Two of Vermont’s largest ski resorts could be connected by gondola under a plan uncovered by the Morrisville News and Citizen. Stowe Mountain Resort parent Vail Resorts and longtime Smugglers’ Notch owner Bill Stritzler have reportedly been in talks for several years but sought to keep initial work on the project confidential. Lawyers for the State of Vermont recently determined that documents could be released under public records law.
Under the proposal, a 9 tower gondola would link Spruce Peak at Stowe to Sterling Mountain at Smugglers’ Notch along a relatively flat area home to an alpine pond and the Long Trail. A ride across the 2,600 foot connector lift would take just over five minutes and link two very different mountains. Vail-owned Stowe currently operates a fleet of six high speed lifts while Hall doubles service narrow New England-style trails at Smuggs. One mountain accepts the hugely popular Epic Pass while the other shuns multi-mountain passes entirely and charges $85 for a peak day ticket. If connected, the two resorts would encompass six peaks, 17 lifts and 194 trails with 5.5 miles of distance separating Toll House at Stowe from Morse Highlands at Smuggs.
The gondola would only rise about 280 vertical feet and no new ski trails would be cut between the two mountains. The lift would be designed with only 26 cabins and a modest hourly capacity of 1,200 skiers per direction. As part of the project, Smugglers’ Notch would place 72 acres of private land under conservation easement and Stowe would protect another 92 acres to offset development of the gondola. A portion of the Long Trail could also be rerouted to reduce visual impacts. If approved by state regulators, the project would take two years to implement.
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This could have been an April 1st posting….. And nobody would have believed it….. Sounds like they are setting the stage for Smuggs to eventually be acquired by Vail…. Given that Smuggs only runs doubles, I can’t see how increasing the traffic there through this lift benefits Smuggs.
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Boo – keep vail as far away from smuggs as humanly possible.
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Unfortunately, Smuggs is literally as close to Vail (well, Stowe) as it is possible for two ski resorts to get, and I’m sure Vail would dearly love to interconnect them and create one of the biggest resorts in the East. But that will only work if they can get the interconnect lift approved, so I assume that’s why they’re going through this now.
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If approved it would represent the foundation of a merger
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No sh##! This is absolutely unbelievable! We need to protest now! Gondola over sterling pond!!!???? We’re taking turns blowing the f-ing thing up!
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LR, this is exactly why it was never built.
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Wow. This is really incredible and unexpected news. I really thought the only way a connector would occur under separate ownerships would be if Smuggs decided to develop its own pod on the north side of Spruce.
Logistically, this makes a lot of sense for both parties. Smuggs has the capacity to handle more skiers, but having to go all the way around the mountains to access the resort when roads are closed in the winter adds 25+ minutes to the drive time. This makes the drive longer for visitors from points south (including NYC, Hartford/Springfield, and Boston) than Jay Peak. On the other hand, both Stowe and Smuggs have similar drive times from Burlington, but Mountain Road gets extremely congested and backed up for accessing Stowe. Having locals use Smuggs and visitors use Stowe as respective portals for both resorts makes a lot of sense.
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Damn, all I can say is this is gonna be interesting…
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This would be sad. Smuggs is the ultimate family resort with a most accommodating staff. Stowe used to be the pearl of the East and it has descended into a sad Winter version of the Hamptons with a Walmart feel.
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So torn about this.
This would instantly create the best contiguous ski area East of the Mississippi. Both resorts have exceptional terrain and combined I suspect they’d be bigger than Killington. Stowe’s got the front four and Smuggs has some of the best glade skiing (and narrow expert runs) in the East.
That said, without some sort of tiered pricing scheme (e.g. Smuggs as an $$$ daily add-on) this would drastically alter Smuggs’ character (and for the worse). Madonna and Sterling summits are serviced by just one double chair each, and their runs are all narrow and winding. Retrofitting it to handle Stowe-level traffic would completely change how it skis. A detach quad up Madonna would be heartbreaking.
