Saddleback's Inferiority Complex

[Alpiner]

I joined a Saddleback group on Facebook last year because I love that our neighbor is back in business and I wanted to see what was going on over there, etc. Well, there is a frequent vibe of us vs. them in that group against Sugarloaf and I don't get it. The two don't really compare, and can compliment each other. We've already learned that an in-state marketing war is a pointless waste of time and resources, and leads to negativity and tribalism. I don't get why some Saddlebackers want to go down that road again with Sugarloaf. The latest was a post mocking Sugarloaf for buying the Herbert saying Sugarloaf was taking a play from Saddleback's playbook. As if they invented the idea. If Saddleback wants to get serious about taking on Sugarloaf in another marketing war, Sugarloaf would just be like this.

Was it this way before the shutdown? I don't remember anything like this, not that I was paying attention to SB Facebook activity then.

[Glade Monkey]

I joined a Saddleback group on Facebook last year because I love that our neighbor is back in business and I wanted to see what was going on over there, etc. Well, there is a frequent vibe of us vs. them in that group against Sugarloaf and I don't get it. The two don't really compare, and can compliment each other. We've already learned that an in-state marketing war is a pointless waste of time and resources, and leads to negativity and tribalism. I don't get why some Saddlebackers want to go down that road again with Sugarloaf. The latest was a post mocking Sugarloaf for buying the Herbert saying Sugarloaf was taking a play from Saddleback's playbook. As if they invented the idea. If Saddleback wants to get serious about taking on Sugarloaf in another marketing war, Sugarloaf would just be like this.

Was it this way before the shutdown? I don't remember anything like this, not that I was paying attention to SB Facebook activity then.

I think you're talking about the Friends of Saddleback FB group. The love and raving about their mountain is sometimes too much to take...like people selling homemade paintings of a sunset or macrame of the logo
I don't recall noticing any jealousy or bashing about big brother down the road until this post. A few people on there who obviously don't get out much seem to think they invented employee housing. The poster just added a mea culpa saying his intent was misunderstood and apologizing for where the thread went.
I still love the place, what they've done and are still doing! Seems to me their management are aiming to appeal and attract a new customer base, more like moving families up from Shawnee as opposed to going head to head with SL or even SR.

[Andrew B.]

From the place that has people wearing “Putin skis at Sunday River” hats
Someone is still smarting from the snow wars of the 90’s

LOL

[Alpiner]

From the place that has people wearing “Putin skis at Sunday River” hats
Someone is still smarting from the snow wars of the 90’s

LOL

That's our SUPeriority complex.

No, I think that's lame too, but these are the seeds SR sowed. I don't want SB to do it again.

Glade Monkey, it's there. Sometimes it is only implied, and it's not bashing, but a number people in that group seem to want to have a measuring contest against Sugarloaf. I just don't see the need. I'll take SL terrain and lifts over SB every time, but I'm jealous of the fact that SB is truly a 4 season resort and that Rangeley has so much more going for it than Kingfield or Stratton.

[Pow on the Mao]

haha great perspective Andrew. I mean we SLers are collectively offender number 1 on that front, no question. people here still freak out when K1 runs king of spring promos.

from someone who has been there 4 times this year and interacted with the mgmt each time (and the locals)... there is none of this. a racehorse has blinders on for a reason, if you're focused on those around you then you're not running your best race. these guys have blinders on. all of their energy is focused on what they are trying to accomplish. this is crumb bum shit on a trash website. Deadmoose was the first person i knew to delete FB in like 2009 and i followed him shortly after and its improved my life, no question. FB is a diseased parasite clinging to mankind's greatest invention. [Twitter, on the other hand, is power.] delete your FB and be free. this website is much more worthy of your time. here we share info and ideas and have fun.

[Glade Monkey]

people here still freak out when K1 runs king of spring promos.

Ruh-roh


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxTJQlqIZAg

[SpillwayEast]

They do get new lifts and not hand-me-downs from the mother ship.........that is cool!

[muleski]

They do get new lifts and not hand-me-downs from the mother ship.........that is cool!

This is going off on a tangent, but having some family members now knee-keep in Vail Resorts and Epic as well as Alterra and Ikon, we should be very, very glad that at least NOW, our only "mothership" is Boyne.

My family who have been in their mountain towns, or working on hill at them for many years, or decades can't even believe how bad the changes are.

I grew up skiing at Stowe, before discovering Sugarloaf as a racer in 1970. They buying our first home here years later. My mom and Dad bought their first house in Stowe....an old farmhouse...in 1946. Built a second one, a big A-Frame at Spruce on the road up to the Big Spruce Chair. It was torn down with the neighboring homes to widen the road a few years ago. My brother and I had sold it around 1992. even then "Our Stowe" was disappearing.

