Did you go to the chat with Win? How do you feel it went?

I got there a little late, so I don't know what happened in the first part, but I didn't leave until a little after 6:00, so it went on for quite a while.

There were 16 people there, some who ski, and some who didn't.

I thought it was a frank discussion of any issues that anyone had, with the invitation to email Win with any issues that weren't brought up or which come up, as time goes by. I thought it was quite good.

Did you go?

If so, what did you think... besides the fact that so many people showed up?

Thank you to those of you who took the time to attend our session. I appreciated your comments and questions and hope that I was able to better clarify what our vision for Sugarbush is and what we have done. I invite anyone to email me directly with any questions or comments. (wsmith@sugarbush.com).

With luck we will will be able to keep Lincoln Peak going through Sunday the 9th of April as scheduled, and it is looking good to keep Mount Ellen open further into April at this point. We will last as long as Mother Nature allows.

On the 10th of April, we will start to take down the Gatehouse lodge inorder to build the new Gatehouse lodge that will be ready by next season's opening. In addition to a brand new and expanded cafeteria on the second floor, we will have a new Castle Rock Pub with an outdoor grill for sunny and warm days on the first floor as well as more locker and storage space. Across the plaza will be the new Timbers Restaurant that will be attached to the Claybrook residences. (a rendering of this was posted recently on skimrv) This 140 seat restaurant will be open to all year round for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Valley House building will stay standing next year and the first floor cafeteria space will be open to use, but all food service will move to the new and larger gatehouse. In the future years the Valley House lodge will be torn down. The gatehouse and Timbers will have more seating that what is currently availabe in the existing Valley and Gatehouse lodges.

The last day for the Mushroom is next Sunday, April 2nd. Also, Pond skimming will be next Saturday at the bottom of Spring Fling at Lincoln Peak.

It looks like the bottom of The Rock has had it, but we will will post patrol up there again tomorrow and keep the trails open and accessible by hiking from Heaven's Gate as long as we can.

Thank you Win for suggesting the meeting. I'm anxious to see the feedback posted here. I wish I could have attended but I was actually home by the time it began. I'm excited to see the rebirth of Sugarbush and hopefully SkiMRV.com and AlpineZone.com can become some part of its success! So who kept minutes of the meeting?

BTW, Middle Earth was sweet yesterday. I was psyched to see the double spinning.

The meeting was quite positive and a worthy opportunity. Win took a bit of a risk by doing this, and I think he came across very well. Offering the meeting showed leadership and confidence in the vision for the next few years. I was able to ask my questions and thought he answered as openly as could be expected. Also felt he genuinely wanted to engage the 'loyalists' and listened to some not-quite-pleasant comments.

This meeting was a model for what should become a regular thing. I think we all agree Sugarbush IS different. Not being owned by a faceless company means it's a more personal type of resort, and the personal aspect is definitely something to build upon. Win's example in this regard is and would be a slam dunk. You directly engage the customers, you go a long way towards enrolling them in your cause. You also get high quality feedback.

Some of the discussion revolved around negative perceptions in the market-place about snow-making issues or travel distance to the resort, etc. I liked the response: "Perception is reality, and that's what we need to work on". That's a much better approach than citing 1000 reasons why something was disappointing to the customer. Frankly, they don't care about the reasons.

Building out Claybrook and the new gate house is a done deal and will vastly improve facilities by next season. Rolling out ensuing buildings will happen over time. There is rationality to the plan - financial risk of an overly-aggressive roll-out looks minimized.

As far as broken lifts are concerned, the answer really came down to some bad luck with the Gate House at absolutely the worst times. I sure hope so. At least the issue was addressed.

Regarding the Blue Tooth - while I still think something could have been worked out, I do agree with the 2 key reasons for not being in the nightclub business: you need to be extremely 'hands-on' in that business (a nice way of saying it's hard to keep the cash in the register) and the liability issue creeps ever higher. I think ultimately a night spot is an important part of any resort, and something a resort would want to control. So be it.

Thanks again Win, it went very well. Making yourself accessible is much appreciated. Oh, and how about that skiing? This weekend was one of the best.

Thanks Win!

I agree with what was said above. My only observation is that Win has said repeatedly that he hopes to build a thriving buisness that other business people would build on and hopefully open a night club. After thinking about it my only suggestions is in the base area if a said person/group do come forward is there land or part of one of your or the village buildings that could be leased to this group? Just dreaming now. If that large space was identified then maybe a local or if no one comes forward a national group like Marriot or Clear Water Productions would be willing to manage and run it.

Thank for the hard work to keep Castlerock open!!! Rumble skied really fun.

Win- Thank you for taking the time to meet with all of us and for the beer.

Not only was the meeting informative, but it reinforced my feeling that the 'bush is under good stewardship and has a good plan going forward.

I made it home yesterday in 4 hours which is 30-60 minutes quicker than the standard directions to the NY area. I will forward the route via e-mail.

Hope to see you all next year.

HowieT2 wrote:

I made it home yesterday in 4 hours which is 30-60 minutes quicker than the standard directions to the NY area. I will forward the route via e-mail.

I'm always interested in hearing about route experiences to SB/MRV....primarily from Albany NY on up....as there's about 3-4 "doors" one can choose.

I don't know about the best route from Albany as I am coming from Northern Westchester county, but would be interested to know any way from route 22. Currently I take 22 to 7 (NY) East to 297 to 7 (VT) north and then through Rutland via 4 to 100 North. Would love to be able to cut Rutland out of the equation.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to make it, though I would have loved to.

Can someone who was there for all/most of it take a stab at giving a rough play by play if you recall?

Is the plan to make the Blue Tooth site subsidized housing?

mikec13 wrote:

Is the plan to make the Blue Tooth site subsidized housing?

Subsidized is not the right word. Affordable housing- (I suspect 'affordable' means the sale price starts with a "1" and has only 6 digits instead of 7!) a mix of single family and apartment/duplex style if I remember right. The current building will be razed first. It is a fairly large lot- not just the site of the current building, but adjoining land as well.

Win did say there are plans for some apres-ski activities at the base area in both "Timbers" and the new Castlerock Pub at Gatehouse.

(If and when there is another meeting, I pledge to take minutes and make them available by email!)

noski wrote:

mikec13 wrote: Is the plan to make the Blue Tooth site subsidized housing? Subsidized is not the right word. Affordable housing- (I suspect 'affordable' means the sale price starts with a "1" and has only 6 digits instead of 7!) a mix of single family and apartment/duplex style if I remember right. The current building will be razed first. It is a fairly large lot- not just the site of the current building, but adjoining land as well.

...on this project ? They would be interesting to see, even if only preliminary or sketches....

noski wrote:

mikec13 wrote: Is the plan to make the Blue Tooth site subsidized housing? Subsidized is not the right word. Affordable housing- (I suspect 'affordable' means the sale price starts with a "1" and has only 6 digits instead of 7!) a mix of single family and apartment/duplex style if I remember right. The current building will be razed first. It is a fairly large lot- not just the site of the current building, but adjoining land as well. Win did say there are plans for some apres-ski activities at the base area in both "Timbers" and the new Castlerock Pub at Gatehouse. (If and when there is another meeting, I pledge to take minutes and make them available by email!)

Do you know if there are income requirements for the housing?

Just to be clear. Sugarbush has contracted to sell (subject to permitting) The Blue Tooth and additional adjacent land to an entity called Housing Vermont, and they will be building affordable housing. Sugarbush does have input on the aesthetics of the look from the Access Road.

Here is a link to Housing Vermont
http://www.hvt.org/