North Carolina's Newest Bike Park, Sugar Mountain Resort

Jul 4, 2018 at 12:44
by Chandler Roffey  

PRESS RELEASE: Sugar Mountain Resort

As of June 30th, Sugar Mountain Resort reopened their lift to mountain bikers. This comes after a $300,000 investment into their bike park that had been non-operational for several years. The trails feature tall berms, rollers, and lots of rocks. For what they lack in jumps they make up in steep, rocky, technical terrain.

photo

As soon as the snow melts Sugar Mountain Resort’s decades-old gravity and cross-country mountain biking and hiking trail system will begin to receive a much-anticipated expansion.

PJ Noto, former Lees McRae College mountain bike coach and trail construction specialist, will lead the effort to enlarge, widen, and upgrade Sugar Mountain Resort’s current mountain bike park. Building out expert terrain to offer beginner and intermediate line option choices from the summit to the base, adding features like rollers, small dips, and table tops are just a few of the compliments slated for the summer season.

Western North Carolina is getting another lift access bike park. With Beech mountain's lift currently out of service (new lift under construction), this is one of the best local option for some gravity riding.

Tickets and Park Info: http://www.skisugar.com/bikepark/

Local Shops:
Magic Cycles
HQ Bike & Ourdoor
Boonebike
Lighting Cycles NC

photo
Maybe consider running a few extra pounds of pressure in your tires.

Processed with VSCO with g3 preset
Double black rock slab just off the main green trail.
Flowy berms, to steep rock slabs.


Full run top to bottom, beginning on the green trail to a short double black, onto the gnarly as ever Donovan's Dungeon.

Author Info:
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Member since Feb 27, 2017
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69 Comments
  • 12 1
 Context for everyone: Sugar started their new efforts less than 2 months ago with a limited number of build tools & personnel with a.primary goal of putting in a top to bottom GREEN trail as their 1st priority.
Beech has great trails but no true Green. Blue is the norm for our region & the #1 most requested trail was from us advanced riders asking for a TRUE GREEN to try to introduce our kids & spouses to lift access riding to get them but by the MTB gravity bug.

So if you view this release as news that you have a place to take your kids for a top to bottom run on a REALLY FAST NEW LIFT...its a big plus.
  • 2 0
 If I could give props to this comment more than once I would.
  • 2 1
 bit by the gravity MTB bug I mean, not "but by the MTB gravity bug"
  • 7 1
 I went yesterday the 4th. Probably 12ish riders on the mountain. I hope that was just an off day. Hard for them to make money with that many riders. Pretty good overall. It has the potential to be amazing. I hope they keep going and improving. A crank it up or A line type trail would be awesome! The Blue run is fun and the top rock section on the black is fun and challenging.
  • 3 1
 Proximity could be an issue. In the west, people aren't afraid to drive an hour for big mountain riding. In the east, especially near Asheville where the riding is already good, the fact that Beech and Sugar are pretty far away from any population centers is a major detractor. Then again, Whistler is quite a bit aways from Vancouver and its the most visited summertime ski resort in North America.
  • 1 2
 $300,000 I missed something. At least they have free parking and a friendly staff. Thinking speed is your friend on that "double diamond" just air out that whole first rock. Oh wait he was on a trail bike.
  • 2 1
 @fecalmaster: *Enduro Bike Speed is definitely your friend. The double black itself is fairly steep but i'm sure a proper dh rider on a dh bike could pre-hop into it clearing the first rock.
  • 4 0
 Was there this past weekend and rode up with the park manager and give him the same feedback about a flow jump line...It took them a ton of effort to get where they are at this year. Happy to have more DH in NC....people need to come ride this place. We had fun all day with 2.5 runs.
  • 2 0
 @PHeller: Everytime I goto Beech or Bailey's I meet people coming from as far as Florida coming to ride DH. With two parks 20min apart I think people will be coming a long way to ride them. 4 hours for us (Raleigh).
  • 1 0
 @dba4life: Bailey's?
  • 1 0
 @PHeller: baileymountainwnc.com It's an awesome place.
  • 5 0
 I'm planning on going there later this month once Tannery Knob in Johnson City, TN opens, and I can actually make plans (along with hitting Rocky Knob and Beech).
  • 2 1
 do not go to beech, i mean its right by sugar so its not like its out of the way really but there are no lifts and half the mountain is closed, so like 2 trails are really open. i just went 3 weeks ago, wasted trip from florida. rocky knob is a must! that jump line is insane !!! PBJ is awesome, had more fun there than at beech ( ive been to beech quite a few times )
  • 1 2
 @godii: My understanding is they are running a bus shuttle in lieu of the ski lifts currently, but I wasn't aware of a portion of it being closed.
  • 1 0
 @BradyEssary: I was also unaware of the closures on beech, but I have not heard great things about the shuttles. Rocky Knob is definitely worth it if you're in the area, just make sure you're ready to climb.
  • 2 0
 @godii: Half the mountain is not closed at Beech. The upper part of the green run and the blue heartbreaker run are closed due to lift construction. They were talking about the green opening this weekend. Heartbreaker I think is done all year. The rest is open except for the drop at the very bottom. It's still worth going....even with the shuttles.
  • 1 0
 @BradyEssary: Will Tannery Knobs definitely be open by the end of the month? Really looking forward to it!
  • 2 1
 They've increased capacity for the shuttle as of this weekend too so quicker and more trips up.
  • 1 0
 @dba4life: yessir but heartbreaker was and has been a fail since building it. They need to scrap it and start over. Very disappointed that they basically saw the summer of 2018 as a pass
  • 2 1
 @preach: It's that there is no highly trained full time dig crew maintaining and/or creating trails. It's an outside contractor(s) so you'll only get changes and/or tweaks as checks are cut and time allows those contractors to come in.

