Big-mountain skiing and riding in the East? Yup.

Just 45 minutes south of Burlington, VT lies Sugarbush Resort. Home to three of Vermont's highest skiable peaks, the 'Bush has 2,600 feet of vertical spilling down 111 trails and through 11 wooded areas. Separating the Resort's Lincoln Peak and Mount Ellen areas is the Slide Brook Basin, a 2000-acre wilderness and the only lift-served wilderness skiing and riding area in the region.

For those just discovering skiing and riding, the mountain offers miles of groomed, gentle learning terrain and a ski and ride school headed by adventure skiing pioneer John Egan. For those looking to challenge the outdoors, Sugarbush's new Adventure Learning Center offers a range of programs from winter survival skills, overnight snowshoe trips, quinzie (snow cave) building, and avalanche awareness. And when it's time to unwind, the Blue Tooth pub has frothy beverages and bands like Named By Strangers to complete a day's adventures.

The price for a 4000+ acre playground? $319 by November 1st, no blackouts, no restrictions.