Well, in case you haven’t heard, it seems I printed up a few T-shirts and had some fun up at Sugarbush.
We got there at 9:15, met up with an orange car dweller, and donned our shirts. Operations, parking shuttle, and other folks said hello. The mountain photographer caught us as we lathered on the sunblock.
Saw these – grass skis. www.grasski.com didn’t get a chance to see then in operation, but apparently they work:
The day starts out overcast, and we get ready to go ski.
SBF and RustyK show up. The back of Mrs G’s head gets in a lot of shots today. We hit a few trails and discover the bump runs are serious and the two intermediate runs are flat with heaping helpings of mashed potatoes. Win finds us on the second run and gives us all vouchers for next year. Geoff and I do Steins and have our egos handed to us. All day long people are smiling and waving at us.
We gather at 1 for some photos. At first it’s like herding cats, but soon everyone gets the message and we pile onto the rocks. The first round of photos is just us on the wall, but we call Win over, tell him to put his shirt on backwards so the Sugarbush side is out on him, and then the shutters really start snapping. Sandy adeptly slides in the $29 sandwich sign, which I’m sure will feature more prominently in Sugarbush’s photos. Moonshine with plenty of snow is visible in the upper left.
Then it’s time for lunch. Sugarbush puts out two spreads, one by the Castlerock pub, and one outside of Timbers Restaurant. Two of us had a grilled chicken sandwich, a burger, and a plateful of green salad, it came to $12.50. And it wasn’t the little Dixie cup prepackaged salad with mostly lettuce and two cherry tomatoes perched on top peering at you from under the plastic. It was a shopping cartful of field greens, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, and lettuce, and you could take a heaping plateful. Good draft beers were 4.50, American bottled pondwater was 3.75. At these prices and quality, no one feels like walking to the car to get anything. Well, someone did make the trek for some homemade cookies.
Mrs G discusses the finer points of ski area management while Mr G listens intently.
At some point during lunch, I look over my shoulder and see that the owner of the resort is having lunch here with us. Not only that, but he sits there in relative quiet, we are all enjoying the day. There is no angry mob circling demanding to know why kids program prices skyrocketed, why their ski-in home was a drive-to home 2 days a week, why they closed with so much snow on the hill, or why a promised lift wasn’t running. The firepit and grill is visible in the rear, nicely made of stone.
Everyone wants a shirt, and I constantly get asked if there are any left.
After lunch, I go out and do some runs solo. It doesn’t take long to beat my quads into submission.
Sandy captures an overjoyed RustyK and SBF.
I come down to the “plaza” again, and it has a whole new feel from lunch. There is a band playing, and they’re good. A couple is dancing off by themselves.
Everyone is just hanging out, having a beer, and enjoying the afternoon. The sun comes out finally.
That’s Steins, wall to wall coverage. Everything is just right, there’s a spare seat or two if you need it, you can hear the music well, but don’t have to shout, and the air is warm.
And in case you forgot, all this was only $29 today.
And there were dogs. Lots of dogs. Friendly dogs. A cute little golden retriever puppy too. Babies in strollers. Skis laid out in the grass. Not a soul came around and said “I’m sorry, but you can’t do ##### (what ever it was you were doing). Of course, no one was acting like a jerk, either. A very good combo.
Everyone was having a good time.
Some other Killington folks shading their beer.
the inside of Castlerock Pub.
And then there was this noise. It started up by the lift, and went towards the barbeque pit.
z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z -z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z-z -z-z-z-z-z-z -z-z-z-zing! They called it a zip line.
Ms Moose by a granite statue. There’s probably a story behind this, but I didn’t hear it while we were there. The mountain bike nearby gives a hint of what’s to come quite soon.
The sun was setting, and we headed home.
On the way home on Rte 100 is a very unusual billboard.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, no lifts turned, even though there was a lot of snow to be had.
I had several impressions of the day. One was how many Killington people were up there. Many more than had shirts, and many more than made it into the group photo. Another was how friendly, easygoing, and welcoming everyone was. It felt genuine. This was the Sugarbush vibe.
A small thing: On a slow late spring day, when the furthest car in the lot was a 5 minute walk to Claybrook, the pick-up truck & trailer shuttle was running all day. This shows attention to detail on someone’s part, and could have easily been cut to trim costs.
Another thing. Each time up at the base lift, as much as they recognized me, they still scanned me. This is a tight ship.
Thanks to everyone that bought a shirt and helped poke some fun at Killington. Thanks to all of Sugarbush for showing us some late spring turns and good time. And like the shirt says,
Thanks, Win.
) and they couldn't care less even if Winn was standing at the K1 gondola handing out free lift tickets to Sugarbush! 
POWDR is, in some ways, like the BORG in Star Trek! 
