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I skied today at the Edson Hill touring center in Stowe, Vermont.
Conditions were fair. There was plenty of snow, but the grooming was only fair. All the trails were open, but some trails had some water features. Edson Hill is in the second tier of cross-country centers in Stowe, unquestionably outclassed by Trapps and by Stowe Mountain Resort in the quantity and quality of skiing available. But I got a late start this morning, so Edson Hill was an adequate choice for a half-day's skiing. It would be an understatement to say that it was a lot less crowded than the first-tier touring centers. I think I saw one other skier in almost four hours of skiing. Usually there are a few more skiers than that at Edson Hill, but I guess the holiday crunch hasn't totally kicked in yet. The associated hotel, Edson Hill Manor, still had a "VACANCY", according to their sign. By the way, it's a gorgeous place to stay or to have a wedding or civil union, and their restaurant is excellent. I wouldn't call the skiing excellent, but it's not that bad. They have some easy trails and some decent hills - in fact, their trail system is an example of the One Big Hill syndrome that afflicts a lot of trail systems in Vermont, including Trapps. And if you are not a racer wannabe and don't feel like skiing with racer wannabes, you can rest (and then slowly ski) assured that you are very unlikely to come across any racer wannabes here. You might see some backcountry types heading out onto the Catamount Trail (section 24, formerly section U, starts here and meanders 12 miles to the northeast towards route 100 in Morristown). My motivation today was to map the Edson Trails by carrying my GPS receiver with me while skiing. I've already mapped all the trails on the west side of route 108, so now I'm closing in on the east side. I had mapped out half of the Edson Hill trails last winter, and I almost finished today, but I think I missed a few short sections, so I may have to go back again. I can already say that the simple map they give out at Edson Hill is not to scale. When I finish making my own map, I'll want to go back and fill in the major landmarks along the trails. In this case, the major landmarks are a number of houses that have been built in the area in the past decade. Edson Hill itself claims to have 225 acres of its own (it's a pretty big piece of property, if not at the scale of the Trapps' property holdings), but their trails also extend out across other people's property, as is typical at most trail networks in New England. This particular area happens to be one of the most expensive in Stowe. The houses start at McMansions and work their way up to Trophy Homes. It isn't as though there's likely to be anyone home, most of the time, but it is an odd feeling to be skiing so close to some of these "homes." This isn't really what I had in mind when I said that some parts of New England give you the sense of skiing through and across a settled time. Nor the condos at Waterville Valley, nor the just-built "villas" (don't call them "timeshares") at Trapps ... We're assured of one more day of good skiing. Tuesday's forecast includes "chance of snow or rain showers", Wednesday has "chance of snow or rain" (although Burlington TV station WCAX is flat outright predicting rain). Groomed trails (not sure whether that would include Edson Hill) (I meant places that groom with Pisten Bully) should survive the week. It's probably still too early for serious backcountry skiing anyway. Can't wait for winter to officially begin tomorrow! Lew Lasher Stowe, Vermont and Cambridge, Massachusetts |
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