Mountain Layout—Snowboarding

Freeriders will really like this mountain. Beginners should focus on Lower Spruce. Intermediates should head to Mt. Mansfield for long carving runs on Gondolier, Perry Merrill and Sunrise. You'll also enjoy the intermediate trails on Spruce, which are now covered with snowmaking and served by new lifts. As the day progresses, advanced riders should move from Liftline and Nose Dive to Hayride and Centerline, then North Slope. Nose Dive takes you into some nice tree riding. There's also good hikeable terrain off the gondola. Avoid the Toll Road, it's way too long and has too many flats (even for an expert).

Rimrock, which takes you from Nose Dive over to the trails off the gondola, requires snowboarders to carry their speed (but don't miss those nice tree shots). Crossover, which takes you from the quad trails to the gondola trails, also has some pretty flat parts. And be ready for the flats coming from Tyro, site of the terrain park, and Standard back to the lifts.

Parks and pipes
At the mountain that Burton founder Jake Burton Carpenter now calls home, snowboarding is one of the top priorities. Tyro, the biggest of the resort’s three terrain parks, attracts many Burton employees and features more than a dozen different elements, including boxes, rails, jibs, tabletops, rollers and a quarterpipe. If you haven’t had enough after the top half of Tyro, stay the course: the lower section has so many rails you can’t hit them in one run. (In the early season, when Tyro isn’t yet open, Stowe sets up rails on lower North Slope, an area called Jib Nation by locals.)

For a change of pace, hit the top of Tyro then use Crossover to access Stowe’s superpipe, a competition-caliber pipe on North Slope. Both are best accessed by the Mountain Triple. There is great freeriding to Tyro from the top of the Lookout Double or FourRunner Quad.

Stowe’s two other terrain parks are designed for learners or less hardcore aerialists. The Midway Mini Park, near the Midway Lodge, features its own surface lift and hits that are out in the open for everyone to see. Demos are often staged here because of the visibility. The Spruce Terrain Park directly beneath the Alpine Double chairlift on Spruce Mountain offers more easy elements and fewer riders lined up to hit them.

Photographed at Stowe Mountain Resort, Vermont, by Landwehrle Studio