Vermont for beginners/Novices

[vinnyv11]

Hey everybody. I am new to the site and new to skiing in general. I would love to put together a trip up to Vermont this year for some skiing for the wife and I but I am running into two issues. One is that I don’t know what mountain will be best for us as my wife is a beginner having difficulty on greens in PA (was in tears last week at Elk) but is learning and I am doing all the greens with ease and all blues without much difficulty (at least of the blues I’ve seen so far). Our skiing has been reserved to PA for the time being but I am ready for a real mountain. The obvious second issue is that I am finding everything to be uber expensive.

Can anyone provide suggestions for what mountain we should hit based on the ski level information above?

Any tips for a new ski trip planner to find some great deals or the best ways to put together affordable trips?

 

[thetrailboss]

Based on what you are suggesting, look to Smuggler's Notch. They have great beginner terrain, ski programs, and lodging right there. Also it is secluded and nice. Very popular with families and newbies. Slower lifts and older facilities, but they consistently rate high for newbies and families. That must mean that the service is good.

Another idea is Burke, but the terrain for beginners is more limited (nice lodge and very nice HSQ though) and it does not have the same one-stop-shopping appeal.

Bolton Valley may also fit the bill and is very close to Burlington. They have very easy terrain on most of the mountain and are very reasonably priced. In terms of price, I'd say Bolton or Burke would be cheapest.

As to trip planning, go to www.skivermont.com (the Vermont Ski Areas Association). They are one-stop shopping for info.

 

[Euler]

Bromley is closer to you coming from PA and is very beginner friendly and has some great prices as well.

 

[skierbum]

I really like Pico. A hidden gem. Very seldom crowded. Good cruising terrain from the summit, and nice easy stuff off the halfway Hi-Speed Quad.

Great prices as well.

http://www.picomountain.com/site/index.html

 

[RISkier]

Some of the recommendations would depend on when you're planning your trip and how far you're willing to drive. Some places where crowds are intimidating on busy days would be very good on non-holiday weekdays. I was wondering about Bromley for beginners? I don't think Mt. Snow is great for true beginners. Tons of low intermediate terrain but not a lot of true beginner terrain. Stratton has some pods that are mostly green, though my limited experience tells me crowds can be somewhat intimidating at Stratton. I think Smuggs is worth considering and the lower part of Burke would be good as well, though drive times are likely getting pretty long. You might also consider someplace like Mount Sunapee in NH -- the main mountain can be absolutely nuts on busy weekend days but they have an isolated novice area with a beginner friendly lift. And you could drive down the road and spend a day at Pat's Peak, which also has some beginner friendly terrain. It's probably out of you're driving range (though not far from Burke), and I sound like a broken record, but I think Bretton Woods is a wonderful area for beginners and novices. They have an isolated lift that serves only very easy beginner terrain. There are green trails off of almost every lift with great views of the Mount Washington Hotel and Mount Washington. IMO, a really good place for beginners and timid intermediates. Oh, and get lessons. Especially for your wife. A good instructor will not only improve skills but will do so on terrain appropriate to your abilities.

 

[Stache]

Pico does have some nice green and lower blue terrain on the bottom half of the mountain.

Killington has a green trail from the top of every lift.
GREAT vistas on a clear and sunny day (today). From the very top of Killington peak you can ski an old logging road called Juggernaut for 4.5 miles down to Bear Mt. base. From the top of the beginner area, Snowshed, you can ski Northbrook to Carpenter's Run to Lower Great Eastern and have another very long trip on a moderate green.

 

[thetrailboss]

I think that Killington/Pico might overwhelm them.

 

[riverc0il]

Pico, Burke, and Bolton would be my recommendations for VT. You'll need to provide more info for a more specific recommendation. Slopeside? Nightlife? Price (how much is too expensive?)? Want a beginner run from the summit? How much of an issue are crowds? Drive time? Want a High Speed Quad? Anything else? Bromley could be an option for SoVT. Smuggs might be a nice option too.

 

[Skimaine]

I know you are trying to keep costs down, but consider a private lesson or a group lesson for your wife. A good instructor will help her reach the next level.

 

[wintersyndrome]

All of the choices here are really good, Bromly, Burke and smuggs would be affordable places to go.
I would also look into Mount Snow, Stratton and Okemo as they have generally more gentle terrain than the norhtern mountains but would give you some of the challenge you may be looking for from a bigger mountain.

