCC, etc. He was still talking as I went under the rope and down the first pitch. It was absolutely magnificent, the powder, the silence, the sun on the evergreens and the snow, could not have been better. There was just one set of tracks ahead of me, The trail drops some 2500 vertical feet, most in the first 1.5 miles, coming out at the Matterhorn bar & grille, a couple miles down Mountain Road. I neither saw nor heard anybody all the way down. Once you join the Stowe cross country network it is almost flat for the last 1.5 miles. I was grateful to have the one set of tracks to get into to keep up speed, and for the half dozen days of skate skiing I did this season. The free shuttle bus that you can normally catch back to the ski area has stopped running for the year; this is supposed to be golf season. However it only took 10 minutes to hitch a ride from 2 snowboard girls on their way to the area. I think a white mustache helps.

Blah blah blah...are you gonna ski or what......see ya at the bottom. Classic story with a happy ending.

How long are you going to be in VT?

How's the snow pack. Any word on extending the season beyond April 17?

I've heard nothing about extending the season. I'm sure they lost money on the past 3 days of great skiing. Yesterday especially; there were less than 50 cars in the lot. In their heyday Killington stayed open as long as they could, even losing money. $towe has always been smarter; they don't do that. Here is a list of closings for northern VT/NH. http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1104A&L=SKIVT-L&D=1&T=0&P=65417 You beat this with climbing skins.

I will be here through Stowe closing on Apr. 17. Then home for a bit, then my annual Mt. Hood trip the first week in May.
http://www.oregonlakesandrivers.com/content/mt-hood-silcox-hut
If the weather is good, we'll climb to the 10,000 ft. level for 4000+ foot descents. 2 out of 3 years weather is not good. We have seen blizzards with 100 mph wind, like last year. Then we descend below tree line and ski the lifts. When not skiing we enjoy gourmet meals prepared by hutmaster Steve, hang out, drink, tell lies, - - - .