xwhaler
Active member
3 night overnight in Northern VT for an early valentines wknd with the wife. Went on a TravelZoo deal to the Essex Resort+Spa which included dinner Friday night. Really couldn't beat the value, nice place. Got a free upgrade into a mini-suite for the wknd so could eat breakfast before heading out skiing.
2/10 Sugarbush
My first time back to the Bush in 15+ years. On skis at 9am. Started out at the Gate House and did a few runs there to warm up. Sleeper Chutes was real nice as was the lift line for carving some high speed turns. Around 10 we met up with some friends and skied off the Bravo chair for most of the AM. Murphy's Glades were ok, Lexi's Twist offered some softening bumps where the sun hit the trail. Heaven's Gate chair was pretty breezy...organgrinder was scraped off and not much fun.
After a quick lunch at the LP lodge (not cheap!) my buddy and I went up to check out Castlerock. My first time riding that chair...I can see why it would be special on a powder day. We hit Middle Earth first....not as bad as I was expecting...hard to find a good line in the bumps as every 3rd bump had a messy icy trough or exposed rock but it was still fun.
Castlerock Run was next...prob run of the day for me as it seemd the sun got in there more and made things nicer....upper 30's at that point it felt like late March turns.
Good crowd for a Friday....Castlerock Pub was packed at abt 3:30.
2/11 Smugglers Notch
Back to one of my favorites. Real cold all day. On skis at 8:45...ski onto Madonna I for the first two runs then abt a 10 mins wait the rest of the AM. Drifter and Chillicoot were fun. Didnt do anything other that those off the top. 1 run on Sterling, forget the trail we did but it was icy. Ended up doing abt 5 runs on Madonna II doing blue groomers to end the day..figured I'd rather get on the chair than wait in line only to ski blue groomers again so M2 made more sense.
Called it quits at 1...pretty cold out there and was getting skied off quickly...healthy crowd for a Saturday given the lack of recent natural.
Considered doing an AM session at Bolton on the way home but it was just too cold to really enjoy scraped off groomers. Fun wknd...had dinner with my cousin who attends UVM Sat night in Burlington at Flatbread Pizza. The Essex is a nice place if you can hit it on a travelzoo/groupon/living social deal and want a central base camp spot in VT to hit diff hills.
2/10 Sugarbush
My first time back to the Bush in 15+ years. On skis at 9am. Started out at the Gate House and did a few runs there to warm up. Sleeper Chutes was real nice as was the lift line for carving some high speed turns. Around 10 we met up with some friends and skied off the Bravo chair for most of the AM. Murphy's Glades were ok, Lexi's Twist offered some softening bumps where the sun hit the trail. Heaven's Gate chair was pretty breezy...organgrinder was scraped off and not much fun.
After a quick lunch at the LP lodge (not cheap!) my buddy and I went up to check out Castlerock. My first time riding that chair...I can see why it would be special on a powder day. We hit Middle Earth first....not as bad as I was expecting...hard to find a good line in the bumps as every 3rd bump had a messy icy trough or exposed rock but it was still fun.
Castlerock Run was next...prob run of the day for me as it seemd the sun got in there more and made things nicer....upper 30's at that point it felt like late March turns.
Good crowd for a Friday....Castlerock Pub was packed at abt 3:30.
2/11 Smugglers Notch
Back to one of my favorites. Real cold all day. On skis at 8:45...ski onto Madonna I for the first two runs then abt a 10 mins wait the rest of the AM. Drifter and Chillicoot were fun. Didnt do anything other that those off the top. 1 run on Sterling, forget the trail we did but it was icy. Ended up doing abt 5 runs on Madonna II doing blue groomers to end the day..figured I'd rather get on the chair than wait in line only to ski blue groomers again so M2 made more sense.
Called it quits at 1...pretty cold out there and was getting skied off quickly...healthy crowd for a Saturday given the lack of recent natural.
Considered doing an AM session at Bolton on the way home but it was just too cold to really enjoy scraped off groomers. Fun wknd...had dinner with my cousin who attends UVM Sat night in Burlington at Flatbread Pizza. The Essex is a nice place if you can hit it on a travelzoo/groupon/living social deal and want a central base camp spot in VT to hit diff hills.
