VERMONT
Jack Murphy opened Sugarbush ski resort on Christmas Day in 1958, with his partners from New York, Damon and Sarah Gadd. Their recipe for success was simple: great Vermont trail skiing located in the Mad River Valley setting, which comes complete with covered bridges, maple sugar shacks and church steeples.
Destination skiers, particularly the New York set, flocked to Sugarbush in the early years, giving the ski area a reputation as "Mascara Mountain." Urban escapees invested in second homes, resulting in a condominium build-up through the 1970s, referred to fondly as the Gadd days. After 20 years, the well-liked Gadds sold the ski area to Roy Cohen. During his six-year ownership, the shrewd businessman expanded the resort to encompass two separate mountains by purchasing nearby 4,135-foot Mount Ellen. The ski resort changed hands several times in the 1980s with no meaningful improvements. Skier visits dwindled and the mountain simply could not turn a profit.
Otten's intentions were to "enhance the resort's existing character while adding the technology of grooming, snowmaking and lifts that a large corporation can fund." "Sugarbush had awesome terrain and tremendous potential. The lift infrastructure was aging and Sugarbush was suffering from a lack of capital," said Skip King, spokesperson for American Skiing. "It was a diamond in the rough. The plan was to put Sugarbush back on its feet as a player in New England skiing." Sugarbush quickly received seven new lifts (including four high-speed quads), 300 percent more snowmaking capability and a 63 million-gallon reservoir. Otten was viewed as a hero, revitalizing the resort with the largest single-season expansion in U.S. ski history at the time.
"Every previous owner had tried to interconnect the two mountains and were met with tremendous opposition from Vermont environmentalists concerned with disrupting the bears' mating habitats," said King. Otten struck a deal with the gritty group of environmentalists where predecessors had failed. Most locals hailed this controversial lift as genius, as it eliminated the previously necessary shuttle between the mountains. Skeptics saw it as "sell out," since the right to develop the ski terrain beneath this transportation lift was relinquished. Either way, Sugarbush was again on the map as a world-class skiing and riding paradise. But the valley's admiration waned. As Otten's newly formed American Skiing shifted focus to other resorts - Killington, Mount Snow and Sugarloaf - the flow of money slowed to a trickle at Sugarbush.
"A.S.C. treated Sugarbush like the orphan child after the purchase of Killington, especially after plans for a Grand Summit hotel here at Sugarbush were nixed," said Sheila Hoffman, a 10-year Mad River Valley resident and Sugarbush skier. "The town of Warren did not like the original Summit Hotel plans. The town wanted a considerably more upscale project. When we finally got a plan the town agreed with, it would have been more expensive. The project was not abandoned. It was shelved. As the company expanded, there were better opportunities elsewhere," said King. Without the promise of hotel real estate sales, the prospect of profit was not as ripe. "Les Otten either had the worst luck or the worst business sense of anyone in the ski industry," said John Christiano, a retired New York City Fire Department lieutenant and skiing resident of Warren, Vt.
Win Smith, an investment banker, recently retired from Merrill Lynch, is known in the valley as owning most of Warren. Smith rejuvenated The Pitcher Inn and owns the popular General Store and Alta Spa across the street. Joe Reimer, another financial partner, lost a battle with cancer on the ski area's opening day in November, a tremendous loss for the new team. Tom McHugh, chief executive of Summit Ventures (who worked for Otten 21 years ago) said of their purchase, "Our team is made up of longtime Mad River Valley residents and experienced ski-industry professionals. We know these mountains and what makes them special, and we're committed to preserving and enhancing the unique character of Sugarbush." The first significant move by the new owners was to increase employee pay. Obviously, this was a popular gesture, designed to change previous sentiments of employee expendability. "They gave raises across the board," said Amy Cadell, a 10-year Sugarbush ski patroller. "It's great to see some of the good people coming back to work. These are really great employees that had gotten fed up and left during A.S.C.'s ownership."
From the summit of Lincoln Peak, the Green Mountains views are outstanding and trails like Ripcord and Paradise are deserving of their double black diamond status. Stein's run, named after Stein Erickson - the founder of the Sugarbush ski school - is perfect fall line, steep-mogul terrain that will make your knees weak. Next to Stein's is heart-thumping glade terrain named after the "Egan" brothers of countless extreme-ski flicks. "The terrain at Sugarbush is as good as it gets," said John Egan. "I'll go off on a trip with all these amazing skiers and come back home only to find a group of locals that push me just as hard." Egan likes the Sugarbush terrain so much he bought his own inn in the Mad River Valley. But it is Castlerock Peak where things really get gnarly. This is unaltered, old-school skiing reached by a double chair. Castlerock's trails are sprinkled with stumps, bumps, glades and chutes, set on a steep pitch that is downright humbling. (I speak from experience, as I have skied "Rumble," and that name sums up my experience.) Castlerock's vintage 1959 double was retired this summer, but only because it did not pass inspection. To maintain this inimitable terrain, the new management went ahead with plans to replace the classic lift with a same style but new $1 million Poma double chairlift, no change to uphill capacity, or speed, just a few less jerks and quirks. Fear not, blue square fans, Sugarbush has plenty of panoramic cruisers and a tame family adventure area designated for beginners. First-rate chefs and artisans are not immune to the charms of this alpine settlement. The Mad River Valley is synonymous with exceptional dining establishments like Chez Henri, Tucker Hill Inn, and The Warren House. Decades of yuppies have transplanted here for the contagious ski community lifestyle, and brought with them cosmopolitan influences. Fine boutiques and galleries have taken root throughout this resort hub. There are lodging options galore, from the huge selection of slopeside condos at the base of Lincoln Peak, to nearby motels, bed and breakfasts and charming inns. As for upcoming improvements, Summit Ventures has plans to dredge the snowmaking reservoir to capacity this summer. Improving the Lincoln Peak base lodge and upgrading lifts at Mount Ellen, are planned "as economics permit." The start of this ski season was lean on snow, forcing the resort to close after three days in November and reopen Dec.15, obviously affecting early winter profits. But most Mad River folks are happy to be in a fresh starting position, again. Skiers offer overwhelmingly optimistic takes on the future of "the Bush" under this latest tenure. "This purchase is a very exciting opportunity for Sugarbush. We now have owners who are focused on nothing but this mountain, and moreover they're in tune with how things work here in the Mad River Valley," said Andrew Lafrenz of Sugarbush Communications. "This has always been a magic place and now we have a great chance to tap into some of that magic."
|
Lincoln
Peak, at 3,975 feet, was a skiers' dream. The Castlerock double chair,
installed in 1959, is hailed to this day as some of the most hard-core
New England skiing.
Enter
Les Otten in 1995. The former chief executive of Maine-based American
Skiing Co. purchased the struggling area, adding it to his Sunday
River and Attitash resort family. There was excitement in the Valley
once again, with the promise of new capital for the mountain.
The
most impressive new lift was the 9,000-foot Slide Brook Express. This
world's longest, fastest quad connected Sugarbush's North and South
areas, (which had been renamed Mount Ellen and Lincoln Peak).
Exiting
General Manager Bruce McCloy said, "We were at the bottom of the
priority list during the last several years."
Enter
the new great hope of Sugarbush, the sequel, if you will. Summit
Ventures purchased the resort from cash-poor American Skiing last
September. The four partners include the recent general manager from
Mad River Glen ski area, who served as chief financial officer at
Sugarbush in 1997-98.
Sugarbush
proclaims "the most widely varied ski terrain east of the Rockies."
Today, "the Bush" (insider code-name for Sugarbush) has 468 acres
encompassing 54 miles of trails served by 18 lifts.