This week at the mountain

January 1, 2009 - Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New Year Arriving With Snowflakes
Regional sages have always said that winter doesn’t really begin in Vermont until after the New Year. Of course those who enjoyed some great powder skiing and riding in late November and throughout much of December will not share that viewpoint. This week fresh snow returned to the mountains and the prospects for the remainder of this holiday week and looking ahead 15 days, are excellent for both fresh snowfall and continued prime snowmaking conditions. The Spruce Peak Plaza is currently a lot of fun as Igloo Building gets underway and Ice Carvers will be unveiling a new ‘Ice Chair’ to commemorate the arrival of 2009. This weekend will also include the showing of another film in the new Mountain Films Series at Spruce Camp. It’s been an eventful season thus far and the best is still to come!

Spruce Peak Growing Lively
Stowe Mountain Resort can trace its history back many decades to the mid 1930’s when skiers arrived by sled and lifts were still a dream of the future. Skiing had rapidly become a social sport where deep friendships developed based on long and arduous climbs up the mountain and adventure-charged descents down difficult, narrow and largely un-groomed trails. Over time the sport grew substantially in numbers of participants. Stowe fast became one of the great centers of skiing and remains so to this day. As great a resort as it was though, Stowe lacked a social and cultural center at the base of the mountains. There were always spots popular with the regulars -- the fireplace at the Den, the deck on the Octagon in the spring and of course the Midway deck on sunny afternoons. But now a new hub is in place, the new Spruce Peak Plaza, with its companions Stowe Mountain Lodge and Spruce Camp. More and more, these facilities are creating a new world at Stowe ! Mountain Resort. From interactive art workshops -- such as the one this Sunday with local mixed media artist Natalie Voght -- to outdoor Igloo Village building, music everyday in the Spruce Camp and open fire pits where hot chocolate and s’mores are often offered, there is a new vibrancy at the mountain. So easily accessed via the Over Easy transfer gondola, anyone can make it to Spruce if the weather has you chilled, the mountain has you tired or you just seek a new experience. Hotel guest, skier, rider or visitor to the town of Stowe, the activities taking place in and around the Plaza or the nearby Spruce Camp have created a new diversion for all.

Mountain Operations Raises the Bar
When the hill is full of skiers and riders and Mother Nature is delivering her usual witches brew of weather, that is when the crews of Mountain Operations are called upon to do their best and most demanding work. A good early season stretch of snowmaking weather allowed Stowe’s snowmakers to bury virtually every trail in the system protected by snowmaking. The acquisition of an additional Pisten Bully allowed the groomers to be able to groom virtually every inch of the main trail system on a nightly basis. As a result, each day skiers and riders have found some pretty good corduroy and a freshly-manicured surface. None of this would have been possible 10 years ago in Stowe. The industry’s development of modern grooming machines boasting a wide variety of sophisticated hydraulic devices, and the tripling of the resort’s ability to deliver fresh snow over the last five years, have given the engineers and artisans of Mountain Operations a whole ar! senal with which to provide high quality snow surfaces for skiers and riders. This week always raises the bar for Mt. Ops., providing a higher volume of guests the best possible product available in the Northeast. So far the report card has been honors grades.

