James W.
Yelp
when you think of skiing in vermont, you probably think of places like killington and okemo. they're big. no doubt. they're also crowded. no doubt.
the perfect description of pico (pronounced pie-ko, not pee-ko) wrote itself when i was going up the summit lift, looking at the slopes of killington a few miles down the road on a drizzly, misty day:
other guy: weird weather today.
me: yup. but at least it kept the crowds away.
o.g.: what?
me: well, it's just so empty here.
o.g.: ::chuckles:: no. it's *always* like this.
you can't make this stuff up. it's even better when you get a couple of buywithme coupons and go to this empty place for half price.
with a summit elevation of nearly 4,000', pico is every bit as tall as, if not taller than, its big-name neighbors despite being smaller in terms of trails, lifts and ammenities. by virtue of its more famous neighbors, you'll get to ski or board down trails with no one else in sight and, like me, may find yourself pulling in for the day at 10:30 a.m., parking in row "c" of the lot, and finding no line for lift tickets.
even if pico were more crowded, it would still be a fun mountain, but maybe not great. the trails are wide and well-maintained. there are only 4 lifts from the base. all of them take you about half-way up the mountain and all have blues and greens to get down. more daring folks will want to start from the golden express quad lift. from the top of that lift, you can go to your right to pick up the summit express quad or to your left to grab the outpost double, both of which will lead you to the blacks.
the woods are open off the summit so, have fun with that sonny bono.
the knomes knoll triple will take you up to pico's terrain park, packed with well marked jumps of various sizes, loads of rails, and boxes. no halfpipe but, let's face it, i'm not shaun white and you probably aren't either.
where pico could use some improvement is in the apres-ski department. i expect mountain restaurants to be lousy with people and pico's last run lounge was no different. i was, however, flabbergasted that there were no burgers on the menu and that nothing came with fries. you can get high-school-cafeteria-quality burgers and fries downstairs and bring them up, but, well .... i went with the very uncreative pepperoni pizza which was meh at best. despite the crowd, however, service was good and there was a live band which was nice. they do, however, have a waffle haus.
tl;dr - i like pico. great trails, fun terrain park, and a waffle haus. i'll definitely go back.
