We've started making official plans for our late January Vermont trip, and I'm hoping for some guidance around the best shops to rent demo skis. We'll probably ski at least 2 days, maybe 3, and will start at Sugarbush and then Stowe, Stratton, or Killington. We've got the Ikon Pass, so Stratton and Killington are a nose ahead, or we may just spend all our time at Sugarbush. Anyway, I've heard good things about Pinnacle at Stowe, but was thinking it might make more sense to rent in Burlington to make return easy no matter our resort choice.
We're targeting the following skis:
and, a bit more off the radar...
Any thoughts Vermont Divas? Also, open to any and all forms of Vermont wisdom you could drop on us to make our trip hella sweet. Cheers!
And, as far as you proposed demos are concerned, I wouldn't recommend
any of those unless it snows like crazy before you get here. Those 90+ waists are what we use for powder skis around here. Not really what you're going to want for the hardpack and ice that you're almost certainly going to encounter, even if it has snowed recently (and we haven't had much snow since Thanksgiving - we have, however, had several absurdly warm days with pouring rain followed by plunging temperatures, and it doesn't take an Einstein to see what that's going to mean for the surface of the runs.
If you want to give any of those skis a serious airing, I'd suggest making a trip up to the PNW and trying them out on some Cascade Concrete, or Sierra Cement.
If you're set on skiing some kind of mid-fat freeride ski, and you want a women's ski, the Volkl you're probably looking for is the Kenja. That's a classic for New England women. The Secret, I think is the women's version of the Mantra, and while you do see guys out on the hill on Mantras, you don't see many of them (not unless it's a powder day, or the day after a powder day). You just don't need that kind of float under ordinary conditions, and the float comes at the expense of hard-snow grip, which you
do need under ordinary conditions.
I see a lot more Nordica Astrals here than I do Santa Anas.
I don't see a lot of Elan skis at all, of any stripe. But if you want to try the Ripstick, I'd say to go with the 80-whatever waist, not the 90-something ones.
In fact, the worst aspect is that it will be ice pellets here in the a.m. before it turns into actual, heavy rain around noon. That alone would discourage me from traveling in this region.
Any sour beers we should pay particular attention to?