Resort Report
Trail Report: The trail count right now is at 66 but is expected to jump considerably with the arrival of the next storm forecast for the end of the week. Most of the key routes on the hill remain open. Cruising is the operative condition these days although those skiing and riding on Monday found some very soft and fresh snow. Recommended route for most off the top of the Quad is Upper Lord or Ridgeview. Once down to the top of the Lookout Chair there are excellent routes down via Middle Lord or Sunrise. Centerline offers bumps and as you get further down Standard and Tyro remain very good options. Good bumps exist in both the Nosedive Glades and the Tres Amigos Glades but remember it is very challenging skiing or riding in there. Over at the Gondola, Gondolier and Perry Merrill are the preferred routes and super grooming allows both trails to handle a pretty significant volume of traffic. There is a lot of very good skiing and riding to be f! ound over at Spruce and of particular merit is the knowledge that in the afternoon the sun still has been known to shine on much of that trail network. Lower Spruce has coast-to-coast grooming pretty much every night and the West Slope and Slalom Hill sections are both sporting very deep cover. Easy Street and Inspiration are also in good shape. Meadows is worth checking out because it is very quiet on those broad expanses that gave that area its name (Decades back Spruce Peak was actually a highland farm.) Main Street is in very good shape top to bottom. Expect to find Alpine race-training on skier’s/rider’s left in the mid-section but it is open over the entire length of one of the resort’s most scenic trails.
Snow report: A variable week for snowfall but it is ending well. A lively squall brought much-needed freshies to the face of Mansfield and Spruce Peak on Monday night and as much as 6-7” had collected on the lee side of the trails at the Gondola and on Mount Mansfield. Another inch or two fell in short bursts on Tuesday during the day. The forecast for the rest of the week is very promising. The reading at the WCAX snow stake alongside the Toll Road is sitting at 33” after a few days of consolidation in the snowpack. That reading is about normal for this point in the winter according to the 54-year averages kept by the weather service since the stake was installed in 1954.

Snowmaking/Grooming Report:. The snowmakers have been all over the hill this week. Each Christmas week they usually have snow guns in many different locations all over the system, capable of quickly recovering key areas. A priority at Mansfield has been Standard and North Slope and the tower guns have been active along Perry Merrill. There have been guns going on both lower and upper Spruce. Most of the snow is now made for the halfpipe on lower Standard and shaping of the pipe is now underway. Completion of the pipe is probably set for next weekend. Guns will also be blasting snow onto Tyro shortly with a goal of getting the big terrain park built as soon as possible.

Lift Report: All week the Quad will continue as always to be the first lift running. It opens at 7:30 a.m. the earliest lift operation in the East. The Triple opens at 9:00am and the Lookout Double opens as needed. The Gondola is open usually at 8:30 and the Spruce Lifts cycle in beginning at 9 a.m. All lifts at Spruce Peak are expected to be in full operation throughout the holiday week. The Midway Surface lift will be running daily and the Over Easy transfer gondola runs daily from 7:30 a.m. through at least 5 p.m.

Calendar
January 1: Ice Chair Carving - Carvers build a full size chair in ice. It will be here all season in the Spruce Plaza.
January 1-2: Igloo Village Building - Come help build an igloo village by the Spruce Camp patio - throughout the day.
January 2: Mountain Film Series - Enjoy a film from Stowe’s own Meathead Films. The offering is called “Head for the Hills. It will be shown from 6:30-8:30pm at Spruce Camp and proceeds benefit the Vermont Ski Museum.
January 4: Mixed Media art with Natalie Voght - Another workshop in a series to run all winter. All are welcome. (Inquiries to Dhatoff@ sprucepeak.com)
January 3: Salvation Farms Dinner - 1st in the Summit Series of Cliff House Dinners. The Cliff House will feature a nine course tasting menu to welcome the ‘09 season and raise funds to support the Vermont Food Bank and Salvation Farms.
January 6: Ski Bum Race #1 - Team GS racing begins on the Slalom Hill at Spruce Peak. 11:30 a.m. - Info at (802)253-7704.January 9: Women in Motion Camp Stowe’s popular clinic for women skiers and riders returns for another season. Info: 800-253-4754.

Music on the Mountain
The music scene at the resort is really vibrant these days. Spruce Camp is happening for après-ski with Kid Pinky and his Restless Knights the headliners on New Year’s Day. Friday it is the Peter Crag Duo and Saturday enjoy Raphael Groten. The Den’s roster includes Blue on Friday and the always popular Blues for Breakfast band led by Charlie Frazier on Saturday. Both of those acts are scheduled from 2-6pm. Midway offers music on both Friday and Saturday afternoons -- first Brett Hughes and then D.J. Scotty. For a little more mellow gig, try the Fireside to hear Brett Hughes on Saturday afternoon. (You can ski or ride down there at the end of the day but you will need someone to rendezvous with you by car since lift service ends at 4pm.