Official: Stowe EC mini TR and Pic thread

[Big E]

Cool putting faces to names of those I hadn't met, catching up with those I had. Thanks again to Vin for letting me crash at his place Sat. night. Unfortunately, me and VT skiing don't seem to get a long too well. After flailing a bit on the run before the group went for a hike and becoming a steam factory, I decided to take a run off and re-compose myself. So I hung out for a bit, then went back up, took a run or two, and then stopped above the trees on Hayride I think. Someone (random dude on mtn, not maggot) pulled up next to me, asked if they were skiable, I said yeah, they open up a bit after the top. So we went in, was having a pretty good run, and then just above where they open up into the groomer, I went to stop, something went wrong and no edge would hold, I got spun around and went into a little slide for life. I managed to stop by slamming into a smallish tree knees-first, which wasn't really what I was going for.

Didn't really seem like I hurt anything at the time, thumb was kinda sore and knee hurt a bit, but it didn't feel unstable or anything, including skiing back down to the bottom. But, after some internal debate, I decided even if I was good to go, my confidence was shot, so I bagged it and headed back.

Turned out to be a good call, I'm not sure if I really did anything to my knee, but it was definitely pretty sore and stiff yesterday. Better today. And since my thumb was an unnatural purple color yesterday, I had that looked at and turns out I have a small "avulsion" fracture.

So that pretty much sucked. And I'm not really too stoked right now.

[iceman]

Geez E, that sucks. Hope the knee's just some kinda contusion or whatever.

[Raps]

Hey Vinman, nice new avitar and user title....musta gotten some inspiration for the user title from that pic of you hockin that loogie.
Was that fat ski sign by the gondi? I think i saw it saying something about if you have fat skis, ask the liftie for loading instructions....

[half-fast]

do you have fat skis??? my bigs looked like cross-country skis next to the planks most maggots were sporting

[crashnburn'd]

do you have fat skis??? my bigs looked like cross-country skis next to the planks most maggots were sporting

It's okay, they just have them to give the illusion that they are good skiers. I would assume since you have skinnier skis that you rip much harder than any of them. Especially vin, basom, and mildbill.

[Mit]

Here are a some of pictures from the summit, sorry for the delay. I was hoping to get a couple more pictures of different maggots but you all ski to fast (or maybe I am too slow.)



Franz in the woods somewhere in VT


Happy Magots playing in the trees.


Gin - Unknown location. Possibly at Stowe, but most likely at some secret BC location in Qweebec

[half-fast]

I would assume since you have skinnier skis that you rip much harder than any of them. Especially vin, basom, and mildbill.

It sure seemed harder

[Franz Klammer]

Franz in the woods somewhere in VT

One of the few instances where I wasn't on my ass after yet another binding ejection ...

[MOHSHSIHd]

One of the few instances where I wasn't on my ass after yet another binding ejection ...

skatin on markers aka "ejectors"?

[Franz Klammer]

skatin on markers aka "ejectors"?

No, the new Tyrolia MOJO 15 set to 10. I think it had more to do with my complete inability to properly deal with East Coast trees ...

[train07]

Well, I selfishly went to Stowe to get the tour of some sphincter puckering stuff and then I see this unnamed maggot hovering over some 60 degree rock laden face, and I'm thinkin, don't frkn do that now. He didn't, I unpuckered my sphincter and we went onto some nice untouched pow where vinman jinxed my parcel of fresh with his digital, although for a nanosecond, it was killed.
Thanks to Vinman and Mrs. Vinman for the Sat. hospitality (and nice job on all that stenciling and painting Vin ...Watching the basom head cam vid at the vin house was like sitting around with ski dudes you've known for years. If you're being filmed by bas....point...it doesn't matter where..just point somewhere, anywhere.…
Thanks to schmerham for the hookup...thanks to mildbill, basom, skijunky, vin & sequoision for the Sunday schlepp. Good meetin you mtn. Man..will look for you at K…And a great big shout out to BigE (listen to me, WTF?) you looked good on those spats from what I saw.., sorry about your wood slide…. Halfast, we ain’t kids anymore but we’re frkn out there..good meetn ya. Nice skiing with you Mit and Gin (I think I smelled my armpit out there)…hey Gravity lover (and mrs gl), thanks for your efforts and the stoke on my backyardJ ..will stop in your shop…Special thanks to nhtele dude and cantdog for "showing" me those goods , you hairballs…..and Franz, loved that smile of yours comin through those woods….schuss, you’re a live wire, thanks for the stickers…L8px, loved your sense of humor and the story about the guy who really looked for change for a nickle,…thanks for the sticker work….Laser, sorry about your troubles …next time I see you, you’ll be rippn and family well…Raps, you had it good..good talkn to you. Sprite, I think pictures of the bruise are in order…good meeting you and Token…small world. Sea&ski? dedicated man to pull that trip off. Thanks to Stowevibe. for the vouchers and everything. And thanks to splat for the glove giveaway which I don’t deserve and am feeling guilty about having. Back to work…it’s risky to try and list everyone you’ve met (don’t think I met RustyK)for fear of leaving someone out.
Anyway it’s dumping here in VT…

