Stratton 2-3-17

drjeff · Feb 3, 2017

Short version...

AWESOME!!

Not surprisingly enough, Stratton groomed out almost everything Thursday night after the reported 7-9" fell the previous few days.

Then post grooming, 2-3" of blower quality powder fell, and it was just a blast to ski!!

A friend I was skiing with (both of our daughter's had Super G race training today) had a friend who was a Stratton regular who guided us around all day!

No lines (short of maybe 5 to 15 cabins if you wanted to ride the Gondola) all day - plenty of soft packed powder under some powder with an isolated slick spot in a few steeper pitched higher traffic areas.

Test Pilot off of Kidderbrook was worth 2 repeats!!

One of the best days I've had in VT in a few seasons!!

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bdfreetuna · Feb 3, 2017

Timely report as I'm heading there tomorrow. Thanks!

NYDB · Feb 4, 2017

Stratton midweek with some snow is a different beast. They are so close to being 100%. Need a dump to open some of the fun stuff around sunbowl.

NYDB · Feb 4, 2017

bdfreetuna said:
Timely report as I'm heading there tomorrow. Thanks!

I don't know how much experience you have with stratton saturday but ride sunbowl-shooting star and snowbowl lifts after 10am and before 2:30.

Ursa and gondola are usually a shitshow. Have fun, my family is up there I'll tell them to watch out for tuna speed.

Glenn · Feb 4, 2017

Nice report! Hoping to get out for some woods laps on Super Bowl Sunday. Gonna let the AM crowds dwindle before heading over.

xlr8r · Feb 4, 2017

I'm at Stratton too this weekend. Glades have good cover, but a lot of low brush has grown in 2 years since I have been here. They got some work to do this summer. The new snow this week has made the groomers excellent. Today was the best carving I have had in 2 years.

bdfreetuna · Feb 4, 2017

NY DirtBag said:
I don't know how much experience you have with stratton saturday but ride sunbowl-shooting star and snowbowl lifts after 10am and before 2:30.

Ursa and gondola are usually a shitshow. Have fun, my family is up there I'll tell them to watch out for tuna speed.

Parked at Sun Bowl today. Stratton was a shit show, billions upon billions of gapers, crowded trails, the longest lift lines I've seen in a few seasons, it got skied off in about 10 minutes. And all the terrain was groomed over creating a featureless monotany to all trails.

I was looking over at Magic Mountain and even Bromley with jealousy all day. (reason I went was to ski with my father who later agreed that he should have took my advice instead)

Decided to go to Bolton Valley tomorrow to ski powder and woods to redeem this weekend.

That said a lot of people were having a lot of fun at Stratton today. Different strokes I guess.

deadheadskier · Feb 4, 2017

That sucks. Amazing how people deal with that experience every weekend. I did as a kid at Okemo. Glad that's no longer the case for me.

drjeff · Feb 4, 2017

I got 5 fun, fast laps in the Sunbowl before 10 and I had to be racer dad of of the URSA Pod!

Lapped URSA the rest of the day with no more than 5 or 6 min lines - Stratton is GREAT with queue management!!

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180 · Feb 4, 2017

Tuna, you skied the wrong places. Between every monotonous trail is a glorious glade. Lots of glades. Rule number one, dont go back to the base. Rule number 2, stay away from URSA too. World cup and shooting star chairs were ski on all day. Anyone around tomorrow, come by World Cup and watch the dual moguls.

deadheadskier · Feb 4, 2017

180 said:
Tuna, you skied the wrong places. Between every monotonous trail is a glorious glade. Lots of glades. Rule number one, dont go back to the base. Rule number 2, stay away from URSA too. World cup and shooting star chairs were ski on all day. Anyone around tomorrow, come by World Cup and watch the dual moguls.

I agree with what you say and this is sound advice for skiing Stratton on the weekends. They do have great and highly underrated glades. Shooting Star and Snowbowl lifts have manageable lines on busy days.

That said, there's a reason those two lifts see such little traffic.

Shooting Star is a horribly placed chair. There are only three trails you can lap off the lift. Everything else including most glades requires being funneled down to URSA or back to the Sunbowl base via a long run out.

Snowbowl Chair serves some great terrain, but that thing is an absolute dog of a lift. So slow for the length it covers.

To fix Stratton and make the horrendous crowds more manageable they should:

Relocate the Shooting Star Chair along the old Kidderbrook Lift Line. You could lap additional trails and all the great glades on that side of the mountain without dealing with the long run out back to the Sunbowl base.

Upgrade the Snowbowl chair to a HSQ.

The place would still be a mad house I'd likely want to avoid on the weekends, but I think those two changes would make a HUGE positive difference in how the mountain skis.

bdfreetuna · Feb 5, 2017

I skied Test Pilot which was pretty fun up top but kind of thin in the more open half. Leaving for Bolton now.. cya

NYDB · Feb 5, 2017

deadheadskier said:
I agree with what you say and this is sound advice for skiing Stratton on the weekends. They do have great and highly underrated glades. Shooting Star and Snowbowl lifts have manageable lines on busy days.

