| Click on the Bear for "Stratton Ski Conditions", the Cross Country Race for "all ski areas", the Hikers for "Ski Area Descriptions". |
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| Click the Bear Above for Stratton Mountain Ski Conditions |
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| Click the Skiers Above for Summary Ski Conditions at All VT Ski Areas |
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| Click Hikers Above to Go to Our Description of Vermont Ski Areas |
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Winter Ski Conditions
Alternatively, for today's official Stratton Mountain Vermont ski, trail and slope conditions, please click the following link:
Other Southern Vermont Ski and Touring Areas
For other downhill ski and snowboard mountains, cross country ski touring areas and winter hiking, please click the following links for a different page on this site:
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Strattoncondos "Unofficial" Ski and Slope Conditions 2008
Please note: we are just a private website that is unrelated to Stratton Mountain, Vermont. We post what friends, other skiers and snowboarders tell us. We are not updated daily, so some of the information is dated.
April. Perfect. And Stratton opened up for a late final weekend. What a season for Vermont!
March. Epic conditions. There is no place at Stratton left to put the snow. The best skiing and snowboarding ever. (A few days there were always "Let's see what the rain and ice pellets do to the slopes", but Stratton recovered always with snow at the end.)
Mid-February. Great conditions. Everything is open. The world is almost perfect. It has snowed a lot, been very cold, warmed up, perfect, rained pellet ice, froze, became tremendously windy and then snowed again. And this sometimes at Stratton this is all in one day and even all in one hour. The winter snow cover is terrific, even our favorite Kitterbrook runs such as Free Fall are open. However, with global warming, we have random days were it snows and then ends with freezing rain. Stratton will do an excellent job grooming, but we just wish it would be consistantly cold.
We just bring waterproof and layered clothing and go for it.
January 2008, MLK and mid-month. Beautiful Conditions for January. Perfect almost every day, but a January thaw the second weekend threw in a monkeyrench. Boy, did it rain, sleet, snow, pellet ice, fog, sun, more rain and that was every hour on Thursday January 10th. Friday and Saturday were icy. But by Sunday, it was good and the following week and MLK were excellent. MLK weekend started the cold weather again.
Christmas 2007. A day or rain came right before the holiday, but then Stratton brought out the guns and groomers and it was great again, except for maybe the 10:30 to 11:30 AM crowds. It was warm on Saturday the 30th, then cold, and slopes were groomed perfectly each morning. Conditions were great. Sometimes late afternoon, some slopes could be icy. Light snow showers fell. It was a perfect Vermont week with varied sun, clouds, snow showers, cold, warm weather, and then very cold.
December 2007. "Amazing", "awesome", "terriffic", "best ever". Those were comments I heard from people passing in the Village in mid-December (plus some other extremely positive but not printable comments). I asked everyone, and explained I had to work all day with condo rentals and could not get out. I searched for someone to tell me that it wasn't perfect. One young man said "Sorry, but we can not tell a lie. It was superb." Thanks to tons of natural snow, the whole mountain was open. Thanksgiving Weekend and
November 2007. Stratton opened that Wednesday. On Wednesday skiing was great on the four trails that were open. But then it rained and was icy on Thursday and Friday. Soon after that warm spell, the snow came down and came down. By mid-December, Stratton looked like Arapaho Basin in the middle of winter. And it was cold. The guns were blasting so much it looks as if it was snowing only on Stratton. In November, it was perfect in the morning, but in the late afternoon it the snow could get blown off and icy.
From previous years: Stratton and it's residents all want to thank our local Olympic participants, Lindsey Jacobellis, Andy Newell and Tricia Byrnes. How one Southern Vermont mountain can produce a winter gold medal winner in 2002 and a silver winter medal winner in 2006 and another in soccer is just amazing. Thank you. For pictures of the snowfalls this year and the past two years, just click on pic ctures.
We even had fun (and talk about it) in the bitter cold spells during the winter. Several nights outside of our condo on the mountainside last year, we were reading minus 11 to minus 16. When it warmed up (to minus 6), we went over to the Bistro Henry's with some friends for dinner in Manchester. It was an adventure ... but it just takes a good bottle of wine at the Three Clock Inn, Chanticleer, Perfect Wife, Wilburton Inn (where it sometimes cold, but a warm fire is always going) or at Ye Olde Tavern (just a few of the great places we stop at in the bitter cold). For a list of great restaurants, click on "restaurants listed by distance from Stratton".
