Everything You Need to Know About Stratton Skiing in Vermont
Stratton Mountain and ski resort is located in Stratton, Vermont. It is a great ski mountain that offers a lot of terrain variety, glades, and terrain parks. Stratton also offers hiking and mountain biking in the summer. It’s a great resort for families.
Stratton Mountain is about 26 minutes from Manchester (really nice shops), about 40 minutes from Ludlow (where Okemo Mountain is located), and about an hour from Rutland (close to Killington & Pico resorts), VT. It is a great east coast mountain and getaway if you live in Boston or the surrounding areas. I would compare it to Pico and Mount Snow.
In this post, you will read about Stratton Mountain, Stratton ski season, Stratton skiable acres, Stratton glade skiing, Stratton ski tickets, Stratton skiing packages, Stratton ski rental, Stratton ski village, and more.
This post is all about Stratton skiing.
Stratton Skiing:
Stratton Ski Resort
Stratton Ski Resort is a great place to ski along the east coast of the US. It has a total of 99 trails, is the highest peak in southern Vermont, a 2,003ft vertical drop, and an average of 180 inches of snowfall per year. Also, Stratton’s skiable acres include more than 670 of trails, with more than 160 acres of glades. They offer 40% beginner trails, 35% intermediate terrain, 16% black diamonds (advanced), and 9% of double blacks (expert) terrain. They also have a gondola that will take you to the summit of the mountain.
Stratton Beginner & Intermediate Terrain
Okay, if you are a beginner skier or snowboarder, then, you want to stay where the carpet is, called, Tamarack. Also, the South American lift is great for beginners. You will find greens and blues at the South American lift. If you are a beginner I would stay away from the top of the mountain. If you really want to take the gondola to the top of the mountain then you can, as there is ONE green from the top, Mike’s Cut Through. Otherwise, there are only a couple blue (intermediate) trails and the rest are blacks or double black diamond (advanced and expert) trails.
If you are an intermediate then I would suggest taking the gondola to the top and taking either Janes Way or Get My Drift from the top. If you are a solid intermediate, then I would suggest doing some of the diamonds from the top of Stratton, as their diamonds aren’t super difficult. Some diamonds I would suggest are Upper Tamarack, Big D, and Polar Bear. You can access these from the Ursa lift.
Advanced & Expert Terrain
Lastly, if you are an advanced skier or snowboarder, than Upper Middle Brook is a great diamond too, however, it takes you to a completely different lift and part of the mountain. Thus, if you want to stay in the Ursa lift area, I wouldn’t ski that trail. However, if you do want to ski/snowboard another part of the mountain, Upper Middle Brook will take you to the Sunrise Express Lift. This lift does have a lot of COOL, WIDE OPEN trails. So, I recommend skiing this area.
Now, if you are an expert, then ANY of the blacks, double blacks, and glades will be a lot of fun for you. Again, the trails aren’t super difficult or steep at Stratton, most of them are really fun cruiser trails, so you should have a good time. I would suggest staying on the Ursa lift area, because all the advanced terrain is from the top/summit of Stratton Mountain. Also, if you want to avoid the gondola you can take the American Express Lift to Overpass Trail to Grizzly Access to the Ursa Lift. Also, I would recommend checking out the Snowbowl and Sunrise Express Lifts. Here is a Stratton ski map, if there’s anywhere else you want to check out on the mountain.
Stratton Glades
Also, off the top of the mountain is where you will find most of the glades such as, Shred Wood Forest, Moon Dance, Why Not, and Test Pilot. They are all rated as double diamonds, but again, they are not super difficult double blacks. Diamond in the Rough and Cabin Fever are the only diamond rated glades near the top. The rest of the glades are intermediate and beginner runs, located in the middle of the mountain.
They are West Pilot, Moon Beam, Emerald Forest, Buckshot, Daniel’s Web, and Eclipse. Stratton does have some backcountry skiing, this article will tell you more and where specifically in Vermont other resorts have backcountry skiing as well.
Stratton Ski School
Okay, so if you need a place for your kiddos to go while you explore more of the mountain, Stratton, like many other ski resorts, has a ski and ride (snowboard) school. Stratton offers a variety of lessons from private to group to seasonal. They have lessons for 3-4 year olds, 5-13 year olds, and group and or private lessons. They also offer group and or private ski/snowboard lessons for adults. Here you will find all of their available lessons. They also offer a lot of different rentals here for skiing and snowboarding.
Stratton Ski Tickets
For lift tickets, Stratton offers many different season pass deals and skiing packages, that you can find here. A single day lift ticket runs for about $110-120, depending on the day of the week and time of the year. They recommend that you buy your tickets online incase of tickets selling out on busy days.
Once you purchase your ticket online, you can pick it up at Guest Services (in the Main Base Lodge), the Sun Bowl Base Lodge, Welcome Center, or the Black Bear Lodge. You can also purchase tickets at the door, at Guest Services located in the Main Base Lodge and at the Sun Bowl Lodge. You can purchase a one day ticket or up to five day lift tickets.
Also, last season, I got a really good deal from Stratton, near the end of March they offered two lift tickets for only $180, so I bought them. When I skied there, there was still a lot of great snow and I got two lift tickets for only $90 a piece, which is pretty good. I don’t know if they do this every year, but all I did was go on the website and the deal was being offered. So, I would check Stratton’s website for deals throughout the season.
Stratton Ski Season
Stratton, VT weather, is very unpredictable, as all the northeast is, however, typically, Stratton skiing conditions are best in February and March. But Vermont has been known for some early season storms in November and December, so I would keep an eye on the weather if you remember to. Therefore, the season can start anytime in late November and go until late to early/mid April.
Stratton night skiing doesn’t exist, as there is no night skiing at Stratton, however, they do offer night tubing, snowmobile tours, and snowcat rides with dinner. They offer a lot more day activities as well that you can find here. In addition, they have a different set of summer activities that they offer from June/July through November, that you can find here.
Stratton Ski Village
Stratton Ski Resort also has a ski village at the base of the mountain. There are a lot of different ski/snowboard and clothing shops within the village. The village is located right across from the parking lot. There are also a lot of condos and rentals here that people stay at. Some other nice places to stay off the mountain are Toll Road Inn, Kitzhof Inn, the Lodge at West River, and Big Bears Lodge. Some great other towns to stay in near Stratton are Manchester, West Dover, Ludlow, and Rutland, Vermont.
Overall, Stratton Mountain is a really fun place to ski and snowboard at. They offer a lot of different terrain and overall good vibes. Also, parking is pretty straight forward here, they put up different signs directing you where to go. And if you end up in the far lot across from the ski village/mountain, they have shuttle rides to the mountain and base lodge. Thank you so much for reading and I hope this article was helpful in answering any questions you had about Stratton Ski Resort and I hope you go ski or snowboard at Stratton, take care!