[CantDog]

Special thanks to nhtele dude and cantdog for "showing" me those goods

It was good to see them for the first time too

[nhtele]

Base - way too much footie of you killing it and not enough of you tumbling.

Seriously though guys, super-fun weekend - it was a pleasure meeting all of you

[schuss]

Oh, and all of these shots were not at stowe. They were clearly at jay peak.

[Mtn Man]

I guess I'll throw my TR in the mix:

Gotta say that Stowe has some pretty kick arse trees up there. Got to Stowe a little after 8am and plenty of parking everywhere. Hit the quad first thing and decided to use Nosedive as a warm up.....forgot that Skibumptress was in tow, doh! She did well with the new sticks and was grinning the whole time, guess she likes em. Met up with the maggots at 9am and hit the Bench for a tree run. Try keeping 20+ maggots together in the trees, ain't gonna happen. I get separated with two others who aren't locals. Had a blast out there, found lots of fresh and a few soft rock drops to play on. The traverse out was a different story though, many ravines to avoid. Met up with a few more maggots and hit the bench again, picking a closer line to the trail (gravitylover was with me this time). Enjoyed more fresh shots, loved it all. Then got separated from the rest. Decided to hit the famed "Goat" on the front four. Well, most of them were closed from the top, so I had to hit Goat a third down. Had a great time on it, you had to hit a few ice falls and hop a few rocks, gotta make it interesting. Hit another tree run lower from there which reminded me of Squeeze play, but with cover
Met up with a few of the group at lunch, and finally skied with RustyK. They got to hit the Chin and Hourglass from the peak, lucky bastards. Hit a few tree runs, including a 10-15 ft ice fall in the woods. You'll see a few hucks from that one, both Rusty and I biffed it. I think Gincognito has the footie. Did many laps with G and Mits in the woods. Those crazy canucks were great treerats to ski with. Ended the day at the Cantina, PM stickers were bought, free Soul Purpose DVDs were dispersed, and tales of the day were shared. Ended up hitting the hot tub with the Kzone crowd and finishing the port and tekillya.

Day 2. Started the day with a treeshot off Nosedive bypass, fun stuff. Met up with the mags again and did a few more tree shots. These guys were on Spatulas, doing the groomers were entertaining. Decided to hike up to the Rock Garden with a group, kicking myself for not bringing the FB's with me on that run. The snow was deep up there. Bootpack was interesting, deep and then rock in places. Had a few beautiful turns from the top, then I started to gape. I had the Fischers on, and started to sink to my knees in the heavy snow, then eventually to my hips. Try turning in heavy snow up to your hips while trees and rocks are coming at you. Biffed a few times and had to pop the skis off hanging upside down. Building a platform to put your skis on in almost chest deep was a process, took a while. Actually hit my hip on a rock as I did a hip check before a tree too, have the huge bruise to show for it. All in all, I had a great time and would hike it again....but with the FBs. Fats are a must up there, learned that the hard way. Ended the day a little early because of the hip, it's doing better now though. Was kicking myself for getting hurt, wanted to make more turns with the mags AND it was snowing at the time we left. I felt like such a touron. Definitely have to hit that place again though. Great to meet up with Cantdog, Franz, Train07, Mildbill, Basom, Sequoishsomething, Shmerham, Schuss, Gincognito, Mits, BigE, LPX8, Laseranimal, Sea2Ski, Sprite, RustyK, AndyZee, Stowvibe, Gravitylover, Vinman, Skijunky, Georgeofthejungle, powpow, halffast, Raps, nhtele and anyone else I can't seem to remember.

B)

[gravitylover]

Alright, finally home. 10 hours drive from Jay Peak today. F'n dumping in VT! Had some bumper deep on the road, good shit. Wow, where to start -

Thursday at Bear Creek Club (a small semi private area just south of K-mart). The place is so sweet - closed M,T,W and they had 25 inches those three days and when I got there Thurs morn there were 30 peeps on the hill. It was terrible Knee to crotch deep and nobody in my way all day Can't wait to go back. Anybody (Raps) comin' with this time?

