Stowe Mountain

This is the Gondola at Stowe

Currently (as of Friday, January 6) at Stowe there are 66 trails open out of the 116 that they have. The primary surface is packed powder or machine groomed. This is my favorite surface for skiing. I think that if the surface is too thin and not groomed, it is too hard to turn and you can easily lose control. I also like non-groomed surfaces with natural powder, but that usually only last for the morning until the trails are almost all groomed. At the base, there are 16”-26” of snow, but 8”-18” is natural snow. That is actually a lot of natural snow for this time of year. Usually, this early in the season, there isn’t much natural snow, and this year, in the Northeast, there haven’t been many snow storms this year. Stowe has been lucky and got a lot of natural snow.

Lift tickets at Stowe vary on what day of the week you go. A one day adult (13-64) ticket for Sunday-Friday is $88.00. On Saturdays, a one day adult ticket will cost you $92.00. If you are going to stay for multiple days, you can buy up to a ten day pass. I would recommend buying a pass for the amount of days you are staying. A season pass for an adult (19-64) cost $1,604.00. This would be a good deal if you own a house nearby and you plan on skiing/snowboarding at Stowe many times. If you plan on going for two weeks, get a ten day pass for the first ten days, then get a four day pass for the rest of the time.

I think that if you want to go skiing around this time of year, you should go to Stowe, but if you don't want to go now, you should keep looking. There are many ski mountains in Vermont and many of them are very good. Bolton Valley Resort has ski mountain and it is just 45 minutes from Stowe. If you are not willing to drive 45 minutes, you can go to Smugglers' Notch, which is 3 minutes away. Smugglers' Notch has a very good ski school and ski learning program. I went there for a long weekend in early February two years ago, and the snow was great. There is a lot of glade skiing (tree skiing) at Smuggler's Notch. They let you ski though the trees to get to another trail if you want to. It is “The granddaddy of all family ski resorts” (www.MSNBC.com). I have not been to Stowe so I can't say that it is better, but I can say that Smuggler's Notch is very good skiing. You can also ski down the back of Madonna Mountain (Smuggler's Notch) to get to Stowe. Yes, they are that close together. Vermont has a lot of ski resorts and you are most likely going to find one that sounds good to you.  

Sources:

www.stowe.com

www.smuggs.com

www.msnbc.com