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Smuggler's Notch leads list of family ski resorts

BY MARSHALL S. BERDAN | Special to Newsday

Smuggler's Notch ski resort in Vermont.

As arguably the ultimate real estate, ski resorts are supremely susceptible to the rewards and liabilities of location, location location. Smugglers' Notch in northern Vermont certainly profits from its location more than it loses.

Smuggs, as it is commonly known, is situated among the central peaks of the Green Mountains, giving it a vertical drop of 2,610 feet, third- highest in the eastern United States, behind only Whiteface in New York and Sugarloaf in Maine. And because it's located on the northern side of those mountains, it receives a hefty annual snowfall - 282 inches on average - second only in the Northeast to Jay Peak, also in Vermont.

It's that third location, however, that has made Smugglers' Notch what it is today: the No. 1-ranked family resort in the East for eight years running, according to the readers of Ski magazine. Located only 8 miles from Stowe, the self-proclaimed, but still undisputed "Ski capital of the East," Smugglers' - which turns 50 this year - had to grow up in the long shadow of its older and more glamorous neighbor. And that has made all the difference in the skiing world.

From humble beginnings

At first, it was a struggle just to survive. Smugglers' Notch Ski Ways debuted in 1956 as a community-run, low-cost alternative for local skiers, with just two lifts on middling Mount Sterling. Eight years later, it still had not turned a profit. But it had caught the eye of a man with big ideas and deep pockets. Tom Watson Jr., chief executive of IBM, acquired Smugglers' in 1966 with the objective of converting it into a European-style resort that could compete with Stowe, whose weakness was its dearth of slope-side lodging. Watson hired veteran New England resort developer Stanley Snider to design and build the first condos. Watson also spearheaded the development of adjacent Morse and Madonna mountains, the former almost exclusively for beginners, and the latter - at 3,640 feet - capable of challenging veterans. Promoted as the "backside of Stowe," the much-improved Smugglers' soon became the resort of first choice for cost-conscious, crowd-eschewing skiers from Burlington, who could approach it from the north, as the road from Stowe through the notch itself (State Route 108) is closed throughout the ski season.

But 20 years later, a new managing director, former AT&T executive and Queens native Bill Stritzler, aspired to even greater heights for Smugglers'. What the resort needed was a niche in which it could not just compete, but win. Stowe's lingering popularity with the upper-mountain and upper-income crowds provided Stritzler with the marketing opportunity he sought. So he set Smuggs' sights on the booming family market, initiating a new round of condominium construction around an ever-expanding base village.

Best family programs

Stritzler, who bought the resort in 1997, saw his vision become a reality in 1998, when Smugglers' was first deemed to have the best "family programs" in the East by the readers of Ski magazine. This year it also ranked second behind Quebec's Mont Tremblant as the East's best resort overall, a composite credential achieved by placing second in both lodging and service, third in off-hill activities and fourth in terrain parks. Just as revealing, perhaps, is where Smugglers' doesn't rank: in dining and in après-ski. After all, time spent fixing your dinner and serving you drinks is time not spent instructing and entertaining your children.

So what's the key to Smugglers' success? Well, don't bother asking the resort's representatives. Rather than reduce their appeal to a vague, grandiose formula, its publicity department prefers to let admirers speak for them.

From my experience and those of others - including the readers of Ski magazine - success in the family resort arena can be reduced to four fundamental factors. Not surprisingly, Smugglers' excels in all of them:

Spacious and family-friendly lodging in a centralized base village

Accommodations at Smugglers' come in the form of more than 500 one- to five-bedroom condos, all with fully equipped kitchens and washers and dryers and located in one of five "communities" radiating out from the village center. In addition, 90 percent of them are within 300 yards of a lift, with regular shuttle service making good the difference.

Activities off the slopes

To keep your kids occupied after the lifts close - or even while they're open if they choose to sit out a day - Smugglers' offers a wide range of other outdoor options, including snowmobiling, snowshoeing, tubing, ice skating, cross-country skiing, dog-sledding and, the newest craze, airboarding. Indoor options include a pool and hot tubs, an indoor playground, two supervised teen centers (one for ages 13 to 15, the other for 16- to 18-year-olds) and even a study hall. Popular family entertainment, such as nightly shows and bonfires and a weekly torchlight parade with fireworks, will be supplemented this year with special 50th anniversary celebrations.

Quality ski school and day care

Smugglers' Snow Sport University (ski and snowboarding school) is divided into four age groups - 3 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 to 15, and 16 to 17 - and offers both full-day and 90-minute programs. For babies and toddlers 6 weeks to 3 years old, there is a $1 million, 5,400-square-foot slope-side child-care center (so apprehensive parents can ski in and check up). A new program started last year, Little Rascals on Snow, gives youngsters ages 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 their first alpine exposure.

Comprehensive range of slopes and terrain

Like all true family resorts, Smugglers' offers something for everybody on its 300-plus skiable acres: a separate learn-to-ski area and a beginners'-only "mountain"; terrain parks and a superpipe for boarders; cruisers and glades for intermediates; and an assortment of challenges for accredited or aspiring experts (including the East's only triple diamond), which (except for the bunny slopes, of course) are all accessible from the same lifts so that family members can meet up again and again at the bottom.

Obviously, much depends on the ages of your children and the skiing/'boarding preferences and abilities of the different members of your family. For example, with two children younger than 10, daylong learn-to-ski programs are much more important to my wife and me than evening teen centers. Other determining factors include when you plan to go (midweek, weekends or holidays), how far you are willing to travel and how much you are willing to spend.

Through planning, investment and the natural advantages of its location, Smugglers' Notch has risen to the top of the family resort mountain.

But the trail it has blazed is hardly unique - or even necessarily the best for your own family. (If high-speed lifts are a must, you'll have to go elsewhere.)

Originally published by Newsday on November 5, 2006