The week of 16 March I took my annual ski trip with my friend, this time to southern Vermont. We skied at Stratton on Tuesday, Bromley on Wednesday, Stratton again on Thursday and Pico on Friday. Stratton was our base. I had never been to any of these areas. Monday afternoon we headed north in a monsoon that did not bode well for the following week of skiing. Worse than that, the forecasted flash freeze occurred on Monday night. Tuesday morning we looked out our condo window and saw a sheet of blue ice between us and the Villager lift that was not operating. We carefully climbed the glacier in our skis and made our way over to the American Express lift which was operating. It was a cold windy day and most of the mountain was closed. We probably skied for 5 hours on the on trails served by the American Express.
Wednesday we went over to Bromley and it was a different experience. That day was sunny and relatively warm and in the southern exposure at Bromley, most of the trails softened up nicely. Although it was true frozen granular, the surface was very edgeable. I really enjoyed Bromley. The layout of trails was a little quirky with twists, turns, and sudden drops. I like quirk. The vibe was old school with many friendly people eager to direct us around the base lodge and they were proud of their mountain. We met a Ukrainian native, Igor, who was a member of the Silver Griffins, an over 60 skiing club at Bromley. He gave us an application to join. Slava Ukraini!
Thursday we were back at Stratton. I give a lot of credit to Stratton. By Thursday they had opened 64 trails, groomed 63, and were making snow. They made a great recovery. We skied all over the mountain with the exception of the Snow Bowl Express that I was not sure was open. I’m not sure Stratton deserves its reputation as “Flatton”. There is plenty of challenging terrain there.
Friday we went up to Pico. That was very nice and again the frozen granular was edgeable. That mountain reminds me of Glen Ellen with two chairs to get to the top. Unfortunately, the terrain that was open funneled most of the crowd onto a small number of trails. There were no lift lines, but the trails were more crowded than I would have liked. It was good skiing though. The weather was forecasted to turn into rain and snow in the afternoon, and we had a 3-4 hour drive home. We left shortly after noon.
All in all, I liked Bromley the best, but that could have just been the weather. Stratton is expensive and the faux village at the base is abysmal. But, they worked hard to provide a good product after the freeze. The best meal was at the Manchester House of Pizza on the way home from Bromley. Pico was interesting with an old school feel. I think with better conditions and fewer people I would have like it a lot. We didn’t get to Magic so maybe that’s for the next trip.
