1.23.2019 Sugarbush Resort
Overview
I love Vermont. Like the bumper sticker. It has the nicest, quaint New England towns in all of New England. I’m not sure what happened to New Hampshire. Maine has some nice small towns, but is far more coastal and focused on the ocean. Vermont’s center of activity over the past two centuries has been farms and towns, and they do both very well. They do ski resorts well too. I’d been to Sugarbush before as a kid, but not in years. As I got older, I frequented Stowe, which I would still argue is the better of the two, but the reality is I haven’t been there in almost twenty years. I did hear that the Alchemist and Heady Topper moved there, so I suspect it is still an unbeatable place. I heard on a chairlift recently that they still serve sushi at apres at the Matterhorn, by far my favorite apres before I’d experience St. Anton. But that’s for another day.
Parking
Local Knowledge:
The skiing was great. We had just had that 18 inch storm (that I missed because of frostbite from Tremblant) and the whole mountain was blanketed. One thing that struck me about Sugarbush was the fact that it felt like I had to climb up to the slope from the terminus of the lifts. And it felt like it was true on most of them. I kept thinking to myself it was a terrible place to have a snowboard. But overall the terrain was good, but what I liked most was that it is in Vermont. Vermont is just cool.
How to get around
Eating:
I also got some great tips on where to ski and where to eat. Neither disappointed. I knew they wouldn’t since they were from Brad, a former housemate from Stowe who knows good skiing and good food. The tacos at Sugarbush are not to be missed. The place is amazing. Hipster street tacos. White guys with beards making authentic Mexican. I have a feeling they think they do it better than Mexicans. And they might. They certainly put more thought and effort into every detail. I don’t know how you call that street food when there is that much effort, but I guess they need to be dedicated to keep up with the street vendors in Mexico. They are hard to beat. I used to eat them despite knowing full well the consequences. Like Steinbeck.
Drinking:
Lawson’s Famous Liquids. Not quite Heady Topper, but a close second and a cool tasting room and vibe. Food looked good. And I bought a hat, and some beer, which is saying something.
Accommodation:
Part of the reason I had such a good experience on the trip to Sugarbush was the accommodations I found at the hostel in Warren. It was EXACTLY what I was looking for on this trip, and something I didn’t think existed on the East Coast. I found it by typing in ‘hostel’ or ‘ski dorm’ and that is exactly what it was. There were definitely some variations from the norm; the place didn’t have any common kitchen area, so there was nowhere to keep food cold, and no kitchen where you could ccok. But the place made up for it by having one of the better burgers I’ve had, and I’m a self-described connoisseur. The place had great burgers, and a great bar. The bar was clearly popular with the locals, and they were up to speed on the local craft beers, with a great list on tap and in cans. The vibe of the place felt very hostel-ly, with the good and the bad that hostels have to offer with shared bedrooms and living spaces.
There were a few other guys staying there when I was there. An older guy from Canada, and another from Michigan. The guy from Michigan was almost a caricature of the guy you don’t want to be staying in a hostel with you. He turned out to be OK, and a nice guy, but was rough around the edges, and was the kind of guy you wondered whether he was choosing to be there or needed to be there. That’s what makes the difference sometimes. My immediate judgement of him went against everything I have been working on and trying to change in my being. He was a good skier, and really knowledgeable about the US and roadtrips. Clearly he had been on many. He also was a bit dogmatic and a bit much at times. But a nice guy, and I felt a bit of shame. Somehow I ended up in a room with him. It was big, but the others all had their own spaces since the hostel was pretty empty. It feels like that happens all the time.
That said, everyone got the vibe from him. That unsafe feeling, especially when he was drinking, about what was going to happen next. I sort of bonded with the other guy there who was a nurse, and had been a wilderness guide for years before nursing school. He was very knowlegable about the West, and gave me some great tips for my trip, mostly about hot springs and beers along the way. Really nice guy, and another I would have likely blown off before I started being more interested. I learned some good tips from him.
Anyway, back to the review. The place was good. And cheap. And close to the mountain. It was exactly what I wanted.
Conclusion: