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Ski season has officially kicked off in Vermont, and one guy was willing to camp out overnight to snag a ride on the first lift at one of the state’s most popular resorts. However, he got a surprise courtesy of some bears that caused him to beat a hasty retreat.
Vermont is New England’s premier skiing destination, and more than four million people hit the slopes at the close to two dozen mountains that were opened for business during the 2024-25 season.
The first major snowstorm of the season hit Vermont a couple of weeks ago, and while winter doesn’t officially kick off for another month, some of its biggest ski resorts—including Stowe, Killington, and Okemo—have started welcoming visitors.
That group also includes Sugarbush, which got up and running on November 22nd. One man was amped to start shredding to the point where he decided to post up the night before it opened to get the first chair of the season, but he did not anticipate the welcoming party that ended up greeting him.
A skier in Vermont fled the scene after some bears showed up at the ski lift where he was camping out
The temperature at Sugarbush was hovering around freezing on Friday night, but that didn’t deter one skier who was determined to earn the right to say he was the first person to get a ride on the lift when it started making the rounds on Saturday morning.
A camera with a view of the bottom of the lift captured the skier in question sitting at the gate when a group of four black bears (officially known as a “sleuth” or a “sloth”) made their way into the area and attempted to rummage through a trash can.
The man in their vicinity seemed to notice he wasn’t alone once they arrived on the scene, but it seemingly took him a while to realize the noises he heard were caused by the bears before he jumped up from his seat and scrambled away.
It’s unclear if the skier actually got the first chair of the season after that scare, but there were hundreds of others who ended up in line before Sugarbush kicked off the season on Saturday morning.