Ski Bus Trip March 21st, 2025

By Phil Caracci
Spring Fling Trip

I write about our ski weekends often. They follow a well-defined pattern: fun bus ride to VT; amazing breakfast; ski Sugarbush; aprés ski party; world-class dinner; nighttime dance party; another killer breakfast; ski Killington; loud bus ride home with many smiling faces.

As the writer, it’s incumbent upon me to find other aspects of the trip to highlight in order to avoid repetition. I was among the group of 35 skiers and snowboarders that signed up for the Spring Fling Trip.

Let’s talk about Saturday at Sugarbush. It was the first weekend of Spring and this day lived up to expectations. Glorious sunshine from beginning to end. The bluest sky you can imagine!

My typical routine is to ski the mountain from left to right. Start off on Snowball, then Spring Fling, then take the Super Bravo, Downspout Trail to the Heaven’s Gate Chair. We rode up the newest lift spying the conditions on Ripcord (which was great!) and then back up for my favorite summit run – Jester.

What made this special for me was that I was skiing with my friend Chris. He normally skies with other friends that ski more challenging terrain but this day it was just he and I sticking mainly to Blue trails.

Our desire to do some runs off of the North Lynx Chair was thwarted by a temporary mechanical issue so after bombing down the Waterfall Trail, we jumped on the shuttle to Mt Ellen (aka, Sugarbush North), 2 miles away.

This turned out to be winning move as we heard others say the lift lines were getting long back at Lincoln Peak but we had none at all AND the snow was probably better here. It was fantastic in every aspect!

We made a stop for a later lunch hoping there would now be room for us in the tiny Walt’s Cabin (Glen House) midway up the mountain. Indeed there was. We grabbed 2 seats looking out the window and walked over to order lunch from the bartender. I left my reading glasses in my jacket so Chris, reading the menu, told me they had several burgers with a variety of cheese toppings and we both ordered The Goat which featured Vermont Goat Cheese, which I absolutely love. In a few minutes, the server delivered our food to the counter where we were sitting. Chris gently lifted one slice of bread and said alarmingly “they forgot the burger!”. This was met by laughter on both sides of us as we were informed that they only have grilled cheese and soup here! No burgers…. Too funny!

The free shuttle delivered us back to Lincoln Peak where a dance party was well underway in the plaza. Sugarbush declared this Pride Day and you know the outfits and the energy were something to behold. I felt fortunate to locate an empty seat at a prime table near the DJ with folks I didn’t know. They soon left and I claimed the table for our group (via our WhatsApp chat) resulting in a dozen others who came by to enjoy dancing and drinking beers in the warm afternoon sun. This was a classic spring skiing experience. An awesome day.

Sunday was different. I woke up to see the Real Feel temp was 1° (air temp was 14°). A warm sunny afternoon followed by an overnight deep freeze could only mean one thing…. Ice Ice Baby!

Thus skiing was a bit of a challenge on Sunday and if you didn’t have sharp edges the challenge was even greater. However it was again a day featuring brilliant sunshine which did help soften things up later on.

I told one of our guests that after a few runs on the fast & firm slopes of Killington, that I went in for some Clam Chowder. This inspired him to write the following:

◦ No fresh snow today, just ice on the hills,
◦ So Phil took one run and was done with the chills.
◦ “I can’t ski on this, I need some damn powder—
◦ I guess I’ll stay here with this bowl of clam chowder.”

Thanks Johannes!! LOL

Some more tidbits from the trip:

There was a guest who came with her 14 year old son. He was way better than his mom and was quickly adopted by other expert skiers/riders while mom found others at her level to ski with.This is an additional bonus to skiing with a club. If the person you came with is at a very different level you can each find your tribe.

Aamir, my best friend in the club, wasn’t on the trip but lives about an hour away from Killington. He met up with Chris and I on Sunday. After so many years together on and off the slopes, I regard them as brothers. Skiing with Miramar brings people together.

Near the end of the day I told Aamir & Chris that I as done and heading to the base. An older gentlemen overheard the discussion re the best way to get there and offered helpful advice. By coincidence this man, Jerry, had been a Miramar member back in the 70’s! This club goes way back to 1949 and our members are everywhere!