Stratton and Okemo would probably be the more expensive of the the three. One thing I would say is that you should encourage your wife to get a lesson at one of these mountains. Besides the fact that a lesson would help her, she may find the talent of the instructor better than your local hill because they are "destination resorts" and becuase of such attract better talent of instructor than you may find at your home hill.

Don't get me wrong I'm trying to bust on Elk here. I mean I love the place, its affordable and has steeps that you don't find easily at PA mountains. But because its not a destination resort and has a shorter season it may not attract the upper echelon of instructors. (Again no insult is meant to any Elk or PA instructors here, you all do your jobs very well its just that the Vermont resorts pay more for their full time instructors and also have more full time instructors with a higher demand for "white glove" instruction.)

Another good thing about the resorts is if the lessons don't work well for your wife, then she can always find something to do in town (Masseuses antiquing, etc.) and If you want to find an authentic Vermont town then Okemo would be my choice over stratton, Stratton is a bit "disney world", and mount snows valley was developed after the mountain got popular. Whereas Ludlow, was an established town before the mountain was developed.

Hope this helps.

 

[trackbiker]

Okemo, Stratton, and Mt. Snow, and I'm sure others, have some decent priced midweek ski and stay deals which can also include lessons. If a private lesson is too much, sign up for a midweek group lesson and you'll likely get a private lesson or maybe one or two other people in the lesson. Check out their websites and specials.

 

[riverc0il]

Okemo, Stratton, and Mt. Snow, and I'm sure others, have some decent priced midweek ski and stay deals which can also include lessons. If a private lesson is too much, sign up for a midweek group lesson and you'll likely get a private lesson or maybe one or two other people in the lesson. Check out their websites and specials.

These three mountains are all on the more expensive side. Yes, you can get reduced price ski and stay and yes it will be cheaper mid-week. But that is true no matter where you go so its all relative. I think its far more important to select a mountain that isn't a zoo, where you'll have some elbow room and where conditions due not deteriorate quickly due to excessive crowding. Interestingly enough, these types of areas also tend to be a lot less expensive than the bigger names...

 

[trackbiker]

These three mountains are all on the more expensive side. Yes, you can get reduced price ski and stay and yes it will be cheaper mid-week. But that is true no matter where you go so its all relative. I think its far more important to select a mountain that isn't a zoo, where you'll have some elbow room and where conditions due not deteriorate quickly due to excessive crowding. Interestingly enough, these types of areas also tend to be a lot less expensive than the bigger names...

I wouldn't recommend any of those places for a beginner on a weekend but there is plenty of elbow room midweek and you'd be surprised at some of the deals you can get. You can get a room and two tickets for essentially the same price as two tickets midweek. Weekends it's a different story.
I'm always amazed that people will find a fleabag motel to save money then go and pay full price for a lift ticket and think they saved money overall when they could have stayed at the mountain including tickets for less.

 

[Euler]

I wouldn't recommend any of those places for a beginner on a weekend but there is plenty of elbow room midweek and you'd be surprised at some of the deals you can get. You can get a room and two tickets for essentially the same price as two tickets midweek. Weekends it's a different story.
I'm always amazed that people will find a fleabag motel to save money then go and pay full price for a lift ticket and think they saved money overall when they could have stayed at the mountain including tickets for less.

TB is correct, midweek, crowds are non-existant at Mt. Snow and the ski and stay deals are really unbelievable. There's a banner ad on AZ frequently for Sunday River ski and stays for $99 pp. Even a small cheap area will find it hard to beat that,

 

[oakapple]

I don't have my fellow-posters' encyclopedic knowledge of all the Vermont resorts, but I found Killington an excellent beginner's mountain when I was new to the sport. There are two whole areas (Snowshed and Ramshead) that are practically dedicated to beginners, where you won’t have cannon-balling experts in your way. The rest of the resort is chock full of relatively easy greens, as well as the harder ones that can get you ready for the blues. A green skier can spend days at Killington and not get bored. Every chairlift at Killington has a green route to the bottom, a rarity at a resort its size. That means you can basically go anywhere, and know that you have a safe way back to base.

I do not think that Mount Snow is a good beginner’s mountain, in relation to the other options. Excluding traverses, runouts, and the bunny slope, Mount Snow has just one trail pod for beginners, the interconnected Long John / Little John / Deer Run / Sweet 16 combo. Those runs are enjoyable, but you can lap them only so many times before wishing there were something else to do. If you’re not ready to step up to the blues, Mount Snow will disappoint you.

