Special Interest Stories from Vermont Resorts

Jay Peak Resort & Burke Mountain Unite
Finally, the Kingdom is United. Ski the best of Vermont in the Northeast Kingdom.   Burke Mountain and Jay Peak are now under common ownership and offer a season pass for both mountains. Visit www.greatbigkingdom.com to learn the story of how these mountains joined forces.

Magic Mountain
Magic Volunteers: It takes a community! On September 20^th, October 6^th and October 20^th, the Magic “faithful” come out, to help prep the mountain for the new season. Magic has a devoted following and they are connected to this place by giving their time and efforts to clearing trails, expanding glades, painting, etc—anything to help the mountain be ready and improve the ski experience for the coming year. It’s the skiers and riders that help make Magic a special place in Vermont—not a resort, simply a ski area.

How will Magic spend $1 million raised by its skier community? Stay tuned to find out, but our money is on snowmaking.

Mount Snow Resort
Bluebird Express
Mount Snow now features one of the most technologically advanced chairlifts on the planet with the installation of the only six passenger bubble chair lift in North America.  The Bluebird Express provides similar protection from the elements as a gondola cabin but with the convenience of not having to remove skis and snowboards to ride it.  This is not the first time Mount Snow has been at the forefront of ski lift technology; the first chairlift installed at Mount Snow in 1954 ran on a monorail system and transported more than 1,200 skiers per hour while other double chairs at the time could only transport less than 600 skiers per hour.  Story angles: Capital investment, new technology, evolution of ski lift technology, how one chairlift can improve an overall ski experience for families.

MountSnow’s Carinthia Pro Team
Mount Snow has a number of stellar athletes signed on to the Carinthia Pro Team, including some with Olympic ambitions. Our facilities and terrain offer a premier training and development ground for all disciplines of on-snow competition.  Our team includes:

• Devin Logan – Not only was Devin the only female to compete in both slopestyle and superpipe at the 2011 and 2012 Winter X Games, she was also the youngest woman in both disciplines.  A Wilmington, Vermont native that grew up skiing Mount Snow and attended Mount Snow Academy, Devin is a member of the US Freeskiing Halfpipe Pro Team at just 18 years old.  She continues to take the freeskiing world by storm with a list of podium finishes in just the last two years that would be considered a great career for most athletes including slopestyle silver at XGames 2012 and winning the overall championship in the 2012 Dew Tour series. 
• Nick Goepper – One of the most promising freestyle skiers in the World at just 18 years old, Nick had his breakout season during the winter of 2011/2012.  He landed two second place finishes in slopestyle at the first two Winter Dew Tour stops and came home with a slopestyle silver in his first ever Winter X Games.  This coming season, Nick is expected to be one of the favorites in every slopestyle competition he enters.

Carinthia Parks
The East’s only all-freestyle terrain park mountain face, boasting 10 different terrain parks for all abilities and a 450’-long superpipe, continues to set the benchmark for all others.  Carinthia is recognized every year as the East’s #1 terrain park by numerous publications, but by no means are we resting on our laurels.  The 2012/2013 winter season will see the debut of a few one-of-a-kind terrain park features that are sure to make news. 

Interesting People

• Walt Schoenknecht- The visionary founder of Mount Snow, Walt installed an outdoor heated pool, indoor ice skating rink and applied to the Federal Government to detonate an atomic bomb at the base of Mount Snow to create more vertical!  Great stories.
• General Manager, Kelly Pawlak: Not your typical boss – Kelly Pawlak is not just one of the only females to hold the top position at a major resort in the ski industry, it could be argued that she is the most approachable and visible GM around.  During your next visit to Mount Snow you will likely see her cleaning tables in the base lodge, engaging guests in the lunch line or scanning lift tickets.  Kelly leads by example and creates a one-of-a-kind culture that makes Mount Snow a great place to work and visit.  Story angle: Female in prominent leadership role; how many General Managers out there scrub toilets and actually participate in events, like Kelly does with the Mount Snow Tri for Hope Triathlon.

Mad River Glen
Mad River Glen is the first ski area in the nation to be listed as an historic district in the National Register of Historic Places. The National Park Service approved this recognition of Mad River Glen’s historic value on July 5, 2012. The longstanding loyalty and commitment of skiers to Mad River Glen led to this unique recognition of the mountain’s contribution to American ski history.

Okemo Mountain Resort
Rip, Zip and Flip
In addition to 119 trails and 651 acres of skiable terrain, Okemo Mountain Resort offers some great gravity grabs for winter enthusiasts. Okemo’s Timber Ripper Mountain Coaster is a roller-coaster-like attraction that allows riders to control their own speed as they glide down rails that twist through trees and corkscrew loops. Sawyer’s Sweep Zipline Tours give participants a winter perspective from 50 feet up as they cross suspension bridges, rappel from platforms and soar along seven ziplines. For the ultimate gravity junkie, the Amp Energy Big Air Bag is a giant inflatable stunt bag that provides a soft landing for skiers and riders who launch off a snowpacked jump.

