I Can – Ski at MRG

Just this past Saturday morning the S.G.’s cell phone is jingling. Ouch – still in bed at 9:45! No need to even check the caller identification, not getting up to answer, it could not be all that important. But the bell served as a nice wake up. I was already running late, typical.

It was a dangerously cold Friday night and the prospect of traveling solo for several hours behind the windshield was not very far up on my list of “to do’s.” Visit this LINK for more on the message board. The skiing this past weekend was going to be good, the best we have had this season, that much I knew. Putting on the Guru hat, I drank the standard 25 ounces of black coffee and made some outbound calls to friends up in VT.

the S.G. with a ‘you know what’ eating grin in line for a ride up the Single. photo form MRG

I targeted the Mad River Valley (Sugarbush and Mad River Glen would be the ski areas, Warren and Waitsfield, VT the towns).
1. Call to a friend at the Bush which yielded a VM, oh well…
2. Call placed to MRG generated a bated breathed marketing guru raving about the skiing.
Decision made easily. This guy (me) was going to Mad River Glen.
The whole region up in that neck of the woods is special. It has become much too difficult in this day and age to find areas which weigh in with the same type of sentiment. Always prevalent, the ever expanding real estate market is playing bus driver to many of the mountain resorts main objective ($$$$$!).
The Mad River Valley is of the almost extinct bread where you can still find world class skiing, people, and food. Added bonus – your cell phone will not work.
The Plan was one taken from the archives. Put simply, it goes like this.
Stay at the Camels Hump View Inn, wake up early, and eat an outstanding country breakfast. (the cost includes this and the wake up knock on the door to your room at the farmhouse) Then drive the 20 minutes south down VT route 100 and up 17 to the symbol of old school New England skiing fondly known as Mad River Glen.
Tangent: Wilma & Jerry Maynard the owners/operators of the Camels Hump View Inn are as local and knowledgeable hosts as you will find anywhere in New England ski country. Jerry built the pub in the Base Box of Mad River Glen which was fashioned after a restaurant in Manhattan. He was also on the trail cutting crew for Castlerock at Sugarbush, back in the day.
The place is not a hotel. It is a farmhouse. You get a bedroom and share a bathroom with other guests. Everyone is respectful and friendly, an example put forth by the said proprietors and respected by all their guests (who are mostly repeat offenders). Things you should be ready for, no televisions in the rooms, no reliable cell phone service, and if you plan on staying out late in town be prepared to wake them from bed in order to gain entry into the Inn.
The verdict = neither the price, nor the experience can be beat.
Onward to skiing…
The parking lot and VT Route 17 seem to merge into one as you approach the base area, especially when they are both covered with snow. There are no attendants flagging you to a spot, and if you can not handle that yourself it would probably wise you turn around right then and there.
looking at the Base Box from the Single Chair

No thrills to be had. Just skiing in its purest, most treasured form (MRG is on the short list of operations that still do not allow snowboarding). The area has also got a ton of history. There is a trail called the Rockefellars, named after the family (spelt differently of course). The founder of MRG was a family friend and offered them first pick at some land on the mountain. They made their choice and built a stunning residence about a hundred feet up hill from the base area (as seen from the named trail). The house even has its own chairlift to bring family and friends up to it from their parking lot below.
Random Fact: One member of the family still lives there and works at the ski area. She is the head custodian for the Base Box. What other place can make such claim! Further proof of how humble the people up there really are. MRG is not a place to go if you are looking to be scene, or make one.
Skiing at Mad River Glen is an occurrence to be relished. If you go there bring you’re A-Game. Be ready to let yourself go from the normal obligations and tribulations of day to day life.
There is nothing really new, fancy, earth shattering to report. I threatened to pen up an entire blog entry just about the urinal in the men’s room, which is actually a trough (think Fenway Park before the renovations) that has a “No Diving” bumper sticker strategically centered above it. There are more than a few witty individuals who call this ski area home.
Mad River Glen is a ground zero—center of the universe if you will—for those who really only care about good skiing, good memories, and good company. Just what the doctor ordered.
What really got me on this track was that I saw Sugarbush 100% open on Friday. The call to MRG Saturday morning told me all I needed to hear. “We are at 100%, the reason we were 40/45 on Friday was a lift was not running.” That mountain range did very well last week with natural snowfall. Keep an eye on the conditions LINK.
The skiing there on Sunday was legendary. Always is, but this past visit made it special because the expert terrain was conditioned as just that. Technically challenging! Minerals and Veggies were poking up through the natural snow surface. They were avoidable but you had better be able to turn on a dime while adjusting to quirky, steep, mogul filled fall lines. The snow was soft and dry. It’s punchyness that results from the arctic air (Thurs and Fri) had worn off with temps in the twenties on the summit of General Stark Mountain.
Wonderful experience!
making ones way down Chute

The slopes were not busy, but most certainly not empty. Crowd size was just enough to make you understand that you were at a place that people who are “In the Know” frequent. Taking the ride up the Single Chair only qualified this as you watch one tremendous skier after another take on the boney Chute trail below.
MRG is a ski area with all fixed gripped lifts (no high speed detachable rides) and this mitigates skier traffic on the trail system.
It is a BIG mountain, sporting over 2000 vertical feet of rise form the base. A ride up the Single and your legs will burn by the time you get back in the maze at the bottom. The runs are long, and if you choose an expert trail be prepared. However, please note, the ski area is a family place and there are plenty of groomed intermediate and beginner runs serviced by the Sunny Side double chairlift. It has something for everyone, at ever level of ability.
perfect place to start the kids skiing early – MRG

Low down: An inspiring area made so by the people that visit. A true gem in today’s ski industry. You feel like you are home there, whether you have been skiing the slopes for decades or if it is your first visit.
Obviously, I was in my space and doing just fine.
Make you way to Fayston, VT when you are looking to get down to the heart of the American Skiing Dream at it finest.
They say, “Mad River Glen, Ski it IF you Can!”
Well I not only could, but I did. I suggest you all head north and do the same this winter.
Think Snow,
photos ~ S.G. unless otherwise noted
For more pictures see the MRG gallery with this LINK
PS ~ proof that they do make snow!