I have skied Sugar Mtn. from early 1970's till now. I lived 40 minutes from this slope. I am also a PSIA instructor. Sugar has some nice terrain. I think most of you need to check your attitudes first. Remember, you get back what you put out.

I last skied Sugar during the Christmas 2007 season. I got great parking, great service, and the conditions were great. The difference is I spoke nicely to all the staff I meet. Remember, when you look at someone, say hello, how you doing, hi. I watch the behavior of many of the guess and found many of them to be rude. I spoke to the chairlift attendant, he smiled and assisted the chair. Think about your behavior.

I work in the industry in PA and Vermont. I have skied a lot of places. Vail has a truely rude staff. As a professional skier, we understand good skier/rider behavior. Rule 1, smile, speak, and/or say thank you to every employee at a resort. Try even a small conversation. Then you may be waived up to the front of the parking lot, get your chair easied up to you too.

Local tip: Sugar & Beech (night skiing, and weekdays). Hawknest on the weekend, plus best pub. Applichian Ski Mtn.....ALL BEGINNERS!!! Talk to the locals and you may learn something.

Sugar does need to update the lift and improve the interior of the lodge.
Be happy, most of the resorts in PA are closed for the season. Sugar opened (11/1/2007) before Killington, and she is still open as of March 23,2008!!! Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

I have been sking Sugar for over 20 years. The reason you will see such a huge disparity in the reviews is that because of the weather, the conditions can go from great to terrible and back to great again within a matter of days. This resort like its sister Beech is small, shabby, run down, and old by Colorado standards. But for us living in the Piedmont area of NC & SC its a true blessing! I just hope and pray every year that they will be able to make enough snow to stay open enough to make enough money to keep going. Every word you read in all these reviews is true. If you are looking for a premire skiing experience "go West young man", but if you just need a fix for your downhill jones and live anywhere from Atlanta to Knoxville, to Charlotte to Savannah, this and Beech are the only dealers in town. As for the runs Sugar has the only double black in the Carolinas in Whoopdedoo and has a couple of pretty good single blacks in Tom Terrific & Boulderdash. The only problem is Whoopdedoo is seldom open and Tom & Boulder are not as well maintained as the rest of the slopes. I ski Big Red (a nice long for real "blue" run) alot because its usually in the best condition (read it has snow on it) and it has a lift that serves it half way up the mountain that keeps the church bus crowd at bay. Look at the web cams to verify conditions (all resorts fib about conditions), ski weekdays or Sunday late AM & afternoon to avoid lift lines. I have gotten in 20+ runs in an afternoon session on Sunday many times. For Apres Ski there are a couple or good resturants in Banner Elk. Nothing on the mountain but the equivalent to your middle school cafeteria. Keep your expectations at a single A level,(think Carolina Mudcats - not New York Yankees) and you'll have a great time.

Our first time to Sugar Mountain I was sold the wrong ticket for my son at the ticket window mind you. I did not find out that my 14 year old son should have been sold an adult ticket until around 2:30 (been skiing there since 9am that morning.) After 5 and a half hours of skiing, having our tickets checked just about everytime we were in the lift line, a lift attendant decided my son was skiing with the wrong ticket, he promptly called security, who arrived shortly and who was the most nasty man I have ever come across. He threatened to arrest myself and my 14 year old son. Of course rent-a-cops do not have the ability to make arrests. I asked to be taken to the administration office, once there I explained that their employee who sold me our tickets made a mistake. He knew that I had an 8 and 14 year old with me, and sold me two junior tickets for them. The manager just like the security jerk, was extremely unfriendly and could have cared less! I did not drive all the way up to the mountains, to hassle over 20 dollars! They were rude and quite obviously could careless about good public relations. I have since discovered Snowshoe, that's where I will ski with my children. The drive is well worth it. Up yours Sugar Mountain!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kim from Mooresville,NC

I was at Sugar Mountain on Sunday January 20, 2007. We had forgotten that it was a holiday weekend. The resort was extremely overcrowded. It took an hour to find parking and get lift tickets. When we reached the sloped there must have been over 100 people waithing for the yellow lift. The only short line was the green lift.

As I am a beginner, I was afraid to get on the green lift but chanced it to avoid the lines. (fell the first time getting off the lift) The snow was great on that slope unlike the other ones which were icey. It was probably the best time and ski conditions they've had since i've been going. I've been to a few other places but even though sugar is overcrowed...it's still has the best slopes for the area.

Sugar is a great mountain for skiing. Reading other peoples reviews I find they are complaining about staff friendliness, long lines, snow conditions and slow chair lifts.
It's easy to complain and get annoyed, when you have to wait in line on busy days, but I really appreciate the fact that I can jump in the car and be skiing in under 3 hours from Charlotte,NC.
What I like about Sugar is that they open early in the season and the snow making is impressive. I skiied Sugar on the 17th November 2007 (see photo below) and condition were wonderful with no lines at all. It's important to watch the weather and webcams to make sure you are going to have good snow conditions. www.skisugar.com has a great live video webcam so you can see the conditions before driving up. I was going to ski there early December, but after visiting the webcams it was easy to see that the snow coverage was not good at all, so we cancelled the trip.

It's true that the lifts may be a little slow, but to be honest I think we are all getting spoiled, we need to be grateful that we don't have to use tow rope or button lift.
I skiied Sugar again on December 21st and 22nd, conditions we decent expect for the rain, slopes we not crowded at all.
I skiied again on Saturday, January 5th 2008, the snow was wonderful and up until 12:00 there were no lines, from 12:00 it did get very crowded, but I was expecting that. That is when I skied the Big Birch and Big Red slopes, which has very short lines. The main yellow lift had a 10 minute wait and the slope was crowded, but with the right attitude and expectations it was still enjoyable.
If you don't want lines stay away from weekends and holidays.