Bruhns Update

Stone Hut

Matt Bruhns has been snapping shots all season long. He was there shooting for most of the stories I have written about. Here are some shots from our Stone Hut trip. Check out the story here. Enjoy.

Stone Hut refrigerator

Hoffman and I steaming
Hoffman right before he almost fell into the Rock Garden

Check out more of Matt's photos on his website.

- Austin

Pritchard Simmons

My bunny is bejewled.

- Austin

Waterburried

Every time I drive by Waterbury there are two different lines that I always think about. Both are power line trails. One is on the Stowe side of the highway, the other is across the Winooski. Both are visible from 89, right before the exit. With the two feet of snow Northern Vermont saw at the beginning of the week, Matt and I decided to spend the morning doing some suburban splitboarding.

At the bottom of the dam
Hot rocks melting an area of snow

The sun was out, so we decided to start at the Waterbury dam, which has good light in the morning. We arrived and found a significant layer of surface crust. Despite our disappointment, we decided to hike to the top of the dam and check out the other side. The snow on the other side of the dam was much softer and lacked a crust, but it was not nearly deep enough. We headed down and moved on to check out the power line trail off of Duxbury Road. JP met up with us for the hike.

Looking up at the first trail

After 20 or 30 minutes we reached the top. The snow was definitely there, but the grade was not. The ride down was fun, but rather uneventful. JP did drop a small cliff, which was a bit sketchy, given the manky underbrush and tree stumps hiding under the snow.

Matt

JP

Billy Ocean. What more do you need?

After we were done, JP took off, and Matt and I headed to the second power line trial. We parked in a neighborhood at the top of the trail and quickly took off though a few backyards. We arrived at the top of the trail to find more crust. We decided to drop down anyway. We both had to point it, as turns were almost impossible with the crust. Matt stuck an Austin Flip and cut his lip a bit on the upper layer of ice. Other than that, it was uneventful. We skinned back up in a shaded area, which would have made for a much more fun down than the open power line trail.

Getting ready for the second power line trail

We then went back to the dam to hike a few runs on a short, steep open hill right off of the road before the dam. After a few laps we decided to call it a day. I felt surprisingly worked for such a simple day.

The last hill

Setting up shots

-Austin

White Knucklin'

In Vermont, a lot of time is spent looking for good snow. Sometimes it can be a while before any is found. After a few rainy days, snow showed up. A lot of it. I woke at 4:30 to head out and split up Stowe with the intention of being at work by 10. I walked out of my house, stepped of the porch, and found myself thigh deep in snow. I continued walking and found my truck under a large white mushroom. The door plowed snow when I opened it to start the engine. After 10 minutes of scraping and clearing, I was pushing out of the driveway and into the pre-apocalypse.

As it was still pretty early, the roads were fairly clear- especially with most of the traffic flow discarded in snow banks and ditches. It was a peaceful feeling to know that I was escaping Burlington right before it woke up. As I merged onto 89 from 189, wind was aggressively disrupting plow drivers efforts, leaving huge wind lips and snow drifts haphazardly across the highway, ending my peaceful feeling. With the needle at 45 and fear in my eyes, I focused on making it to the parking lot at 6:00 to meet up with Matt.

I rolled in at 6:20. Matt was gone. The quad typically starts spinning at 7:30. I doubted that I would make it to the top of Liftline in an hour and ten minutes, so I headed over to the Gondola, which opens a bit later. I broke trail untill the top of the first pitch, when a groomer passed by, rolling out my magic carpet to the top. I was at the waterfall before 7:30.

The snow was light on top, but fairly heavy underneath. After one of the better rides of the season, I found myself stuck by the Midway lodge, wading through thigh deep snow trying to get back to my truck. I checked my cell phone to find good news- no work until 1:00. I headed over to the Triple, which was the only thing running, and met up with Hoffman. We took a few runs and managed to find fresh snow each time. We then headed over to the Gondola, which had only just started running. We got first tracks on Perry Merril, and then headed out to Angel Food, where I had some of the best turns I have had all season. A few more runs and I was ready to go to work- late.

