stowe gondola

it costs a lot of money to ski stowe.

but you can buy a single  trip foot passage ticket for $28.

yanno, if for some reason you want to go up to the top of the gondola (not the top of the mountain, by the way) and then ride the gondola down.

when you buy the single trip ticket, the person at the ticket booth will look at you like you're odd and she will ask you if you understand it's just one ride up and down and no skis.

yep.

she will look at you like you are insane if the coffee shop is closed and there's no view from the top because of the clouds.

the skiers you stand in line with will look at you like they can't figure out what you're doing, and when you get to the top, the attendants will notice you don't have skis and they will ask you to notify them when you leave. they will eye you warily until you DO leave, because they cannot imagine why you have dome up there if not to wander off up into the clouds and become a big pain in the ass for everybody.

they're polite about it, of course, but it's the same polite questioning you get every time a ski mountain sees you headed uphill away from the lifts.

so anyway, here's my little video of my trip up the stowe gondola.