Sugarbush History -- The ASC Years

The American Skiing Company (ASC), with Les Otten at the helm, purchased Sugarbush from Claneil Enterprises in 1995. ASC had visions of making Sugarbush into the most significant mountain resort in the east. Their most notable completed projects were the installation of seven new lifts and upgrading of snowmaking capacity by 300%. Along with this snowmaking upgrade also came a new 63 million gallon retention pond. ASC removed the Green Mountain Express (GMX) and reinstalled it as the North Ridge Express chair, and replaced the GMX with a new Dopplemayr Green Mountain Quad, a fixed grip chair that would become known as the "slug" (sometimes "snail") for its slow operation and seemingly unintelligent placement, which terminated just below Cliffs near the load terminals for the North Ridge Express and the new Slide Brook Express charilifts. When ASC installed the Slide Brook Express that runs between Lincoln Peak and Mt. Ellen, it was the fasted quad in the world at 1150 fpm. It remains the world's longest chairlift at just over 2 miles long. ASC had hopes of major on-mountain expansion, including in the Slide Brook Basin. However, the locals offered much opposition, and ASC was never able to bring these dreams to fruition.