That said, there's a reason those two lifts see such little traffic.

Shooting Star is a horribly placed chair. There are only three trails you can lap off the lift. Everything else including most glades requires being funneled down to URSA or back to the Sunbowl base via a long run out.

Snowbowl Chair serves some great terrain, but that thing is an absolute dog of a lift. So slow for the length it covers.

To fix Stratton and make the horrendous crowds more manageable they should:

Relocate the Shooting Star Chair along the old Kidderbrook Lift Line. You could lap additional trails and all the great glades on that side of the mountain without dealing with the long run out back to the Sunbowl base.

Upgrade the Snowbowl chair to a HSQ.

The place would still be a mad house I'd likely want to avoid on the weekends, but I think those two changes would make a HUGE positive difference in how the mountain skis.

rumor has it snowbowl will be a HSQ within the next 2 years and they are going to do a lot of work regrading at the top where the snowbowl lift terminates near the gondola And I agree 1000% they need the old kidderbrook lift back. the runnout gets old quick. and the terrain on that side is fun

Although, I remember when they did have the kidderbrook chair. They never ran it.

mriceyman · Feb 5, 2017

NY DirtBag said:
rumor has it snowbowl will be a HSQ within the next 2 years and they are going to do a lot of work regrading at the top where the snowbowl lift terminates near the gondola And I agree 1000% they need the old kidderbrook lift back. the runnout gets old quick. and the terrain on that side is fun

Although, I remember when they did have the kidderbrook chair. They never ran it.

Problem with kidderbrook is its so far hidden that only most people wouldnt find it. I would love it to lap test pilot but dont see that happening. Tuna the best part of strAttons trails is to get to the woods.

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drjeff · Feb 5, 2017

As someone who had to lap URSA yesterday due to my daughter's race on Frank's Falline (North American for anyone used to skiing Stratton prior to the last few years when they renamed it) the line was maybe 5 minutes, even though the queue lanes were most of the way filled - Stratton can really move people through the queue (except for the Gondola which is terribly slow and full of ski school groups a good chunk of the day!!)

Totally agree that unless one absolutely has to during the day, the only times you want to go to the main base lodge is if that's the lodge you base yourself at and then just starting out your first run and then not again until you finish your last run of the day!!!

The hallway down to bag check yesterday afternoon was CRAZY!! Bags stacked 3 to 4 deep lining the hall on both sides!! A good weather Saturday, combined with an Alpine race, a boarder cross race and then the mogul comp 180 referenced had A LOT of people using the base facilities yesterday!!

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Big Game · Feb 5, 2017

mriceyman said:
Problem with kidderbrook is its so far hidden that only most people wouldnt find it. I would love it to lap test pilot but dont see that happening. Tuna the best part of strAttons trails is to get to the woods.

One of the best solid fall lines is Bear Down. It a hard right which keeps it hidden in plain sight. They keep it ungroomed, usually and it bumps up nice. I work the right at the top and then move toward the left as I go down. But you got to duck out early to Shooting Star if you don't want to traverse it down below. The double-fall lines of Free Fall and its next door woods, Vertigo, also require THAT terrible traverse if you want to ride them. It's the best part of Stratton over there, IMHO. Well tied with Spruce/Slalom Glade/World Cup and associated glades @ Snow Bowl.

But THAT traverse does keep traffic down on that side of the mountain. Way down. But I'd still be happier with a Kidderbrook lift or in the alternative, adding a few more towers and a turn to get Shooting Star down to the bottom of Vertigo. There'd be a small amount of Test Pilot you'd have to duck out early from, but small price to pay for being able to work one of the two best areas of the mountain.

slatham · Feb 5, 2017

Big Game said:
One of the best solid fall lines is Bear Down. It a hard right which keeps it hidden in plain sight. They keep it ungroomed, usually and it bumps up nice. I work the right at the top and then move toward the left as I go down. But you got to duck out early to Shooting Star if you don't want to traverse it down below. The double-fall lines of Free Fall and its next door woods, Vertigo, also require THAT terrible traverse if you want to ride them. It's the best part of Stratton over there, IMHO. Well tied with Spruce/Slalom Glade/World Cup and associated glades @ Snow Bowl.

Yes the real fix is extending Shooting Star down mountain, and ideally shifting it lookers left. I think they stuck it where it is simply to use Sunbowl as an alternate base area where people could get up top quickly.

The beauty of the Snowbowl area is its lower skier traffic. While I agree that a new and faster lift is needed, I stop short of a HSQ as that would make this just like the rest of Stratton - crowded, quickly skied off, and in need of more grooming.

Stratton 2-3-17

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