Straight Up Awesome

Up until today, I had not been up in the alpine zone for a few weeks due to a variety of reasons (skiing in the backcountry or at Magic and Mad River Glen or on days when the alpine would have been extremely dangerous due to avalanche danger) and I’d been jonesin’ pretty hard for a little bit of time, especially with all the snow that had fallen a few weeks ago.  I knew the forecast for the day looked good and I knew that my work forecast looked beyond awful, so I just had to take advantage of this opportunity.

I got to Stowe relatively early for a Saturday, or at least relatively early for me, as the weekends tend to be rest days.  Waking up at 5:45am on tuesdays and thursdays along with too many hours spent doing work (thursdays are almost always 18+ hour days) takes its toll on one’s body.  But I digress…  When I got to Stowe it was warm and there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky.  A terrifically beautiful day.  The stoke was in full swing!

I met up with a new ski buddy, Peter, right out of the gate at the base of the Gondi (as a side note, Peter’s a great photog – check out some of his work here or on his Flickr stream).  We took one quick cruiser to warm up the legs and then were off to the lovely alpine environment of Mt Mansfield.

Peter earning his turns.  It’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.

Looking across to the face of Mt Mansfield.

Looking west, we could clearly see the Adirondacks behind Lake Champlain.  Not quite as clear in the photo, but it was an amazing day up there!

Turning towards the south to look down the spine of the greens.  This was probably the clearest day out skiing of the whole winter.

And now turning towards the east, the Whites are quite visible.  On the left are the Presidentials and on the right is Franconia Notch.  I especially like how just about every peak has it’s own lenticular.

Peter enjoying the view from the highest point in Vt.

Now it’s time to ski!  Peter coming down.

Yes.  One of my best shots of the year.

These trees are otherworldly.

Peter enjoying the soft snow.  It was really warm and everything had softened up rather early.  Quite nice to ski through.

We went back up again for a second lap as not only were the conditions great, but it was just such a beautiful day up there.  The next few shots are of my enjoying the snow from the top.  (Pictures obviously by Peter).

Oh yes.

Those little bumps in the background are actually trees that are around 15ish feet tall.

Here’s a few more of me coming off the top.  Again, pics by Peter.  I like to ski fast in the steeps:

Love how the snow is billowing behind me.

Peter coming through a choke point in the woods.

Mt Mansfield looking awesome at the end of an awesome day.

What a day, what a day!  It was by far one of the nicest days of the season, with barely a cloud out.  Sure seems like spring is in the air, especially with how warm it was.  Oh well, I think I’m getting ready for a (hopefully) exciting spring in the Whites!