Stratton VT - 3/22/2103

Yesterday I skied at Stratton VT. I haven't been at Stratton much in the last couple of years. Since being bought by Intrawest they have not offered good enough deals that meet my criteria ($30 or less).
However, lately they have begun offering some discounted advance purchase tickets that, since I have become a "senior", do meet my fiscal requirements; $29. (Incidentally, as of April 1st everybody will be able to pre-purchase $29 tickets and my price as a senior goes down to $25!)
I have always liked Stratton. They have some great terrain, a lot of variety and long runs (Wanderer along the west side is 3 miles).
Of course all of the resorts in the Northeast have been raving about the conditions the last couple of weeks so I was very excited to get in on it.
What Mrs. MTBMan1 and I have been doing is bypassing the main area and going straight to the Sun Bowl. It has a smaller mountain feel. Parking is easier with no need for shuttles and it's generally less crowded.
Conditions were very good. They'd had about 15" of snow during the past week and it showed it on the ungroomed trails. Otherwise everything was powder and packed powder. I even caught a few pristine groomers on my first few runs. One of my favorite runs is Lower Downeaster but it was a bit bumpy today so I couldn't really let go on it. On the other hand, Gentle Ben was great. It's kind of a twisty trail with switchbacks but the surface was consistent. After doing all of the trails on the lower part of the Sunbowl and one run from the top down Black Bear, I traversed over to the Main side.
I did Wanderer the long green along the western edge.
Favorites on this side for me were Drifter and Get My Drift which, as the names imply get an almost constant windblown coating which keeps the snow soft and smooth.
Wound up doing 16 runs and pretty much frying my quads which makes for a pretty good day.
Here are my stats: http://www.alpinereplay.com/stats/?id=46688

Next up: Windham on Monday.

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Ski day 14 - Mt. Snow - speed kills

Kills my quads that is. And not actually speed but the G-forces of big carved turns. Ok. Best day of the season so far. Got my first senior ticket (turned 65 on 2/14). And I had $34 in credit from last year so I only had to pay $23 for the ticket.($58-35, don't know why they gave me the extra dollar).
They were 100% open except for one trail over on Carinthia that they were building up for a rail jam or something on the weekend.
Absolutely killed my quads on 17 runs. Snow was great although quite a few trails were on the bumpy side. I did come to terms somewhat with the bumps though. Did some exploring. After a couple of warm up runs on Long John and then Deer Run I skipped over to the Sunbrook side and checked out a couple of trails that weren't open the last time I was there. Big and Little Dipper. They were blue squares but ungroomed so there were some bumps along with some soft powder and some hard pack.  I had already planned out what I was going to do the next time i encountered bumps: side slide and/or 180 degree hop/stop turns all the way down. That worked out pretty good. I was even able to actually pick a line and do some moving turns. Big accomplishment this year.
After Sunbrook I tried to get to the westernmost side of the main face or even do River Run which is the one blue square on the North Face. In the process I did not find River Run but did One More Time which is the westernmost run on the Main Face. That turned out to be quite bumpy with thin cover and ice although not very steep. I did even better here than on the dippers but the trail was quite long and really tired me out so I didn't do that one again.
Favorite run of the day turned out to be Snowdance, a long, wide and even intermediate run with no bumps or hardpack. I did garlands all the way down so it really extended the length of the run. A real quad killer but I just loved it.
Conditions were great, not crowded, sun came out .... what's not to like?

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Ski day 13 - Sugarbush

Thanks to Warren Miller, we had another fine day of skiing at Sugarbush at price that met our $30 or less price limit criteria (free).
Also a pleasant surprise was $100 for a room at the Golden Lion Inn right at the base of the Sugarbush access road. Amazing! Breakfast included!
Mrs. MTBMan1 and I went up on Thursday, Feb. 28th, stayed the night and skied the next day, March 1st.
They had got a nice dump on the previous Wednesday so they were 100% open and conditions were quite good but it was raining the whole way up on Thursday. I kept waiting for it to change over to snow as we approached the mountain but it never did. I tried not to get upset (not very successful).
However, we did have a great day.
We didn't realize it but that turned out to be Vermont and NH's school vacation week so it was quite crowded in the lodge at Lincoln Peak. Also, getting established on Lincoln Peak required quite a bit of hoofing from the parking lot up to the lodge. Very tiring. (note to self: park at Mt. Ellen next time, much simpler. Then take the Slide Brook quad or the shuttle over to Lincoln Peak,)

We took the Gate House Express Quad up to the halfway point on North Lynx Peak and warmed up on Pushover, a green trail before heading out to Mt. Ellen on the Slide Brook.
As we did on Valentine's Day we warmed up on the lovely green circle, Northway before heading up to Rim Run at the top.
Now, there was a problem. The entire top third of Mt. Ellen was shrouded in a dense cloud. Visibility was very bad. Almost white-out conditions. After awhile I started to lose my orientation as to where the trail ended and the cloud began or even up and down! Not good. We scooted off there pretty quick and made no more attempts on the peaks.

