Smugglers' Notch Adding 100 New Snow Guns Ahead of 2026-27 Season
A Vermont ski area known and loved by local diehards is making major improvements to its snowmaking fleet with the addition of 100 new guns ahead of the 2026-27 season.
The wide-ranging project at Smugglers’ Notch applies to all three of the ski area’s faces—Madonna, Sterling, and Morse—and aims to help the operations crew build a more durable base more efficiently and take greater advantage of early-season temperature dips.
“Snowmaking is fundamental to the way we operate a mountain in Vermont, and this investment gives our team significantly more capability and flexibility,” said Mike McAdoo, vice president of Mountain Operations at Smugglers’ Notch Resort, in a release. “When the temperatures are right, we want to be able to take full advantage of those windows.”
Alongside the snow gun installations, the ski area’s replacing 1,100 feet of snowmaking pipe, upgrading pumps and motors, and clearing trail edges to improve snowmaking coverage, as well as adding nine new snowmobiles among other tweaks.
McAdoo called snowmaking a “tough job” and said “anything we can do to make [our crew] work more efficient and improve the equipment they have available to them is important.”
“At the same time, those operational improvements translate directly to a better, more consistent skiing and riding experience for our guests,” he continued.
The investment follows the news earlier this year that the small, recently formed ski area group Bear Den Partners had purchased Smugglers’ Notch.
The group’s CEO, Jon Schaefer, said their role as Smugglers’ Notch’s owners is to build on the foundation laid by the ski area’s existing team and identity.
“Investing in snowmaking at Smuggs is a fundamental investment in the resort and its future,” he said, adding that Bear Den expects that the snowmaking improvements “will be the first of many projects.”
Schaefer also said that projects are underway at Bear Den’s other ski areas, Burke Mountain in Vermont and Catamount and Berkshire East in Western Massachusetts.
Thanks to Bear Den taking ownership of Smugglers’ Notch, passes to the ski area next winter also include unlimited access to Burke Mountain.
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