Sugarbush March 17-18th 2012

Date(s) Skied: Saturday 3/17 , Sunday 3/18

Resort or Ski Area: Sugarbush – Lincoln Peak on Saturday, Mt Ellen on Sunday

Conditions: Spring – everything from hard pack and ice in the early AM shade to corn and deep slush

Saturday – sunny and 60+, Sunday 70 degrees at the base of Mt Ellen, 58 at the summit midday

Trip Report:

Saturday skied at Lincoln Peak. Started on the Super Bravo chair and skied Snowball/Spring Fling, Murphys Glade , Birdland, Lower Organ Grinder, Lower Jester which were all in pretty good shape –groomed, bumps, slush, dirt and everything in between. Took a ride on the Valley House Double chair and could not believe that The Mall was still open. Lower third of the trail was more dirt and grass than snow-you literally had to patch together narrow bands of snow/ice to get to the bottom. Lots of people were up on the Heaven’s Gate Chair- Ripcord and Organgrinder were both soft bump runs, Jester was pretty slushy on the sun facing corners. Overall it was a good day at LP but spring conditions are about a month ahead of schedule.

Sunday we skied Mt Ellen which is arguably the better spring skiing option at Sugarbush. Took the GMX up and saw lots of bare ground on Cliffs which got no snowmaking this year. Took a right off the chair to get to Cruiser and the flat area was basically a deep slush puddle. If it stays warm this week that area will be gone. Cruiser had great coverage, hero soft snow. After Cruiser we basically lapped the Summit Chair. Entry to Bravo was sketchy but the rest of the trail was good, only top half of Exterminator was worth skiing. Elbow was half bumps, half groomed and skiing great. The mogul fans were killing it on Looking Good. There was some sketchy coverage at the summit but FIS was about as good as it gets for soft skiing in the spring. Rim Run was wall to wall covered but was a slush puddle when you got to the Summit chair. I stayed up high for most of the day on Sunday, took one final trip down low to check out the terrain park which was in good shape considering the sun and temps. Lots of the lower trails are getting bare spots and will be done soon. I think there is still coverage and time to ski the summit to the North Ridge chair. It would likely require downloading on the GMX to make it to the planned close on 4/1.

Here are a few pics from Mt Ellen. I’m sharing pics of the snow, instead of the bare spots and closed trails to keep my optimism up for a few more weeks of skiing.

Rim Run


Rim Run looking downhill


Glen House /Base of Summit chair



Elbow



Elbow looking downhill

any hero bumps at sugarbush? And if so, anything worth the trip for Saturday 3/24 ?

Looks a hell of a lot better than my first visit there at the end of January, I was lucky enough to ski there the last week of February, after about twenty inches, it was great. Is The Mall the liftline trail next to Stein's? I didn't ski it, but that's one narrow, steep, bumpy, long trail, with Erector Set towers in the middle of it. That was a toy, for all you kids out there, you built all kinds of things with metal bars with holes in them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erector_Set



Yep, here's The Mall from an April 08 TR

Looks inviting, it's steeper in person, trust me. Now I'm sorry I didn't ski it.

Boys Today-Men Tomorrow!

Beast_Ed said:

any hero bumps at sugarbush? And if so, anything worth the trip for Saturday 3/24 ?

Click to expand...

I think that Looking Good and the mogul line on Elbow would qualify as "hero bumps". Can't guarantee they will be there on 3/24. Ripcord at LP is also a good option.

Sat and Sunday looked great!


Sugarbush North - Mt Ellen - 3/16

Friday was tough, forecast looked bad -- but I had the day off for skiing and watching NCAA so I went up anyway... About a 30 second section of the mountain was clear and nice -- meanwhile about 40 degrees up top, and very foggy.... down below that one small clear section, also extremely foggy-- made going slow and working on my tele turns mandatory... Going somewhat fast into the abyss was just dangerous. I used my sense of hearing more than sight! After a late start, and a few runs, we called it quits and enjoyed some Guinness and NCAA games--

Was bummed that some of my favorites weren't open, and the mountain was a world different than St Pats '11--

the next day, decided to make my way over to Smuggs for the first time in a few years-- what a day!

Nice report guys. I was at ME on Sunday as well. I do think downloading may be required as well but the snowmaking trails were holding up pretty well all things considered. My first time back to ME in 15+ yrs. I didn't even recognize the place (not that much has changed but I think we only rode the Slidebrook from one side to the other and didnt really do the terrain at ME)

Nice vibe, different atmosphere than at LP....I like it and will certainly be back. FIS is a great run when all bumped up. Views from the top of the summitt chair on Sunday were tremendous.

Question for regulars: Were we seeing Whiteface off in the distance from the top of ME? I assumed so but there was also another ski mtn well north of the big peak that we assumed was Whiteface and I wasn't sure what the smaller one was? Very likely was in Canada as I think it looked larger than Titus Mtn

I'll definitely be back to Mt Ellen, I only spent a couple hours there on my last trip. I went back to Lincoln Peak to ski with some guys I met at the hotel. FIS does look fun with bumps, it's pretty steep. The views on Rim Run are spectacular. Exterminator was fantastic when I was there. That is an awesome special they ran at the end of the season, there are two distinct vibes to the two hills, I like them both.

Was at Mt. Ellen on Sunday for the first time. We arrived at 8 and after sampling the upper and lower mountain, rim, elbow cruiser etc. I discovered Inverness. As I got to the lift the lady liftie said "Best skiing on the mountain." She was right.