How about Skiing a "Million Horizontal Feet" in a week or two at Stratton.
Stratton's lifts are awesome. The new high speed 6 pack lifts are great and really move crowds around. To do a million feet, I think it has to be done like the "tortoise" in that famous race. Please ski safely and in control. Stop where people above can see you. Always look behind to make certain no one is coming down before starting. Ski at a safe and controlled speed, and I bet you can do it.
If you have 7 days to ski, that would be 10 runs of 2.7 miles per day. That is a lot of runs on upper and lower Middlebrook or upper and lower Kidderbrook. If you have done it, please email us and tell us about it.
strattoncondos.com Guide to No Lift Line Waits.
On weekdays, it is a no-brainer. There is never, well hardly ever, a lift line. Just go and ski wherever you want.
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 on weekends, you can keep your lift line wait to 5 minutes or less.
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 at URSA, we will run down Upper Middlebrook, enjoy cruising 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, Shooting Star 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 to the Village in a rickety old truck.
We've tried to count the runs we have made and figure out the number of vertical feet (or horizontal feet) we have skied. But we always have so much fun ... we just think it was about a "million" that week.
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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