A New Kind of Cold, Ski Apres, Goat, & More Adventures from Stowe (with Pictures!)

[dawn_felagund]

Sunday was a wickedly cold and windy day. Remember how I posted that we got in the hot tub on Saturday night, and I was all proud for walking barefoot in the snow? While Bobby and I were in the hot tub, we were talking about what we thought the temperature was and whether this was the coldest weather in which we'd ever been in a hot tub. "Oh, it's

Comments

I love moutains in the snow.

[anonymous]

I love train rides also.

The soup is complimentary, and pretty much everyone gathers in the common room at 4 o'clock or so to thaw out with a cup (or in my case, to just eat it because I'm hungry and love soup). Sunday, it was black bean soup. Bobby and I were eating soup and debating where we wanted to go for supper.

I love hotels with random free food. It's not necessarily that it's a bargain, but that the decision-making is removed. Soup in the winter in the mountains sounds amazing to me also.

I think I might make black bean soup inspired by your account.

Re: I love moutains in the snow.

[dawn_felagund]

According to my husband, who Knows Such Things, it is traditional in ski towns for lodgings to provide something hot for "ski apres" so that those returning from the slopes can warm up. I neither ski nor ride, but I very much enjoyed this tradition! :)

Not having to pay for breakfast or lunch--and the B&B was a really good deal--just meant that we spent all the more on dinner and drinks later! :D

[engarian]

What a wonderful trip. I've heard of the skiing at Stowe, but being a Colorado gal, never went East. What kind of vertical drop does it have? Some of the runs looked rather gnarly - fun!

I'm too old to ski now, I suspect I'd break into 1000's of pieces with a minor wipe-out, so I'll just enjoy vicariously.

The goldens with the board is a great pic! Love your soft land shark too.

Sounds like it was a terrific time for both of you with plenty of time to relax on your end and lots of exercise in the cold for Bobby. Along with great food and ale. What more could you want? Welcome back home and thanks for sharing!

- Erulisse (one L)

[dawn_felagund]

I think I recall Bobby saying that Stowe's vertical drop is 3,412 feet, but I'm going from memory and could be wrong. It should be readily findable on the resort website, in any case.

It is apparently considered the East Coast's most technical mountain. We're at Liberty now (Bobby took leave today; my school was closed due to a burst water pipe), and I hope its mere thousandish-foot drop is not too anticlimactic for him!

[engarian]

Oh, that was a good idea, and I found this lovely website http://verticalfeet.com/ that had Stowe at #60 with 2341 ft. I learned to ski in Snowmass, CO, which is #7 on their list at 4030 ft. I can guarantee that I was never that good nor got that high up on the mountain. I suspect I would have done much better on a snowboard because I loved skateboarding. But those 6 ft + feet that skis gave me were too unwieldy. "Short skis" didn't come into use until a few years after I had given up on skiing. But while I struggled my way down mountains of amazing beauty, I always wished I was on skis as short as the ice skates I wore more frequently. I could have handled myself on the snow with much greater ease with shorter skis

[dawn_felagund]

He is definitely planning to venture out west. He wanted to try a more challenging East Coast mountain first before tackling some of the more intense mountains out west. We've talked about heading out to Jackson Hole next year.

It's supposed to be relatively hard to learn snowboarding compared to skiing, but if you were good at skateboarding, you probably would have been good at snowboarding too. Bobby only tried skiing once but was good at that too: lots of years of playing hockey! Whereas my freestyle rollerskating translated far less easily.

[dreamflower02]

Looks like y'all had a blast!

[dawn_felagund]

We did! We brought home a bunch of brochures and are already trying to sell our families on a trip back over the summer.

[lindahoyland]

Good Heavens, you must be tough!

[dawn_felagund]

I am but also one of those people who does stupid oh-why-not kinds of things. :D And then afterwards thinks, "That really wasn't that smart ..." In this case, I think ignorance was bliss. Kind of like the time Bobby and I walked half the length of Manhattan and back and only once we were done checked a map and discovered that we'd walked about 22 miles. Saturday night, we had no idea how cold it was. We'd just come from Maryland, where the 20s F is cold and we only drop lower than that a few times per year. And we were used to Deep Creek and getting into the hot tub there, where it drops into the single digits F but generally not much lower!

[lindahoyland]

We've only once as I can recall had it so cold here.I admit I found it hard to cope,

[dawn_felagund]

It is really hard if you're not used to it. I'm not a naturally cold-hardy person. I often tease Bobby that I was meant to be born in the tropics, but he screwed that up by being born first and in Maryland. :) Since we've moved out to Carroll County, I've gotten more used to it. It's about 8F colder where we live now than in Baltimore, and it's so expensive to heat our house that we try to use the heat as little as possible and wear extra layers. It was really rough at first--my first winter here, I was miserable!--but I've adapted.

Today, it is just a little below freezing. It feels positively balmy! :)

[ysilme]

I haven't managed reading all your trip posts yet, but it sounds really awesome. Thank you also for the gorgeous pics to go with them!
I'm also most impressed with your barefoot-snow-walking! :o)

[dawn_felagund]

It was definitely barefoot-snow running! :D

Thank you! Most of the pretty pictures are Bobby's fault; the places he goes tend to have really good views. :)