#14: Andre Blais: Ten Years Creating the Stowe Snow Report and Weather Guru

Have you ever wondered what really goes into the daily Stowe Snow Report that we enjoy everyday from the comfort of our homes on our iPhone? Well wait no more as this week we have the Godfather of the Stowe Snow Report Andre Blais!

Join us for an exhilarating and informative chat with Andre as he runs us through the ins and outs of what it takes to create this product we have all come to appreciate so much. From 5 foot storm cycles, after hours mountain operation tales and Charlie Lord's first snow report at Stowe you do not want to miss this episode. 

Transcript

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I don't know, I don't know. Good morning, skiers and riders. my name is Ted Thorndike and I'm joined by my cohost, Mike Carey for the Octagon podcast. We are very excited to have a special guest this evening. Andre Blaze. Andre is. Also known as the snow report guru at Stowe Mountain Resort. And he has been running the Stowe Snow Report for over 10 years now. And every time you call that number in the morning, it's his voice giving us all the data and information of snow and conditions that we all have come to appreciate so much right before we head up to the mountain. So without further ado, welcome Andre. Thank you so much for having me. I love the podcast. You guys doing a great job. I really appreciate being involved. It means a lot to me. Thank you. Awesome. Welcome. You've been, you've been skiing a lot. Are you an everyday guy? Depends on who's asking. I try to ski as much as possible. As you know, it only is snows in the winter time. So we have to make hay when the sun shines. And yeah, I skied today. It was fantastic. that pack powder base is just there. It's not going anywhere. What an incredible January so far. Sneaky three inches, two inches, four inches, all the time, you know, much prefer the one to three than the big storms. It adds up. I agree with that. When did you first begin doing the Stowe Snow Report? I was trying to remember the exact date, but a long story short, we were, Up at the mountain and Gretchen. I don't know if you guys remember Gretchen. shout out to the G boss. she had it waking up that early is not for everybody. And so she threw in the towel and I was in the right place at the right time. And. To be completely honest, the only reason I wanted to do the snow report was to get up on the mountain early, back, We were able to load the quad and the gondola to conduct observations, before the public, so we had that, that perk, and, that was the reason for, for it all. That's how it all began. So it was about a decade ago, Scott Brayton, who's still, still doing it, We got together and did the, Interview process and the rest is history. It's it's been a great decade of observations. And can't wait for the next decade. Yeah. Awesome. Nice. What's what's the history of the Snow Report? you've got phone and internet now, but I assume the Snow Report must go way back. I remember faxes. I remember you'd go to a hotel and they'd have a fax Right. Yeah. Report of it. I don't know if they still do that, but It's gotta go way back to early days. Everybody, you know, you want to know what's going on, especially with the weather. not only for, your enjoyment, but what gear you're going to use and going back to the 30s and 40s. I can only imagine, those days when getting information wasn't as easy as it is today. It's it's been going on since day one. and I've spoken with Brian Lindner and all the other Folks up at the mountain and regarding the history. It's very it's very fascinating to me. But the original snow reporter was Charlie Lord He would go this is just so cool right in Mansfield base where it is today it was much smaller back then and he would go out they had the sole trail map the only one and Rumor has it folks would wait for him to come out and gather around and he'd come out and he had a, a, uh, basket with different, pieces of wood, which each had written on them good, fair, yeah, I see any type of, yeah, all the different, all the different adjectives. And he would go on to the, this board and he would, he would hook up the signs and for the conditions for the different areas of the mountain. Sick. really cool. I mean, fast forward to the telephone era when people started all getting phones. I can just imagine people plugging in the switchboard and hello, and they would, they would do it that. And then, yeah, I remember the days when You'd go to anywhere in town, had it printed out, on the counter at every establishment, every hotel, just everywhere. So that would come out via fax, and I would go out and actually did that when I first started, we were still doing that. So 10 years ago, we were still faxing out the snow report, early in the morning to all the spots in town. And yeah, now it's, it's Everywhere, you know, Twitter, website, all that stuff. You can, you can get the info. Pretty cool how a lot of folks rely on it day to day and they also rely on