Stratton-need some help

[JimG.]

I'm going to Stratton tomorrow, first time in 35 years. Meeting my son's high school ski club there and I'm wondering which base lodge they park the bus at. Is it the Sun Bowl lodge?

I called Stratton who amazingly (to me) could not tell me this information. I asked our trip coordinator who did not know the name either.

Help!

 

[PaulR]

One would assume:
Not the Sun Bowl lodge.
The main base lodge has a small area in front for first arrivals, I forget if buses actually park there, but that is where they would drop them.
Drive up, signs push drop off parking to right, follow the flow, can't get lost, if/when that small lot 1 fills up lot 2 is just up the road to the left, then you still walk back to the same lodge.
Hadn't been in 35 years either but I just went 2 weeks ago. HTH
PLUS:
On a Sunday morning, there is guaranteed to be attendents directing/assisiting you.

 

[JimG.]

Thanks Paul.

My trip coordinator told me to look for a brown building with a black roof and white Welcome Center letters.

I see the layout on the map; my experiences on school trips is that they park the bus and the kids at a secluded lodge location like Sundance at Mt. Snow. That's why I guessed Sun Bowl.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i usually park at sun bowl and i usually see a few buses there fwiw

 

[JimG.]

i usually park at sun bowl and i usually see a few buses there fwiw

I think you're reading my mind. I'm going to park at Sun Bowl whether my son's bus parks there or not. I don't like the looks of that middle of town near the gondola set up.

Thanks.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

the main parking is a shit show. the main base area is a shit show. avoid it even if your son needs to be there. just take the sun bowl lift and ski down to the main base if you must go there.

theres a big underground parking garage in the village that fills before 8 am. then they put you in three auxiliary lots that are down the road and require a shuttle bus. its like people dont even know sun bowl is there. last sunday i drove past the village garage structure full, lot 1 full, lot 2 filling quickly. kept going to snowbowl and i was the 7th car in the lot.

stratton is weird and it sucks and their skiers are weird and they suck.

i skied pretty much every glade on their map last weekend. i have a very high tolerance for thin cover but i deem them all skiable. your mileage may vary. if nothing else, the one that runs skiers left of the gondola, and the one called diamonds in the rough both skied fine by anyones standards. tho the entrance to diamonds is fucky.

 

[JimG.]

i skied pretty much every glade on their map last weekend. i have a very high tolerance for thin cover but i deem them all skiable. your mileage may vary. if nothing else, the one that runs skiers left of the gondola, and the one called diamonds in the rough both skied fine by anyones standards. tho the entrance to diamonds is fucky.

More good info...our plan is to check out as many of the glades as we can.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

so that is pretty much how to ski stratton and have an interesting-ish day avoiding the groomers. (edited to add - if you are there at first chair, rip a groomer or two before they get shredded to glare ice).

the one mistake i made was i skied the west pilot glade (far right, #7) and wound up at the gondola at 10:30 AM. nightmare. i love west pilot tho. its a blue graded boundary glade, off of some green trails. no one really goes there and its mellow pitched wide woods with lots of different lines that go on for a long time. but the run-out of that was legit snaky and not fun. it was closed and i ducked the rope and it was closed for a reason

the only other thing that was roped off was dancing bear, because it dumps you out onto stevek or world cup or whatever its called where they were snowmaking. but it was skiable and skied.

theres lots of trees at stratton, most upper mountain woods between trails are skiable. not all are on the map (skiers left of the snow bowl chair). stratton skiers dont ski the woods so they stay pretty decent and most of them get snowmaking blowover.

test pilot (the top of my map) sucks in my opinion. but the other woods on the kidderbrook side are fun. long-ish runout at the bottom but nothing as bad as the mount ellen runout for example, or gore .

at peak times, gondola and ursa are your enemy. snowbowl is your friend.

i hate stratton but its free so i go and i know it.

oh, and while i definitely have seen buses at sun bowl, its entirely possibel that they drop their passengers at main base and then just hold position at sunbowl all day until picking them up. but stratton is a cone and you can get anywhere from everywhere. all lifts end at the same damn place.

 

[bdfreetuna]

You're going on a weekend so just expect to park very far away and take a shuttle there and back.

test pilot (the top of my map) sucks in my opinion. but the other woods on the kidderbrook side are fun. long-ish runout at the bottom but nothing as bad as the mount ellen runout for example, or gore .\

i hate stratton but its free so i go and i know it.

This is true. Test Pilot is often cited as kick-ass, but it does suck. Narrow squirrely shit on the top half then opens up in to a field of sticks poking out of the snow. At which point you'll probably say screw it and traverse back to the trail.

West Pilot (notice the difference) is the best glade. Even though it's not steep, it goes on quite a long time and reminds me of Gore's trees on Burnt Mountain a bit. You can get a real nice flow going and a nice leg workout if you don't stop.

