Stowe is a top-notch eastern ski area. The runs are long and varied, the snow deep by East Coast standards, and the decision to stop the lifts short of the summit of Mansfield means no death-defying, wind-scoured descents are required to reach skiable terrain (unlike Jay Peak, for example).

All that said, any comparisons to the West are misplaced. The weather is still bitter cold and overcast, the snow rock hard when not scary ice, and the trails narrow and over-crowded. The woods are better, but Stowe has been slower than most eastern resorts to create skiable gladed areas by thinning the trees. Sure, you can enjoy the non-thinned areas with little company if you are a superb skier. However, for the rest of us, the prospect of skiing on a 60 percent pitch in a field full of closely spaced telephone poles is not overly inviting.