Visit your favorite snow resort - in Summer and Fall!

Visit your favorite snow resort - in Summer and Fall!

Get a head start on those great mountain feelings!

Stratton Mountain, and Manchester, VT

by Lauren Traub Teton

We snowboard and ski enthusiasts are counting the days ‘til we can boot up again. But there’s a way to get a head start on the good feelings that come from our favorite downhill sports.

Why not visit your favorite mountain off season and take the chair lift or gondola to the top? Last week I had the opportunity to ride the gondola to the top of Stratton Mountain, in Vermont. I have had many happy times snowboarding there, and while sitting at the summit looking out over the green valley ,with the blue sky above, those good-time feelings came flooding back to me, even without snow!

It was so interesting to see the topography of the mountain without its thick blanket of snow, and to see the trees with leaves dangling instead of icicles.

Being after Labor Day and before foliage season, we had the place to ourselves and that was a big change too, from the well-attended snowboard events I’ve covered at Stratton for my other website, SnowboardSecrets.com.

It is wonderfully refreshing, enlivening, and calming to breathe in the fresh mountain air and enjoy the view from the top! Visiting the mountain even in “off” season makes you feel good, especially if it invokes good times you’ve had there in the past.

Of course if your favorite mountain is an airplane ride away instead of a car ride, this plan is not so easy. Maybe you can drive to a local mountain or hill that has a chairlift and dream your winter dreams!

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Manchester, Vermont is a Great Town

If you’re in Southwestern Vermont near Stratton or Bromley or Route 7, don’t miss the Manchester Designer Outlets! Last week was my first visit, but not my last!

Manchester, Vermont is a charming well-groomed old New England town that also has some of the best shopping in the state. I visited two inns that I can’t wait to come back to for dinner and an overnight, The Reluctant Panther, and the Inn at Manchester. Both have tiny pocket drink bars tucked into living room areas of overstuffed sofas and very inviting bedrooms.

And I saw the most beautiful, tasteful looking designer outlet buildings that I’ve ever seen. A quick stride through Giorgio Armani and Escada assures me there is plenty there to revisit. Anichini is a lux linen and textile purveyor and I saw some colors of sheets and tapestry pillows that made my eyes pop and my mouth water. Anichini is a Vermont company, believe it or not.

Also mouth-watering was the delicious stuffed organic pepper we ate at Ponce Gourmet next door. The owners lovingly supervise every morsel. And the coffee is real free trade organic coffee where the buyers of the beans cultivate a beneficial relationship with the growers. My first sip of their iced coffee caused me to run inside and ask the owners all about the delicious robust blend.

The Manchester Designer Outlets was a fantastic wrap up to our weekend in Vermont.