New England ski trip with, eh, snowflakes.

January 2, 2017 7:06 PM

I'm hoping to treat myself to a couple of days skiing sometime in late Feb/early March. I'd like to ski somewhere I have not before, and larger than the Wachusett-size mountains I usually hit.

I do not want to be on the mountain when local or regional schools are on vacation, and my SO does not ski so cool other things to do nearby or on the mountain would be great. I'm planning for a Monday-Tuesday or Tues-Weds trip after a weekend in NYC, So something in western mass night be good, but most of those mountains seem to be medium size, and I want Killington length runs with not a lot of kids on the trails without the scene, and travel time, of Killington- but I'm willing to go there if it is simply that much better than any other option. Of course I want cozy, sexy, groovy places to stay and eat and drink.

I'm a solid blue square skier, so I'm not looking for EXTREME VERTICAL ACTION! This is a 45th birthday trip for me, hence the overthinking and desire to ski something new, and bigger than I usually ski.

So what are your favorite slopes to hit and why? We do not need to stay on mountain but closer the better. Thank you for any advice you can give groovy hivemind.

posted by vrakatar to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (6 answers total)

Okemo is a good place for beginning/intermediate skiers not so far up in Vermont. Ludlow, VT is a cute little town with some nice places to stay and interesting things to do. It's also not so far from Brattleboro if your SO wants more options of things to do
posted by Betelgeuse at 7:53 PM on January 2, 2017 [2 favorites]

I've always enjoyed Bretton Woods. It's a decent-sized mountain with solid greens and blues, including some glade areas. It's less than an hour from North Conway where there's tons of stuff to do. We were up there last week for a few days. We had an AirBNB in Conway for pretty cheap.

I find the key to Bretton Woods is to take the main lift to the top and then ski down to the lifts that are midway up the mountain. Lines are short to non-existent.
posted by bondcliff at 7:30 AM on January 3, 2017

Are you driving? Reason I ask is because you can take the train from NYC up to Rutland and then get a shuttle to take you up to Killington from there pretty easily. It's not as-great a place for your wife to do stuff however, mostly ski related stuff. I also love Ludlow but I may be biased because there's an awesome public library there. Here's the Ski Vermont resort-finder. I'm not enough of a skier to eve know the difference between Alpine and Nordic options so probably best for you to check it.
posted by jessamyn at 8:29 AM on January 3, 2017

Best answer: Ditto Okemo (mountain) and Ludlow (village), although note that they're really only about 30 minutes closer than Killington coming from NYC, although those are a tough 30 minutes being on windy two lane country roads.

The mountain has some parks, some steeps and some ungroomed stuff but overall it was BUILT for 45 year olds looking for mild thrills (ask me how I know!). Two days at an uncrowded time will do you very nicely indeed.

Ludlow is significantly more charming and walkable than the Killington access road town, quite a few shops and cafes to keep a non-skier busy for a day or two. Downtown Grocery is a no-BS-about-it world-class gourmet restaurant -- would be very comfortable anywhere in Manhattan; there's certainly no better restaurant I know of anywhere in New England. The Stemwinder across the street is good. For lodging, if you want to treat yourself a little bit, the Jackson Gore base has true ski-in ski-out, valet (including ski valet), and (depending on your arrival) indoor covered parking.
posted by MattD at 8:41 AM on January 3, 2017

I like Mount Snow for lots of big, wide, not-too-steep trails in Southern Vermont (it bills itself as "Vermont's Closest Big Mountain" and seems to get a lot of New Yorkers), but I've only been for the day, never stayed the night, so I'm not sure about dining and nightlife.
posted by mskyle at 9:05 AM on January 3, 2017

Response by poster: Thanks friendbeings. Taking a good long look at Okemo. It pushes most of the buttons and sounds groovy. Really tempted to stay at Jackson Gore to maximize slope time.
posted by vrakatar at 5:56 PM on January 4, 2017