Early January update

I guess Snowvember spoiled us. Since then we've returned to typical early season East coast skiing. You know: thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze. But despite the challenging weather, we still logged some decent - if powder starved - days. Hopefully today's storm, currently up to nearly a foot of new snow at Killington, busts us out of December's pattern.

Killington, VT: 2018-12-01

By any measure November was a great month to be a skier. By the end of the month I had already logged 8 days of lift-served skiing – in most years I’d be lucky to have 2 or 3. Cold temperatures and nearly 5 feet of snowfall produced some of the best early season conditions I can remember. “Snovember” set the stage for a great day of skiing on December 1.

Killington, VT, Day 1: 10/19/2018

Well, that happened quick. The leaves are still on the trees and ski season is here. In our first year as Killington passholders, we couldn't pass up the chance to ski on Day One of the ski season.

Killington VT, closing out our season: 05/06 and 05/13/2018

After logging 40 +/- days this year we finally closed out our ski season with two Sundays at Killington.

Okemo & Sugarbush, VT: 03/30 & 03/31/2018

We kicked off Easter break with an overnight excursion to Vermont to use our remaining Mountain Collective day at Sugarbush. Since the long weekend started with a round of rain across ski country Thursday night, we warmed up with a day of at Okemo, where we knew the grooming crew would do a good job getting the mountain back into shape.

Sugarbush, VT: 03/17 & 03/18/2018

It’s been an amazing March for Vermont ski areas, with monthy snowfall totals in the 4 to 5 feet range. We headed up to Sugarbush this weekend to make use of our Mountain Collective passes.

Stratton, VT: 03/10/2018

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.

Pico Mountain, VT: 03/03/2018

With the Catskills chalking up some huge snowfall totals from last Friday’s storm, we almost headed south for the weekend. After hearing about all the power outages and long lines just to get in the parking lots, I guess it’s a good thing that we didn’t. Instead, we headed over to Pico Saturday morning, where a modest 9 inches or so had fallen.

The late February thaw(s) that plagued the northeast hit Pico’s natural terrain particularly hard, but somehow just enough base survived to stage a comeback with the new snow.

Killington, VT: 02/04 & 02/07/2018

As northeast skiers we've endured more than our share of ice, hardpack, slush, thin cover, wind and sub-zero cold. Sometimes all in the same weekend. Maybe that's what makes the good days so good. Our last two days - both storm days at Killington - were some of the best so far this season.

Pico Mountain, VT: 01/20/2018

Just when skiers thought they’d catch a break from the zero-degree cold, up popped the wind holds Saturday morning. We scuttled plans to ski Whiteface when we saw the forecast for 60 mph winds, took a chance on Pico, and lucked into a great day of skiing.

Killington, VT: 12/31/2017

We had debated between skiing Pico and Killington on New Year’s Eve, ultimately deciding in favor of Killington’s gondola for a bit of protection from the predicted cold temperatures. It turned out to be every bit as cold as predicted – well below zero all day – but as long as you stayed bundled up the skiing was excellent with conditions ranging from chalky packed powder on the groomers to boot buckle deep powder in the woods.

Stratton, VT: 12/22/2017

Storm day skiing is always fun, and Friday's snow brought us free refills all day long at Stratton. Light snow had started falling overnight, and by the time we got to the mountain 2 to 3 inches were on the ground. 9am conditions may have been a bit shy of "powder day" status, but by late morning things were getting pretty legit.

Pico Mountain, VT: 12/16/2017

The timing of last week's storm couldn't have been better for Pico. Storm on Tuesday, open for the season on Friday. The 18 inches that fell allowed Pico to open with 35 trails, including quite a bit of natural snow terrain. We would have loved to be there on Friday, but settling for Saturday wasn't half bad.

Killington: 12/03/2017

After all the excitement of the World Cup events over Thanksgiving, Killington was high on our list for a visit. So we loaded up the car and headed over to the Green Mountain State early Sunday morning.

Okemo Mountain: White Friday, 11/24/2017

They say that Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year, but in our family we prefer to celebrate the day after Thanksgiving by going skiing. Often "White Friday" marks our first ski day of the year, but with the early start to the season that we've had this year it's already our third weekend skiing.

Okemo has worked out well for our early season outings. Thanks to their snowmaking firepower, they reported the most open terrain (a little over a hundred acres) in the east.

Okemo Mountain: 11/11/2017

After a record warm October it was a huge relief to finally see cold weather arrive in full force last week. A few cold nights was all it took for Killington, Okemo and Mount Snow to blow enough snow to kick off the 2017-18 ski season. We toyed with the idea of hitting Killington but ultimately decided that Okemo would offer more skiing and less crowds. We'll save our Killington days for later in the season when there's more terrain open.

Pico Mountain, VT: 04/02/2017

Stella may have saved the tail end of the 2016-17 ski season, but the April Fools Day storm really put the icing on the cake - literally - with ski areas across the Adirondacks and Vermont reporting between 8 and 16 inches of spring powder. After a great day at Pico just two weeks earlier, the Saratoga Skier team got to work scheming out a way to get a taste of the 14 inches Pico received. Thanks to Pico and our good friends the Albas, plans were made for an early Sunday morning departure for the quick drive over to Vermont.

Mad River Glen and Pico Mt., VT: 3/17 & 3/18/2017

A Friday school holiday (Superintendent's Day) plus discounted lift tickets (half price at MRG and pre-season, pre-buy tickets for Pico) provided the perfect opportunity for the kids to add a couple new stickers to their helmets. And a storm named Stella didn't hurt either.

Killington, VT: 12/08/2016

I don’t do too many reports from Vermont, but I had the opportunity to ski mid-week at Killington yesterday. I’ve skied at Killington many times over the years, but for some unknown reason it always seemed to be in marginal conditions. This time, thanks to recent natural snowfall plus an expansion of Killington’s already massive snowmaking operations (dividends from last month’s World Cup event), I got to see the mountain at its early season best.

JayPeak, VT: 03/27/2016

Each year we try to make it up to northern Vermont for at least a day or two of late season skiing. We almost didn't make it this year, but at the last minute pulled off an overnighter to Jay Peak over Easter weekend.