Eventually we made our way back over to Lincoln Peak and ended our day there. I made one attempt at the top of North Lynx Peak on Birch Run, a blue square. The snow was excellent but the run had got a bit bumpy by then which is not my cup of tea. Fortunately, the trail was wide with tree islands and the right side of the trail had got less traffic and was pretty manageable for me. Nevertheless, after that I stuck to the lower part of the hill.
My pick for the rest of the afternoon was Pushover to Overshot to Sleeper which bypassed the Chutes.
So, green to blue.
Thanks, Sugarbush for making your Warren Miller freebie all-mountain! Do it again next year! :-)

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Ski Day 11 - Belleayre

School vacation week is a bit difficult for me to find someplace to ski because everybody is ramped up with holiday pricing and no deals.
Last year I was able to night ski at Bosquets for $25 on President's day so I was grateful for that.
This year, I was even more fortunate in that because school vacations varied amongst the different northeasterly states, Belleayre decided to only charge holiday rates for the 1st weekend and the Monday of President's Day itself. So the rest of the week reverted to normal non-holiday pricing. Still too rich for my wallet but, hooray, they have a "Coke Wednesday" wherein you present a Coke product at the ticket window and get a lift ticket for only $30 which qualifies for our self-imposed $30 lift ticket limit.
Thanks, Belleayre!
They advertised 34 out of 53 trails open which is plenty for me.
Conditions were pretty good although there was some hard pack, I didn't run into any ice or thin cover.
This was the day I discovered a comfortable way for me to ski the black diamonds ... garlands.
A garland is where you traverse a wide slope at a shallow angle and do as many turns as you can while traversing in one direction before you turn and do it the other way.
I am also able to bleed speed in or out by tipping down hill or edging up the skis respectively without actually making turns. So I am able to control my speed pretty well without just doing straight traverses which I find very tiring and does not maintain a good rhythm ... prone to falling as i get going either too fast across rough snow or too slow at the end of a turn and lose my balance.
The black diamond "Dot Nebel" over on the West side was my sweet spot after lunch and I just rode that until it was time to leave.
Thanks to Belleayre for an affordable daytime ski during a holiday week!

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Ski Day 10. Sugarbush

Sugarbush is quickly becoming a favorite. Long runs with interesting terrain. Big (for the East) mountain skiing. The only reason we don't go more often is 1.price and 2. distance (almost 4 hours for us).
This year we've had 2 good price deals. The first one was a no-strings $14 all-mountain lift ticket on Valentine's Day. Very generous of Sugarbush, I thought.
Mrs. MTBMan1 and I went, of course. We spent one night with some rels in Rutland the night before and met up with Mrs. MTBMan1's sister and her husband who live about 1-1/2 hrs. south east of the hill.
Conditions were quite good as I remember it. Lots of soft snow and most trails open although not 100%.
We parked at Mt. Ellen  and proceeded to warm up on a few green trails. A real favorite green turned out to be Northway. It's narrow and flat like a cross-country trail but very beautiful and shrouded in white coated evergreens.
Overall favorite on Mt. Ellen is Rim Run from the top. Wide, with a spectacular view and good snow.
The Slide Brook quad was running over to Lincoln Peak so we took that. The ride is 12 minutes with great views. The first time is particularly exhilarating as we were not use to facing and moving DOWN slopes as well as up.
On Lincoln Peak we stuck with the Gate House Express Quad and the lower part of North Lynx Peak.
A nice run was Sleeper. The first part of the blue section of Sleeper was closed so we had to go down Sleeper Chutes which is black diamond but I managed to slip slide my way down that and then back into the blue square part of the trail. Lots of fluffy powder and trees. Very pretty. Another favorite.

Everyone in our party had a great time. Kudos to Sugarbush for a memorable and pleasurable outing!

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