FTA2R Posted February 12, 2022 Report Share Posted February 12, 2022 Hi All, Thoughts on how these mountains compare? I rode Stowe once (a few years ago) for a few days; never been to Sugarbush. One better than the other for carving? What about typical conditions in early April at these resorts. l'd prefer to go earlier, but may have a free lodging the first full weekend of April. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kneel Posted February 12, 2022 Report Share Posted February 12, 2022 Stowe will have better conditions and better carve-friendly terrain, but those weekend crowds...aye carumba. Sugarbush, while still crowded on weekends seems to better disburse the masses. Trails are a bit tight and rolly, but still some good opportunities. I go there when it dumps to ride softies as their trees are awesome and plentiful. It may be a bit sparse in April if VT doesn't start getting some snow. We're coming up on Presidents Weekend already and only have a third of what we usually have by now and northern VT has done much better than southern with the white stuff...fwiw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhamann Posted February 12, 2022 Report Share Posted February 12, 2022 i can see the potential at Stowe when it has plentiful snow. this is probably why it's such a popular destination resort and i saw an awful lot of virginia, penn. and ny plates in the lot. however, i was just there this past week for a few days and found that the grooming was absolutely horrible on diamonds and double diamond terrain. ridges at every pass of the cat on the steeper terrain and bumpy that the dominantly skier traffic creates on the more narrow and/or windy/turny trails. lotta snowboarders ride like skier too. shorter skidding turns and speed checks. i found that the terrain design/layout almost forces this on most of the terrain and it aggravated the sh!t out of me. gondolier trail is the only good carving trail and a main trail that gets a fair amount of traffic. i rode sugarbush a couple years ago in mid/late March at the Mt. Ellen side for a banked slalom event. i didn't ride around too much because of the event, but when i did i remember a better terrain offering for carving than Stowe. wait a minute! first weekend of April? is this an April fools? haha. have fun! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTA2R Posted February 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2022 no @dhamann not an April's fools joke, but sort of funny you thought it was. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonbordin Posted February 14, 2022 Report Share Posted February 14, 2022 (edited) If you go to Stowe and plan on carving as a focus know you will have to be there, in line, before open for the Forerunner Quad knowing you'll get maybe 4 laps before it will be skied off on any holiday or weekend. You must keep an eye on the Sunny Spruce quad that opens an hour later because you'll want to be there for that. Which is great because after that gets skied off, which won't be long!, you can head to the village and drown your sorrows in expensive beer. At that point you'll start wondering why you didn't go to Jay... Edited February 14, 2022 by lonbordin sorry... not sorry. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremlin Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 Sugarbush has more open and forgiving terrain for carving than Stowe. The layout also lends itself to spreading people out more. Look at the trail maps of the two and it will be evident. Stowe is a significantly older mountain and has classic NE skinny, windy trails. The grooming at Stail is disgraceful at this point. They lost a bunch of veteran groomers during the acquisition and it's been absolute trash since. In regards to terrain influence on turn and riding style, 14-15 was brutally cold and there was pretty much nothing in the way of non-locals. Everything was smooth and ran downhill. From extremely narrow single track in the woods to bump fields, everything. Then presidents week happened, and things were as mentioned. Short skidded turns, fear bumps in and before every corner, no flow to be found anywhere. It's not the fault of the terrain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deuxdiesel Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 Have you considered Okemo? I haven't been there in years, but they were open until 4/15 last year and have great wide open runs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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