Warren, Vermont — Last season wasn’t the smoothest sailing for Sugarbush Resort. Lift maintenance issues late in the season impacted operations at Mt. Ellen, with extended closures of the Green Mountain and North Ridge chairlifts. Following that, Sugarbush is eyeing its next lift replacement in 2027.
Yesterday, Sugarbush Resort announced over $5 million in offseason upgrades, plus a big project on the horizon. This includes new snowguns on Jester, chairlift projects, and a new lounge.
The biggest offseason project is arguably the new snowguns on the Jester trail. Twenty-seven new tower guns have been added to the intermediate trail off the top of Lincoln Peak.
In the Lincoln Peak base area, Sugarbush will debut The Sunshine Lounge on December 19th, which replaces the Wunderbar. The new partnership with Lawson’s Finest Liquids will feature various events throughout the winter.
For lift projects, they replaced GMX’s drive, replaced the haul rope on Super Bravo, and added seat pans, pads, and footrests to the Gate House Quad.
The Golf Course, which was struck by a fire that destroyed its clubhouse in 2025, saw various upgrades. Included in this were the addition of a new Clubhouse, Pro Shop, and new maintenance buildings. It was a successful operation this past summer, with near-record golf rounds.
Other upgrades include trail edging, glade maintenance, a new roof at Mt. Ellen’s lodge, new carpeting at The Farmhouse and Gate House, new furniture at Rumbles, improvements to the Valley House, and annual maintenance work.
North Ridge
Also notable from their offseason project announcement is what they have planned for next offseason. Sugarbush announced that it intends to replace its North Ridge Express. The detachable high-speed quad chairlift was originally installed at the first Green Mountain Express in 1990, but then was moved to its current location in 1995. While North Ridge was refurbished by Doppelmayr in 2014, it’s been showing its age, as it had a prolonged closure last winter.
The plan is to replace it with a new detachable high-speed quad chairlift. According to their approved Act 250 permit, the lift will follow the same alignment, with grading planned around the top and bottom terminals. More details about the project will be announced in the months ahead.
This will be the second chairlift replacement made during Alterra’s tenure. The first was replacing the Heaven’s Gate triple with a fixed-grip quad chairlift in 2024. Other recent lift projects at Sugarbush include the KBRA T-Bar in 2020 and the Easy Up carpet in 2025.
Image/Video Credits: Sugarbush Resort
