Mother Earth gives Stowe a dose of totality — and 2 feet of snow

There are not many things that can make this particular type of seat vibrate except for maybe an earthquake.

In fact, he had experienced the exact same thing around 1974 in Burlington.

Many people missed this one, after all it was pretty gentle this far north, but by a curious coincidence during Saturday’s first day of Sugar Slalom racing, The Scribe was riding the Meadows Quad with a woman from Somerset who had been right there when her house started to shake fairly violently — pictures falling off the wall, dog barking, that sort of thing. One never knows what might be coming next.

Now about that snow. That last storm was a doozy. In fact, your scribe received three photos taken at the High Road where the official measurements of snowfall at the resort take place.

The process is actually quite detailed, belaying the widely held convictions of most locals that snow reports are in large part considered to be in the genre known as fiction.

There is a large square plate with a yardstick. The depth of any new snow is checked on a regular basis.

The depth is recorded, and the plate cleaned off to allow for a fresh measurement when next checked.

This recent storm provided three numbers during the day — 13 inches, 7 inches and 3 inches. So, 23 inches of snow fell in the 24-hour period.

Folks, that is a lot of snow in a one-day storm. It brought the depth of the snowpack as recorded at the snowstake back up to 90 inches — seven and a half feet of snow in April — not too shabby.

Oh yes, there was one more event of note on the Mother Earth calendar — Monday’s total eclipse of the sun.

Your scribe decided that venturing far from Howard Avenue on this particular day made little sense. Apparently, somewhere in excess of 160,000 others did not come to the same conclusion.

In his earlier days as a more adventurous skier, there is little doubt as to where he would have gone for the viewing.

The Gondola would have given access to the start of the boot pack up to the summit ridge. From there a couple of hundred feet more of climbing would have put The Scribe atop the Chin, Vermont’s highest point.

He did not do this, but without any confirmation, he is pretty sure that a bunch of skiers and riders did select that option.

No matter, sitting on their south-facing deck in chairs with Ms. Scribe, the duo was quite content to experience this once in a lifetime event at home, and it lived up to the hype.

If staying put seemed the easy choice, the reports Ms. Scribe was receiving on her phone at 10 p.m. of Route 100 having been turned into a parking lot between Stowe and Exit 10 of Intersate 89 confirmed the old adage, “simple is good.”

As one might imagine, the skiing and riding lately have been off the charts. Plenty of snow still on the mountain. Those late February rumors of the hill closing down prematurely sometime late in March have clearly been dispelled by the 5 or 6 feet of snow that have fallen since February gave way to March.

This weekend, The Scribe was over at Little Spruce for the two-day running of the 86th Sugar Slalom and a sunny Sunday with temperatures pleasantly in the high forties turned a sun-drenched crowd of costumed racers and friends and family into happy campers.

Lifts now are shutting down everywhere. Sensation has been shut down for a week, the Gondola came back to life briefly thanks to the 2 feet of snow and that celestial event, but it now has been put to bed for what remains of the season.

The Sugar Slalom was the final act to play out at Sunny Spruce so now it is all about The Forerunner Quad and the Sunrise six-pack over at Mansfield.

The season started with the Quad and now will end with the Quad, which currently is scheduled to run until April 21.

Kim Brown, a ski bum by winter and a hacker by summer, lives in Waterbury Center with his very understanding family.