Why Sugarbush is such a perfect fit for New England skiers seeking a challenge

Sugarbush is one of the biggest resorts in New England. (Jeb-Wallace Brodeur)

It might not have a catchy nickname or a massive après scene, but Sugarbush takes a back seat to no one.

Spread across two mountains in Warren, Vt., — with the Slide Brook Express Quad, the world’s longest (more than 2 miles) and fastest detachable quad in the world, connecting the two — Sugarbush offers 111 trails and 484 acres.

The bulk of the action is at Lincoln Peak, and Glen Ellen was once its own ski area before becoming Sugarbush North in 1979. A celebration of the 60th anniversary of Glen Ellen started on Jan. 27 and runs through the rest of the season.

For the expert skier, Castlerock is the section to visit. Narrowly cut trails with natural snow on ungroomed terrain, it has some of the resort’s best-known trails, including Rumble, Liftline, Middle Earth and Castlerock. The double chair with chairs spaced far apart keeps the traffic down, and its glacial speed provides a welcome rest after putting in some hard work.

Heaven’s Gate Triple, which will be replaced by a fixed-grip quad to highlight the 2024-25 capital investments, heads to the top of Lincoln Peak, 2,400 vertical feet from the base. Let everyone check out your super-G turns on Sigi’s Ripcord, while Organgrinder uses the old gondola line. For those wanting more bumped up terrain, Paradise is the play. For intermediates, Jester, with its twists and turns, is a good way down the 2,400 vertical feet.

The Super Bravo Express Quad is the workhorse lift at Sugarbush. It runs from the base to the top of Gadd Peak, covering the lower two-thirds of the vertical drop on the Lincoln Peak side. It leads to an intermediate playground with Birdland, Murphy’s Glade, Lower Jester and Downspout — the way to go if looking to tackle the top half of the mountain.

The Allyn Lodge at the top of Super Bravo is a good place for an on-mountain break or bite to eat.

On weekdays, it is also the way to the Valley House section of the mountain. That quad typically runs only on weekends to take some pressure off Super Bravo. The highlight there is Stein’s Run, a double black named for Olympic gold medalist and former director of Sugarbush Ski School Stein Eriksen. There was a large pod of whales lining down the skier’s left when I recently visited, ensuring a solid spring.

The intermediate Spring Fling is nice and wide and a great place to carve some giant slalom turns.

On the right side of Lincoln Peak as you look up the mountain from the base is the Gate House Express Quad, which leads to Sugarbush’s freestyle park on Slowpoke and the short Valley Quad is for beginners.

At the top of Gate House, there are a couple trails down, or you can take the slow North Lynx Triple, which leads to three trails or take Slide Brook Express over to Glen Ellen. Sugarbush has not opened Slide Brook yet, but is touting that it should be ready soon. There always is a shuttle that goes back and forth between the two bases.

The trails over on the Mount Ellen side are often not as crowded, especially on a weekend as Lincoln Peak is the more popular and built up of the bases.

If the Olympics had ever been held in Vermont in the ’70s, chances are F.I.S. to Lower F.I.S. would have been the downhill course.

It takes two lifts to reach the 4,003-foot summit of Mount Ellen. The Green Mountain Express Quad goes up the first three-quarters of the way and accesses all types of terrain, with beginners able to make their way down North Star, the highest circle terrain on either side.

At the top of the Green Mountain Express is the Glen House, good for warming up or stopping to eat. One can then either take the Summit Quad to the top and try the F.I.S. or the intermediate Rim Run, or ski down to the North Ridge Express Quad, which goes most of the way to the top and leads to the double black Exterminator.

There are plenty of trees to be had, but don’t expect a green light or red light from ski patrol. It is all at user’s discretion. Guide services are available to ski in the Slide Brook Basin.

Determining whether or not a trail is open or closed, Sugarbush is more likely to allow that trail to be open compared to other mountains. It is something to keep in mind on trails away from lifts that you might not get a visual inspection before skiing it.

Owned by Alterra Mountain Company, Sugarbush is on the Ikon Pass with an unlimited amount of days with no blackout dates, while the Ikon Base Pass offers an unlimited number of days, but blacks out the period between Christmas and New Year’s and the Saturday and Sunday of Martin Luther King Jr. weekend and President’s Day weekend.

When in the base village at Lincoln Peak, there is a gate that you can walk through that shows whether or not your pass works that day. Finding out there is an issue before you even start booting up is easier than finding out 45 seconds before boarding a lift that you need to have customer service help you out.

The lack of green circle terrain toward the upper half of either side would be a put-off to many, when there are plenty of other resorts that have a trail that meanders along the shoulder. But for the intermediate and expert skier, it’s hard to top Sugarbush, even on a day when the top 400 feet or so were socked in.