Stratton, Feb 4th-5th

[nrthest]

Stratton, Feb 4th-5th

Conditions: Frickin' awesome
Powder powder powder on the 4th, some powder+pack on 5th.

No picts sorry, we brought the digi, but kept forgettin' to bring it w/us onto the slopes. And on friday, couldn't even get a shot from the bottom on the way out w/whiteout snow conditions.

This was our first time to Stratton. Did their 'stay for free pkg', buy a 3day lift for $144, get 2 free nights lodging at liftline lodge -- pretty good deal I thought though you do have to take days off work to do it.... Liftline lodge is very functional -- fine w/me if I'm skiing hard all day. Hot tubs in the basement made for nice muscle relaxation at the end of the day.

Drove up wednesday a.m., hit the slopes by 9ish -- holy shi_! The drive up really wasn't bad, the roads were pretty good, but the storm tuesday night left 6-10inches or so on the mountain. Powder heaven... wow, so this is what it is like!!!!!!!

I guess it would have been good to have 'powder skis' this day, but w/some immersion learning, a *little* instinctive leaning back on the shaped skis seemed to be suffice, and ~'jumping' from turn to turn in the powder and powderbumps seemed to come very naturally and was a blast.

Had a great time all day doing bumps and 'steeps' -- the powder made it pretty easy, a lot of fun. Did all the diamonds and 2x trails and a couple easy and intermediates.

This was my first time to Stratton -- they seem to lack STEEP trails, but it was fun to hit up everything that they did have. Their trail map is a little understating I think. It makes it look like all the trails are on one face. Well, they kind of are on one peak, but w/how they are on ~multiple sides of the peak, it is a little bigger than ya might think. Gondola was running at first, but then shut down for wind. 'Back side' of the mountain had some ~decent bumps, glades, etc, although I did not like how there was no choice but to end up on a green-trail w/some '~uphill x-country skiing' required at the bottom to get back up to the lift........

Had a great fun ~agressive day of skiing on wednesday, on the last run of the day I think my body had ran outta energy -- legs cramped up something fierce.... think I may have been a little dehydrated too.

R&R wed night and ready to go again thursday. Not as much powder thursday, made for ~interesting switching back and forth between powder to packedpowder techniques. Made first tracks on one of the under-the-lift runs w/some good powder -- yeehaw! Did all the diamonds and doubles again, including a glade, which was kinda cool to tool through and the powder made that pretty doable...

All this powder was awesome. I'm not sure that I'll ever look the same way on skiing on the old crappy ~typical northeast 'layer of ice w/some pp on top'.

Had to pick up a pair of swim trunks thurday night for the hot tub - doh! forgot to bring 'em... hot tub was very relaxing

Friday, w/the nasty weather rolling in and pretty darn tired from two of the most all-out skiing days I've had, we bailed out early, the folks at the office were nice, no prob to give us credit from our 3rd lifttix day toward a next time. Driving in VT was bad, mass got a little better, CT was just rain not too bad, but some flooding on the roads.

-Nrthest

[ChileMass]

nrthest -

Great report - sounds terrific! I am SURPRISED Stratton gave you credit towards a future visit - man, you usually get nothing for free from those guys.......glad you had fun - wish I could ski this weekend - darn this rain....

Stratton has a satisfaction policy... If you buy a lift ticket and you're not happy w/ the ski conditions that day, you can request a voucher for a lift ticket that can be used on another day. I think you have to make the request early, by 9 am or so, but since it was snowing something fierce that day and it was pretty hard to see, they were willing to give us tix that were good for a different day.