Sunrise Mountain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Killington Ski Resort. (Discuss)

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
Any material not supported by sources may be challenged and removed at any time. This article has been tagged since February 2007.

Sunrise Mountain is one of the many sections of Killington Ski Resort, Vermont's largest. Served by a Yan/Lift Engineering triple chairlift, it is home to the resort's snowmobile center and a cluster of condominiums. However, it has the unusual distinction at this ever-expanding resort of actually having been downsized. It was developed in the early 1980s, but due to its low elevation (at least compared to the rest of Killington), the lower portions of Sunrise had difficulty maintaining snow cover, so they were removed from the trail system. The triple chair, which originally extended further downhill to the souhtern corner of US-4 and VT-100 in W. Bridgewater, was shortened, and the "Northeast Passage" entrance to Killington ceased to exist in the late 1990s. Lift towers still stand below the existing chairlift. Another reason for the demise of the larger Sunrise Mtn. area was it's intended use that did not some to fruition. Kilington originally opened Sunrise with the intent of expanding skiing trails and lifts southeast into an area known as Parker's Gore. When these plans were halted due to concerns for bear habitat, Sunrise lost it's purpose as a base are to access this terrain, and the costs of snowmaking and maintaining terrain at such a low elevation were not justified by the few skiers utilizing it.