Stratton, VT

The Drive

A weekend roadtrip up to Stratton, VT with some friends sounded like a good idea. A six hour drive from Philadelphia, we thought it best to leave at 5pm on a Friday. Arriving around mid night as I was carpooling the driver was getting tired, so I took over for the final hour. I was also pretty tired, but still more alert as I hadn’t been driving the last five hours. Well soon after the car owner went to sleep it started to snow, the roads hadn’t been re-salted and the fog was coming in. This would be the first time I drove in the snow, luckily the car was a Subaru. Arriving at our AirBnB I was confronted with fresh snow to drive through, luckily it was only about 4 inches and relatively flat.

The Mountain

I mostly rode on the URSA Quad and Snow Bowls. The runs come in two varieties, narrow with some ‘softer’ snow and wide with ice and the cross slope. I enjoyed being on the Snow Bowls more, but my ski buddy preferred URSA Quad. The runs I hit the most were Liftline and Tamarack. We took a wrong turn at one point and managed to find our way to Solstice. This side of the mountain was very quiet compared to the other side. The 91 is pretty flat and not recommended for a snowboard if you are low on wax; get those walking boots on. It was a better option than getting lost down Tree Top Way.

Lastly, I had a few runs through the East Byrnes Side SBX, a boarder cross run that was pretty fun and flowed well. Not trying to injure myself before my Jackson Hole Trip I took it pretty easy, but still managed to claim landing my first real jump at the end of the course.

I enjoyed Stratton and would like to return for a few extra days and try out the runs I missed. Plus it would be nicer to get lucky with the weather when there is more snow on the ground.

February, 2018