Hopefully the crowds aren't too frustrating for you. I suggest just taking whatever lift you see that doesn't have a big line and explore the mountain without making too serious of a plan.


Edit: also I always park at Sun Bowl, which is a good choice on weekdays. Weekends I think every lot will be full but there are overflow lots right after Sun Bowl and they have shuttles. So you might want to stop at Sun Bowl, see if there's space, if not keep going straight and you'll find a place to park eventually. At least you won't be walking that whole distance.

 

[Zand]

Cant imagine that place on a weekend. Fun enough on a weekday if you want to stay close, glades are a tad underrated for sure and if you cant get a groomer down it, Stratton skiers won't ski it.

 

[NYDB]

I'm going to Stratton tomorrow, first time in 35 years. Meeting my son's high school ski club there and I'm wondering which base lodge they park the bus at. Is it the Sun Bowl lodge?

I called Stratton who amazingly (to me) could not tell me this information. I asked our trip coordinator who did not know the name either.

Help!

Yeah busses go to sun bowl. There is a nice park over there on Big Ben if thats your thing. Don't go to the main base until like one or 2 today and you should be fine. Also, no Ursa after 10am.

 

[Glenn]

Where did you end up parking? My wife and I went yesterday. It was great late AM into the afternoon. Ski on from lunchtime on. I wish the Super Bowl was every Sunday.

 

[sankaty]

Just chiming in, mostly to second what others have said.

I agree about Test Pilot. Some of my friends love it, but I've never really understood the appeal. Too single-track for my taste.

My favorite Statton glade is Kidderbrook Ravine. Parts of that glade feel very remote considering how busy the mountain can be. West Pilot has the same feel. Another favorite route is Moondance (entering from high up, above the fire tower), then cutting hard left when it spills out onto Bear Bottom to finish with the bumped up lift line trail under Ursa.

Diamond in the Rough is fun, too. Shredwood doesn't have nearly the deep woods feel of the others, but it has the most snowmaking blowover. It's a great run for folks who want to try the woods but have an easy escape, especially on the lower angle part nearer the bottom.

West Pilot is probably the easiest extended glade, and also great for new tree skiers.

I always park at Sun Bowl.

 

[bdfreetuna]

^ The ravine is cool because you can sort of make it as easy or difficult as you want by skiing up on the sides and taking short fall lines.

 

[JimG.]

Where did you end up parking? My wife and I went yesterday. It was great late AM into the afternoon. Ski on from lunchtime on. I wish the Super Bowl was every Sunday.

This.

I got there at 8 and went straight to Sun Bowl parking and parked right next to the lodge. Glad I did.

I forgot Stratton is a place where you can go to the top and get anywhere. Of course my son's bus let them off at the base area which was fine I got to ski those woods skiers left of the gondola shredwood forest. That was good I guess because of snowmaking blowover and I was feeling great going to pick up my son at the base.

We got back out and worked our way back over to the Sun Bowl side. Hit Kidderbrook Ravine that was fun maybe a little thin in spots but nothing too bad. Test Pilot was good. Diamond in the rough was good, a little lower pitch and again snowmaking blowover. Groomers lived up to the apparently well known complete scrapedown by 11:00 syndrome on the trails. That kind of skiing gets tiring quick but honestly it didn't bother me that much and the place did start to clear out by noon. I took James to Shredwood Forest to head in for lunch and he really liked that.

I wanted to go to West Pilot but decided a re-do of the morning would be more fun for James so we did that. Got to the rest of the trees in that area. I give Stratton credit all those trees were officially open and there was not a ton of snow but enough. I would be lying if I said I didn't have fun and wouldn't check Stratton out again with good snow conditions. Those trees make a big difference on the fun meter.

 

[JimG.]

Just chiming in, mostly to second what others have said.

I agree about Test Pilot. Some of my friends love it, but I've never really understood the appeal. Too single-track for my taste.

My favorite Statton glade is Kidderbrook Ravine. Parts of that glade feel very remote considering how busy the mountain can be. West Pilot has the same feel. Another favorite route is Moondance (entering from high up, above the fire tower), then cutting hard left when it spills out onto Bear Bottom to finish with the bumped up lift line trail under Ursa.

Diamond in the Rough is fun, too. Shredwood doesn't have nearly the deep woods feel of the others, but it has the most snowmaking blowover. It's a great run for folks who want to try the woods but have an easy escape, especially on the lower angle part nearer the bottom.

West Pilot is probably the easiest extended glade, and also great for new tree skiers.

I always park at Sun Bowl.

I liked Kidderbrook Ravine as well it was my favorite and the reason I wanted to go back there in the afternoon. I agree it's better than Test Pilot.

I'll make sure I hit West Pilot next time I go I love that flowy low angle stuff.

 

[Glenn]

Good deal! The trees are fun when in play. Some good comments here about them being really isolated and you can feel like you're at a different area on a busy day.