it to stay connected to Stowe. Folks call it from around the world. It's pretty cool to hear that, that I'm down in New York. Miami, LA, and I'm calling the Stowe Snow Report just to stay connected. Yeah, I think you've contributed to a lot of FOMO. Yeah. There's some days I'm don't check. Don't check. FOMO. It's real. FOMO is real. Snowmo. Snowmo. You should have been here on Tuesday. Nothing better than telling your friend that that doesn't live here. But How many people call the snow phone a day still? Or at its peak, was it thousands of people calling it? we have some data that comes in through all the different channels, but I've heard the word thousands used. Yeah. I find that very hard to believe, but when you think about it in a little stow bubble, you know, however many folks live are here at one given point 000. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever. But when it's full. Right with guests and visitors. It's got to be up in the the tens of thousands. Yeah, but that's just Stowe, right? So you have the Burlington crew and everyone else in the region that comes here people call our report for info In just northern Vermont info not necessarily the mountain there, right? So We used to We had a phone system back, man, now we're talking before veil where if you were calling the phone, you couldn't record the message. That the old school you know, you have to wait for no one to be calling it, right? So I was you always had people who would call early 545 550 so we're trying to record the message They're trying to hear the message, but neither of us can do anything Wow and then you start the clock ticks every minute towards six when it all the calls start coming in and then There were days when we couldn't publish till 20 and we were literally sitting at a desk trying to record it, just sweating bullets Oh man, this stinks. we've graduated from that. Technology has improved. So luckily we don't have to have to wait around for that anymore. Yeah. So I think what could be kind of cool is just run us through the day. I'm a big routine guy. I'm always just curious. What are people's routines? if you're doing the Snow Report. Wake up time until you finally pump out the final products and, measurements, all that, give us a rundown. So, it's, it's truly a 24 seven thing. we communicate, we have the most hilarious text, thread, Scott, Brayton, Matt Testa and myself. And. So, it's literally 24 7 on the most ridiculous snow. Always monitoring. Just always talking. I mean, it's pure comedy. so that's 24 7. So, I'll speak for myself. Brayton has his routine. Matt has his routine. But, I try to get a good night's sleep the night before. which is impossible. yeah, I have a small family and stuff. I'd rather hang out and, watch the Celtics than go to bed at 8am. And be on the weather text thread. And be on the weather text thread. so get a good night's sleep. I set my alarm for 4am. wake up. move about my house a cat burglar, try not to wake up the dog, wake up my wife. So I'm tiptoeing around. I've got it dialed in now, have all my stuff ready, prepared to go, night before night before. Oh yeah. Yeah. I got it. Everything's ready to go. So I can just get right out of there and make a cup of tea, out the door by 415, 420. I'm on the road. good time to be leaving. Good, great time to be heading out. There's nobody on the road, only plows. the occasional late night reveler kind of swerving around, mountain road, and plow trucks are the only people out at that time. So I head up to the mountain. It's about 10 minutes from my house. Get to the mountain 430, I'll check the Barnes camp snow plot, which is, you guys know the building right there. there's a, there's a snow stake there back in the woods. That's a good 1500 foot snow plot. That's pretty protected. It's a good base area measurement. I'll check that. then head back over. I park right in front of MOC, which is great. it's just the plows are out, they're doing their thing in the parking lot. It's pretty amazing to see that operation. I'm sure. Yeah, those guys, five, six trucks, big trucks. Percy, yeah, Percy's doing it. They're doing their thing. Stay out of their way. Head into MOC. Turn the lights on, quarter to five, if I'm, if I'm on, on target, I go right into the dispatch office, and hit up the grooming team. Say, what are you guys up to? How's it going? Try to feel them out for, you know, what kind of mood they're in. Those guys are incredible. they, obviously. They make it all happen. They make it all happen. Oh, boy do they ever. yeah, so I check in with them. see what's going on. Not only for snowfall, but for you name it. we have a grooming plan that's established the day before at snow plan, which goes down, pretty much with all snow surfaces team. So snowmaking, ski patrol, grooming, snow reporting lifts. We all get together and have, have a little powwow every day to figure out the plan for the next day. So I check with. With the grooming team, see what's going on with the plan. Usually it's complete. Sometimes