Sugarloaf Goes Big

[chewbacca]

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Sugarloaf to rival Killington as East’s Beast


Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott catches some air off a jump on the new Sidewinder Snowboardcross Course last winter at the Sugarloaf ski resort.

The Associated Press


By Clarke Canfield,
THE Associated Press - Published: September 7, 2010


PORTLAND, Maine — A plan by Sugarloaf ski resort to more than double its skiable terrain will make it the biggest ski area east of the Rocky Mountains, and knock Vermont’s Killington Resort out of the top spot, Sugarloaf officials said.

Crews will begin clearing trees this week on Burnt Mountain, adjacent to Sugarloaf Mountain, to add 270 acres of terrain for the coming season and 655 acres in the next three years. When the work is done, the Carrabassett Valley resort will have a total of 1,310 acres of skiable terrain; Killington says it has 752 skiable acres.

Being the biggest ski area in the East will be a feather in the cap of Sugarloaf, said general manager John Diller.

“The bragging rights are there not just for Sugarloaf, but really for Maine for having the biggest resort in the East,’’ he said.

Not so quick, said a Killington spokesman, Tom Horrocks. There’s good reason Killington is known as the “Beast of the East,’’ he said; it has the most skier visits, most lifts, most trails, most miles of trails of any resort in the region and, for now, most skiable acreage.

“Making the claim they are going to be the biggest is just a claim right now,’’ Horrocks said. “Killington Resort is still the biggest resort in the Northeast.’’

Ski resorts often boast when they are the first resort in a region to open for the season or the last to close or for having the steepest vertical drop, the most trails, or the most skiing terrain.

By selectively cutting down trees and creating hundreds of acres of glade skiing, or downhill skiing through open spaces in wooded areas, Sugarloaf says it will be the region’s biggest. The project does not include adding trails, lifts, or snowmaking capacity.

But Sugarloaf will fall far short of being anywhere near the biggest ski area in the United States. Vail ski resort in Colorado calls itself the biggest ski resort in North America, with 5,289 acres of terrain, though Big Sky Resort in Montana says it is the biggest ski resort with 5,512 acres.

Big Sky and Sugarloaf are both owned by Michigan-based Boyne Resorts, which owns and operates nine ski resorts in Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Montana, Utah, Washington, and British Columbia.

Stephen Kircher of Boyne Resorts said it is important for a ski area to be at the top of a list to distinguish itself. “It’s like who has the fastest car in the neighborhood,’’ he said.

[Hal U. Dewin]

Like having the fatstest car in the neighborhood?

This guy is living in the 1960's...

or knows shortski.

[UVSHTSTRM]

Here we go again.......can't we just say that they are both big by east coast standards and leave it at that.

One last thing, how do we know that Killington has the most skier visits? I didn't think resorts posted their numbers?

[JerseyGuy]

One last thing, how do we know that Killington has the most skier visits? I didn't think resorts posted their numbers?

Good question. Actually, we don't -- not anymore. We can assume it, but we don't really know it: KillingtonPowdr doesn't allow the world to see their skier visit numbers.

We could simply believe Tommy Boy when he says it, but... well, do we really have to go there?

[junior]

Ludlow in da house yo!!!

[JerseyGuy]

Ludlow in da house yo!!!

Who's the old fat guy fumbling with his guitar?

[junior]

Ludlow in da house yo!!!

Who's the old fat guy fumbling with his guitar?

Guy from Ludlow. Don't know his name. Only his IP address.

[JerseyGuy]

Ludlow in da house yo!!!

Who's the old fat guy fumbling with his guitar?

Guy from Ludlow. Don't know his name. Only his IP address.

Does he spend any time on the interweb? I bet he'd be good at that.

[junior]

Ludlow in da house yo!!!

Who's the old fat guy fumbling with his guitar?

Guy from Ludlow. Don't know his name. Only his IP address.

Does he spend any time on the interweb? I bet he'd be good at that.

Yes, a lot of time. Not much going on in Ludlow. Gotta do something with all that free time.

[JerseyGuy]

Ludlow in da house yo!!!

Who's the old fat guy fumbling with his guitar?

Guy from Ludlow. Don't know his name. Only his IP address.

Does he spend any time on the interweb? I bet he'd be good at that.

Yes, a lot of time. Not much going on in Ludlow. Gotta do something with all that free time.

I bet if he got addicted to the interweb instead of every other drug on the face of the Earth, he wouldn't have died in 1995. (Yeah, technically, he died creatively roundabout 1978, but you get the picture.)

Anyway, it's fun idolizing fat old drug addicts. I'm trying to find a good picture file of Elvis, circa summer 1977. That would be cool.

[JerseyGuy]

From Ski Magazine:

The East’s New Beast? Sort Of
[ September 2, 2010 - 12:40am ]
by Joe Cutts

Sugarloaf unveils plans for massive, trail-less expansion. Maine giant would surpass Killington for acres. “No grooming, no snowmaking, no real estate.”

By any standard, Sugarloaf’s announcement yesterday of plans for a huge, trail-less “sidecountry” skiing preserve is notable—no matter how you define a resort’s skiable acres. Would the three-phase project eventually make Sugarloaf a bigger ski area than Killington? Well, if you count patrolled, gladed, inbounds terrain as part of your skiable acreage—as most resorts do these days—then yes, it will. Killington boasts 752 acres; Sugarloaf will exactly double in size, from 655 acres to 1,310. Like we said: big news.

Expansion onto neighboring Burnt Mountain has been talked about since the beginning at Sugarloaf, and resort officials yesterday made it official. There won’t be any new lifts in the immediate future, and of course, local powder hounds have been skiing much of it for years. The area is known for its deep snow, deposited there by prevailing winds. The final phase, furthest from the existing area, would include the north face of Burnt, an area where few locals have ventured, and where the deepest pockets of sun-shaded snow are likely to exist.

Starting Monday, with all permits in hand, crews will begin glading the first third of the three-phase project, a 270-acre parcel. Skiers will access it from the top of the existing King Pine quad, traversing easterward (skier’s right) into the new terrain. The ski experience in the new terrain will include tight trees that have been only moderately thinned, as well as more aggressively thinned areas.

“We haven’t ruled out the possibility of some sort of low-impact lift over there, maybe a T-bar or a fixed double or something like that,” said Sugarloaf spokesman Ethan Austin. “I don’t think you’ll ever see a high-speed quad over there. You might also see some catskiing over there, something that would get you to the summit of Burnt Mountain and the snowfields up there, which you’d have to hike to now.”

“It’s really interesting terrain,” says Austin, who has skied it numerous times. “There’s some really steep stuff, some moderate cliff bands with up to 20- and 30-foot drops, and there’s some low-angle stuff too. The best part is how it holds snow. The prevailing winds dump everything over there and just buries it. The locals have always known that trails like King Pine and Cant Dog, over on the east side, always have the deepest snow on a powder day. This is the same thing, only further east, and the third phase is actually north-facing.”

Because the new terrain will be inbounds, it will be patrolled. Sugarloaf will strongly recommend that skiers have at least one partner and will otherwise encourage smart backcountry safety procedures. “There’ll be some signage, and we’ll have different safety procedures over there. It’s definitely a little different than a groomed trail inbounds, but yeah, if you get into trouble, it’s inbounds and patrolled, so we’ll come and get you for sure.”

As far as the “biggest in the East” crown, Austin admits, “it’ll be nice to have bragging rights. … But the important part is that it’s killer terrain, we’re listening to what Sugarloafers have told us their looking for, and we’re doing it right.”