How Much Snow?!

Monday was a pretty average day for me – I was working on some stuff until around 9PM.  When I got home, I made myself some dinner and then went to check out some things online.  This was the moment I first heard of the snow storm that was to be coming in the later portion of the week.  I initially wrote it off, figuring that there was no way that enough snow could fall to make much of anything (outside the MTW region) truly skiable again.

When I woke up on tuesday, the predicted snowfall totals were up.  I started getting jittery, thinking of the possibilities of skiing pow in late April.  As the day went on, the predicted totals kept on climbing, up and up.  I could feel the ski stoke surging through my veins again, and oh, how good it felt.  Hearing a report from the FIS crew that Stowe had already received around 11″ by tuesday evening got me even more stoked than I had previously been.  At that point, it was on for sure.  I was going skiing.  :D

As jittery as I was, I managed to get to sleep that night, and after a morning class I was quickly off to Stowe to earn some turns in the delightful late season snow.  I got up there around 1PM or so, and it continued to snow for another hour or two as I skinned up the mountain.  A lot of snow had fallen in those ~36 past hours.  Although I’m not sure, I feel fairly certain that this was one of the biggest 24h snowfall events Stowe had gotten all season – figures that it comes at the end of April.  I’m hard pressed to put a number to how much snow was up there, but the FIS crew estimated 20-30″ (there’s some super awesome pics there, so you should check it out), and I wouldn’t disagree with them.  It cleared up a bit for the last bit of my skin and the ski back down, although it was really windy out there.  Anyways, here are some of the photos I got of the day – hope you enjoy!

I made sure to remember to bring a few beers this time (I wasn’t going to make that mistake again).  Alas, there was no IPA to be had in my fridge.

And up I went.

Slowly but surely gaining elevation.

Stoked.

I took a short break in a sugar shack.  For real, it was a sugar shack, where they collect the sugar maple sap in order to make maple syrup.

A cool view of Smuggler’s Notch.

After a little while, I finally made it to the top!

The winds were ripping, but there were some cool clouds around.

After a short break, I decided to head up a little bit further just for kicks.  Even though the last time I’d seen it, the snow stake was much higher, I’d say it was doing pretty well for April 28th.

Thanks to whoever put in the skin track (FIS crew?).

Nearing the top of my climb.

I made it!

One moment, I was still skinning on up.

And the next I was ready to go down.  (Yeah, it’s corny.  I know.)

With such high winds ripping around Mt Mansfield, there were some sweet sastrugi around.

Some nice turns I laid down in the awesome wind-buffed snow.

So much fun.

The  bottom was pretty schralped.

And back to the car.  I decided against another lap as I wanted to get a beer at the Alchemist, and a second lap would have set me back just a bit too late.

Although not of the India variety, I did enjoy that pale ale after the skin and ski.

A solid day, especially given the late April date of this excursion.

And to top it all off, a Heady Topper at the Alchemist.   So delicious.

It was an awesome and unexpected day out at Stowe.  I’ve never skied this late into the season, so it’s a real treat for me as well.  Let’s just hope the snow will stay around until the weekend – I wanna get some May turns in!