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Stratton Dec 1 2012

bdfreetuna

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I went to Stratton today cause $39 lift tickets and my father thought that was a fair price.

Got there around 9:00am. I have never been to Stratton before, for whatever reason it just never appealed to me. But they supposedly had 36 trails open today and I figured conditions couldn't be too bad after a cold week and lots of snowmaking.

First three runs somehow I ended up on the same trail every time. I guess several trails funneled into it. I'm not going to name trails because I'm not that familiar with the mountain and wasn't paying much attention anyway. In any case, this trail was fairly crusty in the morning and I figured out sort of quick this would be an aggressive day of skiing rather than the more casual packed powder conditions I had hoped for.

No problem, it wasn't boilerplate, just firm and frozen. Good enough to go fast and arc nice turns.

Took the Gondola up after that. I think this is the crappiest Gondola I've ever ridden in. You can't really sit in the seats, it's just uncomfortable and a weird gondola. It went fast enough, though. And it was really windy today so it was warmer than the chairs.

In terms of the snow it was really sort of windblown today. I guess they made snow all week and opened up something like 20 new trails just today. But nothing skied like it was fresh. Maybe the snow was wet out of the guns, maybe it got blown off by the wind, probably both. Either way it wasn't too bad just not what I would at all describe as "packed powder / loose granular" like the web site said. More like, "frozen granular / machine groomed".

But there was very little straight up boilerplate just some areas that needed to be skied aggressively in order to maintain form.

Being my first time on the mountain, I wanted to ski their double diamonds to see how they measured up. There were two double diamonds open, at least that I was aware of, and I skied them both. I actually LOL'd because I had heard Stratton was kind of flat but I had no idea double diamonds could actually be this flat.

In comparison, Jiminy Peak's double diamonds would have to be triple diamonds, at least, at Stratton. I would have rated them as Blue Squares because they were mostly just winding somewhat more narrow cruisers with one, or at most two, short somewhat steeper sections.

Anyway the snow was decent but I was sort of kicking myself for not going up to Stowe or Smuggs today since they got 12" of fresh and it would have been more fun.

Either way early season is for building strength and confidence and skiing today at Stratton accomplished that. I skied somewhere close to 20 runs, mostly top to bottom, which I think was pretty good for a cold ass windy day with mediocre conditions. Since the mountain was pretty flat almost any trail I skied switch a fair amount and worked on carving backwards, which is something I've been waiting for a good opportunity to do this season.

Probably will never return to Stratton again because I wasn't really impressed by the trail layout, character of the mountain, the high percentage of novice skiers and riders acting erradically on the trails, and the whole "not a locals mountain" vibe of the place.

A good day skiing nonetheless. 4.5 out of 10 on the great days of skiing scale. Which sounds kind of bad but at this time of the year I'm glad to be on skis and have it at least be on a surface that mostly resembles snow.
 

ScottySkis

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I hear they have good glades, but we need natural snow to fall to enjoy the glades.
 

du510

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I went to Stratton today cause $39 lift tickets and my father thought that was a fair price.

......

A good day skiing nonetheless. 4.5 out of 10 on the great days of skiing scale. Which sounds kind of bad but at this time of the year I'm glad to be on skis and have it at least be on a surface that mostly resembles snow.


I was there Thursday/Friday/Today. I actually picked up their $79 early season pass; paid for itself in 2 days. I've got to agree with you - today was rough. But Thursday was good, and yesterday was amazing. There was no fresh snow, but they've made a ton and groomed it beautifully... yesterday I was able to run over 30 top to bottom, just bombed down the groomers. The place was empty, the light was great, and there was no wind. Awesome day, and in November to boot.

Today, it was packed due to this $39 ticket deal. The snow was cruddy and windswept, with really shitty sunlight. I didn't stay too long today.

As you say, its still early.
 

thetrailboss

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Thanks for the TR. I went to Stratton in 2006 for the first time and liked it for what it was. But you're right in that the double diamonds are pretty easy. And the gondi was meant to hold 12 people...standing up in it :eek: hence why it is not too comfortable. The fast lifts make the place ski pretty small. In a full day I covered most of the place.
 

deadheadskier

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I hear they have good glades, but we need natural snow to fall to enjoy the glades.

fantastic glades there. With the lift system they have, I bet the place completely kicks ass during mid-week powder days.

I skied there on a busy Sunday and still had a good time. Just stick to the Snowbowl area or old Kidderbrook Quad and there's some fun cruising trails with minimal traffic that are quite fun to just carve at high speed.

I think people get turned off by the place by the mess that is the middle of the mountain. The Gondola sucks, the middle high speed six pack lifts are completely jammed, trails super crowded; but the glades and edges of Stratton have a lot to offer IMO.
 

WoodCore

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I was also at Stratton yesterday and thought the skiing was pretty damn good for December 1. There was plenty of terrain available, I would say the most in NE save maybe Someday Bigger. Killington always claims to have the most mileage and they might but really how much if that is actually skiable and not just straight running traverses? Some of the trails at Stratton were newly opened and hard packed but many of the open trails had a great surface for laying down some sweet arcs. I had a blast, just remember what the skiing was like at this time last year!

Stratton may not be the steepest mountain around but for early season miles it fits the bill. I'd say for $39 you got a pretty sweet product! Glad to hear you won't be coming back to Stratton when it snows, more fresh in the trees for me!!
 
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Big Game

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I go to Stratton for midweek powder and edays just so so days. Was there Friday. Luckily it was my first day so whatever.

I know the mountain well. Really sucks with what they have open. It's not even the same hill as it is when it has even modest real cover.

I wish I went to okemo instead which does a better job with the early season. I board so the lack of slope isn't fatal to me.
 

MBRI

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For December 1st that sounds great, especially for that price. Free Fall and World Cup have some nice pitch, but the real reason to go to Stratton is for the glades.
 

bdfreetuna

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Yeah it was pretty good for Dec 1st. I was just hoping for something resembling the quality of snow at Killington the weekend before.

I might give a ski trip a mediocre review but that's not to say I didn't have fun and it wasn't well worth it. I just want to be accurate and thorough as possible in these reports so the fellow skier or rider will have a realistic idea of what to expect if they go in the next few days (even though things can sometimes change overnight).

A couple of you said Stratton has nice glades. I passed by several openings to glades that were closed and actually sort of checked them out. It seemed to me that there was a *lot* of logs, stumps, and other natural debris in the glades I saw. And I don't mean natural features, I mean stuff that needs to be cleared out of the trail. Again, just my observation. I'm sure they do have some good tree skiing, and I'll have to take your word for it.

I didn't mean to offend Stratton or it's fans here, but I also don't think I was very harsh. Just stating my observations, which are of course filtered through my own perspective.

WoodCore more Stratton trees for you man.. lol. I'll be enjoying the trees up at Sugarbush/Stowe/Jay/Magic and so forth once it dumps!
 
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Bene288

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Sounds like you had a good day on the snow. I may take a trip up there this week instead of Killington. Just waiting to see whose base takes a bigger hit from this rain.
 
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