Hardest Trail in the East
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
I thought of some steep pitches that are marked, but not listed on the ski area trail map (they're homemade (or altered) signs that you wouldn't find without some mucking around in the woods)..."Three cliffs" at MRG, "Growler" at Stowe, and "Vortex" (there's another older name, but someone went thru the effort of making the Vortex sign, so I'll go with that) at Jay...and if anyone else knows all 3 here at Kzone, then I want to ski with you!
Re: Hardest Trail in the East
So close... I know Vortex and Three Cliffs. Maybe have done Growler probably just use a different name for it.
Re: Hardest Trail in the East
the Growler sign is funny, it even has a warning "if you slide-slip this, I'll find you" or something like that...and the sign looks like it's held on by a knife stuck in it (but there were nails or screws also), so I'm sure it's still there.
Re: Hardest Trail in the East
Oh, I haven't seen that. I'll have to search for it next time I visit. 

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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
DES wrote:the Growler sign is funny, it even has a warning "if you slide-slip this, I'll find you" or something like that...and the sign looks like it's held on by a knife stuck in it (but there were nails or screws also), so I'm sure it's still there.
That's funny. I often ski the woods at MRG solo, and on the occasions that i side-slip through a tight transition I always apologize out loud - to the snow I left in that condition and to those who will encounter it.
Not known for being terribly steep mountain, at the middlebury snow bowl there's a really nice technical steep below the upper portion of the bailey's chair that really rolls over upon approach.
Green line at magic has a steep little pitch as well, and upper black line has some tricky drops and transitions.
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- Below bailey's - sorry for low res
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Last edited by buckethead on May 9th, '17, 17:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
Whichever trail I'm on when my knees start to hurt.
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Killington Zone
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave
"The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function" =
F. Scott Fitzgerald
"There's nothing more frightening than ignorance in action" - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
I thought of that also, but I think the LPT liftline at Pico is hairier.buckethead wrote:Not known for being terribly steep mountain, at the middlebury snow bowl there's a really nice technical steep below the upper portion of the bailey's chair that really rolls over upon approach.

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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
Nice pic Bucketed. Love that drop under the Baileys chair. Keep your speed at the bottom of the steep as the runout gets real flat. Watched a pretty large skier induced snow slide in that spot from the chair years back.
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine.
Re: Hardest Trail in the East
DJ's Tramline this February. This trail needs a lot of snow to be doable and it doesn't open often. We asked Ski Patrol, he said he did it yesterday but not sure about conditions today because of the wind, "be careful". Upper part was wind blown, lower was good.
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
In my opinion, having skied both, DJ's Tram Line at Cannon is harder than Goat at Stowe.
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
Still a big fan of Rumble at Sugarbush and the woods left of it.
The guys in this video do NOT belong on Rumble...
https://youtu.be/4VEH9bfn9Jw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The guys in this video do NOT belong on Rumble...
https://youtu.be/4VEH9bfn9Jw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Last edited by RustyK on May 10th, '17, 11:57, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
Woods left of Goat are better than the trail also.RustyK wrote:Still a big fan of Rumble at Sugarbush and the woods left of it.
If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine.
Re: Hardest Trail in the East
So that looks like a good list (I don't know if I ever skied Profanity at Stowe from your original list but I've skied everything else except Middlebury snow bowl). I have a feeling that I don't rate DJ's tramline higher only because ever since it's been allowable to ski it, I've only skied it when conditions were great...unlike Rumble and Goat where I've skied those when there was more ice, rock and dirt than snow.
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Re: Hardest Trail in the East
Trees between Starr and National Headwalls have a nice pucker factor. Pics from Friday 17Mar17 after Stella. Only had one pole at this point as I broke my other pole in Angel Food earlier and my spare set of poles were trapped in some underground valet parking. I hate yet love Stowe in the same breath.
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If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine.
Re: Hardest Trail in the East
I hear ya about Stowe...love the mountain and the forerunner quad, don't like anything else (workers, problems using discounts, other skiers attitudes, parking, walking distances to lifts...) so unless it's free, I'd go the extra distance to Jay from now on in my life.