Sugar Mountain Resort is replacing a piece of its original 1969 infrastructure with a new glass building at the top of the mountain.
The North Carolina ski area announced Sept. 22 that its original Summit House has been demolished and a complete rebuild is underway. According to Sugar Mountain Resort, the replacement will be a 5,400-square-foot glass structure at the resort’s 5,300-foot summit, with ski and snowboard patrol space on the lower level and a year-round restaurant upstairs.
The resort describes the second-floor restaurant as a “mid-to-upper-tier” operation with expansive views across the North Carolina High Country. Sugar Mountain has not yet announced a name for the restaurant or provided an opening date for the new Summit House.
Replacing a Building That Dates Back to Sugar Mountain’s Beginning
The old Summit House dated to the same year Sugar Mountain itself opened.
Development of the mountain began in early 1969, according to a history published by the Village of Sugar Mountain, and the ski slopes opened for the first time on Dec. 19, 1969.
Today, Sugar Mountain is North Carolina’s largest winter resort, with 125 skiable acres and a summit elevation of 5,300 feet. The mountain has 20 slopes and roughly 1,200 feet of vertical.
Sugar was also one of the first ski areas in the Southeast to get moving last winter. As Unofficial Networks reported, Sugar Mountain opened for the 2025-26 season on Nov. 11 after a combination of natural snow and aggressive snowmaking.
The Summit House Is Not Sugar’s Only Upgrade
The new restaurant is the most visible project, but Sugar Mountain is making several other improvements ahead of the 2026-27 season.
The resort replaced 1,800 feet of older snowmaking pipe along Laurel Lane and installed three fully automated SMI Super PoleCat snowguns. The new guns are positioned on Flying Mile, Little Nell and Fanny Hill. Sugar also added a new PistenBully 600 Winch Cat to its grooming fleet.
The resort is also working toward converting all of its slope lighting to LED, with the project now about halfway complete.
Meanwhile, muralist Ashley Roberts has finished a three-phase project on the Summit Express parking garage. One wall now features an oversized trail map, while another depicts American ski racer Spider Sabich racing down Sugar Mountain’s Tom Terrific during the 1970s.
The improvements arrive as North Carolina prepares for another ski season under updated rules. North Carolina’s revised winter sports law takes effect Oct. 1 and includes new requirements covering trail inspections, surface condition reporting and snowmaking equipment.
Sugar Mountain typically aims to begin its winter season in early to mid-November, depending on weather and snowmaking conditions.
