Last Hurrah (maybe)

[MICO]

Shakin' loose to ski a big mt. over a long Easter weekend.......2 days on the slopes (Friday/Saturday). Most critical issues are snow quality, variety of terrain, and a gondola to the summit. Wife does not do well on lifts. Gondolas good, Kemosabe. We are equidistant to Stratton, Jay and Tremblant (all w/ gondolas -- we know only the S. side is serviced at Tremblant). We were at Jay for 2-days last April. Never Stratton or Tremblant.

Now the question: Where to go?

How "user friendly" is Tremblant for a first-timer there. We don't want to spend 2 hours figuring the place out -- where to park, put our stuff, buy tickets, get to the gondy, etc. Jay was real easy for that.

Tremblant will probably have the best snow. Jay is predicted to have a 60% chance for a "wintry mix" Wed. and Wed. night.

 

[gladerider]

Tremblant is not hard to figure out. You just park at the base near the clock tower, hop on the Cabriolet and just walk left to the ticket window, buy the ticket, turn around, walk straight to the gondy line.

Stratton is a little tricky. 2 options. first, park in the lot they direct you. hop on the bus. ride for a mile or two and walk to the base and gondy is right there. parking is a bitch. if you don't want to deal with the parking, then you can park at the sun bowl lodge, but then no gondy there.

Stratton has a big lodge to put your stuff, but you gotta carry all that stuff via the shuttle. Tremblant has a smaller lodge, but you will see why that is when you get there. You need to carry your stuff via the Cabriolet (open air gondy). I know Tremblant got dumped in the last 10 days.

 

[deadheadskier]

Just want to point out that you are also probably equidistant to Stowe and Killington - two other options with Gondolas, though the Gondola at Stowe doesn't service a tremendous amount of terrain.

I'm rarely one to recommend Killington, but it probably has the most accessible terrain in the east via gondola(s) - they have two.

 

[kcyanks1]

If your wife is really going to be using the gondola the majority of her runs, I would skip Jay (tram, not a gondola), because the tram is not a very efficient lift, and doesn't make the entire mountain easily accessible for repeat runs.

It's been a while since I've been to Tremblant, but the Gondola would open up the entire South side for you and be a better lift than Jay's tram. I would think that Tremblant might have crazy crowds though that weekend. Someone else might be able to answer that better. As for as convenience in other respects, Tremblant has a base village. You park your car and don't think about it your entire trip. They have a cabriolet (open gondola) lift to take you from the village to the base of the mountain.

Not sure what the situation will be like at Stratton as far as lodging.

With regard to terrain, it really depends what you are interested. Jay is the best for experts of the three, though most of the good stuff is in the woods as opposed to on the trails. Stratton is the easiest of the three -- tons of grooming and manmade snow, nothing approaching steep. Tremblant is in between. They still groom a lot and make a ton of snow, but they have at least some runs with some pitch.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Your wife has issues if she is only comfortable on gondolas..lol..

 

[ckofer]

I second the Killington recommendation.

 

[Dr Skimeister]

Nobody has mentioned Gore or Whiteface. I'm not sure what the conditions are or will be this weekend.

 

[kcyanks1]

Nobody has mentioned Gore or Whiteface. I'm not sure what the conditions are or will be this weekend.

True. Neither Gondola goes to the way top. Little Whiteface might provide enough skiing though. Unless one wants intermediate cruisers, though, Gore's gondola doesn't access enough terrain.

 

[MichaelJ]

I'll third the Killington rec. Go when Skyeship stage I will be open and you can park right down there at Skyeship Base on Rte 4. Then go all the way to the top and there are some really nice runs from there down to the midstation, just hop back on and ride back up on stage II. At the end of the day ski all the way back down to the base.

However, study the map, because it's very easy to come down from Skye Peak and end up *not* at the Skyeship midstation.