Driving east felt backward. Usually, my wife and I fly in the opposite direction in search of what she calls "the mountain feeling" - that frisson, one part vertigo, one part vista, that comes with the steep and deep.
But the previous year had been one of milestones for us. The financial one-two of marriage and home ownership turned our annual pilgrimage to the Rockies into a humble road trip from Toronto. Then, the high loonie transformed us into cross-border powder hounds. Northern Vermont it would be.
The only question: Would our budget holiday feel like a real ski trip?
SPARTAN'S CLUB MED
After eight hours on the road, our first stop was the Craftsbury Outdoor Center, a lakeside retreat surrounded by forests and farms a few kilometres outside the bucolic town of Craftsbury Common.
Built in 1976 on the campus of a defunct boys' school, this cluster of cottages and dorms is less fancy resort than adult sports camp - a sort of Spartan New England Club Med for a target market that the centre's ski director, John Brodhead, describes as "very mellow and sincere" aerobic athletes.
In fact, I had read about this whole-grain place in Long Distance: Testing the Limits of Body and Spirit in a Year of Living Strenuously. Written by the very mellow and sincere environmentalist Bill McKibben, it's a memoir about his training as a long-distance cross-country skier - including visits to what he calls "a station of the cross for New England Nordic skiers."
With a 135-kilometre trail system (including a leg of the Catamount backcountry ski trail that runs the length of Vermont), Craftsbury does seem like a utopian miniature Norway. Locals ski for free, kicking and gliding between the towns of Craftsbury Common and Craftsbury Village. And members of the U.S. Ski Team have rated it among North America's top 10 Nordic destinations.
For visitors like us, the options for inn-to-inn skiing, all-day tours and backcountry adventures were too many to sample in two days. So instead we skied loops near the centre, strategizing not to miss a hot lunch. Craftsbury's pricing may be austere, but the meals (included in ski-and-stay packages) are not.
SMUGGS SANS KIDS
Still, for our next stop we headed for cushier lodging and bigger thrills. At nearby Smuggler's Notch resort, we found a brilliant policy that seemed too good to be true: 15 per cent off for Canadians, grandfathered from the days of the lowball loonie.
So close to Stowe that the two resorts once ran connecting lifts, "Smuggs" is that glitzy resort's country cousin. Instead of the designer-clad elite, it aims unpretentiously at middle America with what can best be described as the Disneyland of skiing.
Witness the FunZone, an indoor amusement park built in the resort's former tennis dome as a solution for snowless winters. It's packed with amusements, such as a bouncy castle, designed to suck the maximum energy out of the rambunctious preteen set (who in future winters may graduate to "teen alley").
You'll have noted by now, as we did, that trying to book the cheapest possible ski vacation can result in an accidental family theme. Smuggs calls itself "America's Family Resort" and offers an incalculable number of on- and off-slope programs (think night snowshoeing, winter walking, karaoke and knitting) for everyone from wobbly toddlers to non-skiing nannies and grannies.
But if we felt pretty out of place here as a childless couple, that changed when we got on the hill. Lost in the family-friendly message is the happy fact that Smuggs has the highest vertical in northern Vermont at nearly 800 metres - more than either Stowe or Jay Peak - and the only triple black diamond in the east.
Most of the beginner terrain is cleverly set apart on the smallest of Smuggs' three mountains, leaving the two larger peaks with excellent intermediate and expert runs. We found satisfying blue cruisers, scenic hardwood glades and steep, moguly double blacks where grownups can test their mettle while the kids are in ski school.
Another thing Smuggs doesn't like to advertise, but perhaps should, is that all six of its chairlifts are vintage doubles from before the days of detachable quads and express six packs. The result is a refreshing old-school vibe and fewer skiers on the mountain. Not to mention lots of quality time to plan the next run. Or a family. All those 2½-year-olds in ski lessons are so darned cute, why fight it?
LONG RUNS, FRESH SNOW
Our final stop, however, was a break from rehearsing National Lampoon's Ski Vacation: a quick visit to Jay Peak, Vermont's northernmost massif.
Jay's marketing slogan, "If you're not here for the mountain, you're not here," stakes its claim as the anti-Smuggs and sums up what you will and won't find. No bouncy castle. No knitting classes. Just the closest thing to a powder stash this side of the 100th meridian. It snows nine metres in an average season here and the ski school offers custom powder, glade and backcountry clinics to initiate flatlanders to the ways of the mountain.
A Euro-style, 60-passenger gondola sped us to the clouded summit alongside the weekend crowd - twentysomething freeriders, Vermont farmboys, powder pilgrims from Ottawa and bussed-in university kids from Montreal.
Gravity then delivered us into boot-deep powder and effortless runs through Jay's many glades. We found tree skiing for every level, from steep and narrow alpine forests to open, cruisy hardwoods on the lower mountain. We had so much fun in the sticks, we hardly bothered to ski a groomer.
All of which reminded me exactly why we bother making these journeys. The "mountain feeling" is nothing more than being in a place where happiness is as near as your next turn - and we now know only a day's drive away.
*****
Pack your skis
GETTING THERE
Ski stops in northern Vermont can be reached via pre-arranged shuttles from the Burlington airport. Jay Peak offers bus service from Montreal (about a two-hour drive) plus a lift ticket for $65.
SKI AND STAY
CRAFTSBURY OUTDOOR CENTER Craftsbury Common, Vt.; 802-586-7767; http://www.craftsbury.com. Starting at $164 a night, rooms can fill up a year in advance during peak periods.
SMUGGLER'S NOTCH RESORT Jeffersonville, Vt.; 800-419-4615; http://www.smuggs.com. Most skiers stay in the base village, where lifts and lodging start at $109 a person. Or buy a single lift ticket for $46 and add an extra 50 cents to offset the carbon emissions of your ski day.
JAY PEAK RESORT Jay, Vt.; 802-988-2611; http://www.jaypeakresort.com. The terrain here spans 156 hectares, including more than 20 glades and lots of off-piste trails. Kids 14 and under stay and ski free during early and late season. During regular season, all-inclusive rates start at $109 a person.
MORE INFORMATION
For details on skiing in Vermont, visit http://www.vermontvacation.com or http://www.skivermont.com.
The author was a guest of
Smuggler's Notch, Jay Peak
and Craftsbury Outdoor Center.
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