Former owner Win Smith takes spot on Sugarbush Wall of Fame

Former owner Win Smith speaks during his Sugarbush Wall of Fame ceremony on Dec. 14, 2024. (Sugarbush Resort)

The Sugarbush community gathered Dec. 14 to honor former owner Win Smith with a spot on the Sugarbush Wall of Fame during a ceremony at Gate House Lodge.

Smith owned Sugarbush from shortly before the start of the 2001-02 ski season, purchasing it from the American Skiing Company, until January 2020, when the resort was sold to Alterra Mountain Company.

During Smith’s tenure, more than $70 million was invested into Sugarbush, including seven new lifts, snowmaking upgrades, a complete remodeling of the Lincoln Peak base area and a number of real estate developments including Rice Brook and Gadd Brook.

The Wall of Fame inducted its first class in 2019 and celebrates the people who have helped shaped the resort since it opened in 1958.

“When we created the Wall of Fame, it was just not to recognize the obvious people like the people who built it and founded it like the Gadds and Walter Elliot, but to actually ask all of you to nominate people that we might not necessarily be aware of,” Smith said during his acceptance speech. “Some wonderful names come out, like the ‘The Mailman’ (Wayne McCue) that competed in every Castlerock Extreme, Barbara King, M.A. Raymond, David Gould, and you can go on and on.

“That’s what this place has been about it. It’s been so special over the years to have a community, and it still is a community.”

He thanked his Summit Ventures NE partner, Adam Greshin, who is now the commissioner of the Vermont Department of Finance in Management.

Smith also gave credit to Alterra for the way it has treated the mountain since it took ownership, saying Alterra has stayed true to its word and been able to provide capital in numbers that he wouldn’t have been able to.

He said the new Valley House quad and a replacement pumphouse combined to cost about $3 million in 2015, while the recently installed Heaven’s Gate fixed-grip quad cost about $8.5 million.

Sugarbush communications manager John Bleh and 2019 inductee Darian Bryant served as masters of ceremony for the event.