Mountain Review: Smugglers’ Notch
MOUNTAIN SCORE
CATEGORY BREAKDOWN
See our criteriaGOOD TO KNOW
1-Day Ticket: $65-$125
Pass Affiliation: Indy Pass
On-site Lodging: Yes
Après-Ski: Limited
Nearest Cities: Montreal (2.5 hrs), Boston (4 hrs), New York (6.5 hrs)
Recommended Ability Level:
+ Pros
Remote, beautiful footprint
Local feel
Variety of distinctive terrain
Reasonably-priced lift tickets
– Cons
Archaic, low-capacity lifts
Lackluster snowmaking operations
Beginner zone poorly connected with other resort areas
Long drive from major Northeast cities
MOUNTAIN STATS
Skiable Footprint: 310 acres
Total Footprint: 1,100 acres
Lift-Serviced Terrain: 100%
Top Elevation: 3,640 ft
Vertical Drop: 2,610 ft
Lifts: 8
Trails: 78
Beginner: 19%
Intermediate: 50%
Advanced/Expert: 31%
VIDEO
Mountain Review
Located far up in northern Vermont, Smugglers’ Notch has been a ski resort staple for years. While it surely isn’t the most conveniently located, the mountain aims to attract guests with an old-school, local feel and family-friendly village resort. But the resort feels like it hasn’t changed at all in the past five decades, which is both a good and a bad thing.
Mountain Aesthetic
Smugglers’ Notch's biggest strength is perhaps its overall aesthetic. The resort feels quite charming and undeveloped, but Smuggs’ rugged, mountainous footprint gives it a true big-mountain feel that stands out among Eastern ski resorts. Rather than simply skiing or riding down one mountainside surrounded by lower peaks or valleys, guests will find themselves surrounded by overlapping ridges, with views across to trails winding down neighboring peaks and the utterly striking Mount Mansfield towering nearby. Trails themselves feel thoughtfully designed, with many offering the winding, narrow profiles Vermont trails are fabled for, rather than straight, cookie-cutter runs that some of its competitors have fallen victim to adopting.
The utterly striking Mount Mansfield, seen from across the notch.
Size and Terrain Layout
The Smugglers’ Notch terrain footprint consists of three distinct mountains: Morse, Madonna, and Sterling. Morse is the beginner-oriented of the three, while Madonna and Sterling cater to more experienced visitors. The resort is slightly smaller than some competitors, coming in at approximately 310 skiable acres, but the variety in topography and distinct-feeling trails make the resort ski larger than that stat might suggest. Across the footprint, the resort boasts a very solid variety of terrain as far as Northeast resorts go.
Smugglers’ Notch’s terrain consists of three distinct mountains: Morse, Madonna, and Sterling.
Beginner Terrain
One place where Smugglers’ Notch falls somewhat short is in its beginner experience. Morse Mountain is home to Smuggs’ only green-rated terrain; the resort’s larger mountains do not service any beginner runs. This zone has a small handful of blues and blacks but is clearly targeted towards beginners, and the isolation from more aggressive skier and rider traffic makes for a great learning environment.
However, the resort’s smallest mountain is not well integrated into the rest of the resort. The only trail route to Morse from the Madonna/Sterling area requires a long, flat catwalk that’s nearly impossible to keep speed on, and the trek back isn’t much better either. Snowboarders in particular will almost certainly find themselves unstrapping and walking. But either way, the journey is not enjoyable in the slightest for less-experienced guests, let alone those who’ve spent considerable time on the slopes.
The layout also makes heading to and from Morse and getting in quality runs surprisingly time-consuming. Arriving from Madonna and Sterling puts you at the bottom of Morse, so you first have to ride a lift to take a genuine run. And if you want to head back to the larger mountains, you have to ride up a Morse lift to reach that connection, which then puts you at the bottom of Madonna.
To give the resort some credit, a base-to-base shuttle provides an alternative to the on-snow connections, but it still means interrupting the ski day to travel between base areas. Beginners will fare best by completely ignoring the larger mountains and viewing Morse as its own sub-resort.
