New England 2023-2024 Northeast Ski Resorts/Conditions/Meetups Thread

[Tony S]

Clearly @Tony S wasn’t consulted.

Well, Tony S dislikes Disney too, so best just to steer clear of him.

 

[ScottB]

I am not Tony and like Sunday River. After giving it more thought, Sunday River has two nice hotels slopeside. The Summit hotel does have a really nice indoor/outdoor pool and hot tub. Haven't stayed in the other. Its interior decor is not the fanciest, but its spacious and quite a nice hotel for the $$. To me what separates SR from Sugarloaf is the mtn. Sugarloaf is mostly a single peak which gets quite steep at the top. They have added a huge glades section called Bracket Basin and another cruiser peak I don't know the name of this year. Sunday River is a "ridge" with 6 peaks (maybe 8) and the vertical is about the same on each peak and the terrain is defined by which peak you are on. They do have and expert area or peak (Oz) but it mostly natural snow and not always open. Both have lots of glades, SGL in one area and SR more spread across the peaks. Sunday River is more spread out terrain horizontally while Sugarloaf is more vertical. I would say SGL has the bigger base area, village but SR is no slouch and has a nearby town of Bethel with restaurants and stores.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Not sure if this the right place to ask. If it is not let me know where is the right one I will move the post.

Wife is taking kids to Disneyland, which means I get 7-10days of skiing with them next February. They will be 11 and 9 we live near Toronto so Blue Mountain is our home resort and we have IKON passes, we also go to Tremblant for a few days every season, skied in Japan quite a bit too.

For this trip I want to drive somewhere in VT or Maine and stay in ski in/out or walk to lift on IKON. Talking to kids priorities are:

1.Snow conditions, more accumulation holds snow better etc.
2. A lot of glades, from beginner to advanced, (no cliffs or anything crazy).
3. Pool somewhere close by or at least hot tub
4. Fun accommodation.. meaning we stayed at a place in Japan that was half board and during dinner they met other kids, made friends, we ended up skiing together, tons of fun. This seems to not exist but maybe some place rings a bell?
5. Night skiing


Places I researched so far Sugarbush, Sunday River, Killington, Sugarloaf. I never skied anywhere in the east US so would love suggestions, ideas!

I think Vermont has the better snow this year but if you describe what type of trails you like to ski that might help. Can’t really go wrong with Sugarloaf.

 

[Wilhelmson]

I am not Tony and like Sunday River. After giving it more thought, Sunday River has two nice hotels slopeside. The Summit hotel does have a really nice indoor/outdoor pool and hot tub. Haven't stayed in the other. Its interior decor is not the fanciest, but its spacious and quite a nice hotel for the $$. To me what separates SR from Sugarloaf is the mtn. Sugarloaf is mostly a single peak which gets quite steep at the top. They have added a huge glades section called Bracket Basin and another cruiser peak I don't know the name of this year. Sunday River is a "ridge" with 6 peaks (maybe 8) and the vertical is about the same on each peak and the terrain is defined by which peak you are on. They do have and expert area or peak (Oz) but it mostly natural snow and not always open. Both have lots of glades, SGL in one area and SR more spread across the peaks. Sunday River is more spread out terrain horizontally while Sugarloaf is more vertical. I would say SGL has the bigger base area, village but SR is no slouch and has a nearby town of Bethel with restaurants and stores.

Oz glades at SR will be good this weekend. Hard to guarantee much this year but its about certain unless this storm goes way wrong. Other woods over off Whitecap didn’t fill in enough to keep the sun exposed cliffs covered well. Barker side looking rough too but two feet of snow might fix that.

Sugarloaf had more of the frozen snow late February. The front snowfields are open but the natural snow trails had rocks if they were even open. Backside looked very rocky. I would need a first hand Bracket report to choose it over VT at this time.

Bolton a few weeks ago before the additional snow had a decent base in many spots at least. Haven’t seen any non groomer actual condition pictures from Stowe or Sugarbush or Killington.

