Glades for the kids

[Newpylong]

A lot of Mount Snow's glades would work well for youngins. Among the better would be: Claim Jumper at Carinthia, the Boonies on the Main Face, and Frontier in the Sundance area.

 

[ckofer]

Saddleback in ME has a glade for kids in their beginners area, and while i haven't seen them Sugarloaf claims kids glades

I was there (first time for me) and did find some glades that were quite suitable for beginners.

 

[hiroto]

I took my daughter to Loon today, specifically for introducing her to glades skiing which she hasn't really had opportunity to try yet. I like Missing Link and Scalar at Loon as kiddy glades. It is a little dense and little narrow but it is not steep and goes on for quite a good distance.

As I expected, she loved it and we went though it for every gondola ride throughout the day.

I also got reminded of a danger associated with glades. On a busy mountain like Loon, it can be quite dangerous coming out of the wood. When you come out of the wood, you'll usually come out crossing normal trail. Also, often the exit is a little steep drop. On our very first run, at the exit of Missing Link was a ski patrol directing people coming out of the wood. When we came out of it, there was a kid on the slope, screaming with pain. Looks like he came out of the wood right into the path of a somebody going through.

Since it is a little of a drop, I assume kid will be fixated on where he is going and little attention was paid to what may be coming. We went through there many time today but it was always very hairy. You really have to stick your head out and rubber neck to see if anybody is coming, and it is a really hard to see if anybody is coming around the corner on the edge of the trail at high speed.

It was a good lesson to remind my daughter what could happen if not paying attention of merging traffic.

 

[kbroderick]

Squeezeplay at Killington (on Ramshead) is nice and low-angle, wide-spaced, and comfortable for glades learners. In general, I'd suggest looking for official glades in the immediate vicinity of blue-square terrain--those tend to be relatively low-angle and reasonably open.

 

[LongStep]

Bretton woods has some great glades on the western mountain that this big kid enjoys quite frequently :-D

 

[thebigo]

I would add enchanted forest at sunday river and skidder at loon to the list of low angle glades that would be good for newbies, young or old.

 

[BeanoNYC]

There are some sweet lower el glades off the triple at Stowe that would be perfect. I took my kids, as young as about 8 into the woods around tollhouse. They just loved it. Of course, they are so small and their skis so small it was effortless (for them!)

Ding Ding Ding. Exactly what I was going to say. Also, Sugarbush has some similar glades to Kokomo, but no way near as vast.

 

[polski]

I would add enchanted forest at sunday river and skidder at loon to the list of low angle glades that would be good for newbies, young or old.

There also is a gladed area called Enchanted Forest near the top of Magic. Not very big but low angle and reasonable spacing to the trees -- not too wide, not too tight. My kids had a blast there today and so did I.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

Seconding/ninething/twelfthing Bretton Woods. Glade West is basically a run with trees in it -- a traditional gladed run, really. Wild West and Millennium Maze are tighter, but still not too tight and perhaps more importantly not steep and definitely worth a try. And oh yeah, the exits back on to groomed terrain are flat from these runs, so much less danger of dropping out on top of another skier than say, on the glades off the triple @ Stowe.

As for Sunapee, they have a few nice tree runs and the ones I found weren't killer killer terrain (hell, I could ski 'em and I suck at trees) but still they might be a little much (long, steep, tight) for the kids.

 

[Sparky]

Hotwheeles

Jiminy has one and only one glade and it is definitely a kids glade. It is on very green terrain, widely spaced and there never seems to be any brush to deal with. It is short and narrow and you can duck in and out anywhere, since there are trails on both sides. We take kids in there all the time and it seems like that is the part of their lesson that they remember the most.

 

[millerm277]

Squeezeplay at Killington (on Ramshead) is nice and low-angle, wide-spaced, and comfortable for glades learners. In general, I'd suggest looking for official glades in the immediate vicinity of blue-square terrain--those tend to be relatively low-angle and reasonably open.

The lines further toward skiers right can get difficult for beginners, but overall it's a good learning glade.

 

[polski]

I mentioned Enchanted Forest at Magic. Here's a photo.

 

[polski]

At Cannon I can vouch for Turnpike Glade as pretty easy (rated blue but low-angle, short and not tight) and Lakeview Glade next to Zoomer Lift Line as great, longer and a bit more challenging but not ridiculously so (they give it a black). My 7-year-old did fine in both yesterday.

 

[2Planker]

Sunday River has a few Glades that are "kid friendly"

Enchanted Forest and Blind Ambition are both rated as Intermediate Glades.

Then there's Last Tango - which has been around for 20+ years, and was recently "plucked" to open it up..