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Waitsfield and
Warren Even more than most Vermont areas best known for skiing, the Mad River Valley is a year-round paradise for sports enthusiasts. The focus, of course, is on skiing – at the venerable and spartan Mad River Glen, a challenging area for hardy, serious skiers, and at Sugarbush, the tony resort spawned by and for jet-setters. Both are very much "in" with skiers, for vastly differing reasons. In the off-season, which extends from May into November, there are the conventional athletic pursuits associated with other destination ski resorts, such as golf and tennis. There also are the more unusual: mountaineering, polo, rugby, cricket, Icelandic horse trekking and soaring. Off-mountain, activity centers along Route 100, which links the villages of Waitsfield and Warren. Ironically, Waitsfield (the home of Mad River Glen) is busier and more hip in the Sugarbush style. Warren (the address for Sugarbush) is in the Mad River Glen tradition, remote and seemingly bypassed by the times. The skiing spirit extends to the entrepreneurial. An uncommon number of crafts ventures thrive here, as do unusual businesses. Two unassuming enterprises that ship fresh or frozen pizzas to connoisseurs around the East have suddenly turned Waitsfield into the pizza capital of northern New England. The spirit of the valley – considered unique by its adherents – emerges from its rugged terrain as well as from the contrasting mix attracted by its two skiing faces. Unlike other ski resorts where one big mountain crowns a plateau, here mountains crowd the valley on all sides, forging several narrow valleys that leave some visitors feeling hemmed in. To understand, you have only to stay in summer in a remote chalet at Mad River Glen, the mountains rising in silence all around, or descend the back road from Roxbury Gap, one of Vermont's more heart-stopping drives, which rewards the persevering with awesome close-ups of some of the state's highest peaks. The chic of Sugarbush joins with the rusticity of Mad River to present choices from racquetball to backpacking, from boutiques to country stores, from nightclubbing to roadhouses. For fine dining, the valley is in the vanguard among Eastern ski resorts. Although the valley is at its best and busiest in the winter, its spirit spans all seasons. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in New England, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2004. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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