You may have seen the recent announcement about now all paid parking up at the mountain. IMO, will solve nothing. Still going to have horrible traffic, just horrible crowds. Welcome Epic! No Thanks! Just.Not.The.Same.

Back to Saddleback. Love Saddleback for a few visits a winter. Great. Love "home" here at Sugarloaf much more. Having both is a good thing.

[gondicar]

They do get new lifts and not hand-me-downs from the mother ship.........that is cool!

Oh please. It will be a new lift when it is installed on West Mtn. Talk about an inferiority complex, as a Sugarloafer I must say that all of this “oh ain’t if awful” stuff that seems to be coming from all corners of loafland is a tad embarrassing.

[Alpiner]

They do get new lifts and not hand-me-downs from the mother ship.........that is cool!

Oh please. It will be a new lift when it is installed on West Mtn. Talk about an inferiority complex, as a Sugarloafer I must say that all of this “oh ain’t if awful” stuff that seems to be coming from all corners of loafland is a tad embarrassing.

+1
This will be a secondary lift, just like Bucksaw was, but a little more important due to the new condos it will serve. It will not be a signature or even primary lift for skiing. A refurb makes perfect sense, and it's green(er).

All the whining about it is based on nothing other than "mom, he got one so I want one too!"

@muleski, agreed, they really killed Stowe.

[gondicar]

FWIW, the person who made the FB post on Friends of Saddleback page a few days ago that Alpiner referenced posted this today:

My humble apologies to all.

I posted this as a way to applaud the leadership of the Arctaris and the SB management team for all they have done to reopen Saddleback to the skier community and to contribute to the economic vitality of the Rangely community. Unfortunately, it has turned into a debate about something else. I also appreciate all the efforts of other ski areas for addressing the issues unique to their communities. We all benefit from a vibrant and successful ski industry.

[High Ball]

I joined a Saddleback group on Facebook last year because I love that our neighbor is back in business and I wanted to see what was going on over there, etc. Well, there is a frequent vibe of us vs. them in that group against Sugarloaf and I don't get it. The two don't really compare, and can compliment each other. We've already learned that an in-state marketing war is a pointless waste of time and resources, and leads to negativity and tribalism. I don't get why some Saddlebackers want to go down that road again with Sugarloaf. The latest was a post mocking Sugarloaf for buying the Herbert saying Sugarloaf was taking a play from Saddleback's playbook. As if they invented the idea. If Saddleback wants to get serious about taking on Sugarloaf in another marketing war, Sugarloaf would just be like this.

Was it this way before the shutdown? I don't remember anything like this, not that I was paying attention to SB Facebook activity then.

Some of their social media stuff comes across as pretty desperate. The whole "independent" spin is ridiculous....they're owned by a Wall Street funded private equity firm. They like to project the impression that making money isn't important to them. They're on a honeymoon right now, but at some point all those investors will be looking for risk-adjusted returns. We'll have to wait to see how they do, but the sell cheap tickets to locals strategy didn't work for the previous owners. They need to attract skiers that are willing to do 8 hours of driving to ski 2 days, that SL doesn't have already....pretty thin market, imo and they better start building some places for those people to stay. I think it's a bad business decision to waste that on-mountain real estate on an employee dorm, instead of condos that they could sell for a million bucks.

Also, their season pass advertising was promoting the only mountain in Maine offering a pass with no blackout days. Clearly, they're not and clearly they do have a pass with blackout days. The ad is just pure BS.

It's a fun place to ski for a few days a year, but it's about a third of Sugarloaf's size and is open for about a month less. They definitely have the "small mountain" complex.

[High Ball]

From the place that has people wearing “Putin skis at Sunday River” hats
Someone is still smarting from the snow wars of the 90’s

LOL

That's our SUPeriority complex.

No, I think that's lame too, but these are the seeds SR sowed. I don't want SB to do it again.

Glade Monkey, it's there. Sometimes it is only implied, and it's not bashing, but a number people in that group seem to want to have a measuring contest against Sugarloaf. I just don't see the need. I'll take SL terrain and lifts over SB every time, but I'm jealous of the fact that SB is truly a 4 season resort and that Rangeley has so much more going for it than Kingfield or Stratton.

SB is surely better for water sports, but it's not even close to SL for golf, hiking and mountain biking.

[Glade Monkey]

SB is surely better for water sports, but it's not even close to SL for golf, hiking and mountain biking.