I do agree that, regardless of which ski area you choose, a lesson will greatly enhance your enjoyment. Some areas (Killington among them) also offer free tours. The tour at Killington goes on green trails only, and takes about two hours.

 

[RootDKJ]

I like the Bolton Valley suggestion. Such a cool place, and even the intermediate terrain is pretty mellow.

 

[vinnyv11]

Thanks for all the great replies. I feel like I have a lot of thoughts out there now to try and find a great trip/deal. I found a $59pp ski and stay package at Bolton Valley (ski club deal) so I’m considering that but I definitely want to look into the suggestions I’ve seen on here. I know that I am fine with navigating some traffic (being that PA mountains are insanely packed always) but I am looking for something relatively barren for my wife as she is still working on her skills avoiding others and is constantly looking around herself when it is crowded.

I agree with all the suggestions regarding lessons however, I do question whether at this point it would be worth it or if she just needs some mileage. We took lessons every Monday the first six weeks of the year with an ASIA certified instructor through our ski club this year. I understand that the resort instructors are probably amazing but being that she already has six weeks of instruction does everybody feel she will gain a significant amount of value from lessons at this point or if “doing is learning” is the better way to go at this point?

I had another question I didn’t think of asking. How many days should we go for? Having an idea of the level my wife is at is going for a week or even four days going to be too much for her to handle at her level (i.e. three to four ski days)?

Some questions that were posed on here I wanted to answer:

“when you're planning your trip”

I am thinking early-mid march. Right now my target dates are March 21 – 25. I may try to do a weekend trip in there as well. Any trip with the wife will more than likely be midweek though.

“how far you're willing to drive”

As long as I am going for several days I don’t mind a 10 hour drive or whatever so that should cover a majority of VT. I have driven to Michigan/Minnesota/Ohio/Florida for sporting events on numerous occasions (GO STATE!).

“Slopeside? Nightlife? Price (how much is too expensive?)? Want a beginner run from the summit? How much of an issue are crowds? Drive time? Want a High Speed Quad? Anything else?”

I would like to stay on the mountain or close to as I have never experienced that.
As for nightlife at this point if it is just the wife and I a quiet nightlife would be fine just as long as we have places to eat and such.

As for price this is really the ? mark of the whole thing. As we are completely new to this and planning trips for it I am not sure what an appropriate price is.

I think long sustained beginner runs would be great and helpful for her so a beginner run from the summit would be nice but not required.

Crowds are important in that the wife is a beginner and would probably benefit from open slopes to work on her turns and such.

 

[billski]

I know you are trying to keep costs down, but consider a private lesson or a group lesson for your wife. A good instructor will help her reach the next level.

Some times the first group lesson of the day has few to zero participants. You might show up early, see what the signup list looks like and decide then. You potentially could end up with a private at group prices.

 

[RootDKJ]

I know that I am fine with navigating some traffic (being that PA mountains are insanely packed always) but I am looking for something relatively barren for my wife as she is still working on her skills avoiding others and is constantly looking around herself when it is crowded.

PA mountains are not always insanely packed, just when you go . That being said, Bolton won't be anything like PA.

I had another question I didn’t think of asking. How many days should we go for? Having an idea of the level my wife is at is going for a week or even four days going to be too much for her to handle at her level (i.e. three to four ski days)?

Build a "rest day" into the trip and go do something different to let the legs recover a little bit. Hit up Cabot, Ben & Jerry's, go to a farm, snowmobile...

 

[riverc0il]

Good points above regarding mid-week. You can go anywhere mid-week non-vacation and the slopes will be pretty empty. Even a big resort like Killington would be very uncrowded mid-week late March.

Go with whatever you can find a good deal on. I still like Bolton, Pico, Burke, and Smuggs as great options for staying very close to the resort (even slopeside) on the cheap. Bigger resorts are going to cost a lot more if you want to stay on the mountain, even mid-week. You'll get deals, but slopeside or on mountain is going to still cost big bucks at bigger resorts.

I really like the Bolton option. Since so much of the terrain is mellow, you'll be able to enjoy a lot more of the mountain even as beginners. Same with Pico. The blues at these mountains are easier blues.

Yea, I really like Bolton for you guys. And you can hit up nearby Burlington for a night on the town during the week as well. Alchemist down in Waterbury for one of the best microbrew houses around if you are into that. If you got a good price to boot, its in the cards.