Just Because You Can

This past weekend Brian convinced me it would be a good idea to load up the car and drive nine hours to Vermont. We were going to meet up with one of his friends from Philadelphia who was in Stowe to ski for the weekend as part of a bus trip. Our plan was to drive up to Stowe on Friday, ski the resort on Saturday, and hike for turns on Sunday before making the return trip to State College. I agree, this wasn’t the best plan in the land, but I didn’t have any other offers for the weekend so I figured a good ole fashioned road trip wouldn’t be a bad idea.

We departed about three o’clock on Friday afternoon in a pouring rain. The temperatures were in the mid forties so a healthy fog was setting in. The important thing to keep in mind is that it wasn’t just warm and rainy in State College; it was warm and rainy all the way through New England. You don’t need to be a meteorologist to know that warm and rain don’t mix well with snow. We decided to stick to our plan and rolled into Stowe about one in the morning.

Saturday morning we got up early. It was a bluebird day but wicked cold. We knew the rain made any back country options completely worthless so we decided to try our luck at the resort but weren’t too optimistic. As predicted, the warm air and rain made the snow virtually bulletproof. Heading home wasn’t an option so we made the best of it and did laps on the groomers with Brian’s friend and some of the others from the Philly contingent.

After several hours of losing my edges on sketchy conditions I decided to call it a day. Some very dear friends of mine (Lisa & Amos) live about an hour from Stowe and I haven’t seen them in about two years so I decided I would pay them a visit. We ate dinner, talked about all the changes in our lives (which aren’t many) and reminisced about all the “fun” we had back in the old days when we all lived in Georgia. Even though it was short, visiting with them made the forget about the deplorable snow conditions.

Sunday morning we decided to forgo any exploration for powder (knowing there wasn’t any) and get on the road early so we could make it back home at a reasonable time. Even though the conditions weren’t great and we spent most of the trip in a car, it was nice to get out of town, see some old friends, and at least try to get into some good snow. I had a really fun time, even if I didn’t get to slay any powder dragons.