photos.pmaravetz
Last Thursday I awoke to the alarm in a hotel in Vermont. I had just seen Tapes n Tapes with White Denim the night before at Higher Ground in Burlington with a great crew, Sean, Graham, Paul, and Ron. It was my second time seeing this show in a week, needless to the show worth your hard earns. I'm tired, I look outside it's glowing, must have been 60 something outside that dirty window. I stir and roll over a few more minutes of sleep will do me well. Yesterday morning Graham, Sean, JR, and I had hit Stowe at 8 in the morning for a premeeting shred, it was warm and turned corn later around 10 but was solid all morning. So a few more minutes wouldn't hurt the conditions. Sean's with me on this so I have back up, to sleep we go for a hot minute, once again awaking to a alarm of some sort. OK we're up and hungry, ready to rip on a warm sunny day in Vermont. Next move call Graham, done, pack bags, done, roll to check out, load gear in Sean's rig, and Roll. We decide to forego the "Free Breakfast" at the hotel for some Dunkin Donuts grub. Well we didn't realize that in Vermont they hide their businesses. We could not find the door for the Dunkin. Two laps later we go up to the drive thru window to order only to be told to come in, duh, we've been trying. Shits funny and the comedy ensues inside the joint, we finally get coffee, some breakfast sammies, alls good. Roll to Stowe to find a small chair with a bunch of stuff on it sitting behind a familiar car. To the left is a few of the In house crew from Rome SDS. Moments later JR's walking by wondering were we've been all morning, yeah he's got laps under this belt all ready but, he's got to roll for a hour to handle some things. Yep it's a Rome Ride Day, all the crews up at Stowe to ride, grill, ride, enjoy adult bevies, ride, hike some lines, ride, enjoy the beautiful day. As we help set up the grill and tent more heads keep rolling in. I rally a crew and we head up to the lifts, shit some super warm temps have the snow all mashy p's. We'll I must say thru the years of riding some of my most progressive days have been in mashy p snow, but most of this had been at smallish Midwest hills not Mountains. Well there is a major difference riding a whole mountain of mush, its not easy, but it is fun and we had a lot of it.
photos.pharvieux
Later after countless runs down The Fourrunner Chair lines and after Captain Al already had me fired up for a hike only to disappear to dust, a group of us decided to hike to the Rock Garden line. Well it's was 2ish and hot up top. The snow was like walking on sand on a Hawaii beach. Two OG Midwesterners accompanied the group, Nate and Chip had made the move from Ohio to Burlington chasing the snowboard lifestyle. They found plenty of riding among other truths of this chase for snow. They were able to ride Stowe all season, and reap the reward of a good snow year. With the season winding down this hike was a great way to put to rest the search for good snow. Sully led the charge, JR was in, Graham never misses a mission, and a local ripper rolled in too.
After a top to bottom run that had taken almost everything I had left we returned to the tent party in the parking lot. The day that had been was also taking it's toll on the rest of the Rome crew. Stories of slashes, rock ollies, funny spills and triumphant airs in the park filled the void between truck trailers and cinder blocks. Bevies flowed and I packed my bags to catch a ride to Burlington to catch a flight outa town and back to the Middle. It was a great day riding with great friends. Be good Vermont I'll return soon.