 

[sparty]

Not sure if this the right place to ask. If it is not let me know where is the right one I will move the post.

Wife is taking kids to Disneyland, which means I get 7-10days of skiing with them next February. They will be 11 and 9 we live near Toronto so Blue Mountain is our home resort and we have IKON passes, we also go to Tremblant for a few days every season, skied in Japan quite a bit too.

For this trip I want to drive somewhere in VT or Maine and stay in ski in/out or walk to lift on IKON. Talking to kids priorities are:

1.Snow conditions, more accumulation holds snow better etc.
2. A lot of glades, from beginner to advanced, (no cliffs or anything crazy).
3. Pool somewhere close by or at least hot tub
4. Fun accommodation.. meaning we stayed at a place in Japan that was half board and during dinner they met other kids, made friends, we ended up skiing together, tons of fun. This seems to not exist but maybe some place rings a bell?
5. Night skiing


Places I researched so far Sugarbush, Sunday River, Killington, Sugarloaf. I never skied anywhere in the east US so would love suggestions, ideas!

Someone mentioned Bolton. For three or four days, I think it would be hard to beat for those criteria. For 7-10, you'd probably find yourselves running out of things to ski unless you happen to be particularly good at finding alternate routes that aren't on the map, let alone stuff to do after hours. There is a decent chance that in that time, you'd manage to meet friendly locals at the Tavern and get a guided tour that let you find more terrain to keep things interesting (I could happily spend ten days skiing there, as long as there was snow in the trees, but only about half of the stuff that would be on my to-ski list is on the alpine map). It's also a bit of a crapshoot because Bolton without natural snow could get boring in a lot less than seven days, but they tend to get quite a bit of natural snow and retain it due to elevation.

Sunday River is probably a pretty good bet for some good skiing, but I'd say roughly a 66% chance of having good tree skiing. Bethel is a real town but you'll need your own car to get from on hill lodging to town and back. Night skiing is on a limited subset of terrain but provides some pretty good entertainment. If the glades are all in, the sheer volume of trees to be skied is crazy, but that's not always the case.

Sugarloaf is a better bet for natural snow conditions (colder and more snow on average) but also much more remote. I have no idea what the options for on-mountain entertainment for kids that age are, and they don't offer night skiing (no one in their right mind would go night skiing at Sugarloaf, it's cold enough during the day).

Killington has a tremendous amount of terrain. It also has a tremendous amount of people skiing it. If you know your way around, you can generally mitigate the crowd issues. It's a bit further south and can be on the borderline of some of the mixed precip events in Vermont, but it's got a lot of elevation and a huge amount of terrain. No real village, but a fair bit going on with the access road, and it's not hard to get into Rutland.

Sugarbush is a bit farther north and benefits from being in the MRV. If you're going to spend 7-10 days there, take at least one to check out MRG, so long as there hasn't been a recent thaw freeze cycle. Also has both a real little town (Waitsfield) and proximity to a couple of small cities (Montpelier and Burlington). No night skiing.

 

[Wilhelmson]

Ok duh next February with night skiing a pool and a variety of glades on Ilkon. To which I vote Sunday River. Bretton Woods and the Mt Washington Hotel would be cool but not that steep and not on Ilkon although you could zip up to Jay or even Tremblant on the way home.

 

[severou]

This is awesome information everyone. To explain why I am doin this so early.. I just coughed up the money for that Disney trip, this is my way of dealing with the shock

@Wilhelmson For reference at Tremblant I/we love the Edge, the steepest ones are too steep for one of my daughters but the rest are great if conditions are good. Last year probably most fun we had was on the Les Bouleaux the one at Le Soleil lift, younger one also likes steeper groomers: La Traverse, Expo, Banzai etc.

@sparty thank you, this is very useful. I did not know about Mad River glen, looks like an awesome place to spend a day if we go to Sugarbush

I will do do some more research on accommodations, Hotel at Sunday river looks good, I want to see what I can find at Sugarbush as well. Sugarloaf is off the list I think, I don't mind the cold but even with heat packs kids get cold at Tremblant mid winter(we ski there in March usually), this place seems similar.

