Sugar Mountain: Big Vert!

It takes a long look to savor Sugar's impressive slopes - and this Winter, skiers have been savoring the vista for forty years. Runs drop 1,200 vertical feet—greatest in the High Country. The resort’s mile-and-a-half run from the top is one of the region’s longest. The Village of Sugar Mountain surrounds the slopes.

Sugar rises from 4,100 feet to more than a mile high. Two double chairlifts whisk skiers to a jaw-dropping summit view from Tennessee to Virginia and on to Grandfather Mountain and Mount Mitchell.

Take in that big picture perspective on the popular North Ridge and Switchback intermediate slopes. From there, Upper and Lower Flying Mile whisk you to the base lodge to complete that mile-and-a-half run. On the way, Sugar Slalom lies off to the right and the mountain’s surface lift-served terrain park veers off left.

Expert options start at the top, too. Go left from the summit lifts, where Tom Terrific and Boulder Dash plummet off the face. Take a right, slide through the “Experts’ Only” gate (if you dare)—and plunge down Sugar’s steepest, longest drop—double black diamond WhoopDeDoo (Click here for a Sugar Mtn. Trail Map).

Across the lower mountain, intermediate Big Birch is a nice warmup with its own triple chairlift. Real beginners have a conveyor lift beside the ski and snowboard school, another of Sugar’s strong points. Easy Street is an entire separate area of beginner slopes with its own double chairlift. Higher up at mid-mountain, the rolling cruiser, intermediate Big Red, is also set off with a separate double chair.

Sugar’s festively-lit lodge has everything in one place, including a cafeteria, lounge, ski rentals and the Sugar Mountain Winter Sports Shop. The lodge also offers the mountain’s guided snowshoe hikes for adults and kids, the only such offering in the Boone area.

Sugar Mtn. also offers tubing, ice skating, and an annex of its winter sports shop, all near parking lot D, site of the summer golf course.

Sugar Mountain Resort

http://www.skisugar.com