Relative isolation, preserved by a drive of nearly five hours from Boston, has helped to maintain old-time flavor at both ski resorts, while keeping slopes and trails relatively uncrowded. But each area recently unveiled a new master plan that will expand terrain, add new lifts, and increase lodging options over the next 10 to 20 years. However, the two will remain mirror opposites.
Sugarloaf isn't luxurious, but it delivers the stuff skiers that have come to expect with $70 lift tickets: slopeside lodging, a base village with a choice of restaurants, two health clubs, and enthusiastic employees fashionably attired in uniforms by Maine's favorite designer, L.L. Bean. Still, "the 'Loaf," as it is known, is trading a bit of its down-home reputation to welcome a latte-drinking, iPod-carrying crowd, with the occasional Hummer in the parking lot.
But we're not talking pretension here. Sugarloaf still delivers one of the best skiing experiences in the East, topped off with the only lift-serviced, above-treeline terrain. Few resorts can compare with Sugarloaf's range and variety of trails. A trip to the 4,237-foot summit offers views extending from Mounts Washington to Katahdin and a summit-to-base run can use as much of the mountain's 2,820 vertical drop as desired. And it is all serviced by an efficient, if somewhat dated, lift system anchored by two high-speed quads and augmented by well-placed doubles, quads, and one T-bar.
It doesn't take more than a few runs to realize why six Olympians, including medalists Bode Miller and Seth Wescott, trained at Carrabassett Valley Academy, the specialty high school at the mountain's base. It is said that the path to Olympic gold goes down Sugarloaf's Narrow Gauge, the only trail in the East certified for all four World Cup disciplines. And then there's Skidder: a muscle-bound training trail where the current crop of Olympic hopefuls perfect their impressive moves.
Sugarloaf's location and altitude provide dependable snow, especially in March and April. At this time of year, the resort's boundary-to-boundary policy allows skiers and snowboarders to revel in the glades and the Snowfields.
