Stratton doesn’t get a lot of mention on this site. Some call it “Flatton”, but Stratton has produced its share of Olympic athletes... Lindsey Jacobellis, for example.
I’ve skied both Bretton Woods and Stratton as a beginner, and find the terrain to be roughly equivalent. Bretton Woods is a 6-7 hour drive for us, while Stratton is only 3, so we have spent much more time at Stratton in the past decade.
When I was learning, I loved Stratton’s Tamarack area... all greens from several lifts, with a few blue variants. Once I got more advanced, it was an easy transition to Stratton’s blues, either from the Ursa lift, or from the Gondola. When traffic gets too busy on the main face, or when the wind is too cold, the Sun Bowl side has some really fun green and blue terrain that is sometimes very empty.
When my godchildren are still young and skied with us, they quickly learned to navigate the Tamarack area and were very happy to greens independently, while we branched off to the upper mountain. We’d meet back up at the mid-mountain lodge and it worked out well.
We’ve spent the last 8 Christmas breaks at Stratton. Typically, the snowmaking coverage is very good, as is the grooming. And when we need a break from the mountain, the mother of all independent bookstores, Northshire Books in Manchester, is a great place to spend an afternoon.
