I almost listed Eden at Sugarbush in the Good New England Bump Runs thread for that very reason...
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Who represents the Ski Industry Target Market
- Thread starter dlague
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I almost listed Eden at Sugarbush in the Good New England Bump Runs thread for that very reason...
Edd
Well-known member
Fantastic trail, indeed.
The bumps issue is not an industry wide issue, its confined to eastern or high traffic resorts. I skied in the east for over 30 years and have been out west 3 years now. Even at Vail and Beaver Creek, some of the more high end resorts in the country, only 10-25% of the terrain is groomed at anytime, when you have literally 1000's of acres of terrain, it is physically impossible to groom it. Granted that groomed terrain gets the majority of the destination skiers, but more advanced skiers are skiing predominantly ungroomed and bumped terrain. My two girls are in a kids program at Beaver Creek ages 7 and 9, they ski bumps every day in that program.
In the East there are a number of factors that lead to less bumps, weather, overcrowdedtrails, and smaller mountain size (they groom it b/c they can). I also think most area GM’s see a bump trailw/ 5 skiers on it and a groomed trail with 100 skiers on it and think “let’sspread these people out more”. I don’t necessarilyagree with that thinking, but it is not wrong and at the end is pleasing morecustomers than the rest of us who want that bump run.
In the East there are a number of factors that lead to less bumps, weather, overcrowdedtrails, and smaller mountain size (they groom it b/c they can). I also think most area GM’s see a bump trailw/ 5 skiers on it and a groomed trail with 100 skiers on it and think “let’sspread these people out more”. I don’t necessarilyagree with that thinking, but it is not wrong and at the end is pleasing morecustomers than the rest of us who want that bump run.
Jully
Active member
It is certainly not an issue out west! I don't think anybody is making that claim.
Spreading people out is definitely a reason too. It was mentioned a little while ago on the board that Sugarbush seems to groom more trails on the weekend than weekdays. That has to be in part due to crowds.
Spreading people out is definitely a reason too. It was mentioned a little while ago on the board that Sugarbush seems to groom more trails on the weekend than weekdays. That has to be in part due to crowds.
I think part of the reason Sugarbush does it is to help preserve snow-pack as well. Why run a heavy machine over a trail if it only had a handful of skiers on it that day? Some of these trails will see as many people on a Saturday morning as they see during an entire mid-week period. With less traffic mid-week, the trails hold up longer whereas on the weekend if you were to skip grooming them they would be more likely to be skied off and slick.
Overall I tend to like the strategy Sugarbush uses for the most part.
On one of the tangents this thread has gone on, there was aclaim that young skiers don’t ski bumps anymore – I think that is a northeast /metro view of the ski world and not the case with what is happening out west andin other areas of the world.
Kleetus
Member
I like the looks of the latest GFS run for Tuesday...Hope it keep trending this way
dlague
Active member
A great place for intermediate bumps is Okemo. I always kid about how low profile the bumps are but it does make for good practice. I wish I could zipper line like some you crazies out there.
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VTKilarney
Well-known member
Bretton Woods is a great place to practice bump skiing.
Jully
Active member
That is fair. Some were saying. I just assumed they were talking about the east, but I could have been wrong!
Smellytele
Well-known member
180
Well-known member
Not true at all, USSA B level events and the programs are very full of young bumpers. We need support from the millenials
dlague
Active member
That is the case with our youngest son - he is rockin' bumps on fats. 117 underfoot like they were skinny!
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Whitey
Member
Both of my boys, 14 & 17, prefer woods and bumps over T-parks and definitely over groomers. My 17 yr old will get bored after 2 runs on groomers. Wants nothing to do with them. They will spend most of their day in T-park if the woods and bumps aren't in play and will do a couple of laps thru them on any given day. But it's really not what they go skiing for. A couple of weeks ago when we ducked the ropes on a glade at Loon they were so much happier doing jumps off of natural stuff than they were when they were in the T-park earlier that day.
Of course this may have more to do with them actually following the lead from their old man for once in their lives and me exposing them to the corrupting influence of woods and bumps. . .
Related/unrelated - My father, 90 yrs old now, was a classic old school new england skier. Used to hike up Wachusett and ski it before there were lifts (circa 1940s). Wooden skis with leather bindings. Ditto for Mt Greylock and Mt Washington. He also used to hitch-hike up into the VT/NH mtns to ski. My mom & him stayed and skied at Mittersill when it was its own area and had places to stay at the bottom. As I watched my boys ski thru that glade at Loon, with its sketchy conditions, tight trees, rocks, etc - I thought that my dad would be proud of them. They took the chairlift to get there but what they were skiing and how they ski it would remind him a lot of himself & what he skied when he was their age. I thought about how time is a flat circle and we loop back to things without realizing that it's happening.
mister moose
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Oh, C'mon. You ski Killington.
Low Road. West Glade. Mousetrap stage right. Lowest Vertigo. Upper Great Bear. Upper Wildfire. Shall I go on?
Vagabond...
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