Sugarbush Resort

Damon and Sara Gadd purchased the Ulla Lodge in December 1952, and in spring 1957 Damon Gadd applied for a lease of National Forest land on Lincoln Peak to develop a ski area; construction commenced April 28, 1958, per New England Ski History's Sugarbush history page. In 1958, Damon Gadd and Jack Murphy founded Sugarbush Ski Area on the northeast side of Lincoln Peak in the town of Warren; a three-seat gondola was installed that was, at the time, the nation's longest lift, per Wikipedia's "Warren, Vermont" article. Sugarbush's original 1958-59 lift infrastructure was a 9,300-foot gondola with 88 three-person cabins imported from Italy, plus a novice T-bar; the gondola likely opened December 27, 1958, a few days after the T-bar's debut. For the 1959-60 season, a new Carlevaro & Savio double chairlift was installed on the peak that became known as Castlerock, which quickly developed a reputation for excellent expert skiing. By the late 1950s Sugarbush had also earned the nickname "Mascara Mountain," for attracting a wealthy, fashion-conscious New York clientele; the earliest known reference traces to Hartford Courant writers Dot Birmingham and Walt Pesko in March 1959. The Valley House Double chairlift was installed for the 1960-61 season, giving lower-level skiers access via a new, wider trail named Snowball. In February 1962, Walter Elliott announced initial financing and land options to develop a separate ski area north of Sugarbush, on Mount Ellen and General Stark Mountain, which became Glen Ellen. On April 3, 1963, Sugarbush ski school director Peter Estin was found dead in his hotel room at age 35, leaving four children. On January 14, 1964, Sugarbush ski shop owner Sig Buchmayr, 57, was killed in a car accident in Hopewell Junction, New York. On May 1, 1964, Sugarbush announced that world champion racer Stein Eriksen had been hired as its next ski school director; a Village Double chairlift was added for the 1964-65 season to accompany the expansion. On February 27, 1965, a grip on Sugarbush's gondola loosened and a cabin fell an estimated 18 feet, hospitalizing two passengers. On December 15, 1972, the summit terminal of Sugarbush's gondola was destroyed by fire. The Gadds sold Sugarbush in 1977 for a reported $4.2 million to Roy Cohen, operating through his company Solon Automated Services. In the late 1970s, Solon Automated Services purchased the separate Glen Ellen ski area for a reported $2.4 million and renamed it Sugarbush North. The 2013-14 season was marketed as Mount Ellen's 50th anniversary and Sugarbush's 55th, dating Glen Ellen/Mount Ellen's opening to approximately 1963-64. ARA Services Inc. (later Aramark) acquired Solon Automated Services and Sugarbush following the 1982-83 season, owning it from 1983 to 1986. Claneil Enterprises purchased Sugarbush from ARA Services in 1986 for $14.5 million and transformed it into a four-season resort facility, owning it until 1994. In October 1994, Les Otten's LBO Resort Enterprises Corp. purchased Sugarbush from Claneil Enterprises for $9.1 million, and in 1996 LBO Resort Enterprises was rolled into American Skiing Company. Under American Skiing Company's ownership, Sugarbush received seven new lifts and a 300% expansion of snowmaking capacity, according to Wikipedia's Sugarbush Resort article. For the 1995-96 season, four new quad chairlifts were installed: the Slide Brook Express, Gatehouse Express, Super Bravo Express, and North Ridge Express, plus the North Lynx Triple, in what the source calls the single biggest off-season lift transformation in modern ski resort history. The Slide Brook Express, built in 1995 to link Sugarbush's Lincoln Peak (South) and Mount Ellen (North) sections by lift for the first time, is a 3.4-kilometer four-seater chairlift described as the world's longest chairlift, according to Neilson Active Holidays. In October 2001, Summit Ventures NE, Inc., headed by Win Smith (son of Merrill Lynch partner Winthrop H. Smith Sr.), purchased Sugarbush from American Skiing Company; Smith moved to Vermont full-time and took over day-to-day management of the resort in 2004. The legendary Castlerock Double chairlift was replaced for the 2001-02 season, and a new Green Mountain Express was installed for 2002-03. On November 14, 2019, Win Smith announced the sale of Sugarbush Resort to Denver-based Alterra Mountain Company, with the sale price kept private; Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory said, "Their local strategy and tactics, and our large platform and larger-scale business model, I think, will make a great combination," per NBC Boston's November 14, 2019 report. The acquisition closed in January 2020. The Valley House Double was replaced with a quad chairlift for the 2015-16 season, and the Village and Sunnyside double chairlifts were replaced with quads for 2017-18. The Heaven's Gate Triple chairlift, originally installed in 1984-85, was replaced with a fixed-grip quad for the 2024-25 season.