Stowe: 10/27/05

**TBone** · 10-28-2005, 08:40 AM

Not wanting to miss out on the October pow, but realizing we were probably a day late, Josh and I left Burlington yesterday morning and headed for Stowe.

We decided on Spruce Peak due to presumed traffic on major routes such as Gondolier and Liftline.

Commenced hiking at approx. 10:45 am. Had to be at work in Waterbury at 2:30. It was a race against the clock from the get-go.

On the way up:

Front Four, sittin' pretty:

We chose a shitty way to go due in part to my total ignorance as to the layout of Spruce. We ended up zig-zagging a lot and at one point had to click into our skis and go downhill just to start climbing some more.

After a few pitches of hellish postholing we made it to a cat track and followed that the rest of the way to the top.

Josh on Spruce's mighty summit:

The snow was a tad thick... but October skiers aren't allowed to bitch and moan. So instead we enjoyed it. We started out on the Sterling trail but cut over to Main street once the cat tracks started to take up the whole trail.

Pre-Halloween air. SIIIIIICK!

One of many obstacles:

We made it back to the car at 1:57. We still had to change and drive to Waterbury to punch in at 2:30. We were late but Ruth went easy on us.