Just got back from our first trip to Sugarbush (wife and two kids, five and eight). Despite shaky conditions, we all had a great time and are thinking about making a return trip this year maybe in February (Presidents' Weekend) when we can experience the whole mountain. The terrain looks great and I like the feel of two seperate mountains.

We were especially impressed with the ski school. My kids have been to several (including Vail, Bretton Woods, etc..) and this was their favorite, even though they were mostly stuck on the Welcome Mat for 3 days (though my daughter progressed past that level by day 3). Instructors and ski school heads were great and my kids, who are usually somewhat reluctant to go to ski school, couldn't wait to go back each day. In fact, we thought all of the moutain staff was great (as friendly as we've encountered anywhere).

What was open, I thought skied well. We were supposed to ski Saturday but bagged it because of the rain (though the kids did a half day of ski school). Wife and I skied ME Sunday morning and LP in the afternoon. X-Mas day, we skied LP in the morning and then both took private lessons in the afternoon. Skied 1/2 yesterday before driving back to Philly.

We stayed in the Glades condos which were very nice and convenient. We also really liked the MRV and had a couple of great meals at the Common Man and American Flatbread.

Just wanted to thank all you regular posters here as that is where I got most of my info and updates for our trip.

We are thinking President's Weekend for a return trip. I know that is usually a bad weekend to ski because of the crowds but my impression is that Sugarbush isn't nearly as bad as the Southern Vermont mountains. Can anyone tell what President's weekend would be like from a crowd standpoint? I imagine the two mountains helps spread things out a little.

I've been at Sugarbush with my family for the last 4 President week holidays. It is shocking how little crowding there is. Don't tell anyone.

Sorry, Howie T2. We are going to tell a few more people. However, as we know the beauty of this mountain is that when all the terrain is open and all the lifts are running, we rarely have more than a 10 minute lift line anywhere and the crowd gets spread out.

Thank you, Golfing Owl, for your nice comments, and we look forward to seeing you back her at The Bush when you can experience all that we have.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your visit. All resorts are pretty busy during any of the holiday periods. The Bush does spread people out plus we have have more quads(7)(5 are HS) than just about every resort in NE which also helps reduce the lift line. The third thing that helps is that the lift system is set up in pods vs funneling everyone down to a very crowded base area.

I like to park and take my breaks over at Mt Ellen, considerably less crowded than LP. Since the inter-mountain lift will be running getting back and forth is very easy. I ski all day and never have to go down to the LP base area. All the ski school programs except for the learn to ski programs are available at Mt. Ellen.

Thanks Howie and Ski Resort Observer. I know holidays will be crowded but as I suspected, Sugarbush is probably better than most places as far as crowds go. 10 mintue lift lines? Ha! Have you ever skied the Poconos on a weekend?

Thanks Win. I sent you a PM.

Glad you had a good trip!

By all means, do come back up when we are full open. You won't believe the amount of skiing there is, here.

If you're not careful... you might have fun!