they remove something from the plan. Sometimes they add something to the plan. Depends on what's going on. If there's any issues, mechanical issues or weather issues or staffing issue, it's driving, at night. on a mountain in those vehicles has got to be one of the most incredible things. Those guys are amazing. So check in with them right around 4 55, five o'clock. The other day I called them at quarter to five and they were it's early. I was wow, you guys are, you guys know, I was actually up at the, stone hut the day, the day I saw you. Yeah. so 5 0 AM I sit down at the desk. And I have, my little setup, it's two monitors, radio, my phone, I get out some some nice Bose headphones. I select usually, today in Grateful Dead history. So I play a show from that day. That is a good way to start the new day. Pick pick one of those and throw that on the headphones and this then I just start plugging away, and I had go through all the Instrumentation we have available to us and all of the Data that comes in from National Weather Service and just start formulating the report in a very laid out Format so it starts with the greeting And it goes through all the way down, through the line. And yeah, and by the next thing you know, it's 5. 30. I have pretty much written the report. I'm still calculating acreage and what's groomed and groomed miles. And everything's just all happening kind of all at the same time. And then as we get closer to 6 a. m. rather, it's Time to record the actual phone message, which is a whole other thing. The phone is, it's kind of the best. it's special every day. really unique to the day. Whereas, a written report, you're reading it. you can really hear in the reporter's voice, some, some stoke. If it's if it's dumping. It's definitely an element of excitement that you can convey. better than, the written report. so, 6 a. m., the phone message is recorded. I then switch gears to all the written stuff. Pump out the website, written report, Pump out the Twitter report. On the Snow, which is a service that pumps out ski area data to the world. And then the other one is Snow Country. It's a similar thing. So when you're watching News Channel 5, it says the different snowfall at different ski resorts. that's where all that data comes from. I do an internal report that gets sent out to key figures throughout the resort. And by now it's 6. 30. people start rolling into MOC. patrol, lifts, dispatch are all physically starting to show up. I speak to those guys and gals, just fill them in on anything they need to know. and then I dial in on the trails that were groomed and that are going to be open, which is a lot harder than everyone can imagine. we have, what's the count now? 130 ish. So, you go through each one and it's groomed or not groomed. It's very simple in theory. because we have so many different places you can check it out now. on, on site, there's those really cool new boards with the lights and stuff. It's really cool. So you want to be dialed and you want to not, mess up because. It's not cool if you think Tyro's groomed and you're heading to it first thing. That's your choice for first run and you get there and it hasn't been groomed and it's you know, or something even, you know, lift line or hayride standard sometimes. You get there and it's not groomed and, and people let me know. I'm sure. People let me know, yeah. So I dial in the trails, dial in the, open, close, you know, all that stuff. The trail, the website's all dialed. I sit back, I read the website again, go through it one more time with a fine tooth comb just to make sure I have all my punctuation, et cetera, dialed in. So then, it's 7 o'clock. start to get, ready to head out onto the hill, and at that point I'm heading out, to just get out on the hill. And, it's pretty free form from that point on, depending on what we have for snow. So if we have had, new accumulating snowfall, then it's time to, start hitting all the different snow plots. observe what actually fell, in the different locations. As you know, it snows a lot different on the Gandhi side than it does the quad side or the East Ridge or spruce is a lot of different, different, spots that catch snow different. So then I'm out, I'm out on the hill. I, I load the chairs, with the public. we used to, have early loads. We don't do that anymore, much to our chagrin. Is that a veil? Is that a veil change? That was a veil policy, yeah, yeah. So only patrol goes up first or? yeah. So patrol on the quad, I can speak for the quad, the patrol gets four chairs worth of people that's considered line check. And then they go up and start to do their thing. And yes, people park rangers get in on that sometimes, there's F& B people for the octagon, things that. But it totally makes sense. it, it, it makes a lot of sense to keep, people off the mountain until everything has clearance. And checked out. Yeah. You know, it's, it's, it's a lot going on, especially with the grooming machines out there. I'm sure. Yeah. Nobody wants to, ski up on one of