The "Sugarbush Thread"

[HowieT2]

How far is your drive? I'm always happen to venture out for food, but I live in a suburb of NYC and 40 minutes from the NJ Shore. It's tough for me to motivate to make the 5.5 hour (each way) drive when there's no snow on the ground.

I was kind of kidding. My drive is 4.5 hours and I came up to the valley for more than stuffing my face. Mountain biking, hiking, paddling, swimming. Didnt make it to the MTN though. I do prefer being in the mountains than the beach.

 

[kbroderick]

I think the market has evolved away from lift served mountain biking in the last 10-15 years. There are so many alternatives that are free and better. The trails in the valley are light years ahead of what they were years ago, not to mention what's available in the region as a whole.

I would note that there is a parallel to backcountry skiing insofar as technical skill development is much quicker with lift service (and doubly so for those of us who don't have cyclist-level aerobic capacity).

In general, improved features on local trail systems definitely narrow the gap in overall experience, but I don't think downhill biking in a park environment is going to disappear anytime soon. I could see lift access eventually being less of a thing and people just relying on e-bikes to ascend work roads, but the combination of trail crew, trail and feature density, and lap-ability with the uphill rest period is different than riding a trail system (plus there's the presence of patrol, which is a significant benefit when there are so many big features).

I certainly don't think there is or ever will be as much market for lift-served MTB as there is for lift-served skiing in Vermont. Not only are you competing against a free option that's more similar than xc/bc skiing, but you don't have the same weather advantage over points south, and the larger ski areas in northern New England all rely heavily on proximity to larger population centers.