Evolution at Spruce

Last week, the flurries at Stowe Mountain Resort were all human-made — from the flurry of flakes coming out of the snowmaking guns to the flurry of activity by some 200 construction workers swarming over Spruce Peak.

Long-range forecasts call for a winter similar to last year — cold air that keeps frequent, medium-sized snowfalls on the mountain, right where everyone wants them, and fairly epic late-season skiing and riding.

In other words, don’t get used to the weather you’ve been seeing the past month.

“We’re looking for a 150- to 155-day season,” Mike Colbourn, Stowe Mountain Resort’s vice president of marketing, sales and communication, said last week, a couple of days before the resort officially opened for the winter.

Much of what’s going on at Mount Mansfield and Spruce Peak is what you’d expect — in other words, perfect for plenty of skiers and riders who know about the turns, bumps, glades and terrain park.

But there’s a whole new world sprouting at the base of Spruce Peak — an outdoor skating rink, an indoor rock-climbing wall, new multimillion-dollar residences and cushy new amenities for top-dollar spenders.

The Spruce Peak at Stowe community has been growing steadily for 12 years, gradually adding Stowe Mountain Lodge and Spa, the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, and much more.

Although the latest expansion is not quite complete, the Spruce Village Center will open the weekend before Christmas. It’s the central hub of Stowe Mountain Resort’s smaller mountain, and where most of the resort’s non-slope action lies.

Planned for Dec. 19 are a Christmas tree lighting ceremony, music by the Northern Bronze Bells, an artisan craft show, a visit from Santa, and the debut of Spruce Peak’s new outdoor ice rink.

Colbourn thinks the scene will be both unique to Vermont’s highest peak and reminiscent of a certain other ice rink with a large Christmas tree.

“I was in Rockefeller Center recently, and it’s just so cool to watch,” Colbourn said. “Now, up here there’s going to be a living, breathing plaza.”

New building nearly done

Looming in the background at the Spruce Peak Village Center is a 108,000-square-foot building that will host all the resort’s kids’ programs, a huge new Alpine Clubhouse just for members of the uber-exclusive Stowe Mountain Club, restaurants, retail shops, and cool features such as an indoor climbing wall, handmade to resemble some of the natural features up in the craggy Smugglers Notch area.

There are also 19 new residences, $42 million worth of new units on the third and fourth floor of the new building.

All 19 units sold within a few months, said Sam Gaines, the resort’s director of development.

“It’s a testament to what the resort has done over the past several years, and they’re all buying on spec, which means there’s a level of trust in us there, “ Gaines said. “Everything we’re doing up here is a product of demand. It’s not a ‘build it and they will come’ business model.”

A tour of the place showed more than 100 hard-hatted workers in bright green safety vests at work — from the underground parking garage, accessible through a cute barn-looking entrance and available only to Stowe Mountain Club members, to the top level, where a $3 million residence looks out over the entire base area for the Spruce Peak trails.

The building is rugged looking, especially the Alpine Club, which will be the first part of the building to open. The architecture is meant to evoke treetop visuals, and the materials are solid and simple — steel, wood and stone.

Gaines said the idea is to invoke Mount Mansfield’s past, including the Civilian Conservation Corps that was so vital to shaping the mountain in the resort’s earliest days.

“It’s kind of like a CCC camp on steroids,” Gaines said of the new building. “If you build on those noble materials, you’ll set yourself up for success.”

Parking tweaks

With a new building that covers more than 2 acres, all the public parking had to be shifted to the Mount Mansfield side of the resort. That change is the new normal; no more public parking at Spruce.

Understanding the impact of that change, the mountain got ahead of the situation last ski season, alerting people by using every media tool in the box. It hired more staff members just to direct traffic and nip frustrations in the bud. It embraced a new smartphone app that tells exactly where the popular Mountain Road shuttle is along its clockwork up-down-back route.

This year, a tweak in procedures ought to improve some of the new parking layout.

Last season, the whole family had to park on the Mansfield side and take the Over Easy gondola to Spruce.

This season, parents can drop off the troops at Spruce, right near where the kids will be whisked to their programs. Then they can go park the car and meet up with them.

“Every year we do something new; it’s a learning experience,” Colbourn said.

Mountain Collective

If you were paying attention to winter recreation news in midsummer, you might have heard that Stowe was added to a major league roster.

The Mountain Collective involves 36 big-name mountains throughout the United States, plus a few marquee international destinations, all collaborating on a sort of super-pass.

Starting at $409 per season, Collective passholders can get two free days at each of the participating mountains. Most of them are out West, stretching from Whistler in British Columbia to Taos in New Mexico. Throw in Chamonix in France, Valle Navado in Chile, Hakuba Valley in Japan, and Thredbo in Australia, if you happen to be jetting around the world.

Stowe is the only Collective ski resort east of the Mississippi River; it’s a lot smaller than those other places, and it’s isolated from its brethren. But if you live in the Northeast and are planning trips out West to some of the mountains in the Collective, you can get your Western kicks and then still have two free days and a season of half-price skiing at Stowe.

“There are a lot of people who haven’t been to Stowe in a while,” Colbourn said. “Now, they have another reason to.”

The Mountain Collective also comes with a $1 million marketing budget, and is really pushing the Stowe name out West. Mount Mansfield, remember, is hallowed ground for skiers, stretching back to the pre-Civil War days, when hardy folks used skis to get around. It has the oldest existing ski patrol, founded the country’s first ski school, and built the first chairlift in the East.

“They’re all iconic brands,” Colbourn said.

Local folks may be looking west, but Collective members are looking toward Vermont.

Jeff Wise, the resort’s marketing and communications director, said that when he and the resort brass were traveling around New England and beyond for trade shows in the fall, “they were like, ‘Yeah, of course we’re going to Stowe.’”