Mad River Glen, Vermont Resort Reviews - Local Reviews and Travel Information


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Mad River Glen

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IamVermont - 12/22/2007, 04:36 AM

The hands down best in the east. Great for everyone, especially if you love the glades and bumps. However there are no boarders. Traditional N.E. skiing.

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womb77 - 12/17/2007, 11:52 AM

Fun area, some tough skiing but not the hardest in the east. Very crowded when the snow is good. I dont think the value is as high as most. Ticket is not that cheap when you consider that on a good weekend day you will be lucky to get 10 runs. I went on an expert snowshoe hike it was great. Lots of stuff to do in the mad river valley.

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2_cheery_skiers - 02/02/2007, 11:59 AM

Mad River River is a ski area with an incredibly devoted and loyal following. So loyal that the previous owner - Betsy Pratt - decided not to sell it to a developer, but to the family of Mad River skiers in the form of a Co-op (who were willing to put pay $1000 to own a share of Mad River instead of the 90s bull market). The atmosphere of the place is a cross between old school country club and cult. Everyone knows each other, has strong ties to the mountain and have sworn not to change a thing. I am a convert to this Mad River religion, but I don't like to go to church always (I ski elsewhere too). What inspires such loyalty? The mountain. It's a beauty! General Stark rises up 2000 vertical feet from the Base Box without any flats, just a nice consistent expert pitch with a bunch of glades, narrow trails, minor cliffs and even a frozen waterfall. All served by a 1940s SINGLE chair carrying 300 or so lucky souls to the top every hour. Yep, a 50 year relic. While other New England resorts discovered snowmaking, high speed quads and modern grooming, Mad River stayed the same. Why? Something was lost during the 80s and 90s when some New England ski areas modernized. At other resorts, wonderful winding trails were widened beyond recognition, minor cliff bands that provided challenge were removed, glades were closed or cut down for insurance reasons, mogul fields were groomed too frequently. The other resorts had to do those things to accomodate the 3000 skiers/hour the new high speed quads unleashed on their trails. Mad River firmly decided to keep its excellent terrain in its original state with snow provided by Mother Nature and lift capacity from 1 single chair and 3 doubles. However, this comes with trade-offs: some years the natural snow does not come until after Christmas, lines on powder days at the single can be gruesome (30+ min) and ice can linger without grooming and snowmaking. The skiing at Mad River is geared to adventurous intermediates and above. Beginners and cruising intermediates would be better served going elsewhere. Some great expert runs include: Fall Line - tricky double fall-line run Grand Canyon - best moguls on the mountain, sunny Catamount - a nice upper mountain bowl Paradise - a great glade (before Jan 98 ice storm) with frozen waterfall Trees - look between many of the marked runs on the trail map, many Mad River skiers thin tree bands for their own private use Mad River also does NOT allow snowboarding, but Telemarkers are found all over this mountain - big telemark community here! Overall, Mad River is a New England classic. If you are an expert skier you should try to visit at least once (preferably more). The challenge comes from the consistency of the pitch of the trails with all of their obstacles (moguls, cliffs, twists) than super steep terrain. Hence the motto: Mad River Glen, Ski If You Can.