 

[sparty]

Today at Sunday River. 4"+ on the race hill, with a small crew scheduled to train we did not put gates in the hill. Winds are impressive.

 

[crosscountry]

Any wind hold?

 

[sparty]

Any wind hold?

Yes, plenty.

As of opening, they were running five lifts. Four of those are surface lifts.

Edit: and now it's four lifts total, none of which leave the ground.

 

[JCF]

Windy, I guess !!! I was on one of the last lifts before they shut it down....
New snow was wind packed and not easy to get out of.
Still - where it was good it was good.

 

[Wilhelmson]

This is awesome information everyone. To explain why I am doin this so early.. I just coughed up the money for that Disney trip, this is my way of dealing with the shock

@Wilhelmson For reference at Tremblant I/we love the Edge, the steepest ones are too steep for one of my daughters but the rest are great if conditions are good. Last year probably most fun we had was on the Les Bouleaux the one at Le Soleil lift, younger one also likes steeper groomers: La Traverse, Expo, Banzai etc.

@sparty thank you, this is very useful. I did not know about Mad River glen, looks like an awesome place to spend a day if we go to Sugarbush

I will do do some more research on accommodations, Hotel at Sunday river looks good, I want to see what I can find at Sugarbush as well. Sugarloaf is off the list I think, I don't mind the cold but even with heat packs kids get cold at Tremblant mid winter(we ski there in March usually), this place seems similar.

Get the money part for sure.We already booked a sort of walk to lift condo at Sugarloaf for February vacation week next year.Its just easier and cheaper and more selection when you book early.

The Sunday River on trail hotels with pools require a short bus or car ride to the night skiing. Can’t really walk to South. The Bolton hotel is 100 or so feet from night skiing. Sunday is better for a whole week though.

 

[Tominator]

Sunapee was excellent again today, albeit 20+ degrees colder than last week with a hefty wind in your face on the way down. But it was a bluebird day, and the snow was fast crunchy corduroy. They don't have a lot of snow but they seem to have moved it around effectively. They should be able to last at least through Easter Sunday.

 

[scott43]

Last kick at the can for winter here at Mount St Louis...

 

[Wilhelmson]

It’s snowing a lot in Maine. Rail slide.

 

[Brian Finch]

pow pow day

 

[MissySki]

Sunday River was SO MUCH fun this weekend! My best Eastern days of the season by far. Yesterday was free refills all day and such light fluffy pow, I skied from 8am-3:55pm when my legs were done. Today they claimed 36 inches total for the storm, which I was skeptical of.. until I skied trees today where I wasn’t going fast enough and completely stopped and sunk into snow well over my knees where it was untracked and not a drift.

I am pretty psyched that I finally got to ski Ruby Palace and had fun doing it.. for some reason that trail has always intimidated me and I’ve never skied it. Today I was skiing with some folks who wanted to remedy that for me, and I’m so glad for it!!

Hope everyone found very snowy places to ski all weekend as well!!

 

[JCF]

Only negative was how long it took to get the lifts up and running - and the crowds.
I don’t ever ski weekends - but the snow was very nice.

 

[MissySki]

Only negative was how long it took to get the lifts up and running - and the crowds.
I don’t ever ski weekends - but the snow was very nice.

This was the last weekend of my adult seasonal program, so I got to skip all of the lines. It’s always a perk, but on this sort of weekend, priceless!! Plus the instructor I was with this weekend likes to ski a lot of trees that are not on the trail map, so that helps immensely too. It did crowd things on the few open areas to start today, but that also kept more freshies longer as things opened too if you were in the right places at the right time. But yeah wind to start is always a bummer, glad it died off relatively quickly overall today and that there was none yesterday.

 

[JCF]

I was in line at Barker when it opened and saw the first three skiers break open Top Gun…. By the time I got up there it was churned up like the other slopes but deeper. Wasn’t light and fluffy that was for sure - but fun to go 3d