"The Myth of Sugarbush"

I owe an apology to Benjamin Kulas for quoting him and using his name without his permission. It was insensitive of me and I will take care in the future before naming anyone without prior consultation.

Glenn Stephens

[Greg]

Wow. This is certainly an entertaining thread and I'd be interested on getting the reaction of the recent SB RSN transplants here. While I'm a big believer in "picking your battles", Northbay does have some interesting points here; not that I would have ever gone to his extent though...

So does the Slidebrook run any more frequently these days?

[bvibert]

Holy crap, thats a lot of reading! And I thought TB wrote long TRs And this uses colors too, I think it was TB in disguise...

[ski_resort_observer]

I worked at the Bush during the ASC regime 97-2001 after millions were invested to upgrade the lift system including the construction of Slidebrook. I also worked this past winter under Summit Ventures.

This problem IMHO was caused by poor customer service. Many resorts do not operate some lifts/services during midweek non-holiday as a cost saving measure. Anyone coming to the Bush should be told or made aware of this before they put down their money, most consider it an inconvenience but if they thought Slidebrook would be open and it was not they should be offered the option of a voucher with incentives or in this case a full refund.

Ironically, back in the ASC days for the first hour if for any reason you did not like the skiing/riding you got a voucher for another day.

About marketing. Unless your Rip Van Winkler I think everyone knows that the marketing departments of any business is to convince and sometimes deceive people into coming to their business.

In 1998/99(?) the Bush produced and used in their brochure a composite photo making it look like the trails on Mt. Ellen and Lincoln Peak were next to each other. As a professional photographer and Sugarbush employee I raised a royal stink about it. They did stop using it but I did see it being used somewhere last year.

I have made this suggestion many times to Sugarbush upper management and I will repeat it here cause I know at least one person in that group does post here. Offer a lower midweek all mountain day use ticket, no Slidebrook is just one of the reasons for doing this. Since midweek day ticket sales are such a small number, people who have midweek ski/stay packages get hefty discounts, it would not cost the resort much in light of the theory that a happy customer is a good thing.

Lastly, your myth is really not a myth. We are all treated badly at one time or another by our bank, utility company, whatever. It's part of the world we live in. If you want to take it to the "supreme court" ...that's cool. Me, I got better things to do with my time. Good luck.

[Tin Woodsman]

Originally Posted by Greg

Wow. This is certainly an entertaining thread and I'd be interested on getting the reaction of the recent SB RSN transplants here. While I'm a big believer in "picking your battles", Northbay does have some interesting points here; not that I would have ever gone to his extent though...

So does the Slidebrook run any more frequently these days?

The policy was pretty much the same all year. They only run it during weekenda dn holidays. Given the low ridership numbers, I don't think anyone can blame them. But even as a loyal SB skier, I have to admit the deception rankles me somewhat. Just come out and speak the truth, and any potential issue would be defused! That said, I take issue with the ridership numbers stated by Ben Kulas. Whenever I ride that lift, or traverse under it, I always see people on it. Not a lot mind you, but it's certainly more than 100/day on weekends and holidays.

[bvibert]

The only time I ever went to Sugarbush I spent the whole time at Ellen, partly because I was expecting the Slide Brook Express to be open. I didn't feel like taking a shuttle... I was pretty dissapointed to find out they only ran it on the weekends..

[thetrailboss]

Yep....good old Slide Brook closings Not a new concept.

[Strat]

Originally Posted by ski_resort_observer

In 1998/99(?) the Bush produced and used in their brochure a composite photo making it look like the trails on Mt. Ellen and Lincoln Peak were next to each other. As a professional photographer and Sugarbush employee I raised a royal stink about it. They did stop using it but I did see it being used somewhere last year.

I remember that... first saw it in the Waitsfield Telecom phonebook, and was rather annoyed and amazed that they would do such a thing... saw it last year on skivermont.com, had it favorited for a while but I think I got rid of it...

[Lostone]

From the beginning, last year it was said that they would operate Slidebrook weekends and holidays, only.

I thought it was on the map, but I just checked and it is not. I think that is wrong, as it was part of the plan. It should also be in their brochures as such.

People rightly get upset when they come to a place following advertised items and find them not to be. When that happens, it leaves them with a bad taste for that place and they may not return.

[vtskibum]

well now....

that is a lot of reading (ranting) but worth the time...

I first skied here in 1982 and became a pretty regular SBush skier in 1986 (first ski house here)....

and ummmmm well not sure I have seen an accurate snow/lift report in that time

let me think....

not sure I have seen one from pretty much any mountain I have skied in the east or the west except maybe MRG...

Let's face it folks, business is about marketing and marketing is about getting you here. That said (and being an ex-marketing person) there are both good ways and bad ways to spin the truth....

In some ways I have grown insensitive to what SBush tells us and ski it for what it is...

awesome terrain. as to the shuttle bus, very handy when needing a ride on GFlats road but can't claim to have wasted the 1/2 hour or so to switch sides on it because it is NOT "as quick as the lift" no matter how you count it...

It has been over a year since we have had SBrook lift running 7 days and I have learned to deal with that. As to being told the truth versus the marketing spin, I have learned to deal with that as well.....