Years ago Spruce Peak and Smuggs were connected with a groomed trail across Sterling Pond. Apparently, a cat broke through the ice and into the pond, and that put an end to the connection. But that was a whole different era, when Spruce Peak was likewise serviced by a pair of long, slow double chairs.
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I skied Smuggs for 15 years with my family, my kids started skiing there when they were 3 and are now complete expert skiers thanks to Smuggs. Despite that I will be honest and say what is clear to any normal person, a high speed detachable lift on Madonna is desperately needed and would not in any way be heartbraking! Another is desperately needed on Stering. And another on Morse.
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Agreed on Sterling and Morse. Sterling has the acreage and the vibe. Morse wouldn’t even change capacity much.
But upper Madonna is different. The two blue tuns are narrow and winding. A capacity boost would require trail widening that would fundamentally change how it feels and skis.
My preferred roster:
– HSS on morse
– HSQ on sterling
– HSQ for Madonna II
– fixed triple for Madonna I
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Smuggs is rare and we should all be adamantly anti-f-up-highest-NE–pond to let trails be MORE crowded and a-holes tracking out our small mt. All about $
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Well that’s your opinion, im personally looking forward to this interconnect, and the future benefits of vail ownership, considering Smugs would go under financially once Bill retires, and having a Vail owned mountain is much better than having no mountain. Also calling all Stowe guests a-holes is ridiculous and an absurd overgeneralization
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Stowe should NEVER have removed the 1954 Spruce Peak Roebling double!!!
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If they hadn’t, they would have a seventy-year-old machine that would be virtually impossible to get parts for,
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Doppelmayr could have given it the MRG single chair treatment. would have given the area so much character. i get that top-to-bottom detach’s are a better sell for village real estate. but honestly, they’re south facing slopes and it looks like main street is just ceded to the racing team anyways these days. i liked the old-school business model.
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True, at least the Poma parts. SkyTrans still makes Roebling and Hopkins parts, so that’s not a problem.
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These areas are polar opposites in character. Although I like both areas I think the glam of Stowe would ruin the old school charm of Smuggs. I also think this will cause a parking nightmare at Stowe as it will be easier to park there for people coming from the south.
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Alta – Snowbird and Squaw – Alpine Meadows (prename change) are similar character different. I’ve not skied the later pair.
In 2005 Smuggs got an Act 250 approval for a six pack replacement of the Sterling double. I remembered that but didn’t think it was that long ago. NESI gives that date. I thought it was odd at the time. Could Bill Stritlzer have been thinking interconnect back then?
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Alta-Snowbird were not as different when they merged as Stowe and Smuggs are. Just look at lift fleets. When they connected, Alta had a HSQ, HST, 3 triples and 4 doubles. Snowbird had an Aerial tram, 3 HSQs, and 7 doubles. Not insanely different. They were of similar size and attracted similar skiers.
Now look at Stowe vs Smuggs. Stowe has 2 gondolas, a HSS, 3 HSQs, a triple and 2 doubles. The base area and town is a mega village with tons of shopping, restaurants, etc. Most of the people who go there at this point are from the NY or Boston metro area. Smuggs has 6 doubles and a T-bar. The base area is a few condos and a gravel parking lot. Most of the people who ski there are locals.
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I read the Morrisville News & Citizen article. There was much discussion of the environmental impact on the summits. If there is a desire for an “interconnect” there are two other options that occur to me. First, the notch road could be opened year-round for auto traffic. Second, vans with snow tracks (or similar), could be used to go through the notch. I assume both have been discussed over the years at least locally. I’ve simply not seen such.
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Plowing and salting the notch road would be way worse for the environment than running a gondola half the year. Plus I’m not sure a plow could fit through the current choke point on the notch … there may even be some avalanche mitigation required above the road. Plus gondolas run on electricity and don’t create road kill.
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It’s a short hike on skies .. either way.
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No! notch road should see less traffic year-round. In the winter it is a very popular ski/walking path.