Hiking could be a toss up, since the AT goes over the SB summit which includes two 4K peaks. The AT route has also limited some expansion at SB, so Sugarloaf is lucky in a way that it skirts around Maine's 2nd tallest mountain (aka the 3rd highest peak in some lists which count Hamlin as #2).

[Pow on the Mao]

for those of you who took the saddleback survey, pretty telling what the next investments will be.

[Alpiner]

SB is surely better for water sports, but it's not even close to SL for golf, hiking and mountain biking.

I'm not a big golfer but what about Mingo Springs?

I'm guessing there is some decent hiking and mtb around. mainetrailfinder.com shows plenty of hikes. Bald Mountain Trail is on my list. Mostly I'm referring to the lakes and the the charming town.

[Glade Monkey]

Bald Mountain Trail is on my list.

You can spend an entire summer of weekends just hiking Maine mountains with BALD in the name (at least 17), and there are many, many more trails with bald in the name

[Glade Monkey]

for those of you who took the saddleback survey, pretty telling what the next investments will be.

Where is it? Maybe they only sent it out to email addresses of people who bought tix online...

[gondicar]

Bald Mountain Trail is on my list.

You can spend an entire summer of weekends just hiking Maine mountains with BALD in the name (at least 17), and there are many, many more trails with bald in the name

I can still remember my grandfather taking me up Bald Mtn in Weld as a young boy for my first mtn hike. It is a great hike, easy to moderate with some sweet views.

[Pow on the Mao]

for those of you who took the saddleback survey, pretty telling what the next investments will be.

Where is it? Maybe they only sent it out to email addresses of people who bought tix online...

probably. it was in my email

[skiloaf]

Bald is pretty grown in in Weld now. I would suggest Tumbledown (but also now too popular) or Blueberry Mt. for a similar smaller hike with great views (and of course, berries)

[gondicar]

Bald is pretty grown in in Weld now. I would suggest Tumbledown (but also now too popular) or Blueberry Mt. for a similar smaller hike with great views (and of course, berries)

That’s unfortunate. I know the landowner had closed it for a number of years. A colleague of mine hiked it within the last few years (since Covid) and didn’t mention it but then again it probably wouldn’t have bothered her.

[salsgang]

I love Saddleback and it is my home mountain but I think Sugarloaf is awesome too. Each area has it strengths. Marketing is just marketing. Facebook distorts reality. We can all get along.

[tipsdown]

We can all get along. And quote honestly healthy competition is....healthy. It will hopefully continue to push both mountains forward into the future.

There will always be those that prefer Saddleback and those that prefer Sugarloaf. That's ok. They offer 2 different experiences but both are great. In terms of ski experience, you could easily make the argument that they are both top 5 in New England, and they're in our state 15 miles and a 45 min drive apart. Let's embrace that....

[Glade Monkey]

This might calm their "inferiority complex"


At least SL was one of the finalists...
https://downeast.com/features/best-of-maine-2022/#travelandplay

[Alpiner]

Good for them, I'm sure the vibe there is pretty cool there in this honeymoon period as mentioned above.

Bald is pretty grown in in Weld now. I would suggest Tumbledown (but also now too popular) or Blueberry Mt. for a similar smaller hike with great views (and of course, berries)

We did Bald this summer. Indeed there is no view at the top unless you climb the fire tower which my buddy was unwilling to do, so it was a disappointment. I went up the tower and there are amazing views up there. Mostly easy and short-ish hike, good blueberry picking near the top.

[gondicar]

Good for them, I'm sure the vibe there is pretty cool there in this honeymoon period as mentioned above.

Bald is pretty grown in in Weld now. I would suggest Tumbledown (but also now too popular) or Blueberry Mt. for a similar smaller hike with great views (and of course, berries)

We did Bald this summer. Indeed there is no view at the top unless you climb the fire tower which my buddy was unwilling to do, so it was a disappointment. I went up the tower and there are amazing views up there. Mostly easy and short-ish hike, good blueberry picking near the top.

There isn’t a fire tower on Bald in Weld that I am aware of, and for the most part the top is still pretty exposed aka bald, at least on the southeast facing side. Admittedly I haven’t been up there for a while but a colleague posted some pics from there earlier this summer and we can see the exposed summit and near-summit areas clearly from our camp on the northeast side of Wilson Lake in Wilton. Is it possible you have someplace else in mind?

[Alpiner]

Oh, I was referring to the one in Ocquossoc.

[gondicar]

Oh, I was referring to the one in Ocquossoc.

Lots of Bald Mountains out there, and the one in Weld is also a shortish and pretty easy hike (not sure there are blueberries though).

[Andrew B.]

Quick search shows at least 6 “Bald Mountains” in maine.