So the trick is to bring warm layered clothing to Vermont. Then you can shed off layers in the mid-day. If you get hurt on the mountain, you can go to the Stratton Mountain Otis Clinic ... just below the gondola for help. They are right there for emergency help. They quickly patched up my daughter, after she ran into an invisible (?) mogul one spring, sliced through her sister's skipants (she was wearing). Quickly, they sewed her up. They were great and she was back on the slope next day. (The pants still are not fixed ... now does anyone know a good tailor?)
Winter Sking Tip: Even if it's warm during the day, it can still be cold early, late in the afternoon or at the top of Stratton. Bring lots of layers and varied clothing to Vermont. Cover everything up when it is better cold. Face and hand protection are a must. Wear layers of long undergarments. Check often for frostbite on zero degree days and stop in often. For fun and a quick warm up, take a break at the Igloo mid-mountain and learn about safety in the theme parks. Also bring some exercise clothing and swimming gear for the Stratton Health Club. Try cross country skiing when it is cold ... also layers of loose clothing there because it is a workout and you shed clothing as you go. Most of all ... have fun ... be safe ... stay warm. |
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| A tree off the Drifter trail. |
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| At the top of Stratton Mountain, you can take a long easy cruize down Wanderer or Drifter and enjoy incredible view. |
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| Cleaning off the Bear at the top of Stratton. |
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| At the top of Stratton, we always visit and take pictures by the bear the first day Stratton is open.
This picure was taken one Thanksgiving of my oldest daughter, who had to climb on to the base of the bear. Within a month this year, the bear was almost level with the snow.
Within a year, our grandson was sitting on the bear. |
Ski a "million miles" in a three day weekend.
Stratton's lifts are awesome. The new high speed 6 pack lifts are great and realy move crowds around.
strattoncondos.com guide to no lift lines.
You can get a full day of skiing in at Stratton by noontime. (If you can make a whole day, you can get in a lot of miles ... what would equal two days at some other resorts.) It is easy, if you know the mountain, and and on weekends, you can keep your lift line wait to 5 minutes or less.
On weekdays, it is a no-brainer. There is never a lift line. Just go and ski wherever you want.
On weekends, the trick is to start really early on Saturday or Sunday mornings, as soon as Stratton opens. We take the gondola up (and if it is cold, stay on it for several runs). Then run the URSA lift for several more runs. About 10:00 AM if you see a crowd forming, we will run down Upper Middlebrook, enjoy cruzing Lower Middlebrook and see if there is a crowd at the Sunbowl.
If not, then we take a few runs down the Sunbowl. At about 10:30 AM, we just go up the Shooting Star. Of course, if it is below zero and windy, sometimes the Sun Bowl even with it's 11:00 AM crowds is the best. We stop early mid-station for lunch about 11:30 and go back out at noon. Then we usually disagree about where to go.
Some days we head over to the Snowbowl for a couple of runs. Some times will enjoy the trails that drop off the Kitterbrook to the left (Free Fall is great), if there is enough natural snow. But we will stay on the upper mountain, either the URSA or Snowbowl Lift after 12:45.
By 1:45 PM we are exhausted and again stop to eat. (At that point I just want to go back to our condo and go to sleep ... and some friends just want to give up and drink.) But if you have friends who have paid for an all day ticket, you have to carry on. (Most of us have Express cards or season passes.)
In the mid-winter, we will stay in the late afternoon on the URSA (which closes down at 3:30 then, 4:00 pm later in the season) and catch the 3:25 lift up ... and head over to the Sunbowl to make two more runs, catching the Sunbowl lift at 3:59 for the last run. A couple of times we missed it, but Stratton brought us back by in a rickety old truck to the Village.
We've tried to count the runs we have made and figure out the number of miles or verticle feet we have skied. But we always have so much fun ... we just think it was about a "million" a day.
Some days it is so beautiful at the top of Stratton, especially when it is cold and crisp. If we happen to be skiing alone during the midweek, we will bring our cameras. Sometimes we'll just stand around or sit in the snow ... and enjoy just looking at the incredible topography. On a clear day you can see Mt. Snow, Bromley, Magic and all the way to Killington. Life is great ... and even if you only make a few runs.
If you have other ideas about where it is best to ski, please email us at strattoncondos@aol.com |
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| This was the Weekend Crowd on the Kitterbrook Chair. There was never a line here. If you did not mind the cold, this was the place to be. If you look closely, you can see about 4 skiers on the slope. I guess that is why Stratton took it down. |
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| Weekday Crowd on the Black Bear slope. Weekday's are great. There are no lift lines. You can have the slopes all to yourself. If you are a Stratton card owner, weekdays are $30 off. |
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