If they had their own dedicated trail crew certified and trained (which maybe they are getting...I don't know), week to week quality of the riding experience will not be what most have come to appreciate at other venues like Diablo/Winter Park/Whister...etc.
  • 1 1
 @bizutch: totally agree. Totally and completely agree. When motomike was working last summer he was talking all these big plans but I doubt the resort had the same thing in mind
  • 2 0
 @preach: Summer 2018 was not seen as a "pass". Summer 2018 is seen as an opportunity to improve infrastructure as well as improve Heartbreaker for 2019. Management is completely dedicated to the bike park, listening to customer feedback, and constantly evolving with the industry. Management could have very easily not invested $70k into bikes, $20k into shuttle trailers, and multi millions of dollars into new lifts. I work at both resorts, and both resorts have an awesome staff of professionals from all aspects of the industry working every day to provide customers with an awesome riding experience. Maybe come out and give one of the staff members at either resort a high five or a thank you for all that they do for the industry. A little thank you goes a long way.
  • 1 0
 @bizutch: Beech has a crew of 3 guys that work full time every week ensuring that the trails are running great. They work Mon-Wed 10 hrs and a half day Thursday. They have been trained by ETD and have many years of experience trail building. I can't thank these guys enough for their hard work behind the scenes week in and week out throughout the season. At Sugar, PJ, Jake, and the rest of the full time guys have been working hard to hit their opening date. The two resorts compliment each other really well. Lots of variety between the two which is a great thing!
  • 1 0
 @Sugarbrad: completely get where you’re coming from but having biked Recently at some legit resorts it’s always hard to come back to Beech, especially when it’s years behind.
  • 3 1
 @preach: So quit your bitchin' and stick with the "legit" parks (I mean that in a nice way). I travel as a mechanic all over N America and soon to be world to all the "legit" parks. If anything, it makes me appreciate what we have locally even more. I'm thankful to everyone we have here that works hard so we can have awesome trails to ride locally and you should be to. If complaining on the internet and taking a few trips to Snowshoe, Mtn Creek, Whistler etc is what you are into than more power to you. It's disrespectful to all the passionate people in the industry we have right here in NC, but whatever. If you want to fill your glass half full, then throw your leg over your bike and come make some laps with us.
  • 1 0
 @Sugarbrad: :-)
  • 1 1
 @Sugarbrad: but do they fill in the holes with rocks? do they Brad? hmmmmm.... (inside joke no outsider will get).

That's cool to know. Is the work crew at Beech this year new?

Has anything been said to either resort about a park pass to both so you can hit them on the same day since both have less than a full compliment of trails during this year's transition phase? Would be nice to have.
  • 1 1
 @bizutch: haha I see what you did there.

To answer your question the trail crew at Beech are not new and have a ton of experience. They have worked the past few seasons behind the scenes during the days we aren't open to keep things tuned up and dialed. They just weren't receiving any recognition so it's something that I wanted to bring to light.

