Being the biggest ski area in the East will be a feather in the cap of Sugarloaf, said general manager John Diller.
“The bragging rights are there not just for Sugarloaf, but really for Maine for having the biggest resort in the East,’’ he said.
Not so quick, said a Killington spokesman, Tom Horrocks. There’s good reason Killington is known as the “Beast of the East,’’ he said; it has the most skier visits, most lifts, most trails, most miles of trails of any resort in the region and, for now, most skiable acreage.
“Making the claim they are going to be the biggest is just a claim right now,’’ Horrocks said. “Killington Resort is still the biggest resort in the Northeast.’’
Ski resorts often boast when they are the first resort in a region to open for the season or the last to close or for having the steepest vertical drop, the most trails, or the most skiing terrain.
By selectively cutting down trees and creating hundreds of acres of glade skiing, or downhill skiing through open spaces in wooded areas, Sugarloaf says it will be the region’s biggest. The project does not include adding trails, lifts, or snowmaking capacity.
But Sugarloaf will fall far short of being anywhere near the biggest ski area in the United States. Vail ski resort in Colorado calls itself the biggest ski resort in North America, with 5,289 acres of terrain, though Big Sky Resort in Montana says it is the biggest ski resort with 5,512 acres.
Big Sky and Sugarloaf are both owned by Michigan-based Boyne Resorts, which owns and operates nine ski resorts in Maine, New Hampshire, Michigan, Montana, Utah, Washington, and British Columbia.
Stephen Kircher of Boyne Resorts said it is important for a ski area to be at the top of a list to distinguish itself. “It’s like who has the fastest car in the neighborhood,’’ he said.