those. That's a surprise. Yeah. That's a lot. There's a lot going on with that, right? I read the report and you would never know there's that much. Going on to, to deliver that. It's, it's, it goes by the two hours from 5:00 AM to 7:00 AM goes by in a flash. and the rest of the day goes by in a flash too.'cause it's, it's just such an honor to be out there and, and doing, doing all the things we do. it's cool though. it all, it's all about, watershed and water. In the spring that is the National Weather Service's main concern about snowfall. Snowfall is water, right? And how much water is gonna flow into Lake Champlain. It's very cool. Yeah, how it all ties in Yeah, so the measurement we see on the snow report that is Barnes Camp Snowplot or no, it's usually a man. No. Yeah, so we check them all So the early morning one is Barnes camp, which is 1, 500 feet But now we have the lookout snow plot with the webcam webcam, which isn't the best snow plot from a snow collection stamp. You guys know right where it is right at the top of the lookout right there in the woods. It's windy, it's kind of exposed, it has that little knoll that comes up kind of round. So will somebody pass that information to you? Cause you're probably not up at the lookout snowplot yet, but no, that's the one on the webcam. That's just, Oh God. So you're looking at it we look at it. Time laughs. I've rewinding it. making a snow, who sweeps it? Who sweeps this? Do you sweep it? So so I'd never see the hand. I just see it goes from six inches to zero. I got two stories here, so just, it flips. It's a contraption. Yeah, it's a no. Oh, what? No, Andre. No, it's a contraption. What? You're, that's sick. It's a contraption. My life has changed forever. So what? So. Veil brought a lot of excitement to the mountain, a lot of unknowns. they're a great, I'm, I'm, I am a hundred percent pro veil. Just, I'll just throw that out there. I really veil itself is amazing. Back bowls are amazing. love veil. Anyway, when it switched over to veil from AIG, there's a lot of excitement. And one of the things that. is hilarious was they were we're sending you a snow stake and everyone was what do you mean? great. you know, and I'm the low, I'm the lowest, a ruler. You're going to send us a ruler. Yeah. I'm the lowest of low on the totem pole. and It came on a truck, a semi truck. And they're the snow stake is here. And we're what? Okay. You know, it was trucked in. And it's this really cool contraption. It's all one piece. it has a huge concrete base. It has a, a center piece of steel. And on the, that's on a, A shaft with a motor and at 6 a. m. it flips. Wow, so the one you see on the website, there's two of those and it flips. and it has also integrated and it has the camera, a light. You all the power and stuff that. Yeah. so that took a little while to get plugged in and we didn't know where we were gonna put it. We kind of had to figure out a okay place that had power. You know, Scott and I wanted to put it these far away places. Right. And they really, we need power. So yeah. There it is. so it flips at 6:00 AM every day. That's cool. It flips at 6:00 AM Did not know that. That's amazing. Cool. Fun fact. So. I was going to tell you another story about the flipping or the clearing. So I was there the other day to, fix the clock. The clock was wrong, right? It was the battery. The battery was dying. So it wasn't it wasn't keeping up. So I'm in there and I'm kind of about to start. I didn't want to disturb the. The aesthetics of it, you want to tromp in there, there's a real cool drift in there. So I'm trying to take the thing off, and these two dudes ski up. And they say, Are you swiping, are you clearing the snow from the snow stake? I said, no, I'm not. And I was just kind of in the middle of doing it, and they were just kind of hanging out right there. And one of the guys says, Oh, I hope you're fixing the clock. I don't know what time it is. My home every day, it's ups, everything's upside down in my world because the clock is wrong. And I just chuckled because, you know, that's kind of, that was one of, One of the things on our text, it was about on you guys. Terrified you're missing a six inch storm because the clock's wrong and you're watching the wrong recording. That's good. So, so where are the, I'm trying to think where are the other stakes? Cause you were saying that snow is different all across the mountain. So when you report. six inches, you ever see four there and eight over by the gondola? And I'm just curious, all the different stakes and yeah, we're very conscious of the sensitivity around snow reporting. there's really and, and Scott Brayton is the, is the, it's so funny. He is very, careful with what we, we put out for, observation total. So yeah, so you have your base elevation measurement, 1500 feet. Then you have the 3000 foot lookout snowplot, which is right there. But the other thing about that snowplot is elevated. So it's not on the ground, right, to accommodate the mechanical flip. So it's holding a pizza