Intermediate Terrain
Smuggs is a much more competitive resort for intermediate, advanced, and expert terrain, with the Madonna and Sterling pods offering more than enough terrain to keep guests of these abilities satisfied. And unlike the trek to and from Morse, moving between these two larger mountains is pretty straightforward, with both of them sharing a base area and the lift loads reasonably close to most lower-mountain trails.
Visitors will find plenty of blue, groomed cruisers across both Madonna and Sterling, and the trails feel unique from one another, with some offering straighter, wider profiles, and others being more narrow and winding. Upper-mountain blues are home to some of the best views at the resort, with amazing views of the surrounding Green Mountain wilderness (and impressive variation in these views depending on which trail you’re on). The lower-mountain parts of Madonna and Sterling are home to a number of intermediate-rated glade runs, which offer a ton of character and are some of the best moderately-spaced tree runs one can find anywhere in Vermont. That said, some of these trails are on the harder side for Vermont blues and are best suited for advanced intermediates. Unlike many Vermont ski resorts, Smuggs also leaves some of its blue terrain ungroomed, so intermediates should be prepared for moguls on certain runs.
Advanced and Expert Terrain
Smugglers’ Notch’s best single-black terrain lives on Sterling Mountain. The area is chock full of advanced runs, with plenty of steep, narrow mogul lines across the footprint, as well as numerous glades. Most individual black runs aren’t too long on their own, but it is possible to hit two or three of them on the way down the mountain with a few intermediate sections spaced between.
Particularly proficient guests will want to hit Madonna Mountain—which hosts the longest vertical drop at the resort—for the resort’s only expert terrain. Smuggs’ double blacks aren’t the longest in the world, but they’re home to tantalizingly steep pitches with narrow fall lines that allow little room for error. Hidden obstacles such as rocks and cliffs are fair game throughout the core season.
The Madonna zone also hosts Black Hole, the only triple-black-diamond-rated run on the American East Coast. This run is very demanding, holding the same obstacles as Smuggs’ double blacks, but with tight glades that add additional complexity and block visibility. Depending on the line you find yourself on, expect some near-mandatory straightlining on Black Hole.
Smuggs also boasts plenty of exceptional unmarked tree terrain near the top of Madonna. Some of these areas lack clear routes down and can lead to unavoidable cliff drops depending on the line. One could argue that these trees are harder than any of the resort’s named runs.
Smuggs’ unmarked trees are arguably harder than any of the resort’s named runs.
Snow Quality and Resiliency
One Smuggs advantage is its natural snow. Thanks to its northern Vermont location, the resort sees higher snowfall totals and less variable weather conditions than a typical East Coast mountain throughout a normal winter. The unique local microclimate brings more natural snowfall than nearly every other ski region in New England, with snow totals beating resorts even at similar latitudes in New Hampshire, Maine, and New York.
However, Smugglers’ Notch is still a Northeast mountain, and the resort still typically sees at least a handful of freeze-thaw cycles throughout the season. Smuggs does have a decent snowmaking footprint, and much of its infrastructure has been overhauled in recent years. But this infrastructure still lags behind most major competitors in terms of overall coverage, which makes the resort slower to recover after less-than-ideal weather patterns. Many advanced and expert terrain areas do not have any snowmaking coverage, making them most adversely affected when conditions are bad.
Smuggs sees more natural snowfall than nearly every other ski region in New England.
Lifts
But Smuggs’ biggest downside is its lift system. Every chair at the resort is an antiquated fixed-grip double. And with a continuous vertical drop of over 2,000 feet in the tallest areas, some of these lifts are quite long, making for lift rides that take over 15 minutes—among the longest anywhere in New England. Smuggs can get really cold during the winter, which makes these rides miserable. If you end up at Morse Mountain, avoid the blue Mogul Mouse’s Magic Lift at all costs—this lift looks exactly the same as the neighboring Village lift, but it runs about 30% slower, making for what might be the most lethargic lift ride we’ve experienced anywhere. Both Morse Mountain lifts and the Madonna I chair have mid-station unloading, so guests can get off early if the ride is too taxing. However, if you want to get back to the bigger mountains from Morse, you have to ride all the way up to the top station on those lifts.
The Madonna I chair has mid-station unloading, so guests can get off early if the ride is too taxing.
