Where to stay & ski? Sugarloaf, Killington....???

[SUGARBOWL]

I'm looking for any help or advice as to where to stay / ski for 5 days midweek ski trip the end of February / beginning of March (this is the week following February School Vacation Week, so I'm hoping crowds won't be a problem wherever we go).

Family of five, 3 girls 13, 10, 8 - mostly intermediate in ability, can handle some borderline blacks.

Have done Killington w/my wife back 20 yrs ago when dating. Pro's I see w/Killington is price for slopeside condo at Sunrise, discount price for lift tix. Con is fear of major traversing on flats to get around.

Never skiid Sugarloaf, but spent the summer there in '85 (or '84?) working on construction crew for Summit Lodge Hotel, so there's sentimental attraction (used to sometimes grab lunch at Gepeto's, which I assume is still there?) Price is a little more for Condo in Snowden Area - access to Snubber chairlift?

Driving myself crazy surfing the web trying to find best situation, then I found this forum - any advice from the experts would be well appreciated - thanks in advance!

 

[loafer89]

Welcome to our forum. I have lots of ski experience at Sugarloaf.

Sugarloaf is an excellent place to visit in late February or early March. Midweek crowds at Sugarloaf usually involve sharing a chairlift ride with someone else The mountain does not have too many flat sections, and they can mostly be avoided if you want to.

Sugarloaf is not really strong on intermediate skiing, it's more of an even mixture or gentle trails at the bottom and mostly very advanced skiing near the summit.

Sugarloaf is almost never a warm mountain, and has been prone to snow drought for the last several years. The snowmaking and grooming are top notch and the ski school is excellent.

Benefits to Sugarloaf:

Self contained village with great lift access
High vertical drop with alot of continuous trails
Novice terrain from the summit
Large single mountain, very little traversing
Lots of family activities, turbo tubing.


Drawbacks to Sugarloaf are:

High, wind exposed peak with cold weather.
Remote location, very little apre ski.
Antiquated lifts

For the intermediate skier, I would recommend Sunday River over Sugarloaf.

 

[ALLSKIING]

A great family mountain is Sumugglers Notch.
I have not skied there but have got alot of great feed back on this place for family vacation.

 

[pizza]

You will have problems with the crowds at Killington on that weekend. They're going to be brutal. Traverses aren't bad there, even on a snowboard.

 

[ALLSKIING]

You will have problems with the crowds at Killington on that weekend. They're going to be brutal. Traverses aren't bad there, even on a snowboard.

I don't think the crowds are that bad at k. I go every year during MLK weekend and only wait a few min for a chair.

 

[riverc0il]

pizza is spot on regarding traverses at kmart, if you ski the lifts correctly you really shouldn't hit any traverses. they have a couple of trails that run flat and go around town, but you just gotta plan your runs and lifts accordingly to keep those skis pointed down a fall line. crowds should not be a problem any where mid-week non-vacation week, so no worries there no matter where you end up.

folks can't seem to say enough about smuggs for a family vacation, especially with young kids. can not make a personal recommendation for lack of experience, but lots of good words. personally, i would pick the loaf over kmart any day. a lot more soul at the loaf.

 

[teachski]

If one of your girls were to become separated from the rest of you at Killington, she could possibly be back at a totally different base than the rest of you. It is possible too, I know from experience.

I had my 7 year old neice and 10 year old nephew with me last year. The neice fell and the 10 year old continued on his way past us and missed the turn back to where we were skiing from. He ended up at a different lift. Fortunately, we were at a fairly small area and we had 2 way radios. With a quick call we were able to join up again shortly after becoming separated. If it had been the little one I don't know what I would have done. She would have most definately freaked when we were not right behind her. Also, she has a habit of turning off her radio because all the traffic drives her nuts.

I'd choose a smaller, more family friendly area. Have you considered Burke or Smugs?

 

[ski_resort_observer]

There are many great ski resorts that would work for your family, Killington IMHO is not one of them.

 

[Vortex]

Greg has lodging lincs at the top of the page. Loafer89 really could give you the skinny on Sugarloaf. I would send Snowspritect and AndyZee pm's for the insider stuff on Killington. Go to the regulars.

 

[Talisman]

I wouldn't suggest Killington for your situation for the reasons mentioned above. Crowds, poor trail design and lots of quirky intersections would undermine the experience

Sugarloaf or Smuggs are better choices, with Sugarloaf being the better of the two. Gepetto's is still there. I also wouldn't rule out Sugarbush.

 

[kickstand]

if you're looking for variety and would consider the North Conway area, I could give you the skinny on that area.

 

[bvibert]

Welcome to the forums Sugarbowl, we hope to see more of throughout the season!

There are lots of good choices out there, I'm sure where ever you pick you'll have fun. Be sure to post a Trip Report in our Trip Report Forum when you get back. Actually you should try to search through the trip reports for the mountains mentioned above so that can get an idea of what to expect. Also you'll find plenty of info on all ski areas in the east in the Skiing Section of the main site, including the Alpine Zone Challenge where ski areas answer our questions.

 

[Vortex]

Sugarbowl welcome, jump in and get your feet wet.

Nice job guys of helping out. Bviberts lincs are great.. reminds me of TB a bit.

 

[dmc]

Sugarbowl welcome, jump in and get your feet wet.

Awesome moniker...

Sugarbowl is one of my alltime favorite ski areas...
Place rocks...!!!!

 

[Strat]

I also wouldn't rule out Sugarbush.

Woooo! Amen to that! Sugarbush is definitely a great mountain for intermediates, with tons of great cruisers , as well as Castlerock and much other expert terrain... they're working on fixing the lodging problem at the moment, but if you make some reservations now a place like the Sugarbush Inn I'm sure would accomodate you nicely...

 

[awf170]

if you're looking for variety and would consider the North Conway area, I could give you the skinny on that area.

i second the north conway idea

 

[Talisman]

North Conway is a great base for skiing a wide variety of ski areas, but one of the criteria was a slope side condo. There isn't a ski area in the North Conway area I would want to pay for slope side lodging and want to ski every day for a week.

 

[pizza]

Re: cross-trails in Killington

I know people complain about Killington's x-trails, but I've gotta admit that given the size of the mountain, those x-trails are quite useful. The mountain would be a serious pain in the ass to navigate without them, not to mention very limiting to beginner skiers.

Think of it this way - Skye peak is actually an extension of the ridge from Killington peak (the south fridge triple roughly follows the ridgeline. The main area is on one side of this ridge, Bear is actually a seperate summit on the other side.

You can see it pretty clearly in this pic:

Now to get from Bear to KBL, they've actually set up a trail that goes down the back side of Bear peak, then around the ridge of Skye to the top of Snowshed, and then over to KBL. There is no way to do that without crossing a dozen trails.. Another lift from Bear to K-Peak would eliminate the need for that, but then you have to have another lift open, and beginner skiers would need to use Great Northern to get down anyway - which has to cross a dozen steeper trails anyway.

So basically, there's no way around it. They did the best with what they had..

 

[Strat]

On a completely unrelated note to the topic but related to the post above, why is it that Google Earth has random chunks of VT/other mostly rural states in hi-res, but not the whole things? How come killington gets color hi-res? I want to see sugarbush, darnit!

 

[pizza]

On a completely unrelated note to the topic but related to the post above, why is it that Google Earth has random chunks of VT/other mostly rural states in hi-res, but not the whole things? How come killington gets color hi-res? I want to see sugarbush, darnit!

Apparently, they're adding hi-res chunks of the country all the time.. Pretty soon the whole country will be hi-res.

I'm not holding my breath though.. it's going to take them years to complete.