As for a "shared" day pass between the two I don't see that happening. Even though both parks are small in comparison to other resorts there is still plenty to ride in a single day. Sugar has 2.5 trails that I didn't get tired of riding after two long days in the saddle. The only trail closed at Beech is Heartbreaker which will see a revamp for 2019. On the trail report Beech has a total of 10 trails open.
  • 1 0
 This is just the beginning for Sugar. Most people don't consider other speedbumps such as the Insurance process as part of the bike park building and expansion process.
  • 3 0
 .Can we buy all your leftover trail dirt and rocks? Maybe some used dh rigs? Florida needs a mountain summer resort. Trade you for beach sand and Walt Disney? Can we build bunk beds?
  • 2 0
 Really cool. When i was living in Atlanta, a few buddies and I went up to Sugar to shuttle the old school Norba track. And man, it was gnarly. Very unkept and raw at the time, and it was my first time riding real dh and it was raining. That huge rock roll blew my mind when i saw it. Now that I live in Asheville, it would be awesome to pop over and hit Sugar one day and Beech the next.
  • 3 1
 You're welcome. We ruined a lot of perfectly good tools to get to that. I HAD to put it in the trail somehow. It was wrist snapper until Eric Schmidinger hauled a load of gravel to it's base.
  • 2 1
 @bizutch: oh it had some good wrist snapping action when i hit it haha, still a cool ass feature. I can imagine how much of a bitch it was to get that thing exposed, gnarly stuff. thank you for your service
  • 2 0
 Exactly! That's the whole goal. Please come up and check out the parks! If you have time there is awesome trail riding in the area as well. Make sure to check out Rocky Knob in Boone.
  • 1 0
 Rode Beech yesterday. The Greens are open top to bottom. Heart Breaker was still closed. They were running multiple shuttles up on a Thursday. I’m sure all the shuttles will be running this weekend. It is was it is unti the lifts open next year.
  • 2 0
 Well...guess it is time to smash some more rims! Cannot wait to check it out again...had a blast back in the day when I moved to the south. Killer watching Sam Hill tear that place up racing nationals.
  • 1 1
 Tear it up? I'm not sure he touched the ground . Wink
  • 2 1
 Wa! No more 45 min. naps on the way up. That's one hell of a start to some nice long runs.
  • 2 1
 It was exactly 22 minutes bottom to top. No less. Maybe a minute or two more for seniors leaf looking Big Grin
  • 1 0
 This is great!!I used to go here when it was open before.
Who is doing the trail building?
  • 1 0
 Thanks! Heres the full press release from sugar. www.skisugar.com/sugar-mountain-ski-resort-energizes-mountain-bike-park
  • 2 0
 @ChandlerRoffey: Awsome!!!Thanks buddy
  • 2 1
 Awesome! Thanks so much my brother! Really appreciate the info.
  • 2 1
 No problem, happy shredding!
  • 3 2
 Nice. I love my east coast riding
  • 2 1
 Looks like a great start. Sugar has an awesome lift system.
  • 2 1
 Rad Napoleon Dynamite style edit.
  • 2 1
 Thanks man!
  • 2 1
 bit by the MTB bug...not but by the bug. hah
  • 1 0
 Planning to ride at sugar tomorrow. Holler if you’re going to be there
  • 1 3
 300,000 .... on just the bike park. LIES glad they got a new lift though the old one was terrible
  • 3 1
 Clearly they should've used discountskilift.com and freetrailbuilder.org, they would've saved a ton of money.
  • 2 0
 That number is a bit misleading. That was an estimate for the total cost, over several years, to build a proper bike park.
  • 1 0
 @motomike138: Indeed. @ChandlerRoffey could you please clarify in your article so people don't expect a $300k bike park right off the bat?
  • 1 0
 @Sugarbrad: Would love to make that clarification for you, but once the article is published by pinkbike I can no longer edit it. I would have fixed that immediately.
  • 2 4
 I can't wait for Seth, Alex, Bobo, et. al. to produce their slick POV videos for YouTube!
  • 4 1
 If it will keep them from poaching illegal trails with all that stoke on their faces and running over people in parking lots blabbing to their cameras like they're on TMZ....I'm all for it.
  • 1 1
 @bizutch: "Running over people in parking lots?" You are one pathetic dude to spend your time making shit up about people on the internet.
  • 2 0
 @sjflow: pathetic? because you were there with me and saw it happen? You're funny. Just assume and all will be alright. I literally (that's the part where I stress to you that I actually witnessed it happen) watched one of these dorks roll into and knock down a rider while filming himself talking into his GoPro. Can't make stuff like this up.
You actually think that I'm so desperate for attention that I need to be dramatic? ????
  • 2 5
 No mtb trail should be a mowed grass path down a ski slope. This is a east coast thing, I could never figure out why?
  • 1 2
 You ever been to a DH race?
  • 1 1
 Les get is such a wack dh course
  • 1 3
 @nug12182: have you ever riden in real mtns. or a proper bike bike park? Doubt it.
  • 1 2
 @Beez177: Sorry,I forgot what kind of person I was writing to.
  • 1 1
 @nug12182: sorry I forgot your an a*shole.
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