December in Vermont

"Vermont should be beautiful this time of year - all that snow!" 

- White Christmas

Spent this past weekend up in Vermont. Vermont is always a good idea but it's ideal in December when (in theory!) the temperature isn't freezing like it is in Jan or Feb and everything is decorated for Christmas. We headed up to Killington, Vermont for a ski trip on Saturday and spent the night in the Green Mountain state. Then we stopped by Mt Sunapee in New Hampshire for a few hours of skiing on our way home.

Killington holds a special place in our hearts. My husband and I went to Dartmouth on the NH/VT border. He learned to ski in college and I learned late in life at age 30 when we started dating. When we moved to Boston we knew we wanted to do a ski share - basically a share house with a bunch of people, similar to what people do on the Jersey Shore or in Hamptons around NYC.

We found a ski share house at Killington and did a ski share/season pass at Killi for a few years, which allowed us to get to know the Access Road and the resort very well. The past few years we've opted for passes that have allowed us to explore other mountains in New England and out West, but we still are very fond of Killington.

The drive from Boston takes us close to Hanover, where Dartmouth is, so it's easy to swing by campus if we're feeling nostalgic. The last 40 minutes of the trip are along Route 4 in Vermont, along the Ottoquechee River and through Woodstock, VT. A beautiful drive at any time of year.

Killington is known as the 'Beast of the East' - it's big, it opens early and closes late in the season, and it has something for everyone in any type of conditions. The resort completed some massive improvements over the summer, including a new six-pack high speed bubble quad and several tunnels to improve trail flow and movement around the mountain. It was fun to see the improvements as we skied our favorite trails.*

It was still early in the season and it was unseasonably cold (2 degrees!), so the mountain was busy but not overly crowded. And while it was cold it was brilliantly sunny - perfect for basking in the sunshine and beautiful light throughout the day. You can't beat winter light in New England. :)

Golden hour in Vermont

that light though

We stopped at The Lookout on the Access Road for apres ski and took advantage of their half-price wings at happy hour and their house specialty drink Goombay Smashes. I opted for a local brew in the form of Switchback out of Burlington, VT.

We had dinner at a favorite restaurant - The Garlic. A cozy, bustling restaurant with a martini bar and tapas and Italian favorites made with plenty of its namesake ingredient. After dinner we headed back to our accommodations at The Snowed Inn for some wine by their fireplace before turning in.

Snowed Inn snowed in

On our way home today we stopped at Mt Sunapee for some skiing. Sunapee is 90 minutes from our house (vs 3 hours for Killington) and a smaller, family-oriented mountain. It was warmer today than yesterday and we were further south, so we did some active recovery for our weary legs and explored the resort. We expect we'll be back frequently this ski season. All in all a wonderful (meterological) winter weekend in New England.

*Killington really deserves its own post on the resort and surrounding area - more to come!