Today was all about sunny turns. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and we chose to spend it on the slopes at Sugarbush Resort in northern Vermont.
We've skied Sugarbush a number of times over the years but today was the first time we skied at both Lincoln Peak and Mt. Ellen on the same day. The reason we could easily do this is a 2-mile-long connector lift called the Slide Brook Express. It's a nearly 15-minute scenic ride that brings you up and down the peaks and valleys between the north and south sections of the resort. It's really a cool ride. And it rumored to be the world's longest detachable quad chairlift.
The Skimeister and I agreed we wouldn't want to ride the Slide Brook quad on a cold or stormy day, but today was in the 20s and just about perfect for the long journey. And a warning to those of you who don't like heights: It is a little freaky to look way down a valley where the lift is taking you, and there are a couple of very high spots. But I'm sensitive to these things and I just looked out at the view and I was fine.
Check ahead of time to see if the Slide Brook lift will be open during your visit. We've heard that if weather, temperature or snow conditions would make it extra-hard to evacuate that remote lift, they will not run it.
The snow coverage on the trails today was very good. In some places it was packed powder, in other places groomed corduroy, and other spots were "linoleum" — where the manmade snow is super-packed down and there's no soft snow on it. In the woods, the unskied snow that we found had a crust that made you have to lean way back to ski through it. But if people had skied on the snow recently, it was very skiable.
We tried out Tumbler Woods, Moose Run Woods and Ellen's Woods on Mt. Ellen. Earlier at Mt. Ellen we took a quick warm-up break at the Glen House after riding over on the Slide Brook Express. Then we enjoyed long, cruising turns from the 4,083-foot summit on Rim Run, Elbow, Looking Good and Which Way.
We had started our day at Lincoln Peak taking some runs on the Super Bravo Express Quad and Heaven's Gate Triple, which goes nearly to the top of the 3,975-foot peak. We really enjoyed zipping around the zigzags of the Jester trail.
Later in the morning we went to one of the sunniest spots on the mountain: the North Lynx Triple. We soaked up the sun and made cruising turns on Birch Run and Sunrise. Fun!
It was a glorious, sunny day to ski at Sugarbush and to ride the scenic connector lift for the very first time.
Sugarbush Resort at a glance
- Located in Warren, Vermont
- The resort has two sides connected by a long quad chairlift or a shuttle bus
- Lincoln Peak: 3,975-foot summit and 2,400 foot vertical
- Mt. Ellen: 4,083-foot summit and 2,600-foot vertical
- 16 lifts:
- 5 high-speed quads
- 5 fixed quads
- 2 triples
- 1 double
- 3 surface lifts
- 111 trails:
- Easy: 19%
- Intermediate: 34%
- Advanced, Expert or Woods: 47%
- 581 skiable acres
- 28 gladed areas
- 2 terrain parks
- 70% snowmaking capacity
