Nestled in a Hotbed of Ski Areas in Vermont, Bromley Is as Pure as It Gets

I was driving on Route 11 and having one of the Vermontiest experiences of my life. The roads were winding. The sun was setting. Noah Kahan was blasting over the speakers of my Subaru. I was just a pint of Ben and Jerry’s in the cupholder and a tie-dyed Phish t-shirt away from Verbingo. This, this was the draw of southern Vermont.

The number of times I have driven south in my life to go snowboarding, however, is so infrequent that I can probably count them on my two hands. I grew up in southern Massachusetts, on the way to Cape Cod. I went to college in New Hampshire. I lived in Texas. That means that for most of my life, the good stuff was north.

Not this time, though. I left Woodstock, New Hampshire, after an absolutely perfect day at Loon Mountain, my hands-down favorite hill on the East Coast. The folks over at Bromley Resort invited me to check out the newly renovated Sun Lodge. I was headed there immediately after a holiday weekend. If I’m being honest, I had no idea what to expect.

Then I turned a corner and saw the Bromley sign right in front of me. The Sun Lodge sat immediately adjacent to the hill, and even though I had known I was staying pretty close to the mountain, I had no idea that I’d be able to reach the chairlift with a snowball from my hotel room if I wanted to.

I had a room on the corner of the third floor, one that provided a perfect view of sunrise and sunset, yes, but also the snowcats at night and the ski patrollers starting work every morning. How can you not be excited to ride as you look out over empty chairlifts spinning before the resort operations begin?

Bromley sits in a pocket of stellar ski areas. If you’ve never heard of it and are wondering why, it’s probably because it shares the neighborhood with powerhouses like Mount Snow—just 25 miles to the south—and Stratton—just 18 miles to the south. As for fellow family-first ski areas, Saskadena Six is located 52 miles to the north, and Magic Mountain Ski Area is just 10 miles east.

So yeah, this might be one of the most impressive stretches of skiing and snowboarding in the entire northeast, and Bromley is at the heart of it.

Bromley has the highest base elevation in Vermont, at 1,950 feet. Its summit sits at 3,284, and its longest run—Runaround—is 2.5 miles long. There is a 1,334-foot vertical drop. There are nine lifts, and snowmaking covers 86% of the terrain. There are two terrain parks: a progression park named Bonanza and a main park dubbed The Garden.

I do realize that I was there immediately following a three-day weekend, and that Monday and Tuesday are not the busiest days on any mountain. I also acknowledge that it was cold when I was there, like 10 degrees at 7 a.m. cold. However, I did not wait in a single line during the entirety of my trip. After the crowds that flood ski areas during long weekends, what more could you ask for?

The riding itself was pristine. From the jump, we took the Sun Mountain Express up to the summit, which doubles as a trailhead for the Appalachian Trail. Upper and Lower Twister were groomed with corduroy and provided wide open, mellow turns for photographer Cooper Hett and me as we started to warm up our bodies after the single-digit temperatures that swept in after the cold front.

The runs were wide open, giving us the terrain we needed to open it up and go fast but allowing for some mellow carves on the way down. We followed those up with trips down Sunder and Corkscrew, which provided some sturdier, steeper terrain to charge down.

As fun as these runs were, our days truly didn’t start until we ducked into the trees.

If you take nothing away from this story aside from one thing, make sure it’s this: Bromley’s glades are where you’re going to want to spend most of your time.

If you don’t trust me, then trust the dozens of teenagers that were ducking in and out of The Everglade, Avalanche Glade, and The Plunge all around us. Some of the glades were closed after a busy weekend, undoubtedly pushing snow around and exposing some tree roots and rocks. Most of them were open, though, and featured fresh snow and surfy ways in and out.

The mark of any good ski area is the number of side hits it allows young skiers and riders to build and let stand. Bromley had dozens, and many of them were right at the end of the exit path out of the trees and back onto the main trail.

As for the Sun Lodge, it’d be nearly impossible to find a better place to stay while riding at Bromley. The hotel has just been renovated and leans into that casual lodge style that comes with booking a cabin or an Airbnb. The main lobby has couches, chairs, and a massive TV, not to mention a fireplace that employees were consistently feeding wood to while I was there.

The rooms were cozy but not too small. The staff insisted that there wasn’t a bad view in the entire building, regardless of whether you look out over Bromley and the Appalachian mountains it sits upon, or out across the road in the direction of Stratton, or toward the New York border.

My favorite part of the Sun Lodge, though, was actually out of sight. At the basement level, The Trailhead Restaurant and Bar provides direct access to the slopes, giving guests that ski-in, ski-out experience that is usually only possible with the rental of a cabin, chalet, or a big mountain. The restaurant and bar were closed while I was there, but that actually turned out to be a positive thing.

I stashed my work bag in the nearby gear room (which let’s be honest, is a huge positive for those of us that don’t want the ice and snow from our gear to track all throughout the hotel room). I kept taking runs back to the Trailhead to warm up, drink some coffee, and check on some work stuff. As I did, I watched the high schoolers finish their end-of-day runs they got to squeeze in before the chairlifts stopped spinning for the day.

This, this is what riding in Vermont should be all about.

I live in a city. One of my favorite things about snowboarding is that it gives me opportunities to escape the craziness of the city, but many resorts and ski areas are unable to actually make you feel like you’re in the mountains.

Whether that's because there’s an Alo Yoga at the base lodge or because your paper-thin hotel walls allow you to hear two parents screaming at their children at 8 a.m., pure escape is hard to come by. I found an escape at Bromley and the Sun Lodge, though.

In a world where tourism has become synonymous with snowsports, sometimes you just want to go riding.

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