Skiing at Stowe
Written: Dec 22 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Skiing, romantic town, long trails
Cons: location, price
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| mgmeyers's Full Review: Stowe |
Being a native of Stowe, and having skied all of the Vermont resorts, I
will do my best to remain as objective as possible herein.
Aside from Woodstock, Stowe is likely one of the most "Vermont-esque"
towns on the Vermont map. I saw another review noting "lack of
restaurants" and I knew it was not experience. You see, Stowe has a
remarkable number of fine restaurants to choose from, no less than 30,
and not a one of them is a tacky franchise. If you wanted to
vacation in Vermont for a month, you could enjoy every dinner in
Stowe and experience something new each night. Get a local guide for a
listing of all the restaurants. At least half of these are also lodges,
so don't let that fool you. Some lodges are for bed and breakfast, the
rest serve excellent dinners. Keep your eye out for white tableclothes
and candlelight, and the word of those who know, when you ski.
On to the skiing. If your ski group is comprised of novices and
advanced skiers, you might best find yourself driving to different
mountains. Novices may be best off at Spruce, which is a half-
mile down the road from Mount Mansfield (you can't ski between the two).
Mt. Mansfield may be a bit big for beginners preferring short
runs with rests at the bottom in between. The Mountain Company offers
regular shuttle service between the two. A novice could easily spend
the day on Spruce, but I would recommend other Vermont resorts for the
purely novice adventurer. On Mount Mansfield, you will become intermediate rather quickly, thanks also to the Mount Mansfield
instructor staff.
If, however; you would claim yourself as intermediate, this territory,
inclusive of the best set of 1 to 2 mile runs in northern New England,
is exhilarating. As reviewers claim so often, these are long, generally
uninterrupted runs, and the lifts are steep and efficient, offering
lots of vertical in a days skiing.
For the advanced skier, it is simply a must in northern New England to
travel to Stowe and tackle the Goat, the Starr, the National, and so
forth. Starr and Goat offer 35 to 40 degrees of pitch, as much a grade
as can hold Vermont snow, and as much as is serviced by lifts in most
of terra firma. (After 40, trails need steady powder dumps to stay
open)
The pros include the little, ever so regular, dustings of fresh snow
this high mountain receives on a regular basis when storms are not
present. Also, its higher altitude assists with trail conditions.
The cons would include price and location. Stowe is a 45 minute drive
from the nearest airport, that being Burlington. For southerly folk
driving in, it is 30 minutes farther to the north than Sugarbush, and
that much farther to the north than the other major, southern Vermont
resorts. The lift tickets are two dollars more than their southern
counterparts, believed to be so for the purpose of driving away the
masses in place of those who love to ski. Be aware of the slightly
colder conditions of this mountain than any others but Jay Peak and Burke
Mountain, especially at christmastime and in January. The snow depth is
generally nothing but fun from February through April.
A last note on the history of Stowe. This is the first mountain in North
America to receive a chair lift (1940). Historically, it was a place
where new england natives said, "let's put in a ski lift", and so they
put it there. It is not uncommon to encounter seniors who have skied
Mount Mansfield for as long as they have known how to ski.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mgmeyers
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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