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West Dover Inn &…
3 reviews
West Dover, VT
Category: Restaurants
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Doveberry Inn
1 reviewWest Dover, VT
Category: Hotels
Mount Snow Ski Resort
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
8 reviews for Mount Snow Ski Resort
Really good instructors, not so crowded
My 1st day in Mount Snow. I was suppose to be here on Saturday, but thanks to Mother Nature (and her wrath of ice storms), I had to detour to Windham (go read my review on that) on Saturday and came here on Sunday.
I'm staying at the Grand Summit lodging, which is like a 5 minute walk from the Mount Snow. It is so convenient to be so close to the mountain. I wish its like that every time I go snowboarding.
Anyway, I went to their discovery center, which is at the other end of mountain (its still not bad considering its only 5 min walk). I went inside and it was quite a mess. They had a lot of cancellation yesterday, so people like that called to cancel and then ended up wandering back here (I did call again to notify, but that didn't get passed along). I had to wait a little, but once their supervisor came in, everything got straighten out really quickly. I went upstairs, found my instructors, Dave and Peter (Dave was teaching Peter on how to be an instructor). Then 2 more students came in, but that was it. So it was 3 students and 2 instructors. It was awesome. Dave rides goofy (right foot forward), and one of the student is goofy, but Peter is a regular (left foot forward) and it was perfect for me and the other student.
Both Dave and Peter were very good at explaining everything. The best part is that they got the equipment for me and the other students, and then showed us how to put them on, how each part of the boot and the snowboard is suppse to work. This is the perfect day 1 session for any beginner.
I had a lot of fun. After 1/2 hour of practice on the bottom of the slope, we were already taking the lift to the top of slope (on the beginner trail, don't get it confuse w/ top of the mountain). I learned how to ride on the Heel Side and the Toe Side relatively quickly. Even though I fell a dozen of times, I kept on wanting to go back on the lift and go down the mountain again. I look forward to my day 2 lesson tomorrow and hopefully put the heel side turn and toe side turn (and vice versa) together so I can traverse down the mountain with ease.
But overall, nice mountain, not too crowded, even for a weekend. I'm sure it will be even less people tomorrow. I can't wait.
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I really enjoyed the trails here after skiing at Stratton the previous day. Although it could probably be due to weather conditions and my level of comfort. They even had an intresting conveyor belt to get people on the chairlift! I didn't have time to eat in their cafeteria but I did make it a point to try the Waffle House (Stratton has one too) which was the best thing ever created (I happily devoured a Belgian waffle drizzled with chocolate)! Every ski resort should have one! Mount Snow even offers free storage of your belongings!
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Star 1 - goes to Mount Snow for being close enough that day trips are do-able.
Star 2 - goes to Mount Snow for being little, which means Skyler doesn't get lost!
Star 3 & 4 - goes to Mount Snow for having AMAZING BELGIAN WAFFLES SOLD AT THE BOTTOM OF THE MOUNTAIN!!! The first time i saw the cute little wooden hut, i thought to myself, wow, this is EXACTLY what i need in my life.
Star 5 - was sadly taken away. Nothing against you Mount Snow, it was due to an experience that i had here. As i was coming down the mountain i saw another boarder not able to turn correctly and about 5 seconds away from wiping out a 5 year old boy on ski's. Call it predisposed motherly instincts, or just plain stupidity, but i threw myself in front of the boy so the boarder would collide with me to save the little boy from being seriously injured. The impact was worse then i thought and pushed me so hard i hit a tree and it hurt. Actually I'm lying and completely down playing it. IT REALLY F*CKING HURT!!!
Sorry Mount Snow. No 5 stars for you. But i do love your waffles!!!!
Sky*
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After hitting about 7-8 different locations in NH, VT and ME Mount Snow ranks in my top two ranked on lift lines, conditions, closeness to Boston, terrain park (I'm a boarder), and cost.
They have three terrain parks here. One for beginners/little kids, one mostly intermediate, and one BIG park. I hit the big park this last weekend March 26-27 and they must have built it up because the jumps were huge! It was a lot of fun. The park was practically empty and there weren't too many kids standing in front of the jumps. People seem to have the park etiquette down pretty good here.
The conditions have been consistently good for me here. Good ground coverage and very little ice. If you are an "extreme skier/boarder" this mountain might be a little too tame for you, but I love the wide open slopes/rollers. The two main lifts at the bottom can get a little busy, but if you go to the North Face or some of the lifts away from the base, lines are generally pretty short (less than 5 minutes).
At 2.5 hours from Boston this mountain is doable for a day trip. This isn't the cheapest mountain, but none of the good resorts are cheap. Oh yeah, the belgian waffles are great here.
