Stratton 3/31/11 - 4/3/11

Thursday 3/31/11

After dropping my little one off at ski school, I headed up the American Express 6 to get to the Ursa 6. The Gondola was the other lift (besides the 2 magic carpets and a beginner chair) open. The conditions were very firm and fast. I was hoping for some softening and sun but it was not to be. I lapped the Ursa 6 all day covering almost every trail on the upper mountain. The woods had a lot of branches down from an earlier ice storm and conditions here hard and icy.





There was no snow on any trees anywhere on the mountain.



It started snowing on Thursday night and continued thru Saturday around noon.

Friday 4/1/11

We woke up to about 3"-5" of new snow. The upper mountain seemed to have more than 5". I was able to enjoy fresh tracks on my initial 5 runs off the Ursa 6. The snow skied like about 12" of powder. After that the trails were all cut up piles of heavy powder. It continued to snow all day. There were many place were the firm frozen granular was showing on the trails. There were periods of poor visibility and high winds. I was able to catch some of my daughter's lesson.





There were many more people skiing today but there were no lift lines. Stratton set up big corrals, but it was just a hassle moving thru them to ski right onto the lifts. Stratton had a special $15 lift ticket today.

Saturday 4/2/11

After a windy night we woke up to more snow. The base had a few more inches and the top seemed to have another 5"-6". There were more people around. The skiing was a repeat of the day before except I spent a lot more time in the woods. The snow was heavy but fun and all the trees on the mountain were covered with the fresh snow. It looked like a mid winter day.
 




The sun came out off and on after noon.







After a few snow squalls the sun was out for the rest of the day.

Sunday 4/3/11

Today was ski with my little girl day. She was hopped up to ride the Gondola to the top with Daddy. After a couple of gondola runs and a ride on the AMEX 6 we called it a day and headed home.

Nice report X.
I had a great day at Stratton early in the season.  I had a chance to do a "business trip"  ski day on Fri, but various schedule conflicts nixed that.  Had we gone, Stratton was a likely destination since it looked like it would be the bullseye.  Looks like it was from your pics and tr.  Ordinarily Stratton isn't my cup of tea, but it's reasonably close to home (Saratoga) and they certainly are a snowmaking and grooming powerhouse.  Pricey, but if someone else is picking up the tab that's fine by me .  Geez, four days, that's like $128,000 for a family of four, right?

Adk Jeff wrote

Nice report X.
I had a great day at Stratton early in the season.  I had a chance to do a "business trip"  ski day on Fri, but various schedule conflicts nixed that.  Had we gone, Stratton was a likely destination since it looked like it would be the bullseye.  Looks like it was from your pics and tr.  Ordinarily Stratton isn't my cup of tea, but it's reasonably close to home (Saratoga) and they certainly are a snowmaking and grooming powerhouse.  Pricey, but if someone else is picking up the tab that's fine by me .  Geez, four days, that's like $128,000 for a family of four, right?

Thanks. I did not have to sell a kidney.

We had a great time. The pricing was pretty reasonable. I think midweek end of March helped. We stayed at the Long Trail House right across from the Village. It was nice not to have to get in the car each morning. We only got in the car to go to the Red Fox for burger night on Thursday. We ate in the Village the other nights which meant Daddy could have more than one beer (we walked). The ski school kept my daughter's skis/boots/helmet each night and I was able to check my skis at the base. It was a real treat for me not to be the family mule on a ski trip.