|
|
Oh btw Skunkape, Stowe is amazing as folks have suggested.
I was lucky enough to be there ten days ago, skiing it the first time since I was a novice. The mountain is very big, with a great deal of nonstop 2000 vertical on the Mansfield side. And there were a lot of cool tree shots (which admittedly we mostly got into accidentally). In one glade, I was shocked to see that I could get my pole almost 3 ft into the snow (it has been a bad snow year for them, too. They usually get 200-250 and had about 120 when I went). I skied Hayride, probably a run of the mill single black there, and definitely felt the steepness on that one. I think it is fair to say that the so-called "Front Four" trails (National, Liftline, Starr, Goat) may be the most famous expert runs on the East. I guess you'd compare it to Rumor and Lies, but the Front Four look like they have more vertical, and Goat looks like it is only a few bumps wide in places (no disrespect to Gore).
The other side, Spruce, was really, really good. It faces the sun much more than Mansfield, so it had really nice soft spring snow. What surprised me was how cool Spruce was. It has some steepish stuff off the top of that side, and people probably don't appreciate that Spruce itself has a good deal of vertical (like 1600 feet uninterrupted) .
Regarding the vibe/food/etc., at the top of the mountain, you can get really tasty food at about the same price as at the base, but it is like eating at a nice, decent Brooklyn restaurant (price and taste). At the bottom of Mansfield, a much less tasty meal of chicken figures and onion rings costs the same (like $16). But, what I thought was cool on the lower lodge was that a bunch of beers were well priced for a ski mountain ($5.50 for real beers). Compared to Spruce (see below), the Mansfield side clearly had the feel to me of being much more about what I romanticize as the old school New England ski area.
The Spruce side (across the street, accessed by a Gondola that crosses above the road), feels a little more mickey-mouse (or should I say Disney Land), with an expensive looking lodge that is nevertheless kind of well done for something like that, combined with timeshares and condos, all done in the past 5-10 years.
And Stowe village is definitely different than Lake Placid, but Stowe is 10 minutes from some really cool shops like the Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Ben & Jerry's factory, Cabot cheese factory store, and Lake Champlain chocolates.
|
Locked
