stratton recommendations?

[mishka]

My DD and I going to stratton for the 1-st time. Any recommendations for to avoid crowds ?

Thanks in advance.

 

[campgottagopee]

Ah crap, never mind

 

[ski220]

At this time of the year crowds should not be a problem. Park at the Sunbowl though, otherwise you will be in for a horrible experience.

 

[OppositeGeorge]

You going mid-week or weekend?

Apart from one horrible holiday weekend experience (you could say I was asking for it) I don't have much experience with weekends there, especially this late in the season.

Mid-week shouldn't be too bad (though lines will still be longer, IME, than at other resorts.) Definitely start out @ Sunbowl if it's open -- you'll probably be able to park within spitting distance of the lodge. For that matter the Sunbowl lodge will have next-to-no crowd mayhem, which has always struck me as a factor at the main lodge even on slow days.

I still have a ticket to burn there, which I'll probably do this Wednesday or Thursday, so if you see a fat guy with a Chow Mein sticker on his helmet, wave.

 

[snow*angel]

My DD and I going to stratton for the 1-st time. Any recommendations for to avoid crowds ?

Thanks in advance.

Yeah don't go to Stratton. To many lines, to many spoiled rich people and their cranky kids, and everything is way over priced. Head over to Magic or Bromley instead... where your bound to have a good, carefree day with your DD.

 

[billski]

Magic is now closed midweek.

 

[tekweezle]

just got back from Stratton. was not too crowded at all.

if you want to maximize your skiing there, get there early as most of stratton is a late arrive, early leaving crowd. ski til 4:00 as the place tends to empty out by 2:00-3:00 especially on sundays. avoid the Gondola and Ursa Express lifts between 10:30-1:00. there are other ways to get up the mountain. also, use the singles line.

if you find yourself at the base area and the line for the gondola is long, take the american express lift. it only goes half way up but then you can get to the snowbowl or ursa express lifts. the snowbowl lift is old and slow but useful if you don;t want to go all the way to the base. the ursa express is the busiest lift but usually not that bad. if it is, use the singles line.

if the lineup for the Ursa express is too long, you can keep skiing down to the bottom of the sunbowl area and take the sunbowl chair to the shooting star chair back up. there might be some cross country/uphill spots that are not snowboarder friendly though.

for lunch, there is a midmountain lift at the bottom the north american trail. it;s alot better than the main lodge area.

nothing in stratton is difficult. so don;t just target the main highway blue trails like Blackbear. there are only a couple of trails that might be moguled like beardown. other than that, treat any black trail as if it was a blue to avoid the crowds. the trails in the kidderbrook area are pretty uncrowded since they tore down the chair forcing you to ski all the way to sunbowl which is not snowboarder friendly.
goodluck!

 

[Dr Skimeister]

My DD and I going to stratton for the 1-st time. Any recommendations for to avoid crowds ?

Thanks in advance.

What's a DD?