Stratton Conditions

It was so clear in the morning we could see Gore and the High Peaks.  Gore is about 80 miles from Stratton.
Gore from Stratton

Stratton claimed 7 inches but it was more in spots. The snow was mid season, dry powder. The conditions were insane.
The woods were back in play. Temps were mostly in the 20s.


The poma line was knee deep

Was there Saturday also. A solid 7" of snow pretty much everything this was open but the Sunbowl where they did not run the lift, never got close to freezing during the day felt like mid-winter. Interestingly for Stratton almost nothing was groomed bumps everywhere,They had an impressive crowd for April 7th,

Sunday, April 8 - Excellent mid winter conditions continue. It was in the teens when I got to the mountain and the trails were groomed to packed powder perfection. The woods and  roped sections were skiing chopped up powder with some hard stuff underneath. There was lots of room for high speed cruising. The temps never got higher than the mid 20s and there were snow showers all afternoon. There was no spring skiing this weekend.


Groomed Lower Grizzly - note the crowds

Due to the insane snow levels and conditions, Stratton is opening back up Friday/Saturday/Sunday  - April 13-15. Lift tickets will be $25.
https://www.stratton.com/things-to-do/events/season-finale

I'm generally not a fan of Stratton; IMHO, its flat, has long runouts and gets too crowded. Plus, it seems like you have to traverse a lot with the existing lift system. Hopefully, the new Snowbowl chair will help alleviate that. In any event, a good friend of mine and his family are and have been Stratton skiers for years and I usually ski a few days there with him each year. In fact, I've been skiing there with him since the late 80's.

Having my friend's house to crash in, an Ikon pass with 5 days at Stratton and last week's storm, the stars seemed to have aligned and I got 2 really good days at Stratton. The best in my recent memory at Stratton.

They left a fair amount (for Stratton) of trails ungroomed and the trees were in play which left me with a smile on my face. All of the ungroomed trails were soft with light powdery snow and powder bumps. Friday was great as the crowds were thin. Today, there was a good sized crowd but the soft snow made it worthwhile and gave us a memorable 2 days of skiing.

Sweet report thank you!

Thanks for the report!  Since Stratton is on Ikon and I have friends who like it, may get there in March.

Missed the good stuff...didn't get there until Tuesday (4th).  Temps had dropped so it was much firmer but not all bad with an 1" of new snow.  Only complaint is that it looked like they could have had a lot more of the mountain open.  I think those storms caught some of these placed off guard and maybe their full staff wasn't in place just yet.  Fun mountain when there are no crowds.

Skied Dec 8,9 at Stratton. Conditions were mostly midwinter dust on crust on the steeper trails. Lots of high speed cruising. The trees were also firm.The lower trails were in better shape. The trails have plenty of coverage and the snowmaking was operating in the Sun Bowl area. The new Snow Bowl HSQ lift is not close to being done and it really throws  the skiing patterns out of whack on the Snow Bowl side as all skier traffic is currently directed to Interstate.

New Upper Terminal

View down closed lower Liftline to lower Snow Bowl HSQ terminal area

We never waited more than a few minutes for a lift and the trails were mostly empty.


Lots of snow

Skied Stratton today, and it was an interesting adventure. The rain changed over to wet snow around 10:30, but the wind picked up, so the gondola and Snow Bowl lifts were on hold.

Fog moved in, as temps started to drop, so we headed over to Sun Bowl, which was below the fog. Skiing was as expected after warm temps and rain. The snow makers started dragging out hoses to get ready to do damage control, as the snow held up, but there were areas of thin cover and grass showing.

We spent most of the afternoon in the Sun Bowl area flying up and down the mountain. The Shooting Star chair went down due to a mechanical issue for a few hours, and was still down at 3:00 when we took our last run.

We may just ski Killington tomorrow, but will decide during dinner.

First day of the season - not the worst place to start and a good Ikon "burner" day.  Over half the mountain was open and conditions started out excellent and improved throughout the day as it snowed non-stop and they were blowing snow on some of the trails.  Even a few tree skiing sections were open but it's too early in the season for me to drop in.  Staff was very friendly and lodges are nice.  They cater to a particular clientele (well heeled intermediate skiers) and do it very well.

I was able get to Stratton this afternoon. They were claiming 5", but they picked up more. There was a no snow lull around 2pm and then the snow picked up again around 2:30pm and dropped another inch or 2. It continued until about 6pm.
The slopes were well covered with a slightly heavy, creamy powder. There was some ice and hard pack in spots, but you could find untracked or filled in spots until closing. It was about 26d and windy.
I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Middle of World Cup


Fresh tracks at 3:55

Friday was an excellent day. The trails were packed powder and some boot deep powder in spots. It was cold and windy and they were blowing snow on the Snow Bowl side. It did not open until after lunch and then only Spuce. I did  not have one lift ride with another person all day. High temp at the top was minus 6.
Snowmaking cloud

Snowbowl side roped off


Saturday was also an excellent day, much less crowded on the trails and lifts due to the cold temps, 10f, and winds. There were minimal liftlines, other than the gondola. Conditions did get scratchy, but at 1:30 it started to snow and conditions improved. We skied empty trails until 4. For the last hour we had fresh tracks on most trails.

First runs on World Cup were powder


Somebody hit the auto shut down switch 😂


It is 27f now (Sunday) and it looks like we have 5 to 7 inches here. It looks like it is still snowing on the mountain. Warmth and powder on the menu.

Sunday turned out to be way more crowded than Saturday. The combination of 6 inches of overnight snow and temps in the high 20s brought out everybody. We loaded on the first chair at 8:30, but most of the mountain was already shredded. Stratton has an early access pass that allows people on the mountain at 7:45am. We did speak to a couple of early access skiers, but they said the mountain was shredded for them, too. They guessed the employees and ski patrol must have had all the first tracks.

Despite the lack of fresh tracks, the skiing was excellent most of the morning. Eventually the steeper trails became piles of snow surrounded by rivers of ice and hard pack. We switched to the low angle trails and found lots of packed powder and even some fresh tracks.

By mid-morning, lift lines on the high speed lifts were around 15 minutes.

Snowbowl HSQ with a single line up the trail


Mobbed base area with a monster gondola line


We still had a great day.

Some cold Vermont smoke

That really doesn't look too crowded all things considered.

Harvey wrote

That really doesn't look too crowded all things considered.

Killington was crowded, as expected, but we were able to stay ahead of the crowds for a good part of the day. We really enjoy Stratton, but the crowds can get unwieldy due to their more condensed layout. Then there's Mount Snow... I can't even imagine what that place was like this weekend.  

Harvey wrote

That really doesn't look too crowded all things considered.

Everybody was in line and in the lodge.