Saturday was great (understatement). A few runs with the maggots and many runs with my twins. Who'da thunk you could get 6 year old 40 pounders down from the top of the double and the quad at Stowe? Ha! They ripped. Many beers later we ended up at Vinmans house and it was like hangin with friends you've known for years. I really need to make more time to play with y'all, your company is the finest!

Sunday and Monday at Jay - DEEP! Those same little 40 pounders were rippin' pow bumps in the trees by Monday afternoon. They wanted nothing to do with trails, just trees. Now I'm sure they're mine. It's pretty cool watching your little ones disappear into the troughs and come around the bump crotch deep and laughing hysterically. Anyway, Basom I guess you were right to have pushed hard for Stowe the wind holds at Jay are a hassle. But, when the top is open and the vis is zero and you head for the face chutes things are interesting to say the least. I set off two serious slabs that sluffed past me and then had to downclimb about 50 feet on some pine trees because it slid to bare granite and water ice but then it went right to waist deep and stayed that way most of the rest of the way down.

Overall the theme of the trip was DEEP. Not too bad for the EC

Thanks to everybody for all the props, I'd do it for you again in a second! Like I said, your company is the greatest. And Vinman next time you're headed down to NY you need to bring me a few growlers of Rock Art, you have one of the greatest breweries in your town. I only ended up with one to drink when I got home (bought 4).

[ScottG]

Thursday at Bear Creek Club (a small semi private area just south of K-mart). The place is so sweet - closed M,T,W and they had 25 inches those three days and when I got there Thurs morn there were 30 peeps on the hill. It was terrible Knee to crotch deep and nobody in my way all day Can't wait to go back. Anybody (Raps) comin' with this time?

I've heard about those private hills that have epic powder all day long.
The rich owners cant ski the pow and they sell only a few public passes to those who can.

Whats the deal there at Bear Creek? How much $$ ? Always closed MTW? How many public ticks per day?

[edit www.bearcreekclub.com $40 Thurs or Fri including lunch Buffet]

[Raps]

Knee to crotch deep and nobody in my way all day Can't wait to go back. Anybody (Raps) comin' with this time?

For sure, i definately want to check it out before my condo at Okemo gets bought.......

[gravitylover]

They're doing a deal on Easter Sunday, lifts and BBQ for $50 (maybe less). I'll be there. It's the only time before the end of the season I can get up to VT again because there's just no reason to have the shop open that day.

[gincognito]

My turn to chime in...

Many thanks to gravitylover and stowevibe for the hookups on passes and dvds. No doubt that had a large role in the huge turn-out. Almost overwhelming, eh bill? What do you do when that many maggots follow a few guides into the woods? You freak out and let everyone figure their own way down.

With groups reduced to more manageable sizes, the mountain was slayed in various forms and stories were shared and compared over brews at the end of it all. Details are useless at this point, so here's a few grabs from a video I haven't yet put together.

Here's Mit airing out one of many icefalls found in various places at Stowe. This first attempt went rather smoothly.


So smooth that another round was in order. With the landing zone slightly more cut up, I responded to Mit's concerns about going over the handlebars with a "I think that's less likely to happen this time around."


Hmmm. Seems I overestimated Mit's abilities.


This does not look natural.


But, like the true star he is, Mit gathers it together and skis out intact.


Sweet.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and nice video, basom (glad I was there for the directors commentary)),
d.

[gincognito]

Rusty was at the top witnessing all this excitement. Noting Mit's destruction of the landing zone, he opts for a slightly different line.


But the appeal of the somersault is hard to resist...


He throws the meat of his manoeuvre behind the trees, resulting in some minus points from our judges. However, he does make up for it with his choice final resting place.


Here's hoping we see more of these two on wheel of destruction.

Sick and ashamed and happy (and 'twas a good time),
d.

[ex-powderbroker]

Can we get some old timers to inject some life into this years mini? Earlywood, you dead yet? All we have is some Troll trying to convince the EC to head to west mountain.

SHIT IS WEAK.

[gravitylover]

EW is nearly dead, that's what happens when you get old like him

I guess I can head over there and try to beat some sense into folks for ya Funny thing is that West Mt has actually made some strides in the right direction. Not that I would go there over most other places but it's not a waste of time place.

[ex-powderbroker]

No need for a lynch mob, i'm just bummed there's never interest in a get together until we're down to patches sometime in april.

Let's do this!