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Most people who use stowe have never been to smuggs and honestly it’s the better of the 2 resorts. The reason they want it mainly is for safety. They do a lot of rescues in the back bowls and even someone died a few years ago when he fell 118 ft. Smuggs lifts are all extremely outdated so when I heard this after working there for 2 years I couldn’t believe it because the lift dept and lift riding experience is become an issue in a time when up hill capacity and how many runs a day you can get in and at smuggs it’s 15 min lift ride to the summit and on 20 degree day it gets cold. But overall this is awesome
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This seems like a disaster. Smuggs is awesome with the low lift capacity and quiet narrow trails. Opening it up to Stowe-level traffic
Would be the ruin of it, IMO.
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This is interesting news. As a Pennsylvanian it does create an interesting option of flying to Burlington and using a chair lift as a means of transportation to meet my friends that ski the mad river valley (without the roundabout driving). I wonder if people wanting access from the south could Stowe as uphill travel to access smuggs if the resorts stay independent of each other.
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There used to be a connecting trail from the top of Spruce Peak to Sterling. I remember that families with kids racing at both mountains would use it. Before the revamp of Spruce Peak, the trail was only accessible when there was enough natural snow, of course, because Big Spruce didn’t have snowmaking.
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Many years ago my children and I skied from The top of Spruce Peak across the pond and over to the top of Madonna . We snuck on the lift for a couple of runs at Madonna and then skiied back to Spruce Peak . It was great. We didn’t see the Trail Closed sign till we were by the pond. This idea could now be pursued with improvements, no lifts needed Cynthia
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If this is approved (we’ll see – just counting the minutes until “Friends of Sterling Pond” or some such entity emerges), I don’t see how the Sterling lift isn’t upgraded. They had previously mooted the installation of a 6-pack but the owner said that was inconsistent with the character of Smuggs. Not sure how you don’t at least upgrade to a fixed-grip quad (maybe with a conveyer) to handle the increased traffic on what is the busiest and most “cruisy” pod at Smuggs. Keep the Hall doubles for the rest of the hill.
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No. No. God no god please god noooo!!!
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As a homeowner at Smugglers for more than twenty five years, I cannot see why ( other than $$$$ ) this would be an attractive feature for Smugglers. Part of the charm of Smuggs is the family atmosphere, cultivated over decades. Bringing “over” visitors from Stowe to lengthen the short/non-existent lift lines at Smuggs does not seem appealing. Will passes be reciprocal at both resorts? The clientele that frequent these resorts are vastly different, not only in skiing appreciation of the laid-backness of Smuggs, but also in the monetary attitudes expressed at each resort. Smuggs = still affordable for families and not overrun with people. Stowe = not so affordable anymore, and a much busier venue. Both resorts fill a niche and have an appeal to differing skiers interests. I have skied both since 1969. Would hate to see a loss of the uniqueness that is Smuggs.
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A six pack on sterling would have always worked
There are plenty of trails no need to cut new ones.
The skiers and ridets who want to go to Stowe can just take a 5 minute gondola ride. The plan is a win win for both Mtns.
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The freelot1 Instagram posted a dialogue Bill had with his employees on Friday. To me this sounds like he’s simply keeping his options open. That being said I don’t see any point in this unless there is some kind of combinded pass/ticket like alta-bird. That being said this pair is far more different then alta/snowbird. Finally, this doesn’t make any sense unless Smugs updates there lifts in a major way.
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I’ve never been a fan of pulse gondolas. I rode a short one at Snowmass. They seem to be low capacity but I’m sure they are much cheaper than detachables. This might be a place for one. It is short and they aren’t planning for high capacity. My guess, even at 1200pph, there will be many empty cabins. I’ve skied both resorts. While Smuggs could use some upgrades, I don’t favor changing its character significantly. One thought is, limited gondi ticket sales or limiting lift tickets/passes with crossing ability, might work for starters.
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