User Reviews

We have been pretty happy with Stratton.  First, it is close enough that it is a realistic weekend trip, and it is far enough that it is not crowded except on the 3 day weekends and it gets pretty good NE snow.  We have bought season tickets and got the early Am access which is really worth it.   Conditions on the blacks and double blacks are typically good - fairly easy early in the day and harder at the end when any ice or piles build up.    Most families tend to stay on the greens, early blues so the skiing is not to loaded on the better runs.   Sunbowl and snowbowl have the best runs. 
Family - I am comfortable having my kids ski alone and meet for lunch when they want some freedom.  Safety seems to be serious and guides/help is readily available.
Parks - the parks have been moved this year to take more of the load onto some of the less used trails.  I don't ride the parks but the reviews I have heard have been very positive.  
Snow making - these guys are fantastic at snow making and grooming.  A complaint I had in the past was "too much grooming".  this year they have left several good runs bumped up, and the have made a few small man-made bump runs so people can learn - i thought this was a good idea.
Glades, Trees, they are well marked and there are a large number - perhaps 12 sections, some quite large.   They are never crowded.
Lifts - well managed and short lines except the two big weekends...   like everywhere, start early.
Greens, OK, some nice small new-England narrow runs, a few very wide "meadows".  The tend to be the most crowded.
Blues - very well groomed, typically good snow on the edges.  Medium challenge vs Blues in other places.
Blacks, easy if over groomed, crazy if iced over moguls.  Typically they are kept well between the two.  There is a wide range from lower end blacks to fairly steep slopes.   A few like Kidderbrook are very long.  Some like upper down easter are short and steep.
Dining - several good restaurants right at the base, and Manchester VT is about 20 min away. VERDE is as good as any restaurant you will find.  Mulligans and Mulberry's are good mid-range family places.  Grizzlies is a nice apres ski bar with music for a few hours after the slopes close.
Shops - prices seem pretty typical, ask for discounts.  The best is that I have found very good service if anything goes wrong - the best is Equipe, they bend over backwards to be fair and helpful.  The Green Mt Orthotics lab does top notch boot fitting.  There are a few cool coffee bars and such that are just nice places to take a break or meet after skiing.
Our family had to use the Carlos Otis Medical Clinic in the Stratton Village due to an injury.  The staff and facilities were excellent, very top notch, fast and professional - saved us a trip to a hospital and most importantly made sure everything was OK....   

Stratton is for rich people from NY to come to ski weekends.  The trails tend to be marked much darker than they would be in other VT ski areas.  The blues at Stowe are harder than the blacks at Stratton.  The only reason anything is marked double-black at Stratton is because they let a couple runs bump up.  The double-blacks at Stratton when groomed ski easier than the blues at Stowe.

Stratton is often nicknamed Flatton.

The good:
For those coming from the south, Stratton's location in southern VT cuts hours off the commute to Killington or Stowe.  While Stratton does a good job snowmaking & grooming, it must be said that even for VT, this is an intermediate's mountain.
The good news is the dining in the area is better than the skiing.

The bad & ugly:
Stratton has a delusions of adequacy.  Intrawest's ticket prices for this mountain are scandalous.  All the cost of Squaw Valley, and all the acreage & challenge of Squaw's bunny hill.   All the "red carpet" programs and luxury condos in the world will not make this place Vail or Aspen, and neither will the $84 lift tickets.

For a real family resort without the nosebleed pricing, try Mt. Snow just down the road.

Stratton is known for being a relatively easier mountain so don't be surprised to see lots of people skiing way out-of-control for their ability.  Conversely, the few moguls runs they have are always empty even on a busy day.  The resort has that fake Mt. Tremblant feel.  Selling condos is a big thing around this place.

Stratton has much better terrain that other southern vt resorts (mt snow, bromley) and usually gets more snow than them.  Theres also a small village and lots of slopeside lodging.  However, it's really pricey and there were a ton of people there.  Much better midweek

went there late Feb 2009, right after a 12" storm. It was the best snow I've been on in a really long time. Great grooming, lots of fast cruisers. Love the gondola. the World Cup trail is steep and bumpy and tons of fun. Moondance glades are marked double diamond, but really not that hard to ski, more like advanced intermediate, if that.

There are boot fitters in the base village. Visit them. Find out what a good fitting boot really feels like.

Nice Superpipe on the left side of the mountain. The Stratton Mountain Academy kids are really fun to watch. They are good racers.

I'm hoping to go back after a good storm and ski my ass of again.

The place is referred to as Flatton for a reason. Every trail looks and feels the same (flat). The "double diamonds" are pathetic, and the clientle loves to pose at the top of the gondola entrance with Bogner, Full faces, Volkls (everyone KNOWS they're the best), Spyder, etc to impress all the other gapers.

If someone thinks the terrain is the best in south New England, then apparently the North Face at Mt. Snow, ANYPLACE at Magic, most of K-Mart etc will come as a relevation. About the only place as lame is Nokemo, where they could change all of the trail names and no one would notice.

Great for NYC JAPS who can stroll around the erstaz "village" in their best nasty fur while they let their Lexus idle in the lot while lamenting global warming. However, if you need an bs ego boost, then go down the double diamond under the gondola, and tell all your friends you skiied a DD (just don't tell them it was at Flatton). It's like snorkeling in your pool and calling it extreme freediving. Gawd.

AND - it's the most expensive place around, to keep out the rif-raf (like real skiers).

It's really hard to think of anything positive about Flatton. If you're an NYC dentist (which it seems to have an exclusive on) with extremely limited skills or athletic ability, and a fair amount of disposable income, then it's probably nirvana. If treat skiing seriously in any form, skip it and go somewhere real in south VT like Mt.Snow, Magic (if there's real snow), Killington. Even Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts is a real step up in terms of terrain.