Learning How to Ski in Stowe

Things I did not know when I arrived in Stowe, that I now know:
– You can wear ski boots indoors.
– Skis have sizes & your skis have to be adjusted based on what size your boots are.
– Ski resorts really do have hot chocolate & waffle huts – & they’re amazing.
– Skiing is a LOT harder than it looks.
– Despite the above mentioned fact, I actually have the potential to be pretty good at it!

After a great visit last September, the nice people at Stowe Mountain Lodge were gracious enough to invite B & me back to attempt to ski for the very first time. We were again in a spacious Timberline Studio room with a wonderful gas fireplace & the world’s most delectable soaking tub, overlooking Spruce Peak.

We spent the day we arrived getting set up with our rentals, enjoying some delicious flatbreads at the Hourglass restaurant (kind of obsessed with those things), & answering work email in front of the giant log fireplace in the lodge. We turned in a little early, since Saturday would be a big day: our first time skiing!

Stowe Mountain Resort – where we skied – is actually totally different than the Lodge; the only thing they share is a piece of property at the bottom of the mountain. Fortunately, for the most part, their customer service was as great as the Lodge. The very patient people at rentals walked us through the process of getting boots, skis, poles, & a helmet for the first time & sent us on our way, boots & helmets in tow. When you’re a guest at the Lodge, make sure & take advantage of their ski valet: they do all the heavy lifting for you, putting your skis & poles on a convenient rack right outside the hotel for you to grab on the way to the lifts. The ski valet also will store & warm your boots, but since we were there on an especially busy weekend (& had no idea what we were doing), they recommended we hang on to ours in the room.

I’d highly recommend to any first time skier to start with a lesson, which is how we began our Saturday morning. After taking over an hour to get dressed & figure out how to put our boots on, we headed out to the slopes to begin learning.

By the end of the first lesson, I was zipping down the bunny hill, feeling pretty good about myself & confident that I was going to make it onto a real chair lift & a real hill before the weekend was out. Unfortunately, our afternoon instructor had other ideas & knocked my ego down a few notches (which was probably a good thing, as I was all I’m-the-best-skiier-ever). Like with many things, our instructors were a mixed bag (morning was fantastic, afternoon a little condescending). Regardless, we still had a lot of fun. Make sure & stop by the fire pit for s’mores & hot chocolate (complimentary to all skiers) in the afternoon.

Après–ski is an art form in Stowe & the weekend we were there was no different. The nice thing about staying at the Lodge is that each room has a kitchenette, which means we stopped at the grocery store on our way into town & pick up a few things, including a six-pack of Long Trail IPA, my favorite Vermont beer. Favorite beer + roaring fireplace = perfect après–ski.

I also discovered an equally enjoyable après–ski activity: a relaxing spa treatment. I had the Soothe Your Sole treatment, which took place on the spa’s relaxing Sound Chair (it pumps music through the water in your body!) while a therapist gave me a relaxing foot massage, followed by wrapping my feet in a warm paraffin wax. Their spa has one of the most soothing relaxation areas I’ve ever been in, with a giant fireplace, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ski runs, & a variety of soothing teas. If a trip to the spa after spending a few hours standing with your feet at an awkward angle (no one tells you about that with ski boots!) in the cold isn’t the most perfect après–ski, I’m not sure what is.

We woke up to a beautiful, sunny, freezing (0* F) day on Sunday & decided that instead of tempting fate on the icy slopes, to take the gondola up Mt. Mansfield to watch the black diamond skiers. The views were spectacular & worthy of a post all their own.

Soon enough, we were driving back to Burlington to catch our flight, sore (oh, so so sore) & happy. We had proven that, surrounded by the beautiful Green Mountains, 31 years old definitely isn’t too old to learn how to ski.

Know if you go…
– the Lodge felt very different than the last visit, mostly because this time there were a lot of families – a LOT. DINKs should definitely know that this is not a romantic ski getaway – even tucked away in our room, we could hear children running up & down the hallways until late at night. The bunny hill & Green Circle trails were full with little ones, making it a little difficult not to trip over them. Do not even think about enjoying the pool or hot tub, as they’re both going to be full of kids. Even the spa has children’s services. It’s tolerable, even for the childless, but it’s something I wish I had anticipated going in. I think I can honestly say there were more children here than at any other luxury property I’ve ever stayed at.
– you can go through the rental process the day before your rentals actually start any time after 2:30pm. This saves a lot of time in the morning, since you can just head out to the slopes.
– take advantage of having a kitchenette in your room & stop to get some groceries at Shaw’s on your way into town from Burlington. We picked up beer, cheese & crackers, ingredients for breakfast & a box of hot chocolate. We made breakfast Sunday morning in our room, enjoying our eggs by the fireplace, & made hot chocolate at several points during the trip – both of these things saved us at least $75.
– you’ll be glad that you picked up groceries because, like any luxury property, a weekend in Stowe is not cheap. Lift tickets run almost $100 per day person, rentals are $64 per day with a helmet ($49 per day without) & rooms at the Lodge are definitely not cheap. The food in the resort is on-par with the prices you’d pay in a big city, but that doesn’t make paying $40 for two cups of chili at lunch any easier.
– you can book everything online ahead of time, which would save you loads of time once you get to the resort. The Stowe Evolution Snow Card, which stores your rental information & lift tickets, eve allows you to do hands-free scanning through the lift gates, which means your lift ticket is one less thing to fumble with.
– Stowe Mountain Resort & the Lodge are going to be undergoing a major construction project in 2014, including the addition of more restaurants & an outdoor ice skating rink. So if you’re planning a stay during that time, things might be a little dicey. However, the end result will be well worth it.

Our stay at the Stowe Mountain Lodge, as well as our ski rentals, lesson & spa treatment, were provided compliments of the resort. My gushing & absolute love of this piece of New England luxury & the skiing that surrounds it, are my own opinions.