Stratton Mountain 02-18-2012

Date(s) Skied: Saturday February 18, 2012

Ski Area:Stratton Mountain, Vermont

Conditions: Machine Groomed Packed Powder

Trip Report:

Great day of skiing!! My first day back up in Vermont since the New Year and despite the lack of natural snow Stratton had the goods for sure. Hit the hill bright and early and was inline waiting for the early access period to end when my significant other strikes up a conversation with the VP of operations and next thing you know we are headed up the hill 15 minutes ahead of the masses. Sweet!!

Headed right to the core runs around URSA and just made lap after lap until the line started to form around 10. We bailed to the "Sunbowl" side and continued to lap the Sunbowl 6 and the shooting star until almost 11 before having to wait in a line of any consequence. Then the masses showed up!!

We headed over to the Solstice quad for a couple slow lift rides and low angle cruising and then utilizing some cross overs and slower lifts to find our way into the "Snowbowl" area for some great runs. Although the lift is slow it serves IMHO the best terrain at Stratton and there was never a wait!

Ended the day around 1:45pm with 27,000 feet of vertical in the bank and some tired legs. Nothing a couple cold long trails and some grub at Grizzly's could fix. Ironically this was the longest "liftline" of the day for us!!

In summary the conditions were pretty fantastic! Almost 95% of the hill is open and skiing great including the trees which I did venture into on several occasions. The snowmaking trails are covered well, edge to edge and remarkably I only hit one spot I couldn't put an edge into. The conditions were far superior to those I skied on Sunday at Okemo.


Photos to come..........

Pics or it never happened

I spent Sunday there with my girlfriend, and echo the positive comments about the condition of the mountain. We spent the morning over on Snow Bowl, before going up to the URSA area after lunch for several more runs. Excellent conditions all over, from our arrival at 8:30 through to our last chair at 3:50. Crowds were pretty decent, especially at the base area lifts and URSA, but we never waited more than 10-15 minutes by utilizing the singles line.

We had low expectations going in, but definitely had our best day of conditions all season.

A couple of observations about Stratton

- For the most part Stratton attracts quality skiers. It may have been the terrain we were skiing, but I was very impressed with the people on the trails around us.
- Many of the patrons are obnoxious! It was my second time at Stratton, but the last time was on a bus trip, and we parked at the Sun Bowl instead of the main base lodge. The village was cool and all, but it seemed like many were there to flaunt their cash rather than ski. Listening to people brag about their $20k preschools was amusing on the gondola, but I also noticed that for the most part people were not as interested in lift conversations as at other mountains. Give me the folks at Magic any day.
- I still hate their gondola and will never understand the design. Why not just have exterior racks for the skis/boards?

powhunter said:

Pics or it never happened

Click to expand...

Here ya go!!

Looks like a nice day!

I've been skiing Stratton more this season since they have the snowmaking and grooming thing going.

The woods look real nice!

Nice report. The snowbowl lift is always a good bet, even on super busy weekends.
The woods definitely look better than last time I was there. Thanks for the pics.

emmaurice2 said:

The woods definitely look better than last time I was there. Thanks for the pics.

Click to expand...

+1 and that was merely 2 weeks ago!

Nice! The trees look fun!

Thanks for the report. Very encouraging. Will be hitting there soon.

Wow, not bad coverage in the woods!