HELLO
OLD MAN WINTER
Home to the first rope tow, the first snowboard, and more ski and ride Olympians per capita than any other state, the history of American mountain culture runs deep in Vermont. Whether you ride or ski, the terrain of the Green Mountains is legendary and Burlington offers easy access to several of the region’s best resorts. No need to choose one when you can have them all.
Earn your turns and enjoy the solitude of nature when you skin or snowshoe into Vermont’s forests and mountains to schuss and carve through the snowy glades. Prepare for face shots in well-spaced glades and thrilling chutes, sugary carving through powder stashes, and finding potential lines where ever you look.
From classic to skate to rugged touring, Vermont’s Nordic skiing is exceptional, whether you’re seeking world-class grooming, woods, and fields where you can find your own adventure, or something in between. Vermont’s Nordic ski centers offer skiing all day and lighted skiing at night, with cutting edge rental gear, comfortable warming lodges, and clearly marked trails.
Vermont has an extensive multi-use trail network, and most of it is open to fat bikes in winter when the ground is frozen, whether or not there is snow. When the snow is deep, many local trails organizations groom their trail networks for fat biking. And when it’s not, frozen trails make great riding, as do solid lakes and ponds.
Kicking bladed crampons and swinging sharpened axes into a towering wall of steep and featured ice as you step up a vertical cliff will make you feel like a gravity-defying superhero. Vermont has some of the best ice climbing routes in the U.S., and many are easily accessible from the Queen City.
Vermont has unlimited opportunities for snowshoers, whether you want to tag a summit, range along a burbling creek, or cruise one of the region’s exceptional rec paths. One of the least gear-intensive ways to get into nature, snowshoes provide both grip and float in winter conditions, opening up a world of possibilities for winter exploration.
Pond hockey, Nordic skating, and every other kind of ice skating are favorite Vermont winter past times. And, with more than 800 lakes and ponds in Vermont, ice skaters will find plenty of wild places to play. In winter, when the ice is frozen locals break out shovels and clear the ice for skating, local leagues, and more.
Snowmobiling, or “sledding” as it’s often called in Vermont, has been a favorite winter pastime for over 40 years. Vermont has more than 5,000 miles of well-marked and beautifully maintained trails on both public and private land throughout the state. Trails skirt up the flanks of the rugged green mountains. They whoosh through agricultural land buried deep under winter snow. And they wind through pristine forest creeping over mountain passes and connecting communities.