My brother goes there a lot (he has a friend who owns a place there) and his big complaint is the slow lifts and lack of restaurants. Stowe has better lift infrastructure and much more to offer apres ski, but Stowe has become quite pricey these days. It's practically cheaper to ski UT than Stowe.

Smugg's is big and very nice for all levels of skiers. I haven't skied there nearly as much as Stowe and should correct that. The triple diamonds that I recall are under the lift and are indeed steep, but not gladed. They are narrow and double fall line and at the time thinly covered and icy so I didn't do them. They probably get skied a lot since they are showoff runs being under the lift. Doc Dempsey's glade is very very nice and not steep. It is partly open (left side) and gets tighter as you go right and into the trees. It seemed not to get much skier pressure and had very good snow some days after a storm.

There is much good backcountry off Sterling. Some leads back to the area and some goes down into the notch, then you ski back to the base on the road. Smugg's pitches itself as a family area, and it is a good one, but it has some really good challenging backcountry mostly skied only by locals. It gets a lot less pressure than the other side of the notch (Stowe).

Smuggs:
Cons:

• Cold, even by Vermont standards.
  
• Somewhat isolated. Stones throw from Stowe, but it is a 30-45 drive in the winter. Ya can't get there from here. Eeeyaaap.
  
• As stated before, slow lifts. Combined with the cold, T-Line's lifts can seem like South Beach by comparison.

Pro's

• Relatively uncrowded and not too expensive.
• Paradoxically, great beginner and advanced terrain. Steeps and trees, in particular.
• Family oriented.

Slight correction to Denis who has forgetten more about Vermont skiing than I'll ever hope to know. The triple black (marketing hype) is the glade to the skier's right of Liftline (the trail under the Madonna lift.) The rest of the trails are double or single black, probably the toughest marked slopes in the East. I've only skied the lower half of the triple black, ducked in with a bunch of skiers. It was steep and tight, but not that more difficult than a lot of other tree shots in Vermont. However, there is supposedly some very tight mandatory air sections in the trees on the upper half.

I haven't skied with anyone who posts on DCSki who could rip Liftline (even in good conditions.) That includes Crush. It's a tough, exposed slope, where a mistake could mean tumbling over rock bands for 500 or so feet. All in full view of a chairlift.

Doc Dempsey's is a great trail, but it's been a bit skied out when I've taken it.

Thanks for the info Denis and JohnL.

"I haven't skied with anyone who posts on DCSki who could rip Liftline (even in good conditions.) That includes Crush. It's a tough, exposed slope, where a mistake could mean tumbling over rock bands for 500 or so feet. All in full view of a chairlift."

This makes me hot.

There's is one person from DCSki who can rip Liftline. His name is JohnL...;) So fess up, have you ripped it??? Inquiring minds want to know.

We call him JohnL, but up at smuggs he goes by "jack".

I refuse to admit the wasted time spent on that . Similar to today, I was playing hookey from work after a very tough week and my mind was on skiing. Please note the orange skis ,reflective of my Dynastar 8800's. See, I put way too much thought into that . Back to Smuggs, there is an owner's club where you can buy and swap weeks and there almost aways something available there a few weeks in advance. I don't know what percentage of owners are part of RCI, I don't think it is mandatory, but we generally trade away our summer weeks so it works out for us. Also I think there are generally some studios avaible on RCI etc, but most folks who go to smuggs are looking for something larger.

Put this comment in the wrong place so I'll cross link it here.
http://www.dcski.com/ubbthreads22/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=30493&Main=15145#Post30493

Funny I thought I replied yesterday...must have forgot to submit. I was going to say the difference may be being local and going for a day or two vice spendng a week. It works well for me and my son since he takes lessons in AM (I don't consider this dumping him on someone else and if I had to teach him snowboarding he would still be on the bunny slope!) and we hook up in PM. When I'm with my son I basically ski what he wants to ski, with maybe an occasional cut through trail where I meet him on the other side. I usually drop him off at the condo for hot chocolate while I make a last run or two before joining him and my wife for an evening together. We spend 6 times the time together than we normally get to spend and also get to make friends in lessons while improving our skills. I'm sure everyones concept of family time differs but this works for us. As far as separate mountains go, I don't find it too big a deal. either by trail or bus its 15-20 min traverse betweeen them, tops.