Sugarbush Resort, located in Warren, Vermont, in an area referred to as the Mad River Valley, encompasses close to 242ha spread across 111 trails and two mountains – Lincoln Peak and Mt Ellen.
At Lincoln Peak, you’ll find a base area built in the Vermont vernacular style of architecture that showcases a charming village with traditional farmhouses, schoolhouses and barns. Don’t mistake the old charm for inconvenience, though. Lincoln Peak boasts all the modern amenities you could ask for at a ski resort: a slopeside hotel with an outdoor heated pool and hot tubs, and ski and boot valet; modern adult and child ski-school facilities; rental and gear shops; and unique restaurants offering the best of Vermont products including craft beers and cheeses, and meats and produce from local farms.
Meanwhile, at Mt Ellen, you’ll feel like you’re stepping back in time with a no-frills base lodge that’s been around since it opened over 50 years ago. The old-school New England base lodge has a cosy feel and hosts the Green Mountain Lounge, a nationally recognised après-ski favourite. The best part about the two vastly different mountains is that they’re connected via chairlift, as well as a free shuttle bus, and flank the Slide Brook Basin – a 809hawilderness area open to backcountry skiing.
Of course, it isn’t just about the base areas. Both mountains feature modern-styled groomed runs, as well as classic New England-style bump runs including the famed Castlerock area at Lincoln Peak. In fact, the Castlerock area is as old school as trail systems get – no snowmaking, basically no grooming except for the work road and tough steeps littered with boulders, bumps and roots. It’s Vermont skiing at its core.
Sugarbush has made a conscious effort to upgrade snowmaking efficiency over the last several years and recently finished a 5-year, $5-million (£3.3m) snowmaking investment. 70% of the resort’s trails have snowmaking on them, and the other 30% are purposefully preserved as natural terrain.
The resort is owned by a small group of investors led by Win Smith, a former head of Merrill Lynch International, who left New York to become a ski bum. Smith skis over 100 days a season and is integrally involved in the operation. Under his leadership, the resort invests its annual profits right back into the operation, upgrading and replacing lifts, snowmaking and grooming equipment, and facilities. This year, the Valley House Double at Lincoln Peak has been replaced with a new high-speed quad, doubling uphill capacity and cutting the ride time.
But perhaps the most interesting part of Sugarbush is its location. The Mad River Valley is located almost dead centre in Vermont (about an hour from Burlington), and it’s not your typical ski town. It is one of the most scenic valleys anywhere and boasts dairy farms, beef farms, historic covered bridges, barns and artists’ studios. You won’t find any fast-food chains or stoplights, but you will find one of Vermont’s only Relais & Châteaux Inns (The Pitcher Inn), the original American Flatbread restaurant, the café that was the birthplace of GreenMountain Coffee Roasters (now Keurig), both a farm and greenhouse founded by the Von Trapp Family (of The Sound of Music fame) and a smattering of unique restaurants and shops. Though Sugarbush has both lodging and dining options, the resort encourages its guests to get out and discover the Mad River Valley.
Sugarbush is also unique in the sense that you have to pass another ski resort to get to it from every direction. What that means is the skiers and riders at Sugarbush genuinely want to be there. Yes, it’s still easy to get to, but there are certainly closer resorts to many of the major cities. Sugarbush skiers come for the terrain, for the aesthetics and for the community. If that sounds like something you want to be a part of, there’s always room for one more.
