At long last, I finally skied Stowe this season. I’d intended on skiing Stowe about two months ago, but as y’all know, I went and broke six ribs at Sugarbush, which put me on the injured reserve list. With a less than favorable weather forecast, I didn’t have high expectations for the day, but it turned out to be a great time.

Mount Mansfield seen from Upper Nosedive.

This was my first ski day since last Saturday. The weather last Sunday ended up being kind of blah and I had to work Sunday afternoon. During the week, I had a construction crew at my house making repairs, so I ended up having to stay home every day. Needless to say, I was ready to get back out on the mountain.

I arrived at Stowe at 9 AM and met up with Pro Skier Darren White. Despite it being April 5, Stowe was still charging for parking, so we parked in one of the free lots and took the shuttle to the main base lodge. This really wasn’t a big deal at all and it was worth it to save $30. However, the parking lot at the main base lodge was nowhere near capacity, so I’m not sure why they were still charging for parking this late in the season.

The mountain was empty. There were no lines and the runs were quiet. They had 60 to 70 trails open and most of the main lifts were spinning. The day started off cloudy and transitioned to rain and freezing rain up high later in the morning and early afternoon. Visibility was good in the morning, but decreased as the day progressed. It was nice to get the view in the morning, though. Stowe is a very pretty place to ski.

Conditions were variable across the mountain, but snow coverage was excellent for April 5. On the groomers, up high, you had loose granular with an icy secondary layer. As you descended the mountain, the snow became softer and softer and was even a touch sticky in spots way down low.

The trees were in play today and they were very similar in terms of conditions. Because of this, we mostly stuck to trees lower down on the mountain. In all of the trees we skied, there was still plenty of snow and coverage was great. This was my first time really getting into the trees at Stowe and I found them to be a lot of fun. The spacing was great and you could cruise right through a lot of them. I’ll have to go back next winter and ski some of the tighter trees higher up on the mountain.

This was a fun glade, but I’m not sure of the name.

Overall, today was a nice surprise. While it did rain, the tree skiing made up for it. I’ve still got one more Epic day I can use at Stowe, so I’ll probably be back one more time this season before they close. When that will be, I don’t know.

As I mentioned earlier, I had construction work going on at my house this past week, which kept me from being able to ski mid-week. It’s looking like that will probably be the case this coming week, too, but I will be out skiing tomorrow. I’m not sure where I’m headed yet, but I’m thinking about maybe going to Sugarbush or Killington. We shall see.

Never Quit Skiing,

Lincoln

SKIING TREES AT STOWE IN APRIL

RETURNING TO SUGARBUSH 9 WEEKS AFTER INJURY

AN EPIC LATE MARCH POWDER DAY AT JAY PEAK