box up in the air and catching snow on it. It's not really the best, it's great for, it's a great visual and people watch it. I have it up on a separate screen, the U Log, you know, it's just snowflakes. The U Log, that's good. so, we have those. Then we have the, the the fabled Mount Mansfield summit stake, of course, on the way up to, which is right, right up off the toll road, when you're heading up skiers left, that stake is incredible in so many ways. it's the standard, for Northern, for all of Vermont, really it's Vermont's highest peak. It's the depth. There's pretty, pretty deep, consistently from year to year. I don't know of any other mountains that really have a base, summit base depth stake that has the history that that one does. really cool. Stu, the guy, the gentleman from WCAX used to observe those measurements. would do it for so long they were up there. I think it's 1965, they've been observing the data from there. That's the stake when we get when we go online and see Snow Stake, it's there's a couple sites that track it. Yeah. History, the average. Totally. That's that. Always love skiing by that. It's just a really cool feeling. Yeah. It's, it's awesome. it's cool the way it's made. It's a, it's a little bigger than a two by four, maybe a two by six or something. it's hand painted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's really cool. It's really cool. there's a, there's the same stake in, it's Major Jones, Trace Amigos area. There's one, in Oh Shit. Yeah. Yeah. In that little shoot area. Okay. There's one in there. Oh, wow. That's been there. That one's really cool. It's the, it's identical to the, the, the summit stake one. So yeah, so what's cool about the summit stake one is not only is it measuring base depth, but it also, if you're on it, it is a good daily observation. so if we get, say, 10 at lookout and 6 at the base, but the summit stake only went up 10. you're okay, it's 1200 feet higher. so you can really, you can take them all again and it just kind of calculates, calculate in your brain. the other snowplot is the high road snowplot, which is off of, Perry Merrill, the high road and Perry Merrill intersection. Yeah. it's in the woods, a little ways, beautiful snow plot, but it's flat. No one really skis through there because there isn't really any pitch, so you really wouldn't want to ski through there. it has a nice little opening, and it catches all that, chin, you know, ridge, upslope, snow, that kind of flows in that area sometimes. So, that one is, again, 3, 000 feet, so we have now two, one at lookout. One over there. So that's really it's a good some good data points. Absolutely good data points and then yeah, so then the number you see is kind of a a mash up of all of them We never use the highest we're not fishing conservative, yeah, we're not fishing for big numbers and stuff and This last cycle, when it was really windy, a couple weeks ago. Yeah, that would, must have been very difficult. Impossible. Impossible. It was impossible. We have a few things, though, we can rely on. One being the summit stake, right? that doesn't lie. that is, that's there. our high road plot is very consistent. we take that. but there's also other things. QPF, quantitative precipitation forecasted. It's, it's, it's a, measurement. They, how much water's in the sky, right? So you can use that. that's cool. And we do, and then we bounce it back and forth that last cycle. A few other mountains really ran away with their snow totals from our number. So if you look now, there's, you know, a good 20, 30 inches higher than us. Jay Peak. I was gonna say, I was gonna say, I've got, Jay Peak seems to always report 50 percent more now. Is there a snow report guy there that you and him must Have a little battle with I cannot confirm or deny. Yeah, smart. That's good. Good. But now they measure at the top, I gotta believe.'cause when you go to jp, you're ski, you start at the top Right. Which is 4200, 40, 100 feet. I can't speak to their, their process I don't know. I, I, I, I, yeah. all right. I I, it's cool how methodical you guys are though, to really get a behind the scenes look I think I appreciate that. you do your best to give an accurate number. Right. And that's cool. You can't say it's eight inches and it's only four. I mean, you, it's, we do when you say two and it's eight and then nobody comes up. Exactly. So, yeah. We try not to do that. we try to, give a great representation because if you're in Burlington, right? And you have, you have, you have one, one, one more personal day, your sick day you can take. And, you don't get that info. I will say stuff like. it's snowing heavily, cause at 6am, we may only have two inches, but if it's snowing heavily by first chair, there's going to be another two, three, four. but also you don't want to deceive anybody we walked a line with, no, I think it's accurate. I'm a weather nerd. My go to is Noah, Noah. gov, Forecaster Discussion. Oh, excellent. So, is that, if you were to tell people, alright, you want a