Alterra will buy Smuggs
Solves the need for a connector, for one thing! HaHa!
Alterra will buy Smuggs
It was old 20 years ago.I've only been to Smuggs a few times. I love the terrain. But honestly, it is one of the few places that really needs to be bought by the Death Star.
It was old 20 years ago.
Burlington locals flock there. My cousin lives 2 miles from Jay yet drives down Smuggs once a week get his downhill turns in. He prefers the Suggs trail selection.Perfect for folks that don't want a RESORT, simply a place to ski
It was cold 40 years ago...that's about all I remember from the trip hiking with skis from the top of Spruce Peak.It was old 20 years ago.
I don't think connecting the two areas will be as large of challenge as may appear at first glance. A 3S gondola would cost loads of money, but the environmental impact would be pretty low with only requiring possibly 4 towers to clear the gap.
The bigger issue I see is the very nature of the two resorts--aside from the skiing--don't connect. Smuggs is family friendly, inexpensively build, with loads of timeshare and condo development. Spruce Peak at Stowe is about as high end as you can find in Vermont, plus all the restaurants, bars, and hotels along the mountain road. Money could spruce up Smuggs fast (pun intended).
The problem is the Notch! You can't advertise a singular resort experience. It worked in Park City, because PCMR and the Canyons were both still in Park City, UT. Smuggs and Stowe are light years apart in terms of resort services and access. You cannot simply advertise beds on the Smuggs side using the "Stowe" name, when accessing the town of Stowe might be harder during the winter than just driving to Burlington. As they say, "Ya can't get there from heeyah." If a resort guest has to get in a car and drive 50 minutes to visit the other side of the resort you can't sell it as one place.
I don't see a combined Smuggs/Stowe resort making financial sense of the investment Vail would have to put into try to avoid environmental impact and building some kind of Telluride type lift system to "seamlessly" integrate the resorts without an easy traffic connection.
However, Smuggs on its own is impossibly low hanging fruit.
If Stowe sold for $50 million, my goodness Smuggs will be valued cheap!
Convert Morse, Sterling, and Madonna 2 to HSQ and you transform the guest experience for beginners and intermediates. Truncate Madonna 1 at the current mid-station, and you preserve the upper mountain expert terrain and limit skier traffic in the most problematic areas.
And the Epic Local Pass is already priced the similarly to a Smuggs season pass.
If I still have some of my old emails from my days working at N*, I'd share. I recall a few emails when it was a drought year that we were not allowed to talk to guests about the amazing capability to make snow. Their concern was that a guest may find it offensive that they waste so much water.The things I'd like to say... I won't say. One change is that they have a very aggressive policy about talking to press and what not. So... no comment, or maybe I should say, call Jeff Wise and get a comment from him.
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