Smugglers’ Notch Resort
Zip lining in winter offers unbeatable thrills: Participants on Smugglers’ year-round ArborTrek canopy tour, the first of its kind in Vermont, can choose from a three-zipline or six-zipline tour located in a scenic valley near the Resort Village. Scenic tree platforms in a mature forest of hemlock, white birch and sugar maple yield stunning views of the Resort, Mount Mansfield and the Green Mountains. In keeping with the Resort’s commitment to environmental stewardship through nature-focused programs that combine learning and fun, canopy tour guides highlight local ecology and natural history. The tour, for ages 8 and older, is a unique and memorable experience.

Mountain playgrounds for all ages and abilities: Smugglers’ progression system of terrain parks offers something for everyone, beginning with the pint-sized Burton Riglet Park for snowboarders ages 3-5. The Log Jam park on a beginner trail at Morse Highlands caters to those of all ages who want to sample park elements. Four parks on the upper mountains, including a new gladed park with natural features at Knight’s Revenge on Madonna Mountain, thrill the more experienced. Skills can be learned in the evening at Smugglers’ popular Night School for Snowboarding for beginners and Night School for Jibbing, a comfortable introduction to park elements for intermediate level skiers and riders of all ages.

Explore the Notch
The Resort is just a few short miles down the mountain from rugged Smugglers’ Notch pass, which becomes a recreational playground in the winter when the road passing through the pass at the base of towering cliffs closes due to snow. Smugglers’ offers three fun and exciting guided opportunities for exploration of the Notch, the storied home to contrabanders during Prohibition times and earlier: an aerobic Winter Walking morning trek, evening snowmobile tours, and a moonlight snowshoe trek.

Stowe Mountain Resort
The Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center
A dramatic cultural enhancement has come to Stowe Mountain Resort. The Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center opened its doors in winter 2011. Developed to operate year-round as a major component of the east’s premier mountain resort, the performing arts center is as a state-of-the-art venue for a wide spectrum of events; theater, music, dance, comedy, film, lectures and multimedia presentations. The Spruce Peak at Stowe base area is also home to the previously opened Stowe Mountain Lodge, Spruce Camp Base Lodge and an exclusive community of enviable slopeside properties for purchase.

More About Spruce Peak Arts Center Foundation, Inc:
The Center is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit arts organization which is dedicated and committed to entertaining, educating, and engaging our diverse communities of Stowe and beyond.  The 420-seat multi-use theatre offers world-renowned entertainment as well as emerging artists and performers from around the region, state, nation and world. Performers featured at the Center have included James Taylor, Suzanne Vega, Blackberry Smoke, Ben Vereen, The Robert Cray Band, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, comedians Larry Miller & Bob Marley, Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Paula Cole, Little Feat, Celtic Crossroads, Great Big Sea, The Second City, The Sam Bush Band, Cirque Shanghai and many more. Contact: Nancy Jeffries-Dwyer, 802-760-4636, Njeffries-Dwyer@stowe.com

Stratton Mountain
Since being one of the first resorts to allow snowboarding on the hill, Stratton has always had a role in the progression of snowboarding. The mountain is home to Olympic medalists Ross Powers and Lindsey Jacobellis, and this year will sport a boardercross course for the next generation of rippers. Session Lessons are the next big thing to hit Burton’s immersive adult learning program, Experience Snowboarding. It’s not a traditional lesson, but a chance to try new things and work toward a goal with the help and guidance of a really great rider (your “instructor”).

Trapp Family Lodge
Trail’s End: Awesome Brews, and Great Views
It’s always amazing to see how many different sides there are to Trapp Family Lodge.  Last year the intrepid trail crew hewed several new snowshoe trails out of our hillside the most interesting of which has one of the best finishes in the area; the brewery.

The words out about Trapp Lager; it’s delicious. One could argue that their beer is on par with their renowned Nordic Ski Center. Moreover, the Deli/Bakery/Brewery is perhaps the most aesthetically scenic beer garden in the country with some of the most refreshing crafted lagers around. The combination is a heady mixture - water from the hillside spring, the Worcester range of the Green Mountains stretching out across the eastern horizon, and an ace brewmeister/alchemist in Jamie Griffin. What could make this combination better?  How about ski, snowshoe, and –in the spring summer fall seasons- mountain bike trails that lead to its front door.

The trail crew has cut one of the coolest snowshoe rambles on the property to pass the Deli Bakery. It travels over hill and through dale, visiting some of the most scenic spots on the eastern edge of our property following a contour just below Sleigh Road. The trails end has awesome brews complimented by the great views Trapp Family Lodge is famous for. 

Photo: Bryant Camp at Bolton Valley