Family Ski Report: Smugglers' Notch

Given the pandemic, my appreciation for going to beloved places and doing beloved things has risen to new heights. During the pandemic, Google rather ironically started serving me monthly summaries of where I had traveled; literally, my destinations spanned my house, the grocery store, and my mom’s house (to deliver groceries from the grocery store). I subsequently was filled with a lot of feelings this past weekend as we headed to Smugglers’ Notch, which signaled our first time skiing together as a family since March 2020, right before the world shut down.

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We first visited Smuggs in 2018; we were still pretty fresh to skiing and the trip proved unexpectedly momentous. Thanks to an incredible teacher, Violet went from reluctant to enthusiastic and joyful on skis, rode a lift for the first time, and all of a sudden we became a true skiing family. I encourage you to read my 2018 Smugglers’ Notch report, as it covers a lot of basics about the property. Today, I want to share observations from this past weekend; both new insights gained and important reminders.

Sidebar: Below is a shot of Violet in front of the entrance to King Billy Bob’s Den. When there is full snow coverage, this is a little through-the-woods cutaway that Violet loved zipping through in 2018. We did a few nostalgia runs down the green trails of Morse Mountain during our visit!

1. Vibe

I want to start by sharing why I think the trek to Smuggs is worth it. Smugglers’ Notch is an independently owned year-round resort (we enjoyed an amazing summer visit in 2017) and the vibe is simply perfect—the people are friendly yet not boundary crossing, the staff is easy going yet competent, there are plenty of trails for all abilities, and there are lots of amenities right on the property so you don’t have to use your car once you get there if you don’t want to. (After a long drive, this is an important factor for me!)

Last year, because of COVID we didn't ski in Vermont at all because we couldn't manage the required quarantines around school, etc.). Also, we acquired James the poodle last spring so going anywhere seemed impossible! But this fall, once I knew my family would be fully vaccinated and dog boarding felt like a possibility, I asked my family where they would want to go, if I could find a dog sitter and figure out timing and logistics. Without missing a beat, the kids said Smuggs. That says a lot!

2. Timing your trip

If some or all of your family is solidly on green trails, I recommend timing your trip to Smuggs to allow a little more time for winter to do its thing. Obviously, this will never be a perfect science but it is something to consider. We were there right at the beginning of the season, which is both awesome and always a bit of a gamble. Our trip in 2018 was early in the season and there was tons of snow on Morse Mountain, where the green trails are at. This past weekend on our first day the only part of Morse Mountain that was open was the bunny slope. The other two mountains at Smuggs—Sterling and Madonna—are all blues and blacks. This past weekend Madonna was not yet open, but the skiing at Sterling was fantastic!

3. Lodge at Smuggs

I can’t recommend enough lodging at Smuggs. They have a variety of sized condos and having space to spread out, and the convenience of a working kitchen is major, especially with kids. I brought a few groceries to make breakfast easy, and we also ate onsite and picked up some provisions at The Country Store on the property.

We stayed in one of the Liftside condos and it was so fantastic because it is a quick walk to the base of Morse Mountain and also The Village Center, where you can access shops, food, etc. The merch situation at the Smuggs ski shop and the Vermont gifts and provisions at The Country Store can’t be beat! I bought my family Smuggs merch for Christmas presents and lots of wonderful locally made clutter-free stocking stuffers (chocolate! jam! energy bars!). The Country Store also houses The Perk, which has great coffee and smoothies.

4. Schedule lessons for the beginning of your trip

I definitely recommend taking lessons and I recommend scheduling lessons at the beginning of your trip. We scheduled our lessons for 10am our first day out (we took a couple of runs on the beginner slope to warm up before the lessons started), which ended up being perfect because that was when our legs were freshest; I was so sore after the first day! This timing also meant we then had the rest of the weekend to practice what we had learned in lessons.

Because this was our first time skiing in Vermont since March 2020, I ended up talking to the ski school to determine best fit for lessons for my crew and they were wonderful and very keen on positioning everyone to have a successful and happy experience. Our teachers (pictured below) were simply amazing. I seriously think that Smuggs has one of the best ski schools out there.

