SUGARBUSH REDEEMS ITSELF
To be frank, last year’s early season offering at Sugarbush was pretty bad. Not only did they open the first week of December, which is late for them, but they had very little terrain available the first few weeks and for whatever reason it was all off a beginner lift at the bottom. On top of that, there were a lot of lift issues that first month or two of the season. You can read my ski report here from my day there on December 16, 2024. Note that they only had five groomed runs open that day. Oof. But, time heals all, and one year later Sugarbush has redeemed itself.
The view coming off the Super Bravo Express Lift.
The mountain opened yesterday for the season, but I opted to ski Whiteface instead. This morning I considered going back to Whiteface or to Jay Peak, but ultimately I decided to head to the Mad River Valley. I got there at 11. The parking lot wasn’t very full and neither were the lifts. They were spinning both the Super Bravo Express Lift and the Heaven’s Gate Quad, which both provided access to a total of 19 runs, seven of which were groomed.
Downspout.
Jester.
Sigi’s Ripcord seen from the Heaven’s Gate Quad.
I spent most of my day lapping the Heaven’s Gate Quad and Lincoln Peak. Basically everything was open off Heaven’s Gate. Jester was groomed and they were making snow on Organgrinder, but it was open and had plenty of coverage. All of the other runs were natural snow only and they were thin. While it was tempting to check out Paradise, the view of Sigi’s Ripcord from Heaven’s Gate left me hesitant, so I didn’t. The only natural snow only trail I really skied multiple times was Downspout and it was pretty rough, but you know what? I didn’t get a single core shot so I’ll count that as a win.
Organgrinder.
Organgrinder.
Jester was fine. Most people were skiing it, which means it was pretty well scraped off in places. Organgrinder, on the other hand, was my run of the day. The run was empty and, while they were making snow on it, I found the quality of the snow to be pretty fun to carve through, especially along the right side. Near the very end of the run it did start to get a little heavy and sticky, but that’s the only area that had issues.
Murphy’s Glade.
Off Gadd Peak, they had Murphy’s Glade open and then a few runs below that connecting to the base. There were also a couple of natural snow only runs open, of which I’d say Domino had the best coverage. The natural snow only portion of Murphy’s Glade was nice to cruise through, but the bottom of the run was a constant source of congestion as people were funneled on to Lower Jester. Like Jester off Lincoln Peak, there were some areas on the trails going to the base that were nice and scraped off.
Overall, today was a pretty good day of skiing and I can safely say Sugarbush has redeemed itself after what was a very rough start to last season. I’m glad to see it, because I really enjoy skiing here. It’ll probably be a few weeks until I return, but who knows. I may be back sooner.
Tomorrow I’ll be skiing Whiteface after work. They’re normally not open week days before Thanksgiving, but this year they will be. I’m planning to ski there through Wednesday and then I'll take Thanksgiving day off. Next weekend I’m hoping to finally make it to Jay Peak.
Never Quit Skiing,
Lincoln