Stratton 3-29 and 3-30

[tekweezle]

Date(s) Skied:
3-29 and 3-30

Resort or Ski Area:
Stratton

Conditions:
Powder over packed powder and hardpack

Trip Report:

the conditions were great for late march. felt winter like without the associated mess. the drive up was pretty clear until we got into VT. fortunately, the road was clear of the burning truck after the accident on I91. it was rainy/blowing snow which turned out to be a reported 10 inches of snow on the mountain. i definitely saw atleast 5-6 inches.

Saturday, it was sunny but flurrying. there was an annoying chill wind that hit us on the upper mountain. the conditions were pretty good. a little chopped up and ungroomed in the kidderbrook area and on liftline in the snowbowl area. coverage was good through out with no barespots. some of the high traffic trails were getting skied off but atleast there was snow on the sides to play with. they tore down the old slow kidderbrook chair so skiing on that side required a long traverse down to the sunbowl area and taking 2 chairs to get back to the top. deadly for snowboarders and annoying how it was uphill to get to the lift. hope the put some sort of gondola over there.

Sunday-more of the same but a little warmer. it felt like a west coast day....minus about 4000 feet in elevation. the snow didn;t degrade or get sloppy but temps were comfortable.

overall, a top notch weekend-the best of all worlds which is a rarity. good safe driving conditions, lots of snow over night, comfortable temps, good visibility and snow that didn;t get sloppy.

[Paul]

Was there on Sunday as well. Conditions were pretty good, surprised that the glades held-up as well as they did. Only hit a few scratchy spots (mostly on Upper Spruce) but they were still edgeable. Not a bad day, warmed-up nicely in the afternoon.

[mishka]

was at flatton with my daughter on Sunday for the first time to use up my free ticket. While managed to avoid most of the crowded areas, we stayed all day at upper Mountain.
Lift waiting time no more than 15 minutes on the upper mountain. Use gondola only once during the lunch.
We ski only their diamonds and double diamonds : because all other trails were way to flat. strangely peoples their ski differently than other places more often them not skiers goes from side to side of the trail all the time drive me

Overall can't explain why I don't like a place....snow was there, conditions was good, trails was not scraped badly actually in decent shape even by the end of the day,with small soft bumps by mid day

[marcski]

Originally Posted by mishka

was at flatton with my daughter on Sunday for the first time to use up my free ticket. While managed to avoid most of the crowded areas, we stayed all day at upper Mountain.
Lift waiting time no more than 15 minutes on the upper mountain. Use gondola only once during the lunch.
We ski only their diamonds and double diamonds : because all other trails were way to flat. strangely peoples their ski differently than other places more often them not skiers goes from side to side of the trail all the time drive me

Overall can't explain why I don't like a place....snow was there, conditions was good, trails was not scraped badly actually in decent shape even by the end of the day,with small soft bumps by mid day

To me 15 min. liftlines suck...and I wouldn't want to frequent an area with waiting times consistently that long. Also, lack of steep terrain...and they groom too much. But they do blow and make a hell of a good snow product.

[mishka]

Originally Posted by marcski

To me 15 min. liftlines suck...and I wouldn't want to frequent an area with waiting times consistently that long. Also, lack of steep terrain...and they groom too much. But they do blow and make a hell of a good snow product.

to me 5min is waaay to long

[BLESS]

what's a lift line? I've been skiing exclusively midweek for 8 years.

[tekweezle]

Originally Posted by marcski

To me 15 min. liftlines suck...and I wouldn't want to frequent an area with waiting times consistently that long. Also, lack of steep terrain...and they groom too much. But they do blow and make a hell of a good snow product.

singles lines are your friend. atleast they have 3 6 packs chairs. and the mid mountain lodge is pretty good.

as for the lack of steep terrain, can;t be helped. they have some reasonably challenging stuff but killington this is not. they do have alot of longish cruiser trails and no trail is really difficult which is a plus for intermediate skiers.

what i don;t like is that some of the runouts to the chairs are almost uphill. not very snowboard friendly for a place that claims to be one of the birthplaces of snowboarding i think.