Ugh I HATED Sugarloaf. Got my ticket cut at 9 am for doing a helicopter on a small jump on the side of the trail. I never went back. They claimed to be the family resort and would hunt teenagers down, this was a few decades ago. I never was even warned at any other resort in my life and never had my ticket cut.

To call Saddleback a bigger mountain is somewhat of a misnomer... they're never been very popular, despite being a hell of a mountain. Blame the location.

And while I'm not too certain on the prospects of Sugarloaf, I can't see it struggling too badly. They have held high profile events consistently, and they're owned by Boyne who have a consistent track record of running resorts. They're a strong operator in the industry.

I do very little downhill skiing these days and don't subscribe to any of the magazines. I confess to being out of the loop on demographic and other trends.