Also, if you are new to skiing, one of my favorite things about the layout at Smuggs is that the beginner learning area is in a location that renders it completely out of the way of lift/base traffic. This is not the case at all mountains!

5. Consider asking for a female teacher

So this is definitely a hindsight is 20/20 recommendation and it was a pivotal one for me. If you are a woman who is struggling with physical and/or confidence issues, I recommend asking if there is a female teacher available to work with you. I was rather fortuitously paired with Nancy Spier (who was the teacher who taught Laurel in 2018) and I am not overstating when I say that the experience was transformative. As in, my eyes started leaking when she was talking to me. You can read the full story here, but I was definitely wrestling with confidence issues as a result of various physical struggles I have been experiencing over the past couple of years and the external affirmation and support she gave me—in addition to astute technical instruction—completely lifted my confidence. Coming into the weekend I was convinced that I would need to be on green trails the whole time (which would have been a bummer on the first day since most of Morse Mountain was not open). Instead, because of Nancy I happily and confidently skied intermediate blues during my lesson, and carried that joy into the rest of the weekend, including one final, totally nonsensical and amazing run before we pushed off to head back home.

The experience was so incredible that I think I need to further be in the company of women when I ski. I am officially putting it on my life goals list to pursue a women’s ski clinic like Smuggs’ women’s 6-week ski clinics!

6. Be flexible about your family's endurance

One of my favorite things about skiing is that it teaches you to live in the moment and roll with things. I want to recommend that you go into skiing with a flexible mindset. During our weekend we needed to contend with the wishes of Mother Nature (wild wind and rain on our second day), as well as the realities of having a crew whose ages span 10 to 48 and different abilities and energy levels. The base lodge at Sterling Mountain offered the perfect spot to rest and refuel and again, having our lodging right next to The Village was so great for splitting up and meeting up.

7. Consider planning your trip around events

For us, skiing is the centerpiece on these types of trips, but if you enjoy leveling up the fun options, consider toggling your visit to an events weekend at Smugglers’ Notch. We happened to be visiting during Brew & Ski Weekend (which will return March 25-27) and it was definitely fun to walk around and sample beverages, enjoy wood-fired pizza (even though we literally had just eaten…LOL), and then enjoy an apres ski fire pit. If I could wave a magic wand I would be back at Smuggs for their winter solstice celebration and reindeer visit this month!

8. Visit the FunZone 2.0

And speaking of leveling up fun, I need to address the FunZone 2.0. Smugglers’ Notch offers a mega family fun complex that includes an arcade, laser tag, bouncy structures, games, a Ninja Warrior type course, and a rock climbing wall. (There’s also a cafe onsite.) Coming in I sort of assumed my crew would just be skiing but, well, DUH, Violet is 10 years old and she totally remembered the FunZone and wanted to go back to the FunZone! And I have to hand it to her and Jon—even on tired legs, they did the Ninja course and rang the bell at the top of the rock wall.

It’s also notable that my previous claim to fame at the FunZone was that I got a Minion out of the claw machine on my first try. I had to relinquish my crown this past weekend because Violet got not one, but two, stuffed animals out of the claw machine. Girl was like an engineer positioning that claw. DREAMS DO COME TRUE.

9. Do some advanced planning around the trip

Finally, I wanted to recommend a couple of things that are not ski-related but helped make our trip so much better. The first was finding a great dog sitter on Rover, important given that James is a pandemic dog and this was our first time being away from him for three days. I did two meet and greets with the sitter in advance of our trip and it definitely gave me peace of mind so I could enjoy our time at Smuggs! And second, we made sure to have a good dinner break planned on our way up. Smuggs is about four hours from Boston so we planned a dinner break on our way up at the Worthy Burger in Royalton and the timing worked out perfectly so my crew didn’t get HANGRY.

In a nutshell, this was such a wonderful family trip and I am so grateful that skiing is a part of our life and that we were able to return to Smugglers’ Notch. Given that Laurel is a senior in high school I am definitely feeling the importance of our opportunities to be together and create family memories over the next year, and the trip delivered on all counts.

Disclosure: Smugglers’ Notch kindly hosted my family while I explored the property for editorial consideration. All opinions and experiences are, of course, my own.