Category: March

2013-2014 Season, Burke, March

(Q)Burke: Firm & Fast

QBurkeWhile at Jackson Hole, I received a comment on Facebook stating that I wasn’t missing much. As it turns out, I was missing something. I was missing some pretty shitty mid-winter conditions as evidenced by today’s attempt at skiing. Welcome home.

But don’t cry for me. After a perfectly timed trip yielded at least 6-8″ of fresh four out of five days, Jackson Hole’s summit today was in the mid-30s and the Village was in the mid-40s. I’ll take frozen hard pack over spending $1200 to travel more than halfway across the country to ski spring corn and have it freeze solid the next day. With an east coast storm lined up for later this week, the timing was as perfect as could be despite one weekend worth of setback.

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2012-2013 Season, March, Stowe

Mansfield: An Hour to Hell

The Chin from Goat

I am no fan of Stowe Mountain Resort but I do love Mount Mansfield. The resort has some great trails among its wide and homogenized so called classics; it truly is the best and most all encompassing ski area in the east. The trails can be epic when the conditions are right (and the ample amount of powder hounds aren’t out in force) and there is an enormous amount of tree skiing. But Stowe lacks the character and temperament of the far superior ski area across the notch. But take a hike above treeline and Mansfield offers some of the best skiing in the east for the least amount of effort.

So I try to get atop Mansfield’s ridge line at least once a season. Few other ski areas can offer a true alpine experience for such minimal effort. I am selective of my Mansfield days preferring a warm and sunny day in the spring time before everything starts to melt. This year I timed it pretty well though the snow was far from ideal due to delayed warming.

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