SUNDOWN: The 2008 AlpineZone Ski Area Challenge

[Greg]

Chris Sullivan, Mountain Operations Manager for Ski Sundown has agreed to take the 2008 AlpineZone Challenge! This is your opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, or say some praise to the men and women who are in charge of the Northeast’s ski areas. Please post some suggested questions in this thread and we'll select ten to present for official responses.

Also please don't be offended if we edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or some other minor thing. In order to get in all of the questions we MAY merge some questions but we'll do our best to keep the substance of your question. If we don't get your question in, feel free to post a follow up after we get the results...we are encouraging the representatives follow the threads.

As always, please be respectful of Chris and keep it civil. Also, please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. Sundown needs to be discrete about certain information.

Ask away!

Sundown's Profile

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[Greg]

Any update on terrain expansion? Will a dedicated mogul trail be part of the plan?

Have you decided on whether Temptor will be the primary bump run this season? If so, will you consider putting in a few small tabletops on the upper flats?

Are you still planning to hold the spring bump competition on Gunbarrel?

Have you considered opening up the area to mountain biking? Not necessary lift-served downhill, but perhaps some cross country on the property?

That's all I got.

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

Can Greg get a free season pass for all the promoting he does?

[2knees]

First i want to thank Chris, Jarrod and everyone else who puts the time and effort into giving us a bump run for basically sundowns entire season. I cant stress enough how much that keeps me coming back and how much I as a local skier appreciates that. There were times last year when sundown had better bumps that what i found in vermont. And the bump comp last year was fantastic.

My question, no surprise, is in regards to this years plan. Are you going to once again seed nor'easter until late february and then switch to temptor or is there any chance of giving us temptor right off the bat. The upper part of temptor has enough pitch to be a bit challenging at times so that would be my preference. (suggestion!). I also understand this has been asked frequently in the past, but is there any serious consideration of cutting a new trail to the (skiers) left of gunbarrel?


Congratulations on running the best ski area in southern new england.


Pat

[powderman]

Has Sundown considered officially opening the glade to the skier's left on Gunbarrel? I know Connecticut doesn't recieve much natural snow, but during the occasions when there is natural snow, this would be a great addition to the hill.

[MR. evil]

Originally Posted by Greg

Chris Sullivan, Mountain Operations Manager for Ski Sundown has agreed to take the 2008 AlpineZone Challenge! This is your opportunity to ask questions, offer suggestions, or say some praise to the men and women who are in charge of the Northeast’s ski areas. Please post some suggested questions in this thread and we'll select ten to present for official responses.

Also please don't be offended if we edit/change your question for grammar, tone, or some other minor thing. In order to get in all of the questions we MAY merge some questions but we'll do our best to keep the substance of your question. If we don't get your question in, feel free to post a follow up after we get the results...we are encouraging the representatives follow the threads.

As always, please be respectful of Chris and keep it civil. Also, please refrain from asking specifics about skier visit numbers, financials, demographic information, etc. Sundown needs to be discrete about certain information.

Ask away!

Sundown's Profile

Previous Responses:

2007 Responses
2006 Responses

+1

Also, has there been any talk about offering a night or twillight season pass?

[mondeo]

Originally Posted by MR. evil

+1

Also, has there been any talk about offering a night or twillight season pass?

+1

As someone who already has a season pass to Killington (and plans on spending weekends there,) that would be awesome.

Are there any plans to let the runs that don't have seeded bumps form bumps naturally?

Will the two mogul competitions have different formats (e.g., one single, one dual?)

[ishovelsnow]

hey mondo,

shoot me an email with your mogul comp questions. I am always open to suggestion with events and like the feed back of the actual competitors.

[Greg]

Originally Posted by mondeo

Are there any plans to let the runs that don't have seeded bumps form bumps naturally?

They attempted this on skier's right of Gunny last spring. It didn't really work out that well. I think the problem was lack of skier traffic that late in the season and the skier and snowboarder traffic that was there just doesn't ski in such a way to build good bumps. Brian and I tried to ski in some lines, but it's tough to dedicate that much time when we had sweet bumps on Temptor two trails over.

Sundown has limited terrain as it is and we are very fortunate that they dedicate as much of it as they do to bumps. If letting some areas bumps up naturally was in addition to the seeded runs, I'd be all for it, but there's no way I would support skier-made sweeping push piles as a replacement for their seeded bumps. I hate to say it, but 90% of their clientèle just doesn't have the skill to ski in good natural lines.

[deadheadskier]

What does the management at Sundown think of Greg? Radical bumper or Goose Stomping nerd whom they seed bumps for so he'll shut his trap?