granite
Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2013
- Messages
- 213
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- 16
The 2 hour and 16 minute, 126 mile drive to Stratton Mountain took me to day two of my ski tour of New England. I arrived at 6:45 am to an overcast sky with temps in the teens and twenties throughout the day. I walked two warm up laps around the nice village and then entered the base lodge. A $95 lift ticket was available on Friday on their website. I misread the site and thought the window price would be $95 on Saturday so I didn’t purchase the on-line ticket. Arriving at the ticket desk I was told the walk up price would be $105, I explained to the very nice ticket agent that I was on their web site where the price was listed as $95. All of a sudden some old lady with long gray hair snapped out, practically biting my head off, assuring me that they have never had a $95 dollar walk up price. This was the only bad part of the entire day. The lifts open at 8:30 am for day trippers, but if you have a season pass first tracks are at 7:45 am; if you pay extra for the privilege. I arrived at the main six pack high speed at 7:45 am, followed three others to the loading area, flashed my day ticket and loaded the chair. I skied for free for the first 45 minutes, take that old lady.
The run of the day was on Bear Down, one of their steepest trails. Huge whalebacks had been made top to bottom and made the run fairly challenging giving my legs a good workout. The tight line on skiers left was superb and I did about 8 runs on it throughout the day. The trail ends about half way down the mountain and then there is a nice long run out to the base area. It makes for a long and varied top to bottom run. Other than that I just skied where ever my skis took me, including some very nice nonstop top to bottom cruisers on the main slopes to begin the day. Taking the singles line all day the longest wait was about 10 minutes, but most of the time 5 minutes or less. Early and late on the Sunrise side was ski on-ski off. To end the day just prior 3 pm I took the long beginner-family-slow skiing green trail top to bottom. Just off the summit there is spectacular view to the north, I could see Bromley, Killington, and Equinox; past the peaks that I didn’t know the names of and all the way to Mount Mansfield.
I had only skied Stratton once before, early season about twenty years ago. There was very limited terrain open then. This time most of the mountain was open, so it was essentially a first time trip there. My memories of the mountain from long ago was a flat ski area, I called it Flatton Mountain. Back then I only skied blacks as greens and blues were for wussies. Things have changed since then and I now ski anything, looking for good snow no matter the trail color. The mountain is bigger than I thought it would be and they have certainly made the best of it. They have a lot of long runs, wide open and uncrowded. Best of all these runs don’t have a lot of merging trails, cross-overs, intersections and bottle necks.
For après ski I went to Mulligan’s in the village. They have a nice outdoor deck with bar and hanging from a tripod is a huge cast iron pot loaded with about 10 pieces of burning firewood. I sipped a bourbon and watched the fire burn.
The run of the day was on Bear Down, one of their steepest trails. Huge whalebacks had been made top to bottom and made the run fairly challenging giving my legs a good workout. The tight line on skiers left was superb and I did about 8 runs on it throughout the day. The trail ends about half way down the mountain and then there is a nice long run out to the base area. It makes for a long and varied top to bottom run. Other than that I just skied where ever my skis took me, including some very nice nonstop top to bottom cruisers on the main slopes to begin the day. Taking the singles line all day the longest wait was about 10 minutes, but most of the time 5 minutes or less. Early and late on the Sunrise side was ski on-ski off. To end the day just prior 3 pm I took the long beginner-family-slow skiing green trail top to bottom. Just off the summit there is spectacular view to the north, I could see Bromley, Killington, and Equinox; past the peaks that I didn’t know the names of and all the way to Mount Mansfield.
I had only skied Stratton once before, early season about twenty years ago. There was very limited terrain open then. This time most of the mountain was open, so it was essentially a first time trip there. My memories of the mountain from long ago was a flat ski area, I called it Flatton Mountain. Back then I only skied blacks as greens and blues were for wussies. Things have changed since then and I now ski anything, looking for good snow no matter the trail color. The mountain is bigger than I thought it would be and they have certainly made the best of it. They have a lot of long runs, wide open and uncrowded. Best of all these runs don’t have a lot of merging trails, cross-overs, intersections and bottle necks.
For après ski I went to Mulligan’s in the village. They have a nice outdoor deck with bar and hanging from a tripod is a huge cast iron pot loaded with about 10 pieces of burning firewood. I sipped a bourbon and watched the fire burn.
