If you’re a college student with a spring break, chances are you’re gunning to do some drinking and some skiing this March. But if you’re not lucky enough to have a family that takes annual ski trips, or already spent all of your money this year drinking, there are a few options around the area to keep you shreddin’ hard and having a good time despite your gloomy financial situation. Here are a couple options:
The “all my TGR buddies went to Alta and I’m stuck at home with my Dynastar XXLs” spot: Magic Mountain
The Word: The recently un-shuttered Magic Mountain is about as straightforward as you can get: one red double-chair, completely open boundaries, and no stakes blocking off those tempting cliffs East Coast resorts always rope off to keep the joeys from airing into icy mogul fields and blowing their ACL’s. Magic is only open Friday-Monday and during the week if there’s a powder day (6”+), so trails and the woods stay pretty fresh. If you snag Redline first run with fresh snow you can send it off a bunch of cliffs, drops, and catdrops that sit right under the lift line, earning you double points from the AT-sporting TGR crowd that swear by their GoPros that Magic is the goods. As a bonus, you can see all the idiots at Okemo and Stratton waiting in line while you hot lap trees. If pulling out a knife and fake-wrestling in ski boots on the deck with your buddy after you’ve slammed four beers is your thing, you’ll find plenty of that quirky Vermont humor here.
The Deal: Mid-week tickets are $39, or weekends for $59.
The “all my rich buddies went to Breck and I’m stuck at home with mom’s car” spot: Mount Snow
The Word: The East Coast’s answer to Bear Mountain + Dew Tour course. The Nitro Express at Carinthia gets you top-to-bottom jibs, jumps, polejams, etc., etc. etc. on every trail off the lift, with the highlight being Nitro, the small/medium park that runs the length of the liftline with 20+ options to hit in a row. The wood park is nasty if you’ve figured out how to slide wood on skis or are Garret Russell. If you are indeed as hard as the “underground” hip-hop playing from your Skullcandy’s, the original Dew Tour course is open every day. If you’re the kind of guy that’s pissed Level 1 doesn’t just do park segments anymore, or are ripping off the tongues from your old basketball shoes and duct-taping them to your Salomon boots so you can afterbang like T-Fresh, Mt. Snow is your new kingdom. Any jibber worth their weight in tall tees needs to check this park out.
The Deal: If you pick up the March issue of Transworld Snowboarding, on page 36 there is a coupon for a free lift ticket after the purchase of a first one. That gets you two days of jibbing for $75 and yes, BroBomb looked that hard for deals for you. Lift tickets on St. Patty’s Day (the 17th) are also only $17. If your buddy’s got a pass, he/she can bring you on Fridays for $45, or $36 for you nerds still studying pre-algebra in high school.
