Stratton 2-8-2020

My sister booked a place at Stratton for the weekend. I know. Anyway I planned on taking Junior with me but he got the flu. His brother had baseball but ended up getting sick too. I still was able to break away Friday night to head up in the dark. The drive took longer then it should have. The problem was traffic between Troy and the mountains, not the weather. Slow going. I got in late, had a beer while catching up with my sister and nephew and crashed out in the living room.



I have to admit it was a nice place, right across from the base area village.



Stratton got a couple inches fresh snow overnight Friday into Saturday but don’t worry- they groomed that shit down flat before anybody had to ski on it in the morning.



It was really really cold. I’m not sure what the actual temps were but they were projecting sub zero windchill so I went ahead and added my trusty NorthFace Denali to my layering scheme. I usually find the 300 weight polartec way too warm but on Saturday it was just what I needed. So it was cold but it was also very windy, windy enough that the gondola was down. So the snow was groomed out, wind scoured, it was cold as hell and the lift lines were long too. I’m tempted to blame the lines on the Gondi being down but, honestly, they probably would have been long anyway. Lots of racers around too. There were a couple trails on the main base blocked off for them.





So there’s a quad on the front that has a sign on it that says “advanced terrain only” or something like that. I guess people thought “advanced” meant “expert” cause there was zero line there. I knew it didn’t go very high on the mountain but it didn’t have a line so I got my sister and nephew to jump on. We did one run there to get started. I suggested we make our way over to the Sunbowl side to get out of the wind and they agreed so we went back up that lift and slid over to the line for the Ursa Express lift. Fifteen or twenty minutes later we were headed to the top.



Of course it was even windier up there. We headed down Black Bear and on to the Sunbowl base area. It was much less windy down there and the sun shone brightly. Huge lines still though. This guys vest struck me as worth taking a picture of. Not sure what his girl’s QuickDraw is for either.



We skied over there for a while. My sister took a break to warm up in the lodge after a while and I kept going with my nephew. It was fun, cause, you know, skiing is fun. I hadn’t been out with my sister and nephew in a couple years so that was fun. He doesn’t get to ride as much as he did when he was a kid but he’s a tremendous natural athlete and pretty fearless.



At some point they got the lift that went to the Summit on that side de-iced and started loading so the lines at the bottom weren’t quite as bad. Around noon we made a group decision to go check what was happening at the main base again so we headed that way. Skiing is fun.



I ate a bowl of chili for lunch that was top notch. No bag chili at Stratton- that’s for sure. I have to say I was really impressed by the chili.



After lunch they got the gondola running and my nephew wanted to lap a trail called Upper Standard that runs right under it so we got on the Gondi line. It started snowing pretty good around then.



Upper Standard was pretty fun- mainly cause skiing is fun. It was still snowing pretty good when I headed back south to my sick kids around 4 PM but don’t worry- I’m sure they groomed it.

As a side note, since junior got sick, I have a two day ticket available to sell at a ridiculously good price (by Stratton standards at least). PM me if you want it.

Nice report Brown..
I'm kind of glad I bailed on Okemo..I'm big baby when it comes to frigid temps..

I think I enjoyed reading this TR more than Brownski did "researching" it. Not enough base for the Kidderbrook trees I'm guessing?

JasonWx wrote

I'm big baby when it comes to frigid temps.

I can confirm that ^^

"they groomed that shit down flat before anybody had to ski on it in the morning. "  Stratton never (always) disappoints LOL!  

Jamesdeluxe wrote

I think I enjoyed reading this TR more than Brownski did "researching" it. Not enough base for the Kidderbrook trees I'm guessing?

JasonWx wrote

I'm big baby when it comes to frigid temps.

I can confirm that ^^

Ha! I did actually enjoy the trip. After all, skiing is fun. My sister made me promise not to take her son into any trees though so I can’t report on any of the glades. From the trail some of them looked ok but there didn’t seem to be many tracks in there

Jamesdeluxe wrote

I think I enjoyed reading this TR more than Brownski did "researching" it. Not enough base for the Kidderbrook trees I'm guessing?

JasonWx wrote

I'm big baby when it comes to frigid temps.

I can confirm that ^^

Kidderbrook trees where in play - if you know where to look.

Complaining about lift lines when the major lift to the top (gondola) and another major lift (shooting star) are not operating right away is weak sauce. Complaining about grooming at Stratton is hilarious - maybe you should have gone to Magic - it is only a few miles away.

Sorry X.  Since you mentioned it, yeah, first things out of my mouth when my sister said she was going to Stratton was, “meet me at Magic one day.” She had already bought 3-day tics for her and her son. And I did catch myself getting a little boring during the day with my “you really gotta try out Plattekill” Schlick so I tried to curtail it in the moment. Did I mention how much I liked the chili?

Thanks for this TR, made me laugh.

Fact - Super Bowl Sunday when the Pats are playing is the best day to ski Stratton.

On that vest, Dakine makes one of those and it’s pretty bad ass for lift served side country laps. It has enough room for your shovel, skins and probe as well as other stuff.

Not sure why you would need one at Stratton?

raisingarizona wrote

Not sure why you would need one at Stratton?

Maybe you own one pack, and that is it, and it has your sandwich in it?

Harvey wrote

raisingarizona wrote

Not sure why you would need one at Stratton?

Maybe you own one pack, and that is it, and it has your sandwich in it?

It also occurred to me, after I wrote the initial TR, that it was cold enough that he just put on every bit of clothing he had in his car, no matter how thin.