Southern Vermont was in the jackpot zone for last week's storm system and the ski areas all posted some impressive snowfall totals. Stratton's multi-day accumulation came in somewhere north of 30 inches, which was enough to coax us into flexing our MaxPasses for a return visit.
Family scheduling issues (we had to drop Sylvie for an all-day Girl Scout event) necessitated a late arrival, and we pulled in at 9:30 to completely full lots. I guess a few other skiers had heard about the snow. We ditched our car in a snowbank and hoofed it about 200 yards to the Sun Bowl lodge. Despite the crowds, we managed to avoid the worst lift lines by mostly sticking to the slower fixed grip chairs (Snowbowl) and avoiding the gondola entirely. We ended up taking the Ursa 6-pack twice, which was painful to say the least:
While the masses fell over themselves on popular trails like Standard (it follows the gondola lift line), we stuck to the uncrowded woods. I've written about the surprisingly great tree skiing at Stratton before, and the glades really delivered over the weekend.
I guess we skied a few trails too, and even there the conditions were pretty great with soft powder and packed powder. Stratton's known for grooming, but we had a great time skiing bumps on runs like Upper Liftline and the Poma liftline. Really it was the kind of day where you couldn't make a bad choice.
As I write, snow is falling from yet another nor'easter. Vermont looks to pick up 1 to 2 feet. We've had our ups and downs this season, but March is shaping up to be a really great month.
Sorry to bail on you last weekend. We had heard about the lift lines there as we were waiting to get our sons skis at the shop- which was a crazy busy for rentals too! It felt more like February than mid-March. The snow certainly was deeper there it looks and this weekend its shaping up to look really good. Rumor has it there is another storm next week.
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