I spent all day on the Freebird. Such a good board.










-Austin

Burga's Booter

PBR. Always well represented

Jeff Burga erected a jump somewhere in Vermont a week or so ago. The weather for Saturday was looking pretty glum. The forecast called for rain and sleet, which was supposed to turn to snow on Sunday. Not wanting to ride Stowe, and lacking the imagination to do anything other than snowboard, I joined Matt, Ryan, and Jeff for an afternoon of hiking, shoveling and fun.

Ryan takes a breather

Jeff and Matt had arrived at the jump at least an hour before Ryan and I made it out. Ryan was shopping for dresses and watching MMA videos on the Inter-web all morning, which hampered our arrival time.

Jeff thinks; Ryan drinks

We had a few hours before the building rain shower and tired legs finally drove us home. The jump was great. It was poppy with a good run-out. Once it was chopped up a bit, the snow was actually pretty decent.

Matt about to push that back leg out

Matt waiting for the shot

I should have some much better shots from his blog posted here soon. Now its time to hope this snow will come our way.












-Austin

Huckster

After a particularly interesting day of riding, Ryan and I stumbled upon this gem. We couldnt locate the driver, however. We have it on good authority that he was in a holding pattern high over the Tryo terrain park.

Lookin' tough!

-Austin

Its been a while

Stone Hut: The Adventures of Wolf Foot

No parking ban here

Its been a while since I last posted. In fact, after a few Scotch's, and failed Google searches, I had almost given up on even finding this Blog again. Alas, I found it, and now it is time to write. Stone Hut. Well, Stone Hut was fucking awesome. Our third year as the highest residents in the Greens proved to be the best so far. Just about every morning we awoke to several inches of snow- ranging from 4-14".

Ready for the week

I hiked up after work on the first night, Saturday, and was treated to the biggest dump of the week, 14 or so inches on Sunday morning.

Shock Therapy at 3550'

Having only my Freebird with me, I had adequate time to get to know my new splitboard, as I was too jazzed on puff snow to take the time to head to the truck and switch to a different board.

running on coffee

Back to the topic at Hand: the Stone Hut being rad. Due to poor planning, poor budgeting, and poor life decisions, I only had three of the seven days off. I skipped one night, and skinned up the other three. One night, I was halfway up Nosedive and was offered a ride by one of the Groomers. The issue was that I had only burned off half of my 4Loco. The other half was spent annoying the rest of the Stone Hut Gang while I cranked beers and made noise. Bed time comes early at Stone Hut, which I found out the hard way after my hikes.

Preseason Product Testing

This is not to say that we did not share in group revelry- it is simply to say that I was often too late to experience the finer parts of living on top of a mountain with no power, no running water, flowing alcohol, and good pals.

Matt practicing for the Dream Olympics

The week wasn't all 4Loco chuggin' and hot sauce snoozin'. We did a shit load of riding too, which brings me back to the snow. Last year, when the Stone Hut Gang officially re-formed, we did so amidst bitter cold temperatures and cruel winds. We saw no real accumulation last season during our 13 nights. With a reduced stay of only 7 nights, our hopes of slayin' blower and wavin' shakas was too reduced. For naught, though. Mornings at the Mansfield Spa treated us to heavy facials on all but two of the mornings. Bros and bras alike were stoked to the max.

No action shots, but lifestyles for days

After several months of riding chair, this new blanket provided our addled minds with respite from repetitive Standard runs and laps through the park. We spent a decent amount of time poking around the Notch, checking out some old favorites, and seeking out new ones.

My reward after a particularly interesting skin
Fresh of the Set of Harry and the Henderson's II: The Most Harry Henderson, Hoffman finds time to take a knee and open wide

While I didn't get to experience the Stone Hut with he same intimacy as I did last year, I had an even better time. Why? Because I am better at it. All of us were better at it. We brought less and expected more. We took advantage of warmer nights and better conditions. We hiked more. We drank less?

On top of it all

Ending the week with a tour to the Booger Fields

-Austin