good weather source, what's your go to? I'd use the Discussion as my number one go to spot. Yeah, there you go. absolutely love what they do up there. we're definitely in touch with those guys and gals. for a bunch of different things throughout the season. the discussion is not for everybody. it's over a lot of folks heads. but that is, I read, that's one of the first things I read every morning. and then I just go to the detailed point forecast and plug in 3600 feet, that kind of one right there. Then you can go up on the other side, depending on which way the wind's blowing. Try to look at a bunch of different areas all around the ridge and on the other side that. I do enjoy, single chair blog. Really awesome. yeah, that's pretty spectacular snow reporting. Jackson Hole. I checked them out. Not that it has anything to do with Vermont. But, they do a great job. shout out Jeffrey Ledger. The ledge. Dr. Huck and stuff. One of the greatest snow reporters in this galaxy. He's unbelievable. yes, and then, and then, local news, local weather news. Those guys are really kind of into it. Tyler Jankowski, yeah, they have a lot of stuff at their fingertips, a lot of really cool technology, so they share stuff. Noah, yeah. Brayton cast, of course. Oh yeah, absolutely. That's another good one's. Tim Kelly? He does tk. Oh, tk. He's a good weather guy. I him. And there's what Chetty, what's his name? Tim. Kelly. He, he publishes on the JP site, so, but he does a daily weather thing. He's pretty good. He's really good. love Tim Kelly. tk, he, he does the, JP, what do they call it? It's a weather blog or something. Yeah. he's a Stowe. He's a Stowe guy. Yeah. Yeah. He skis, he skis with him all the time. TK is a blast. he was on air, I think, in Boston for a very long time. New England, cable news, weather guy, real deal. So he brings a different angle to it. and I love hearing it all. I'd consider myself a novice. Yeah, you know, compared to these guys are just incredible. Cool. So Andre, what would you say is the biggest storm you've ever measured, been a part of, just in these last 10 years in your role as Snow Reporter? hands down, Stella, we observed 52 inches over a 72 hour timeframe. it was incredible skiing, obviously, and riding, but I got to go back a little bit to the Valentine's day, I mean, I thought that would be mentioned. So a great story about that. I was living in Nebraska Valley at the time I had a Jeep, jank Grand Cherokee and it's Valentine's day and I'm my girlfriend at the time. I was babe, listen. Yeah, yeah. This is just how it does. I'm sorry, I have to leave. You know, and I'll see you later maybe when the mountain closes. So our driveway went downhill to the road and. It was, it was so deep. It was three, four feet deep. It was incredible. And I'm four wheel drive. I'm here we go. I just got to make it out to the road. And I hammered down the driveway and I got stuck at the end of the driveway. So for a couple hours I was in the, in it, So I dug out and Susie's watching me out the window this is horrible Valentine's Day. so I made it up to the mountain at 3. 30 I got there. Went up the quad, the old quad, the green one. got up there and went right down goat. And it was the only time in my life that I have skied into snow that was over my head. not Down into the snow, but came into the snow. And that was the Valentine's Day storm. waiting for another one of those. We're due for one another one of those. Hopefully soon. But Stella was cool, we'll take 52 inches. Yeah, it's pretty good. I mean just as we're talking about this, this year especially, I feel Stowe's got 150 something inches already. And I looked at some of the other mountains in New England and they're 30, 35 inches, what makes Stowe so unique, you know, these Northern Vermont mounds get a lot of snow and people in New England don't get the same amount. And I know, we talk about upslope, is that really the key is weather coming off the lakes and just hammering Mount Mansfield. It's the wind, right? And the way the mountain. handles the wind load from the different directions. So those clippers that are rotating, it just kind of comes down the spine dumps on us the stuff from the West. We don't really get the big, when Buffalo gets crushed, right? We'll see some scraps from that. if it's a perfect storm, but we don't get what they get, you know? But yeah, and just the upslope is a huge factor with the blocked flow or the unblocked flow. the Froude number, it's an experimental formula on NOAA that has all that stuff. And it's just the way the topography of Mansfield. Really, really sucks it right in to that, our side, the east side. Yeah, it's so cool. It's really neat. Yeah, it's unique. I mean, this mountain, I always say, this mountain changes more than any mountain, I think, anywhere, right? We can go from powder, to ice, to grass and dirt, back to powder, all in a week, right? that's what makes your job interesting, I'm sure. Never a dull day on Mount Mansfield. Never. Never. That's why we have the legion