It's All Downhill: A long-overdue visit

[View web version]( [It's All Downhill. The latest from the slopes of New England and beyone by Matt Pepin] Friday, March 8 | [Follow Matt Pepin on Twitter]( See for yourself For years, the rap on Stratton Mountain among many of the skiers I knew well was this: Expensive, crowded, and snobbish. Descriptions like that, or some variation, kept me from Stratton until this year. There was always another place we'd visit instead of Stratton, despite the fact that most skiers I knew also acknowledged it was a pretty good ski area strictly from a quality of skiing perspective. But in southern Vermont, there's no shortage of good ski areas, so going elsewhere was easy. Like many things, however, it's often best to see for yourself. Who knows what experiences led to judgments like the ones I always encountered when Stratton was brought up in skiing conversations or trip-planning discussions. One bad experience can have lasting ramifications. During the February school vacation week, I did finally check out Stratton for myself on a day trip with my daughter, who said a friend told her she had a great time at Stratton. So did we, and by the end of the day I'd pretty much exchanged the old knocks for my own views as follows: It's expensive: This is mostly true, with ticket-window prices of $125 for an adult holiday/weekend ticket. I bought mine online a few days ahead for $116, and saw them as low as $110 about seven days prior, but that was too far out to get a good read on the weather for me. But in terms of value, it was worth it. Stratton has an 8-passenger gondola, and several 6-passenger chairlifts that are comfortable and fast. You get to do a lot of skiing because you don't spend a ton of time on the lifts or in line. They control lift lines exceptionally well, and chairs and cabins go up pretty close to capacity almost every time. It's crowded: Maybe sometimes it is, but we went on the Wednesday of school vacation week and amazingly parked right next to the Sun Bowl Lodge. The main base area was busy and full of hustle and bustle, but the lift lines were short and the crowd spread out quite nicely on the mountain. It was certainly not the sea of people I'd braced for. One of the mountain ambassadors at the summit said it was like a regular midweek Wednesday instead of a holiday week. It's snobbish: No evidence of this whatsoever. We had a great lunchtime chat with a guy who was on a solo day trip who shared some tips on good lift ticket deals in New England, and told us all about how much he enjoyed Stratton. All the other people we encountered in the lodge or on lifts were pretty much like random skiers you'd encounter anywhere. Then came the best thing to happen to us all day, on our final run. We'd saved the intermediate trail Downeaster for our final run because it was so much fun and still had great snow at the end of the day, but just as we skied up, a ski patrol guy had just put up the rope to close it. We groaned a bit in disappointment when we saw the rope, but when the patrol guy saw and heard us, he reached down with his pole, lifted the rope, and asked if we'd like to hit it one more time. Very cool. The skiing was really good, too. A wide variety of runs, from the massive Sunrise Supertrail to the various "Drifter" trails, kept us entertained all day and eager to go back. The conditions were quite nice. I'll definitely go back. The only thing I won't do any more when it comes to Stratton is repeat the old and inaccurate descriptions. Normally I hold reports and analysis from fellow skiers in high regard, but this was one case I wish I hadn't believed them for so long. CLICKING IN AIRING OF GRIEVANCES: [According to the Conway Daily Sun]( season passholders have expressed their unhappiness with the situation at New Hampshire's Attitash Mountain, where the only lift that goes all the way to the summit of Attitash is still not running. It was shut down during the February vacation week and remains offline. Attitash management [has been updating a blog]( about the progress of the repairs. ON THE SCENE: From actual movies about skiing like "Downhill Racer" to those in which skiing or ski areas are featured, like "Dumb and Dumber", [a recent Liftopia blog post]( identifies the locations where the movies were filmed. (Pro tip for Liftopia web producers: adjust the embed code for the videos to width="100%" to make them responsively fit the screen upon which they are being viewed). HIDDEN TREASURE: I like discovering the backstories to those little ski areas you see as you drive to bigger ones. Places such as the Proctor Academy ski area as you drive to Ragged Mountain in New Hampshire, or the small community hill nestled in a condo complex in Lincoln, N.H., near Loon, always have me wondering. So that's why I really enjoyed [the Concord Monitor's story about Veterans Memorial ski area]( in Franklin, N.H., which does a great job of capturing the real meaning and value of a place like that. HIDDEN TREASURE PART 2: File Mount Southington in Connecticut as one of those small-mountain gems. Admittedly I once lived less than 10 miles from this place and only skied it maybe two or three times, but it sure is a good place for beginners. [The Brave Ski Mom blog recently sang its praises]( much better than I can in a post titled "Why Our Family Loves Skiing at Mount Southington." AS YOU WOULD IMAGINE: The actual story under the headline on a recent Bloomberg News story -- ["Things I Never Knew About Skiing Until I Was a Private Instructor in Aspen"]( -- was about as predictable as you can imagine. Still highly entertaining though. A NAME TO WATCH: Keep an eye on River Radamus, who sure looks like a rising star for the US Ski Team after a pair of victories at the Junior World Championships. Radamus won the super-G and the giant slalom in Val di Fassa, Italy, and is also among the competitors expected at the US Alpine Championships speed events later this month at Sugarloaf in Maine. [The Vail Daily News has the details of his victories in Italy](. THE BIG PICTURE: Ski Magazine's [gallery of its best ski photos this year]( is an impressive display of high quality skiing and scenery and professional photography. I'd suspect average skiers would have a hard time relating to the photos, but not too much trouble dreaming about them. YOUR UNDERRATED SKI AREAS The Feb. 12 newsletter focused on the ski areas I thought were underrated, and invited readers to share their thoughts on the topic. Here are some of the responses: Bill Bagshaw: We ski at Burke ... despite [Mikaela] Shiffrin and the [Burke Mountain Academy's] success, new ski on/off hotel, new lift, it is still under the radar ... it shocks me ... it's 45 min longer drive than Loon from Boston, all but 8 miles is highway, and you make up that time before noon due to little to no lift lines. And, the terrain is legit, as you likely know. Megan Santosus: I really like Crotched Mountain in New Hampshire mostly because it's less crowded than comparably sized areas -- namely Wachusett and Pat's Peak -- that are less than 2 hours from Metrowest. Unfortunately, Granite Gorge no longer offers downhill skiing, or I'd put that on my list as well for the same reasons. Agree with your assessment of Ski Sundown! Joshua Bewlay: I have two places: Growing up in RI in the 70s and 80s, I learned to ski at Yawgoo Valley - so I have to give them my first shoutout. My second place is kind of not really in New England, but an awesome (and way underrated) place called Plattekill in Roxbury, NY. It is a family-run place that is only open on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (or on "Powder Daze" when mother nature dumps 10+ inches). Patrick Courtney: Whaleback in NH couldn't be more convenient and is fairly challenging for its size. If Saddleback wasn't closed it would top my list. Kathryn Lencki: Black Mountain. For a small mountain it has a surprising variety of trails. It has a great Apres scene and now they even have the Lostbo cabin half way up the mountain offering drinks! [Like It's All Downhill? 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