Skippress - Index

Skippress - SkiPress US Vol.7 No.3 - Index

REINCARNATION
The ’Bush is Born Again
Lincoln Peak Village has turned Sugarbush into a sweet family resort.
Peggy Shinn updates a New England classic.
BY PEGGY SHINN
When Sugarbush was born on Christmas Day, 1958, it had everything a skier could want. Serious
summit-to-base vertical served by the longest gondola in the US A base area peppered with après-ski
haunts of the rich-and-famous: Kennedys, Cassinis and Heinzes. Camera-worthy views of Lake
Champlain and Vermont’s Green Mountains. And a village with white-steepled churches, hundredyear-old
farmhouses, old red dairy barns and country stores — all iconic images that would come to
defi ne Vermont.
Except that the village, or more precisely, villages — Warren and Waitsfi eld — were several miles removed
from the ski area. This was well and fi ne when all that most skiers expected after a day on the slopes
was beer, a burger and a bed somewhere in the same county. Ski-in/ski-out and slopeside weren’t part
of the vernacular.
But all that has changed, perhaps because these same skiers, now married with children, now knew the
pain of dragging kids and their gear from town to lifts, dropping at least a ski pole and/or boot en route.
As the century turned, any ski resort worth its snow had slopeside condos or a hotel.
But Sugarbush lagged behind. It still had the true skier’s terrain — Stein’s bumps, Castlerock’s narrow
drops and Egan’s Woods’ tight trees. The locals remained loyal. But a ski area can’t live on love alone.
The ‘Bush needed beds. Badly.
2 EASTERN SECTION
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Photos: Sandy Macys/Sugarbush Resort