of groom. The legion of groom. Who came up with that term? Is that an Andre? That is, yeah. So I've been. Great term. I've been trying to, I don't want to say trademark or, or register, you know, but I have a lot of those. I really do. That's a good one. I love it. It was a play on the, The fly Philadelphia Flyers. Okay had a line. Yeah. Yeah What's his name from st. Albans on the John Leclerc was? Eric Lender us Eric. That's right a renberg. I think Wow. I'm a look at you Yeah, so they were the Legion of Doom Yeah, okay. Yeah, and I don't know where, how, the exact moment when So this is the whole, this is so funny, the dichotomy between Scott Brayton and myself, so I'm The Legion of Grom, isn't that the greatest thing you've ever heard? And he's a little more conservative. That's what he's just he's careful, you know? And plus, you know, having me as a partner has to be nerve wracking. I often tell him that I'm I know you're, you're worried about this. You want to, you want to kind of freewheel it a little bit. But Legion of Groom, I mean Stowe Family, that's a big one. Stowe Family, you know, we say good morning skiers and riders, and I was in this big, unity, unity, phase, and I was you know, why are we separating skiers and riders? We're all one, one family, and then that's how Stowe Family came about. That's cool. Very cool. What's, what's your favorite ski run on the whole mountain? You got one, you, you are there at eight, there's a foot of snow. Where do you go? Okay, so yeah, so we, we need to talk, right? We do, right? That's, we need to talk, lay out the, the parameters here. asking the snow report guy for one choice. yeah. Foot of good luck with that foot of snow. 8:00 AM foot of snow. What, what kind of snow? blower. Powder. Nice. Fluffy. Alright. Fluffy. What are we talking about for underneath, mountains 100 100 percent open. Good base. We've had a, yeah. Snow on snow. Snow on snow. So it's all, it's on. So I get to pick the one. Oh man. Only one though. Because that's a hard choice, because I've had this choice. We've all had this choice. So where, do I have, am I skinning or am I, is a lift thing? Lift, lift serve. Lift serve, so any lift or a specific lift. That's a lot of questions, Andre. We'll say quad. We'll say quad. Okay, there we go. We're getting somewhere here. What was the frowd number the night before on Noah. gov? What was on Broughton cast? Well, really, so, you know, the wind load, you could go one way or the other, right, off the quad. I mean, it could be hit or miss. It could, the bruise could be stacked when nose to F could be totally stripped. So, okay, so say it's all equal parameters. Yes. All party. Yes. One foot. I get off the quad. Man. I'm going to have to go with goat from the top. Yeah. Just right. First one down. Just, yep. You don't want to be 20th one down, but no, yeah. First one, right. It's kind of right. You're right in it. You know, you're not getting to it. You're already there. and it's just so ridiculous of it. The trail is just unbelievable. It's a great choice. looking up from the bottom of the upper is, is just. You look up and you're how do you fall off one way down into lookout. I've had some really good lookouts. Yeah. Top of lookouts. Lookout. Yeah. Lookouts. Yeah. Lookout. Star. I mean, yeah. Hey ride. Hey ride, man. Nosedive. Totally. I would ask you if it's a groomer day, but I feel I'm going to get 30 more questions if it's a groomer day. Well, you know, it depends on, yeah, who, who is, no. I, the groom, they do a great job, up there. it's fascinating too, that whole, that whole scene, there's two shifts. So they'll roll out I call it slow side. So off, off, sunrise peak, all over there. so they'll get that first and it could set up, temps could drop. So then you get the, that. The frozen groomular, that's another, that's another trademark term. so you need to kind of know where, where's what's what's. But I think pound for pound, everyday consistency, perimero. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'd agree. I don't know, it's, it doesn't have this a, any real steep areas that gets, that get windblown or, or you know, scoured. It's just perfect. Yeah. Top to bottom. Perry Mar. Nice It's a good choice. We could talk about all sorts of other, well, yeah, you're there is Tyro can be great. I feel the groom on nosedive this year has been spectacular. Feel that trail ski. Yeah. Sometimes trails set up great. there's years that every damn para. It's unbelievable. You know? You've had some really good runs on Nose Dive this season in particular. Yeah, hayride too. Definitely. Definitely. It's the snowmaking as well. Yeah. So if we can really bury it, and have that deep, deep, deep base, then they can work their magic. Yeah. You know, when you're battling with not, that's when it seems to get, get a little shaky is when there's not enough snow. the little rocks poke up and stuff you know, especially in the upper North. There's been nothing exposed this year. They made a lot of snow. The stars were aligned