Smugglers’ Notch beckons skiers to spend time in its Hallmark Channel-worthy bubble

A bluebird day at Smugglers’ Notch Resort. (Smugglers' Notch Resort)

Stephanie Gorin always wanted to be part of a “bubble.” It was the pandemic that gave her the push she needed to join one. 

In 2020, after 30 years as a broadcast journalist, including 25 of them as an anchor and reporter at WPTZ, an NBC affiliate in northern New York that also serves all of Vermont and parts of New Hampshire, Gorin, a Boston native, decided it was time for a change.

“It was my dream and I loved it and I lived it,” she said about her life as a TV reporter. But the start of the pandemic came with some hurdles that were draining. She found that she was seeing less of her family, and she had relatives in the Boston area who she needed to take care of. Besides, 30 years in the TV business was a nice, round number. Time to make a change. 

After calling it quits in Plattsburgh, Gorin worked toward a degree in digital marketing from eCornell, the executive education unit at Cornell University, and set out to find a career that could utilize her storytelling skills in a marketing realm. Vermont’s Smugglers’ Notch, a resort that successfully has promoted itself as one of the most family-friendly resorts in New England for decades, turned out to be the perfect fit. 

“I just love that Smuggs is all about family,” said Gorin, the resort’s communications director. “I love the fact that people come here and they continue to come here year after year and they have memories that go back 30 years. I have talked to so many people in just the few months that I’ve been here that say, ‘This is a family tradition. We started with four people and now there are 18 of us that come once a year for a week.’ That’s amazing. That becomes part of their life, and Smuggs becomes part of their life. I wanted to be part of that.”

It’s that kind of faithful community that has defined Smugglers’ Notch over the years and continues to create a special vibe in northern Vermont that celebrates its independence. Since purchasing the resort in 1996, owner William Stritzler has been instrumental in maintaining Smugglers’ Notch’s reputation as a family resort, a place where visitors can discover some long-lost aspects of skiing harmony that they might not find anywhere else in Vermont or the Northeast. 

“I can put it to you this way,” Gorin said. “I have teenage twins that are in college right now. They came here and said, ‘Mom, this is like every beginning five minutes of every Hallmark movie we’ve ever seen.’”

From setting off fireworks every Thursday night to glow tubing twice a week, there’s always a postcard-worthy activity happening at Smuggs. In addition to skiing on 78 trails covering more than 310 acres — plus another 750 acres of woods in between trails — Smugglers’ Notch’s ability to fill a vacation calendar never has been a challenge it fails to uphold. 

It’s just the sort of bubble of activity that Gorin was looking for in a career change, and one that becomes evident to visitors as soon as they check in. 

“You could be in a condo and you could literally put your skis on at the condo and hit a lift. You can park your car when you get here and not have to go back to it until you’re done skiing for the week,” Gorin said.

Smuggs features shuttles on demand, running every 10 minutes. But if you want to be picked up at your condo and brought right to the lift, there’s even a shuttle to do that, Gorin said. It will bring you directly to your lift, and when you’re done, call for another ride. That’s a nice “bubble” perk.  

Events also are consistently happening. “There’s no time to get bored,” Gorin said. Not with cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice skating and swimming available to occupy your time. At Smugglers’ Notch’s Fun Zone, a 25,000 square-foot family activity facility, visitors will find everything from laser tag to ninja warrior courses to rock climbing. 

“I mean, you can’t get bored in there,” Gorin said. 

So there’s something for everyone, whether it be wholesome fun like bingo, or a group singalong with a pirate. “You’re tired by the end of the day,” Gorin said. “If you come here with kids, let me tell you, your kids are zonked by the end of the night. They sleep well.” 

Smugglers’ Notch is a place where they celebrate innovation just as much as anyone else in the industry (the resort’s recent improvements to its snowmaking system include a specific type of satellite technology to spread out the snow more evenly), except when it comes to high-speed chairlifts. You won’t find any at the resort, which is part of the whole appeal.  

“Our lifts are some of the oldest in the country,” Gorin said. “We’re very proud of it, and we keep them running really well. The slower ride means great chair chats. And people get to know each other. And it means more time with your family if you’re going up. I think people are starting to realize there is a certain charm to the smaller, independent resorts, and they’re enjoying that.” 

Frankly, the slower lifts at Smuggs come as a welcome feature, particularly when it comes to taking needed breaks after some of the gnarly runs down Madonna or Sterling Mountain. Faster=More=Better isn’t always the equation at Smuggs that it might be elsewhere. The experience itself is truly the attraction. Imagine. 

“I think it’s well-known to a lot of skiers that we have a triple black diamond (Black Hole on Madonna),” Gorin said. “We have the longest vertical drop (2,610 feet) in northern Vermont. This is a real skiing experience. We are all about making sure that skiing is fantastic for people, to the point where we go through what’s called a CCC (comfortable carrying capacity), which means that we won’t overbook. We will shut down sales so that the mountain is not too crowded. People can go down the mountain and feel that rush without having to dodge people left and right. We take care of them in that way.” 

The appreciation won’t only be found on the slopes, as Gorin discovered one crowded Tuesday night over last month’s holiday break at the resort. A long line of patrons patiently awaited their turn at glow tubing, Smugglers’ Notch’s nighttime tubing attraction enhanced with LED lights on Sir Henry’s Hill. “You kind of feel like you’re in the middle of a Christmas tree,” Gorin said. 

A new feature at the resort this year is the Top of the Notch dinner on Tuesday evenings. Patrons who are 21-plus can take the Sterling lift up to the top of the mountain, head into a lodge for a five-course dinner, and then, with the help of some staff members wearing headlamps, enjoy a 40-minute snowshoe down the mountain ($85 per person, includes lift access, snowshoe rental and dinner. Advance registration is required). 

As for how the pandemic is currently affecting things at Smugglers’ Notch, Gorin said that omicron has been much more challenging, leading to some of the highest numbers the state has ever seen. “It has made us all much more aware,” she said. 

Everyone public facing is always wearing a mask at the resort. “We’re doing everything to make sure that our staff and our guests stay healthy,” said Gorin, who comes into her job dealing with COVID-19 in a much different light than two years ago.  

“I started the pandemic by anchoring and being a reporter and telling the stories of the pandemic,” she said. “Now I’m watching from a different angle and seeing what it’s doing to the hospitality industry, or any industry that has public service involved.”  

Gorin noted that Smugglers’ Notch had a very strong campaign during the 2020-21 skiing and riding season, a boast that not all ski areas in the Green Mountain State could claim last year thanks, in part, to strict travel restrictions. But a funny thing happened at Smugglers’ Notch when it lost many of its out-of-state clientele — Vermonters came. 

“People were not traveling as much,” Gorin said, “and Vermonters said, ‘Wow, we can play in our own backyard.’ So, many Vermonters who had not discovered Smuggs discovered it or discovered it again.” 

It’s fun to become part of a bubble. But when it has as much to offer as Smugglers’ Notch does, good luck ever wanting to try and find a way out.

Eric Wilbur can be reached at [email protected].