Winter has arrived in earnest. Last week’s storm covered The Valley in 2 feet of snow, making for a White Christmas week. The local resorts were grateful for the snow as Mad River Glen opened the main mountain after being closed midweek and Sugarbush was able to open more trails. This reporter had never seen Sugarbush as busy as it was on Saturday, December 17. Parking attendants were parking cars in the G lot and at SHaRC. The lift lines were long, but the snow was fantastic.
Mad River Glen got 24 inches of snow in the storm from Thursday through Saturday and another 2 inches Sunday night. The resort reported having roughly 700 skiers on the mountain Saturday and about 800 on Sunday. MRG opened the main mountain Saturday “thanks to the ski patrol and all their hard work,” marketing and events manager Ry Young said. He said there was a rush Saturday morning to get up and get in turns on the freshly-opened main mountain but, despite the steady stream of skiers, things felt a little more mellow on Sunday. He did say there were a lot of tired legs on the mountain come Sunday afternoon.
Sugarbush couldn’t give a specific number of visitors over the weekend but public relations and communications manager John Bleh said, “It was definitely one of the busier preholiday weekends we’ve had.” He said Sugarbush got a total of 26 inches from Friday through Monday. With only one of its two mountains open over the weekend, “parking was fairly full.” At the time The Valley Reporter goes to press, Mt. Ellen was scheduled to open Wednesday, December 21.
On Sunday, this reporter strapped on the snowshoes and explored Ole’s with family for a snowy walk through the woods. The group only got slightly lost but was set straight by a friendly skier. It was a perfect snowy afternoon. With mild temperatures over the weekend, it seemed everyone was out enjoying the gifts brought by the storm.