when they were blowing snow on Nosedive. It was really cold and no doubt. Cool. Well, we're just going to pivot a little bit. kind of get, get into a little more of your, your Stowe life. how did you end up in Stowe? When did you first kind of come here? I went to St. Michael's College and then pretty much was driving to Stowe to ski all the time and just figured, Hey. I should live here, and then I wouldn't have to drive here to go to the mountain. And the rest is history. And that was 1999. Yeah, it truly seems yesterday. it really does. I was at the time, let's see, a quick math, 24 years old. just skiing, met all kinds of wonderful people. And really fell in love with the community, and haven't left. Here we are, 2024. It's amazing. Yeah. What was Stowe back at that time? You know, just, what was the scene? For me, moving from Burlington to Stowe, it was definitely the classic ski town. the Horn and the Nail, really went off. Proper, from apres to closing. Yeah, sure did. you, telling people they don't really understand that. telling my kids, I'm listen, You guys have no idea, what went on. We'd be we're at the Matterhorn now, it's all cold. Family place. I'm I'm what's good? Where's all the, mayhem? This is a family restaurant now. for me it was, it was exciting. Stowe was, new. There was so much to explore, so much to hiking. it was, it was pretty cool to be new here. I, the first time I ever came to Stowe was summer of 93. I came to see fish here. At Spruce Peak. It was really cool. We're kind of where Spruce Camp is now, the stage is there. You guys, the Allman Brothers, Blues Travelers, the Horde Festival. Yeah, all that. So that was the very first time I came to Stowe. I'd skied in Vermont a bunch in my life and Stowe at the time, this was 93, It was the first time I visited it and it was really cool. It rained cats and dogs the entire time I was here. And all's I really remember, the mobile station, we stopped there for gas and it was garage. Is that what that was? Right downtown. Yeah. And, the traffic to the mountain and then the show itself was incredible. fish really killed it. it was their first headlining, gig at Stowe. So they had played with Santana in 92. 93 saw them headlining in Stowe, and it was kind of their big homecoming gig. They did this crazy tour, hundreds of shows, and kind of finished it up in Stowe. And it was kind of a hey, you know, look at us. We kind of made it thing. Yeah. Really cool time. killer show. That was 93. Yeah. Yeah, 30 plus years ago. It really seems yesterday. No such thing as Spruce Peak Village back then. You were probably on the side of the hill, right? That was the hill, there was a skate park. I mean the whole place was a parking lot. Yeah. The whole thing. The little skate park and one little lodge type building. And then the show, which I assume they put the, you know, they built the stage and stuff. For the summer concert series. Yeah. Yeah, I mean you've seen Stowe change like a lot of our guests. When you look out over the next 10, 15 years, what do you hope for, for Stowe as a town, community? I hope it keeps it real, right? it's very important. my daughter is actually on the, it's the Stowe 2050 committee. Oh, nice. Yeah. They just had a meeting today about it. She's the high school representative. Oh, very cool. Yeah. So we've been talking about her and I, man, I just really hope we keep it real. we need to figure out all of our growing pains, if you will, all the things just. traffic and, and, you know, public safety when we are at capacity, stuff that. It's really important. yeah, I think the mountain will keep every everyone in line and keep it, keep it real from a, from a natural perspective. so I don't think there's going to be any, any worries about stow moving forward, but we have lots of stuff to work on as a community. We're doing it. It's really cool to see all the people putting in the effort to figure stuff out. yeah, it's cool. So we ask all of our guests this question. If Stowe did not exist, where would you live? Hyde Park. Nice. We've had a couple people say, Wakesfield. We've had a couple people say that. We've had a water barrier. Hyde Park. No. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, yeah. Maybe Barbados. But then you can't ski. There's not much skiing in Barbados. No reports going down to Barbados. Surf report. Yeah, probably. Surf report. Yeah, they don't even really have great surfing down there. yeah, somewhere around here. Maybe a little further north. Yeah. Stowe's as north as my wife will let us go, but maybe a little deeper into the kingdom. Nice. but yeah, somewhere around here for sure. Cool. Well, thanks Andre. Andre, thanks for joining us. I know I'll be tuning in to the ski report tomorrow. Oh, I'm going to try and catch the cam when that arm flips. Yeah, that's a good call. That's a good call. We should skin up there and watch that happen once. Totally. Get a little flip party going. Life changing event. All right, man. Thanks Andre. Thank you so much. My pleasure, gentlemen.