Vermont Travel Notes

Want to learn how to do this?

Sugarbush is hosting a Mogul Logic Ski Camp March 31 and April 1. The course is $275 which includes personalized coaching and video analysis from World Cup mogul skiers. The price also includes lift tickets but if you are a season pass holder you can enroll in the coaching and video analysis only for $225. More information about the course is available at Sugarbush Mogul School web page and more information about the Mogul Logic company is also available online.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

The Saturday, March 24 Backcountry Challenge at Mad River Glen is a competition but not a race. The competition is between you and the backcountry, not other people. You choose your equipment - snowshoes, telemark skis, randonee - and then you take on the rugged terrain of the Green Mountains. The entry fee is only $15 and that includes lunch! There will be a raffle with many good prizes at the end of the challenge which is sponsored by The SKIRACK.


The next day, Sunday, March 25, is the Northern Forest Snowshoe tours led by a Mad River Glen naturalist who will take you exploring through the hardwood and boreal forest ecosystems and show you which trees are called moosewood, rock maple, and shadbush among others. The tour is rated easy to moderate difficulty and runs at 10:30 am and 1:30 pm.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

Above: a stuffed kangaroo (or dog?) goes for a long ride in a recent Sugarbush Big Air Contest. Photo (c) 2007 Sugarbush Resort

This weekend the emphasis will be on laughs and music with pond skimming, dummy big air contests, and Reggae festivals.

Red Stripe, a Jamaican beer brand, is sponsoring Ascutney Ski Area's Spring Fling Weekend starting March 24. Free, live Reggae music Friday night and Saturday noon to 8:00 pm plus an outdoor limbo contest on skis.

The traditional end-of-season pond skimming contests have started. Sponsored by Vermont's Trout River Brewery, the Annual Pond Skimming Competition at Burke Ski Area will be March 24. This years theme is story book characters. There will be awards for best splash, best story book costume, best wet look, and best exit.

Mount Snow has three big events this weekend. The March 24 pond skimming contest is called Sink or Swim . Skiers and snowboarders dressed in costumes will attempt to cross the 100 foot long pond called "The Bog." Most eventually don't make it and the flops are met with laughs
and cheers.

Mount Snow's Bud Light Reggaefest starts March 24 and continues through Sunday afternoon with performances every day and night. Jamaican style drink and food too.

Mount Snow employees and guests go head to head March 25 in this Dummy Big Air, a "truly dumb competition" to see which one is the most creative, stays in the air the longest, and whether or not it stays in one piece (note: explosives are no longer allowed!). This year BUD TV will be on site to film every dummy in the competition and some among the spectators.

11th Annual Sugarbush Dummy Big Air March 24. I think Sugarbush has the longest running Dummy Big Air contest in Vermont, this year's event being the 11th.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor Grunberg Haus

As we near the end of March, the ski area parties start to move outside. This Saturday, Stowe will hold the first of its Summit Celebrations. Basically, it's beer, barbeque, and bands, with some events, contests, special deals thrown in too.

The first contest of the weekend is the Slopestyle Series Two, a two run, freestyle format through North Slope Jib Nation Medium Terrain Park for skiers, riders and telemarkers alike. Register in the Den at Mt Mansfield from 8:00 to 10:00 Saturday morning. Contest begins at 11am. $15 fee.

The second event is the Sunday March 25 Mt. Mansfield Ski Patrol Bumps Contest which is open to all ages and all styles including ski, board, telemark. This is a popular event for spectators too and proceeds go to the Vermont Children’s Trust Foundation.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

Last night and this morning, we received another six inches of snow at our north central Vermont location. Snow flurries were scattered around the state with some locations getting no snow and others getting a foot or more. Stowe and Smugglers' Notch report about another foot of snow today for a weekend total around 32 inches but the king of the hill statewide, Jay Peak, in far northern Vermont, reports six inches today for a total of three feet of new snow this weekend.

The only mild complaint I heard yesterday was that the snow is so powdery, it's tiring to ski in it. But our guests loved it and many commented on how much snow we have piled up on the ground. Some of the mounds around the edge of our parking lot are over six feet high.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor

The Sugarbush Adventure Games are scheduled for April 7, 2007 at Mount Ellen. Adults compete on Saturday and a children's mini event is the next day. There are classes for men, women, and children, both individually and by team. This is a very popular event and will attract about 700 competitors.

Now in its 29th year, it can claim to be the only "four-event triathlon" in the U.S perhaps because other people are better at math, or maybe because Vermonters are less inhibited. The events are running, whitewater boating, cycling, and cross-country skiing.

The Kids' Triathlon has pond kayaking, running, and bicycling on special courses scaled for the little people.

You can registers online here.

I did not see anything on the Sugarbush website about ClearwaterSports but last year they coordinated the Kids' event so you can contact them if you have any questions about it.

(c) 2007 Jeff Connor