Mount Snow Ski Review


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Mount Snow is not a place where you will find Vermont license plates in its parking lots. Indeed, being at Mount Snow is like being disconnected from everything that is Vermont except maybe Burlington's rush hour. It is about about as far removed from Vermont as you could ever be while still being in Vermont. But, hey, some people like this type of atmosphere. The resort is only a three hour drive from New York City. It is a convenient ski and snowboarding mountain for people in the northwest part of New Hampshire and southeastern Vermont even if a weekend ticket price is $57.75 including tax (2000-2001 season).

Like other resorts operated by the American Skiing Company, Mount Snow is also somewhat amorphorous, raucous and disorganized.Things do not run with clock work precision and management seems to fumble, unwilling to assign someone to supervise loading at a crowded lift line or provide help to an overworked employee at a crowded bar. One also wonders about the closing of nearby Mount Haystack for the season, on the weekend of March 24, 2001 despite the best snow coverage in more than 10 years.

The Grand Summit High Speed Quad at Mount Snow

The Grand Summit Quad always has a long lift line on weekends. Singles waiting time is usually about five minutes for a crowd about the size in the picture. However, on a holiday weekend be prepared for a 30 minute wait here.

The Skiing experience:

I skied Mount Snow on two separate occasions in March 2001. The first time I was so disgusted with the lift lines and the general mayhem that I couldn't think of anything positive to say about it. Also the North Face which offers more challenging skiing was closed. So, three weeks later, I went back to see if I could have a more satisfactory experience. As so often happens, the second visit was better. I also learned more about how to cope with the crowded conditions at Mount Snow.

Avoid the main parking lot by the Grand Summit Hotel. Park at the Carinthia Base Lodge. This is the first entrance that you come to on the access road. Even on a busy weekend, there is usually parking. Waiting time at Carinthia's Nitro Express is far less than at the Grand Summit Express and you can still get to the summit via the Sunbrook Quad.
The Carinthia Base Lodge is one of the best places to ``brown bag it," and to leave your ski bag in relative safety.

Most of Mount Snow's trails are beginner and intermediate. Greens and Blues are everywhere. It's wide boulevard skiing, designed to accommodate a lot of people. In March, 2001, there was excellent coverage with 100% of the mountain open. Better skiers could enjoy all the black diamond trails on the North Face, which to my mind offers the best skiing. The two lifts that serve this area are not normally that busy though they seem to fall victim to wind closure more than other lifts at the resort. Ripcord is the steepest run on the North Face with a 37 degree pitch. It is short, but unnerving for those not used to such challenges. There's a trail called ``Second Thoughts", about a third of the way down if you change your mind! The mountain has 12 glades, but since I didn't want to get my head bashed in, I avoided them. Helmets should be mandatory at all ski areas!

Mount Snow's Summit Grand Hotel dominates the base area, right next to the Summit Quad, The hotel's russet pated exterior sits like a blob at the base of the mountain. It's architecture provides little to please the eye. Then above the hotel and looking across a valley to a mountain side beyond is a sight reminiscent of Los Angeles housing sprawl. You remember that song of the sixties about little boxes...It is definitely a scene from capitalism on the rampage. .No wonder the State of Vermont has laws to impede this type of unrestrained development. Go to Okemo, Sugarbush, or Stowe and see how much more tastefully such development has been handled!

For a pleasant luncheon, avoid the Summit Lodge and the various bars and cafeterias at the base lodge. Do not even bother climbing four flights of stairs to the SkyBox Lounge. A specialty burger with mushrooms, onion and peppers for $8.95 on my first visit here took 30 minutes to deliver even though the restaurant was about one third filled with customers. When it arrived, the roll was stale and the peppers sagging with grease.

On my second visit I decided to try the Timber House Grill. This place probably provides the best service the mountain has to offer even though it was severely understaffed. I opted for the grilled chicken Classic Caesar Sald for $9.95. ``It's the safest thing you can have," remarked the bartender somewhat wirily as I placed my order. I had no complaints about the Timber House Grill. In fact, the place offers some sanity from the crowds outside.

There is a sort of circus atmosphere about Mount Snow that reminds me of the way Coney Island used to be years ago. Despite its high skiing cost, the resort has nothing on the cachet of a place like Stowe. It is just not a classy, died-in-the wool Vermont mountain. I think the ASC is very much to blame for this. I guess one should not be suprised by the site of women's underwear adorning a tree top on the North Face!

Timothy Palmer-Benson
Mount Snow March 30th, 2001

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