Through My Window #4 comes to you from the amazingly incredible Four Runner Quad!! I have to say… If I’m going to be working outside this is where I want to be. The people that work here are cool, everything is setup to make my job easy, and I often have opportunities to get a run or two in. Today I was especially appreciative of the few runs I was allowed because it snowed most of the day and it was nice to be able to take advantage. 

Anyway… just another day working on the front lines at Stowe Mountain Resort.

This edition of Through My Window comes to you from the Mountain Triple Lift. The Mountain Triple is the ugly step sibling of the Four Runner Quad… it’s slower, serves less challenging and less total terrain, and doesn’t hold as many people. Because of this things can be pretty slow over this way, and many people only end up here because they got lost and don’t want to take on the short flat and slight incline necessary to get back to the Four Runner. But it’s outside and that’s not a bad thing. 

Later.

Here is the second installment of Through My Window coming to you alone and bored from the Gondola Ticket Window. At least today I got to read more of my book and catch up on some of the items in my RSS Feed. Not a hugely busy day, but it was nice out and because I got off early I did get to ski for bit.

Till the next time…

So, I’ve become pretty bored at work lately. This winter I took a job at Stowe Mountain Resort thinking that it might be fun, I would get paid, and I would get to ski a lot and for free. Well, I do get paid, but it’s a lot more boring than it is fun. I do get to ski for free, but so far this season the snow here in the East has been pretty sucky and I now know why none of the resorts in the East ever make the Top 10 lists of great places to ski… unless we’re talking tree skiing. In that case the East is always mentioned because they have a lot of trees… they’re smaller and more tightly spaced so if you can ski trees here you can ski trees anywhere. However, that doesn’t mean you want to ski the trees out here.

Anyway, due to the sheer magnitude of the boredom associated with work right now I’ve started taking my camera with and I think I’m going to start a new series called “Through My Window” which will be random photos shot at the various places I work around the mountain. I can’t say these are going to be the most interesting posts in the world, but they give me something to do during the day.

So, without further ado… here’s the first set! These were all taken at the Four Runner Quad while working as the gate attendant there. I’m going to implement a “No Captions Rule” because I’m feeling lazy and I don’t feel like typing them all out.

Later.

So, just yesterday I was fortunate enough to have the day off and was lucky enough that my day off just happened to coincide with the first real powder day at Stowe Mountain. The snow started on Thursday and came and went during the next couple of days culminating with a 10-14 inch dump on Friday night. On Saturday morning Mari, our friend Nick and I got up early and headed for the mountain. We arrived early and the first couple of runs were nothing short of amazing. The big skis were definitely justified and everyone on the mountain was stoked!!

The new 4Runner Quad… this is the place to be on a powder day. It provides access to all the best runs and glades. 

Snowing at the base of the 4Runner Quad…

Nick enjoying Upper Smugs… 

At one point while exploring the Nosedive Glades I ended up hugging a tree… I never claimed to be a good skier, but that doesn’t stop me from trying. One of these days I will own the trees… one of these days…

Looking out at Smuggler’s Notch from the base of the Mountain Triple…

Nick at the top of the 4Runner Quad looking down on the rest of VT… not a bad way to spend a day

The last couple of months have been good to me as far as photo contests go. Above is an image that helped me win some gear from the Gear Junkie. In the photo Aaron Lalonde and his two pups can be seen hiking up Center Bowl at Mont Ripley one morning. I really should thank Aaron for helping make this image so cool. 

Here’s the link to the original post - gearjunkie.com/photo-contest-winners-weekday-warrior

Later.

So, I’ve again found a photo of mine being chosen as the winner of Wend Magazine’s weekly Friday Photo Contest. I know it’s not in print, but it always makes you feel good when someone choses to show other people one of your images. Also, I won a spotting scope… not sure what I’m going to do with it, but I’ll have it. If anyone out there wants it just let me know and it’s yours. 

Here’s a link to the original post – www.wendmag.com/blog/2011/12/16/friday-photo-december-late-launch/

Later. 

 So, I haven’t posted in a while, but the short of the long of it is this…

As the winter semester ended so did Mari’s job at Bates College in Maine. Fortunately, Mari had lined up a job at Johnson State College in Vermont, so just before Christmas Mari and I packed up our things and headed west four hours and are now living in the Burlington area… more specifically Richmond. Currently, Mari is on break as classes don’t begin until the 12th of this month, and I took a job at Stowe Ski Resort in order to secure season passes for the both of us and with hopes of getting to do a lot of skiing this year and maybe even become a decent skier… maybe. 

Anyway, this past Monday was one of my days off and it also happened to be Mari’s cousin Meg and her boyfriend Andy’s last day of break also. So, we made plans to do a little hike and after meeting for lunch in Jericho we headed over to Smuggler’s Notch to hike the Sterling Pond Trail. To tell you the truth I’m not sure that’s the actual name of the trail, but we hiked on a trail that took us to Sterling Pond… therefore in my mind it’s the Sterling Pond Trail. 

The hike started by parking where the Notch Road ended and hiking up the road a little ways. We eventually moved off the road and into the woods and proceeded to head up towards Spruce Peak and Sterling Pond. At this point in the season it’s probably no surprise that there isn’t a lot of snow here. Actually, you might be surprised that there’s any snow in the photos at all. Truthfully though it was pretty great. There was enough snow to make it an exceptionally scenic hike, while not so much snow to need snowshoes or to make forward and upward progress difficult. 

I have to say… it’s nice to get out and just go for a short hike. I love being outside and being with friends and days like today are really special. Hopefully, there will be more days like this this winter.

Osa looking very dapper… 

Mari, Andy and Meg… still going up… 

Almost there… 

Up and over and down to the pond… 

Sterling Pond. To the left, about 50 yards or so away is the top of Smuggler’s Notch Ski Resort… cool place for a pond 

A distant glimpse of the Notch… Vermont is pretty alright

Mission accomplished… now where did we leave the car..?

So, I’ve seen quite a few of these video portraits lately and while it’s not anything new… It is an interesting concept to me. Over Thanksgiving I took my father’s new D7000 and made some short clips of family members willing to sit still for a minute or so. This is what I came away with.

Later.

So, it feels like we just moved to Maine… and I suppose we did as we’ve only been here 5 months. Anyway, it’s already time to move on. The last few months have been fun, but I can’t say that we’re any closer to finding a permanent life path. This next leg of our journey should be fun though. In just a couple of days we will be packing up again and moving to Vermont. For the time being we’re going to be crashing on couches and with some luck we will have a new place to live within a few months. 

Being here has been fun and I have to say that I’m pretty disappointed that we won’t have the opportunity to explore more of Maine. I was really excited about the 100 mile wilderness, kayaking in Acadia National Park, and being within striking distance of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Also, I met some really cool people here, and not just the kind of people you become acquainted with, friend on Facebook and go have a drink with after a long day at work. These guys are long-term friend material, and it’s unfortunate that our paths are diverging. 

Anyway, I just wanted to share some recent photos from Maine and wish everyone a Happy Holidays!

Later.

Eric and his girlfriend Sam

The man himself… Jason Bosch

Another snap of Eric

Freddy the cat…