While I'm writing this, I might as well take a second to evangelize. If you have kids or you are a beginner, STAY OUT OF THE BIG PARK! It's not cute to let your kids ski around the jumps. They get in the way of people who are there to board seriously, and it's actually very dangerous when kids stop near or under jumps. I've seen it happen way too many times. When kids/beginners roll over the top of a jump it ruins the construction of the jump and can make the take-off uneven thus causing the jump to throw you in unpredictable directions. If you're not going to hit a jump at a speed reasonable to clear it, don't bother. You're doing yourself and everyone around you a favor.
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I am not a big fan of Mount Snow. Firstly, it isn't terribly easy to get to from Boston. You can take the meandering Rt. 2 or the Mass Pike, but both routes are circuitous. While I enjoyed driving through the bustling Erving and good old Gill, I had previously fulfilled my western MA requirement by driving the Mohawk trail.
Secondly, since it is located in southern VT, which is a nice region of the state it is too close to the residents of the tristate area. I find these people to be abrasive and generally inconsiderate of other people. This was clearly indicated to me by the proportion of clowns who bumped into or pushed me or refused to get out of the way or make room whilst I was trying to navigate the resort.
Thirdly, buying a lift ticket and rental equipment is difficult. After purchasing the lift ticket I need to get rental stuff for the gf. We proceeded to walk around looking for this elusive rental place, only to find that you needed to buy the rental equipment and the ticket counter. This mean we had to get back in line.
Okay after getting the rental voucher we headed to rental counter only to discover that they were out of ski boots. Yes, that is correct. They did not have any boots. After a few minutes of digging the ski tech produced boots which smelled like a commonly ingested drug that people who ski would use.
After the rental fiasco we attempted to ski. This was made impossible by the fact that we could not find any trail maps aside from the huge stationary once at the base. 100% of the time I have been skiing before trail maps were given when you purchased tickets. This was not the case. After taking the quad up the top of the mountain we began to ski.
The trail was well groomed and fairly long. The main problem with the trail system was that the trails are not consistently marked at intersections. Several times we would be skiing come to intersection, proceed in a logical way and end up trail we didn't want.
Finally, the intersection and trail mergers at this place are dangerous. I saw 3 people injured and being taken down with the Ski Patrol. All of these collisions happened when slowed trails merged with advanced ones.
After skiing we tried the famed Waffle Haus. This place seemed like it would be decent. After waiting almost 30 mins we got our waffles. There were decent, but not worth the wait or cost. If you do decide to the do the Haus go for the chocolate.
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Mount Snow is a nice big mountain in Vermont with some steep trails and few easy ones. I don't know where I saw it, but it said the place was geared for kids, which didn't seem to be the case, because the majority of the trails seemed to be intermediate. The chair lifts were not the fastest, and the mountain had more than a few icy spots. I would come back here again, hopefully they will have fresh snow and it wont be -10 degrees.
Mt. Snow is a great place to visit in both the winter and the summer.
Winter Review: The last time I skied here was four years ago, when I was still a beginner. I remember the skiing being really good, with terrain suitable for all levels. It's one of New England's best kept secrets I believe. I had never heard of it before I went skiing there and have only heard it mentioned once since (Note: I live in Cleveland). It is a beautiful ski area with great views and long runs. The lifts are very efficient. They are clean and modern. At the top of the mountain, there is a little restaurant so you can fuel before heading back down the mountain. There is a resort on site, as well as a big pro shop and a couple of other places to eat.
Summer Review: Mt. Snow is a great place to go even in the middle of summer. I was recently in the area and decided to ride the lift up to the top of the mountain to take in the spectacular view (it was incredible). There is only one lift up the mountain during the summer and it's the main one just outside the resort. In the pro shop, you can buy lift tickets for going up. Also in the pro shop, you can decide which way to come down and do the necessary procedures to do so. Your three options for coming down are riding the lift, hiking, or mountain biking. Due to time constraints, we rode the lift back down (it's not as bad as it looks). At the top, you can see as far as New Hampshire and Massachusetts (you can't see New York because you don't go to the very top of the mountain, just below it). It's a spectacular view. The pro shop also sells all the gear you need for mountain biking except the bikes, which I'm not sure if you can rent them or not. My biggest complaint for the summer is there is no way to get any food on site.
Overall, if you want a great skiing experience, or are in S. Vermont and want to take in some of the great scenery of the area, pay a visit to Mt. Snow.
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Mt. Snow was one of my favorite places to snowboard during the 2005-2006 season-- it seemed like I had my best days here. But this year I went only once and didn't feel like going back again. The trails seemed easy and kind of boring. Lunch was expensive and the lift lines were rather long. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel differently next year-- I used to love it so much that I'm definitely planning to go back. All I can say is that I had much better experiences at Sugarbush, Burke and Loon this year...and Winter Park! (even though that's like apples and oranges)