I'm a Vermont skier by birth- grew up at Cochran's, trained under the lights at Bolton during High School, always hit the free day at Mad River (Town Meeting Day for Vermont grade and high school students), taught at Sugarbush for a bunch of years and raced everywhere from there to the Canadian Border.
So what's your favorite area, favorite trail, favorite Vermont skiing memory, etc?
Man, Vermont has some great skiing!
Madonna (aka Smugglers Notch), Stowe, Mad River, Sugarbush and Jay Peak was where we usually skied.
Being the first in the parking lot after a nice snowfall was the best!
Mad River Glen great last time I was there. Still no 'boarders and $3.50 rollback day in January. Stowe is amazing, and Jay is a haul, but the best glades around. Powderwise, off trail at Stowe is as good as some of the glades at Jay. And the chute at Stowe is insane.
Best time was a midweek ski day where they closed the gondola at Stowe, but a friend and I kept skiing it from the main chairs. We hit the trees, all fresh. The groomers were courdoroy (sp?) perfect and each run down ours were the only tracks. Skiied alone the whole day.
A buddy and me had a day like that in the glades at Sutton many years ago. And it just kept snowing. There couldn't have been more than 5 or 10 people skiing that lift so it was pretty well like skiing alone all day too. It was great.
Just wanted to add my 2 cents, even though I'm a knuckle-dragger and not a 2-Planker -Beyond Beaver Pond glades at Jay and the glades off of both the right and left sides of Goat at Stowe, have ALWAYS been my favorites. On an East Coast powder day, there's no place that I'd rather be...
Just wanted to add my 2 cents, even though I'm a knuckle-dragger and not a 2-Planker -Beyond Beaver Pond glades at Jay and the glades off of both the right and left sides of Goat at Stowe, have ALWAYS been my favorites. On an East Coast powder day, there's no place that I'd rather be...
Beyond Beaver Pond Glades is where I started my first experience with them newfangled "parabolic" skis.
I broke an Atomic ski in those glades, skied to the rental shop on my one good ski and rented some Elan parabolics. Night and day. Went and bought Rossi Mountain Viper X the next week. Had them ever since. This was in 2000. Haven't skied much since then either though. Marriage/kids/responsible adulthood all slowed that one down.
Nothing against the knuckle draggers, just find it quirky that they still don't allow them at Mad River Glen.
When I can't afford to the season pass (after my student deal ends)
I intend to only ski MadRiver weekdays
But i've been brought up on SugarBush and definately believe that it is the best mountain in Vermont.