Smugglers’ Notch, Vermont

Smugglers’ Notch is in northern Vermont very close to Stowe, but you can’t easily drive between the 2 resorts in the winter.  Smuggs is on the west side of the pass and is accessed directly from Burlington instead of through Stowe.  Like Mad River Glen, it’s an old-school ski experience that has been preserved for many decades.  It feels like going back in time to the 70’s.

Stats

Real Vertical ?	2,525′, Rank: 44
Size	1,000 Acres, Rank: 77
Annual Snowfall ?	280″ claimed / 322″ actual, Rank: 37
Ski Pods ?	5, Rank: 59
Distinct Trails ?	71, Rank: 59
Review Date	March 2023
Number of visits	1
Our Rating	★★★
Resort website	https://www.smuggs.com

Smuggler’s Notch Review

Our 4th stop on the 2023 Big Trip was Smugglers’ Notch.  I don’t remember ever skiing there before as a kid in the 70’s even though we were only a few miles away at Stowe more than once.  With a reputation for steep narrow trails we had to ski it.

On paper and in person it is very much like Mad River Glen with a similar vertical drop, old lifts and lodges, and narrow rocky trails.  However, Smuggs is slightly larger with more runs, and has considerably more snowfall and snowmaking coverage which makes it a better bet for a visit planned well in advance.

Morse Mountain

We parked at the village and took our first run on Morse Mountain.  3″ of light snowfall the night before made for some ideal conditions, but it was COLD.  We ended up getting some hand warmers to survive the day, and we took frequent breaks to warm up.

Morse Mountain is for beginners and families.  There is a lift parallel to the Village lift called Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift that runs slower and unloads below the last steep pitch to serve families.  Although the top is steeper, it’s a long runout back to the bottom on the beginner slope.  The main Village chair gains just over 1,000 ft in almost a mile which makes for a long chair ride and a long straight run back down.  This wasn’t that interesting so we took the long road over to the Madonna Mountain zone to ski the good stuff.

Madonna Mountain

The Madonna chair is older than we are.  It’s a super long double with 2,150′ of vertical. You can get some great long runs, but the chair is notoriously cold due to the winds at the top and the almost 13-minute ride time.  This is how skiing used to be before high-speed lifts became common in the 90’s.  The chair runs fast for a fixed-grip so it’s really not a good choice for low intermediates that might wish to unload at the midway station.

There is a lot of ski off this lift.  We spent most of the day exploring the numerous narrow and winding runs.  The upper half of the mountain is very steep so the runs are often cut across the slope and are so narrow that sometimes it feels like you are skiing into a glade entrance.  The double (and one triple!) black runs were un-skiable for us due to rocks and solid ice, but runs like F.I.S. and Drifter were a blast.  However, even the intermediate Drifter had some pretty scary large solid ice patches to navigate.  This place is not easy!

The Madonna II lift unloads almost 1,000 feet lower and avoids the steep upper mountain but it was closed the day we were there.  There were very few people there when we visited so it makes sense to only run that lift on weekends and holidays since you can ski everything from the Madonna I lift.

Sterling

The Sterling lift has a decent 1,500′ vertical drop and is yet another ancient double.  This zone has so many crossing and splitting trails it was really hard to locate all the trails we identified on the trail map when actually skiing the terrain.  It’s interesting and unusual, but to us it felt like there was very little planning when these trails were cut decades ago.

All doubles

Perhaps the most unusual feature of this resort is that all the chairs are 25 to 60 year old doubles.  The idea of upgrading these has undoubtedly been discussed many times, but we suspect the reason nothing has happened is the very narrow trails that simply can’t support a lot of skier traffic.  The way the wind blows on the top 1/3rd of the mountain makes for some really icy spots that simply can’t hold snow.  Because of that widening the trails is out of the question.  The doubles are likely here to stay.  We heard rumors of long lines on busy weekends, but that’s hard to imagine since the place was empty when we were there during the best conditions of the year after a dry start to the season.

Lodges and Food

The base lodge at Madonna is very basic and old and the cafeteria food was average at best.  There look to be a lot better options in the village, but making your way over there for lunch and back would take a long time.  The separation of the Madonna/Sterling side from the Village is a problem that would be hard to solve. A base lodge upgrade is much needed on that side of the mountain.

The good

• Above average snowfall for the Northeast
• Decent vertical drop off the 2 upper mountain chairs
• Interesting terrain featuring classic narrow trails
• Lots of challenge
• Relatively cheap lift ticket

The bad

• Slow double chairs
• Has a reputation for being windy and cold
• 2 base areas are hard to navigate between, with long flat trails requiring a lot of walking and polling
• Madonna/Sterling base lodge needs an upgrade
• Confusing crossing trails everywhere makes for a lack of consistency skiing top to bottom

The bottom line

Smugglers’ Notch was a fun and challenging day of skiing for us.  We enjoy this area of Vermont which has a very rural feel. There are small charming towns like Jeffersonville and Cambridge nearby.  We recommend combining it with Jay or Stowe for variety.  There is talk of an interconnect between Stowe and Smuggs which would make that super easy.  If that happens it will be a game-changer for both resorts and would likely mean upgrades on the Smuggs side.