Crowd Flow and Facilities
You might think that Smuggs’ slow lifts and remote location would keep down crowds. And while you’d be right, the resort’s low capacity still results in considerable backups on busy weekends and holidays. On the worst days, it’s not uncommon to see 20-minute lines at each of Madonna and Sterling. The Madonna II lift provides some backup on that part of the mountain, but it only extends part of the way up and covers close to zero advanced and expert terrain. These lift lines are nowhere near as bad as much more commercialized mountains—including nearby Stowe—but those expecting ski-on lifts might be disappointed.
On the plus side, that limited uphill capacity keeps the slopes themselves much less crowded than the lift lines might suggest. It also helps fresh accumulation stay untracked for longer, with Smuggs benefitting from some of the best snow retention in the region after storms roll through.
And at least after a long, cold ride up, every mountain peak has a warming hut where guests can take a break before starting their runs. For food and longer breaks, the resort has a no-frills base lodge at the bottom of Madonna and Sterling, as well as a series of restaurants in its village next to the base of Morse. That said, there are no mid-mountain cafeterias, so guests will need to go down to one of the bases to buy food and drinks.
Every mountain peak at Smuggs has a warming hut where guests can take a break before starting their runs.
Pass Partnerships
One of the biggest changes to Smugglers’ Notch in quite some time is its addition to the Indy Pass suite. Pass holders now get two days at Smuggs on both the Indy Base and Indy Plus Passes, and unlike many other popular mountains on the pass, there are no holiday blackouts on either tier of Indy. However, advance reservations are required as part of the resort’s effort to keep capacity at palatable levels, so you can’t just show up on a random day and expect to ski or ride using that pass.
Getting There
Smugglers’ Notch is one of the most difficult Vermont mountains to reach from major U.S. metropolitan areas. The resort is already quite far north, but the most direct access route, Vermont Route 108, is closed during the winter months, requiring a lengthy deviation for those coming from the south. As a result, the drive takes over four hours from Boston, and over six-and-a-half hours from New York. Smuggs is also about two-and-a-half hours from Montreal, but at least coming from there doesn’t involve any deviation from the summer route.
Lodging
Smugglers’ Notch is arguably just as known for the four-season resort of the same name at the bottom of Morse Mountain as it is for skiing, and all of the mountain’s on-site lodging is in this area. These accommodations are reasonably priced but more bargain-basement than one might expect. There’s no lodging at the Madonna and Sterling base, meaning that guests staying on site will have to endure the lengthy traverses—or hop on a shuttle—to get to and from these mountain zones. Lodging options for Smuggs diminish if you’re not staying on site; nearby vacation home rentals are very limited, and the nearest other practical lodging options are about 45 minutes away in the city of Burlington. Nearby Stowe may seem like an appealing place for lodging, but while Stowe and Smugglers’ Notch are technically only a few miles apart from one another, it takes hours to get between the two during the ski season because the road is closed. That is, unless you know about the backcountry route between Stowe and Smugglers’ Notch… but that’s best left to those who know the area.
Après-Ski
It may have a village, but Smugglers’ Notch is much more of a family resort than a rowdy mountain town. The village hosts a variety of restaurants and pubs, but they’re on the quieter side and rarely get lively. The nearby town of Jeffersonville also has some dining options, but they’re on the casual side as well.
All of the resort’s on-site lodging is in the village at the bottom of Morse Mountain.
Verdict
So Smugglers’ Notch is probably as close as you can get to an old-school Vermont experience, and the resort’s northern Green Mountain location furnishes it with strong snowfall totals and striking natural views. But the resort certainly won’t be for everyone due to the ancient, low-capacity lift system, as well as a beginner zone that’s too removed from the rest of the mountain.
For those who don’t have a major multi-resort pass product, a major Smuggs strength is arguably the value. With ticket prices topping out around $125 and going for significantly less than $100 on off-peak weekdays if bought in advance, the resort significantly undercuts most competitors. And if you happen to have an Indy Pass and plan on spending some time road tripping the area, Smuggs is now a solid mountain to pair with other Indy partners like Jay Peak, Bolton Valley, and Burke. But resorts further south offer much more well-rounded experiences, and it can be hard to justify the extra few hours of driving to save a couple bucks on tickets.
