Mother Nature produces snow in a futile effort to force human beings to stick to indoor sports such as ceilingball and arena yachting. Strap on your most defiant pair of goggles and hit the slopes with today's Groupon: for $38, you get a lift ticket (up to a $64 value) at Smugglers' Notch, located in northern Vermont.

Among numerous other accolades, Smugglers' Notch was named one of the 10 Best East Coast Resorts by SKI Magazine for its impressive thousand-acres of terrain and its tremendous family-friendly resort village. Three mountains providing a vertical drop of 2,610 feet dare skiers and snowboarders to cut into their powdery snow packs. All levels of pole cats can trek the more than 27 miles of trails. Beginners can glide on gently groomed hills and experts can disappear into the Black Hole, a rare triple-black-diamond route. The downhill professors at Snow Sport University coach students in the ways of balance, speed, and outmaneuvering paparazzi on bobsleds. The resort's snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling keep winter warriors' agendas packed.

While they're off on the slopes, parents can entrust their kids to Treasures Child Care Center, where tykes age six weeks to three years enjoy storytelling, arts and crafts, and indoor and outdoor play spaces. The FunZone wears out older young ones with arcade games, putt-putt golf, a giant slide, and a 45-foot obstacle course. Skiers looking to make a stay of it are accommodated in splendid condominium lodgings, featuring fully equipped kitchens. With amenities such as heated pools, hot tubs, arts and crafts workshops, and the Mountain Massage Center, visitors won't want to return to their ho-hum routines as king and queen of Ursa Major.

Reviews

TripAdvisors give Smugglers' Notch 3.5 owl eyes:

• Great location for skiing. – LiveToTravel84, TripAdvisor
• We are so glad that we chose here as the place is just fabulous for skiing, young children ages 9 and 12, great accommodation. – Canadian_Vacationer2, TripAdvisor