A Vermont mountain with a compact European style village at its base and a reputation for exceptionally good grooming. It is where snowboarding was invented as a commercial sport, since Jake Burton Carpenter worked out much of the early equipment on this hill, and the terrain parks have been taken seriously ever since.

The summit is the highest in southern Vermont and the runs down from it are long by eastern standards. A gondola runs from the village to the top, which shelters you on the cold mornings that define a New England winter.

It sits around four hours from New York and two and a half from Boston, so weekends are busy and midweek is calm. March skiing here is often better than January, because the base built through winter finally softens.