[vter]

....coming our way for tomorrow and Friday. Doesnt look like the valleys will get much of anything, but 2K feet and up 5-9". Bring it on! Looking forward to trying out my new snow tires!

[luv80s]

Speaking of snow, when is the best time to go skiing? I have family coming up to visit me this winter and they want to go skiing. Where is the best place to go for beginners? I heard Smugglers Notch is good. Anybody been there?

[annawolfsong]

ROFLMAO!!! We've had snow on and off since the last week of September!!! Some of it actually stuck around for a week or so and they ski areas open this weekend in the mountains.

It's so funny when I mention to all my friends from Idaho that I'm moving to Vermont and all they can think to say is it's "so cold and snowy there".

Yeah.... ya'll get your first snow in November near Thanksgiving and ours is usually in September. We get hard frost usually by September 15th or so that kills all the tomato plants, a friend of mine in Derby picked hers until Halloween.

I think there's some serious advantages to moving somewhere warm.... like Vermont!

[Suzet2262]

Meanwhile, out here in sunny So Cali it is near 90 today. Sigh, we cant wait to move!!

[GypsySoul22]

We're expecting rain and that is just fine with me...keep the snow away as long as possible!!!
Right now it's 54 degrees which is quite warm for November!

[chaz longue]

Originally Posted by luv80s

Speaking of snow, when is the best time to go skiing? I have family coming up to visit me this winter and they want to go skiing. Where is the best place to go for beginners? I heard Smugglers Notch is good. Anybody been there?

I taught skiing for nearly 20 years and still do informally. I've taught probably thousands of beginners to ski, and loved every minute of it.

The best time is whenever you can get to a ski area and it's not crowded and the conditions are decent - however, I think people often ski too early in the season and are dissapointed. There's nothing like skiing in March and April when it's warm, there aren't crowds of people, and when there's all the accumulated snow. Corn Snow! Spring Skiing! Bliss!

Most places have good terrain and special packages for beginners. Smugglers Notch has a whole mountain for beginner and novice skiers, called Morse Mountain. Smugglers is also very highly rated for thier childrens programs. I'm going to make it a point to go to Smugglers Notch (I haven't been there more than half a dozen times since it was called Madonna Mountain when I was a kid) and ski the other parts - Madonna and Sterling lifts, because it's been so long an they are only 45 minutes down the road from me. And now that I'm not working at a ski area - I can go to whichever one I like. All I have to do is find somebody to go with...

You may want to check out Bolton Valley too. It's another relatively inexpensive family oriented area - and it's even closer to Burlington, if that's helpful. It can be nice to have Burlington nearby for shops and restaurants.

Cheers,
David B.

[tkln]

Luv80s - If I remember correctly you are in Waterbury, in which case you have good options all around! Stowe and Sugarbush are very close, as is Bolton...I've only been to Stowe though, so can't comment on the others...we took our nieces and nephews to Spruce Peak (Stowe) but it was during the Christmas week so it was packed and we ended up just taking them to a big hill and they went snowboarding there...if your family has the option of coming up at non-holiday periods, I would definitely say to try and do that...and yeah, springtime is awesome!

[flu189]

At 1100 am here in eastern Hinesburg at el 900 the rain has turned to snow already. Looking forward to seeing how much we can get.

[luv80s]

Thanks for the info on skiing. I've only been once before about six years ago at Mt. Tremblant and fell on my butt the whole time. But it was fun and I can't wait to try it again. I want to try snowboarding too. When can little kids start skiing? My son is almost 2.5 and I think that would be so cute to see him on some little skis! I'm guessing he's too young right now though.

[vter]

For the little ones check out Cochrans in Richmond. GREAT place for kids.
Cochran's Ski Area Home Page