If you look up “New England ski town” in the dictionary, I think you
should find
Stowe. This Vermont ski town is soup to nuts when it
comes to snow season spots, from the charming church-steepled
village, leading to the Mountain Road of enticing shops, eateries
and inns, to the time-honored ski terrain with sweeping Green
Mountain views.
First and foremost, you have the Front Four – legendary trails that
have been skied by all the greatest for half a century. The
Forerunner high-speed quad opens early and pumps you up to this well
pitched terrain till you beg for a cocoa stop in the mountaintop
Octagon Lodge. Or you can lighten the tempo by skiing Stowe’s
meandering mountainside runs like Lord, Sunrise, and the 3.5-mile
Toll Road.
Then
there’s a bright red gondola to elevate you to more scenic routes
like Gondolier and my personal favorite Perry Merrill, on Vermont’s
highest peak Mount Mansfield (4,395’). Skiers’ lunch is served atop
in the Tyrolean-style Cliff House.
As a ski area, Stowe is gritty but genteel, earthy yet elegant. On
one side of the lift line you have wool-wearing Vermonters queued up
for their “10 by 10”, but you also see the beautiful people, wearing
Bogners, making bravado remarks like “there’s always snow in Stowe
you know.”
While Stowe embraces tradition, it has transformed itself with
a $300 million revitalization. The Over Easy transport lift from Mansfield to Spruce connects the separate ski mountains into one big resort, like those
in Europe. The Spruce Base Camp is anchored by the four diamond
Stowe Mountain Lodge and Spa and a
Stowe Performing Arts Center.
Spruce
is home to several classic New England ski trails and the Children’s Adventure
Center, with upgraded lifts and snowmaking. Now Spruce has all the trimmings of
a four star, four season resort with Stowe Golf, Alpine Slide in summer and the
spectacular Stowe Mountain Lodge to stay on the slopes.
Still, it is the town of
Stowe that has defined this resort community for over two centuries,
long before lift service, spas, and Mercedes SUVs.
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more delightful ski hamlet than
Stowe, which dates back to 1763. Main Street downtown is unchanged
by time and travelers, you can still shop at the century old Shaw’s
General Store and you can trace the history of your favorite sport
at the
Vermont Ski Museum.
If Nordic skiing is your
thing, Stowe has an impressive map of touring trails encompassing
150 kilometers of groomed tracks and 100 kilometers of backcountry
trails. There are several Nordic Centers, the most famous being The
Trapp
Family Lodge - which was the first touring center in North
America. This “Sound of Music” family’s settlement is now a
phenomenal resort perched on a gorgeous hillside, with must-see
scenery.
Stowe as a vacation destination straddles the gap between classic
and latest/greatest. Driving through Stowe you sense the pride of
innkeepers from their manicured properties to their pretty
decorations. Owner-operated galleries feature homespun Vermont
crafts, offset by upscale boutiques, cafés serving haute cuisine,
and trendy spas, all dotting the Mountain Road.
There are more great restaurants and pubs, inns and resorts in Stowe
than you could enjoy in a lifetime of ski seasons…but it would be
fun trying, plying your way up the Mountain Road, staying at each
romantic BnB, shopping each chic boutique,
raising a Stein at each
pub, and dancing at the Rusty Nail or the Matterhorn, saving just
enough reserve to rise the next day for that foremost skiing.
Perhaps
its because I worked at several Stowe establishments as a college
gal, skied the steeps trying to impress my date, and was wed in the
Stowe Church, that this vibrant Vermont ski town is locked in my
heart. Give it a day or two; you might fall for the whole steeps to
steeples scene yourself. You will at least understand why Stowe has
acquired the name, Ski Capital of the East.
