strattoncondos.com - Stratton's a Family Mountain

Stratton's Ski School is the Best

Stratton and the surrounding mountains, Bromley and Okemo, have excellent ski schools.  These Southern Vermont Mountains are really family skiing and snowboarding mountains.  Some pictures of our family in ski school are at the bottom of this page.  We like Stratton's ski school the best because ... of everything ... a wide variety of instruction in downhill and telemarking techniques, excellent little cub and beginning racer programs, friendly and competent instructors in the ski school, Stratton's committment to fun and mountain safety.

The Best Ski and Snowboard Rentals and Service

There are a number of great ski shops and snowboard shops in the Stratton Village and Bondville areas.  They can do everything from renting demo equipment, tuning or repairing your old equipment ... to getting you new equipment, immediately.  You can easily demo rental skis or boards for the day, and have a new pair the next morning.  Please click ski shops or unofficial slope conditions, for Stratton area information.  For the main condo rental page, please use the links to the left.

Why Stratton Mountain is the best.

Stratton is really a family mountain.  It has an excellent kids program and a great ski school.  There are lots of cruizing trails, snowboarding areas, terrain parks, and the nicest, friendliest staff.  It is the best groomed place in southern Vermont; perhaps the best groomed place in all of New England. 

Stratton makes snow the second the temperature drops.  It's high speed lifts are amazing.  There are no crowds on the weekdays.  While the village is small, it is all there: a couple of restaurants, a nice bar, lots of ski shops, a deli and a candy store.  The Express Card cuts weekday skiing costs to about $29 and Thursday skiing costs to $19.  We selected Stratton after years of skiing all over NY, VT, NH and Canada. 

Why other ski areas are also the best.

But, Stratton is not for everyone.  The night life for the 20+ crowd is better at Killington (1 hour to the North) or Mt. Snow (50 minutes to the South).  The terrain is much more difficult at Sugarbush.  Magic, when there is natural snow, is less expensive.  Bromley can be warmer.  Stowe has a beautiful New England village.  Jay Peak has the snow.  The lower provinces of Canada, while a full day's drive, offer a currency discount.  Gray Rocks, Quebec and Mt. Tremblant are places everyone should visit, at least once in their lives.  Okemo, which shares some passes with Stratton, is also a great family mountain.  (For thumbnail descriptions and links to southern Vermont ski areas, please click  downhill, cross-country and snowshoe areas.

Stratton has a round top.

The reason Stratton is not perfect ... was really the fault of the glaciers.  They left the peaks of Jay, Stowe, Mad River Glen and Sugarbush much sharper, while rounding off the tops of the southern Vermont peaks.  Stratton has bump slopes, but not extensive difficult terrain.  Most of Stratton's double black diamonds are bumped up black diamond slopes.

However, after we spent a week out at Copper Mt., Colorodo, were stuck on the top in a blizzard in mid-March, (we were all escorted off the mountain by snomobile), had the chairs jammed into our knees (no Vt. courtesy)  ... we thought ... Stratton is like the lower 2/3 of Copper and that is what we like ... and that is why we are here.

Everyone needs lessons and the Stratton Ski School is tops.  Even the Trailblazers (over 50 crowd) have lessons Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings.  Trailblazers info can be found at www. strattontrailblazers. com.

Tickets for skiing and snowboarding lessons can be purchased in the base lodge.  The phone is 297-2496.  Everyone gathers for morning and afternoon lessons on the slopes at 9:30 AM and 1:00 PM in front of the base lodge.  Then the true beginners go to the Villager Slope.  Some day, we plan on taking tele-marking lessons.  If you like your instructor, please remember to tip them.  We know several.  They are dedicated, work hard and live on tips. 

Ski lessons are the way to go.  And there are lots of opportunities to learn different sports at Stratton.

(Especially for these two people from Florida.)

After trying skiing, the next day, the guy in this picture strapped on a snowboard, took lessons and in two days was cruzing down all the beginner and intermediate slopes at Stratton.

Later in the season, he was club racing on his snowboard in Canada. 

The other person in this picture prefers down hill skiing.  There are a number of trails of different levels all over at the Stratton.  There are beginner trails, such as Mike's way, from the top of the mountain.

Thank you for visiting our site.  This was one of the first five pages written on strattoncondos.com.  It was developed by a Stratton skiing family and only includes places they (or their friends) have gone to, stores they have bought from, people they know or events they have tried. 

If you have any pictures that we could potentially display, or better "Directions" to Stratton, please send them to us.  If you would like to advertise on this site or need any information, please email us at strattoncondos@aol.com or call 631 587-1060. 

Have a great season.  Winter is almost here.  We hope to see you on the Stratton slopes.  Please Contact Us.  To return to the top of this page or to go to the main page, click these links.