It’s really hard to remember details from 40 years ago, but some things stand out clearly. In 1985 I visited Stowe Vermont and went skiing with engineering friends from NBC. Our little group was Allen, June, Eric, Doug, David and me. I was by far the most junior skiier, as most of the others learned to ski when they were young, and a couple of had been on high school slalom racing teams. I remember distinctly how cold the weekend was, with temps and wind-chills near zero. We would ski a couple of runs and head into the lodge (usually at the top of the gondola) for a hot chocolate. Then another run or two when we warmed up.
Despite the weather, the group pushed me to ski things I had never tried before, including moguls. With Allen and Eric providing technique advice, I slided on the hardpack around and through the bumps, and was immediately hooked. I am not someone who is known to over-imbibe but I quickly became an addict for those wonderful pirelli’s of snow.
Stowe has four legendary bump runs called the “Front Four”: Starr, Lifeline, National and Goat. The are winding, narrow, bumpy and tough. I thought – what a great adventure for my 65th year to go back and ski them all, 40 years later. I called on ski buddy Donnie and we reserved a few days for our adventure.
Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate with us. Monday was heavy rains and fifty degrees, followed by a fast drop of temperatures down to the teens. All that moisture in the snow froze immediately into a sheet of ice. Tuesday morning had temperatures in the teens with 14mph sustained winds and gusts of 40 mph. A ski patrol agent told us the conditions were “brutal.”
Despite the weather, Don and I pushed on and did some 15 runs or so covering 18,000 feet of vertical on Tuesday. We did not get to go near the front four, they were frozen solid and very closed, but we did ski Haystack a black trail near the face of the mountain.
Wednesday was somewhat better, with substantial grooming taking place – 8 lifts open and sunny skies. The temperature remained cold. The bumps reminded me of a snow cone, soaked in water that was put in the freezer overnight. Still solid ice. We did manage nearly 20,000 feet of vertical and 15 runs this second day. Parts of National were open and we skied almost all of Liftline, but they were both groomed. Alas – no bumps to cure my cravings.
I’ll have to wait for another year to close out my dream of skiing all four, but had a great time with Don and would do it again in a hearbeat.
