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Rain on Friday......Grrrrrr

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cdskier

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Mid winter Saturdays, I'll opt for

VT: Magic, Pico, Middlebury, Burke, Bolton and maybe Mt Ellen at Bush.

I skied on Saturday at Mt Ellen. Saw pretty much everything at Lincoln Peak on windhold Saturday morning other than Valley House chair meanwhile at that time nothing was (yet) listed on hold at ME. Was 2nd chair at GMX at ME at 8am. Got 2 runs in off GMX before that went on windhold. North Ridge Express was by this point now updated to be on windhold (doesn't normally open until 9 anyway). Inverness was running so did 2 runs off that chair on Brambles which was quite nice. Then went up Inverness again and went down Northridge Expressway. As I crossed under GMX I saw it was running but no one on it so thought maybe they were getting ready to open it again. Got back to the base just as they re-opened it. Hopped on GMX and headed straight for the summit chair since that was running. Very windy at the loading terminal of the summit chair, but once you got 100 yards or so up the chair it was as calm as could be. Upper mountain at ME was surprisingly not too wind scoured and skied better than the lower mountain. Lapped summit for a while. A bit before noon I headed back down to the base. GMX had probably what appeared to be a 5 minute wait (long by ME standards!) so I called it a day as trails were starting to get a bit scraped anyway. By this point winds were dying down and pretty much all lifts opened at both ME and LP. As I was leaving ME, the majority of the parking lot was actually filled. LP had a good crowd too in their lots as I drove past them back to my condo.

Longest line on Saturday at Mt Ellen while I was there was maybe around 5 minutes for the summit chair. That probably died down though once NRX opened up I would suspect.

With the amount on windhold at Lincoln Peak as of 8am, I really expected Mt Ellen to be more crowded and was really surprised that there was almost no one there when I pulled up around 7:45.
 

deadheadskier

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Yeah that sounds about what I'd expect. I was always a Mt Ellen guy when I lived in VT and skied there frequently. It's been 4 years since I've been back to Sugarbush. Glad to hear it hasn't changed in regards to crowds at Mt. Ellen.

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VTKilarney

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Burke is in very rough shape, unfortunately. Their snowmaking just can't get it done. Upper Dippers was closed yesterday. Lower Willoughby is closed. This meant that two of their three premier trails were not open top to bottom. The third trail is the racing trail. The few natural snow trails that were open were in very rough shape. Carriage Road, for example, was a "one and done" run for me. Frankly, it got boring pretty quickly. And it looks like through this coming weekend things are not going to be getting better.

It just is what it is. Burke is a great hill when there is snow, but when there isn't snow, their snowmaking system is just absolutely anemic. The "improvements" that they tout every year are band aids when major surgery is needed. I wonder how many hotel guests this weekend are interested in returning.

One thing I find a little disappointing is that the new t-bar on the racing hill sticks out into Warren't Way much more than the poma lift did. Since there is so little snowmaking at Burke, recreational skiers are often forced to share Warren's Way with the racers. This means that there is much less room for everyone on the trail when it has to be shared. That being said, the lift looks great.
 

Glenn

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We can't get a break this January. Not looking good tomorrow in ski country. Then another not so good event for Sunday. WTF.
 

rocks860

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I’ll be heading up to sugarbush on Saturday for the week, things were looking ok up til now. Have a quad pack to I guess I’ll be waiting to see what happens before when I decide what days to ski


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xlr8r

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Finally Colorado is starting to get snow, my trip to Copper in 2 weeks is setting up well. I have had enough of this bad ski weather in New England over the past month.
 

Pez

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Although I'm right on track with last year for days on skis, this season is quickly going down the toilet.

Long range has NE cooling off a bit in a couple weeks, so i guess we'll see.
 
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