The "Sugarbush Thread"

ss20 · Jan 9, 2020

Killington and places on north are around or over 100". Everyone in the spine other than the southern mountains are nearly 90% open. It's been rainy and this will obliterate much of the base but I struggle how anyone could call this season "poor" or "below average".

South of the Mass Pike it's been pretty tough. Butternut and Wachusett not being 100% open this time of year is pretty rare. Lots of places just haven't been able to make significant snow the past couple of weeks.

cdskier · Jan 9, 2020

ss20 said:
Killington and places on north are around or over 100". Everyone in the spine other than the southern mountains are nearly 90% open. It's been rainy and this will obliterate much of the base but I struggle how anyone could call this season "poor" or "below average".

The amount of snow is largely irrelevant when it is coupled with multiple bouts of rain/warm/re-freeze scenarios. Snowfall totals at SB are probably actually right around or even slightly below average for this time of year (42" at the base and 73" at the summit as of this morning). But when you combine that with multiple rain events, the overall result is absolutely "below average".

jaybird · Jan 9, 2020

Well .. wasn't below average on Lynx today.
Light crowd good surface everywhere.
The assault on Sigi is impressive.

These warm ups are beginning to piss me off.

skiur · Jan 10, 2020

ss20 said:
Killington and places on north are around or over 100". Everyone in the spine other than the southern mountains are nearly 90% open. It's been rainy and this will obliterate much of the base but I struggle how anyone could call this season "poor" or "below average".

South of the Mass Pike it's been pretty tough. Butternut and Wachusett not being 100% open this time of year is pretty rare. Lots of places just haven't been able to make significant snow the past couple of weeks.

How much of that 100" has melted away with the 4 or 5 thaws we have had this year? Ullr is very upset with us this season.

Hawk · Jan 10, 2020

So here is the reality check from what I saw in the woods last weekend.
- Up high above 2000' - in the woods or off trail there is still a hard icy base about 1' to 1.5' thick. There was about 4-5" of fluff on that and some more fell this week.
- Anything under 2000' had varying amount of cover from 0 to about 4-5" depending on how much sun it got.
- Obviously the trails that have snow making have a lot more snow in varying condition.

CastlerockMRV · Jan 10, 2020

I managed 2 core shots in 2 days last weekend because I insisted on skiing trees nearly top-to-bottom. Oh well...tools not jewels.

Looks like I'm gonna have to burn some PTO that I don't really have to catch a piece of the midweek action if mother nature wont give us a break from these freeze/thaw/rain cycles soon.

CastlerockMRV · Jan 10, 2020

I managed 2 core shots in 2 days last weekend because I insisted on skiing trees nearly top-to-bottom. Oh well...tools not jewels.

Looks like I'm gonna have to burn some PTO that I don't really have to catch a piece of the midweek action if mother nature wont give us a break from these freeze/thaw/rain cycles soon.

KustyTheKlown · Jan 10, 2020

we accidentally wound up in moose run woods last weekend after skiing tumbler woods. i skied tumbler woods earlier in the day and the coverage was fine. went back with a friend later on and missed the turnout and wound up in moose run woods all the way down to the southbound run out. "dude's car got a little dinged up."

Hawk · Jan 10, 2020

You mean you ended up on lower FIS. Not sure what the dudes car has to do with it thou.

KustyTheKlown · Jan 10, 2020

Hawk said:
You mean you ended up on lower FIS. Not sure what the dudes car has to do with it thou.

yes, lower fis thank you.

'dude's car got a little dinged up' is a quote from the big lebowski. after his car is shot up or torched (i cant remember). its a classic understatement of damage in regards to my own skis.

slatham · Jan 10, 2020

ss20 said:
Killington and places on north are around or over 100". Everyone in the spine other than the southern mountains are nearly 90% open. It's been rainy and this will obliterate much of the base but I struggle how anyone could call this season "poor" or "below average".

South of the Mass Pike it's been pretty tough. Butternut and Wachusett not being 100% open this time of year is pretty rare. Lots of places just haven't been able to make significant snow the past couple of weeks.

I struggle to understand how anyone could call this season "good" or "above average" from a snow conditions (vs. snowfall) perspective. The rain/thaws with no true dumps have not been pleasant. I am at "average" but unless the weather turns cold/snowy next week I will downgrade that assessment.

Now luckily from what I am seeing the pattern is looking to change so let's hope that verifies and holds for more than 5 days......

KustyTheKlown · Jan 10, 2020

as of now next sunday looks like a nice storm. hopefully it holds.

Hawk · Jan 10, 2020

I am at "Suck" for this season. it ranks as one of the 5 worst years that I can remember. I ski every weekend rain or shine so my perspective comes from feeling the actual punishment on my body. Maybe I am getting old.
I don't know what you guys are looking at but with not a lot of cold air around for the next week or so, storms are going to be marginal at best. Maybe we luck out but that is looking at the bright side at best.
GFS latest Run:
http://coolwx.com/ptype/

slatham · Jan 10, 2020

KustyTheKlown said:
as of now next sunday looks like a nice storm. hopefully it holds.

I do not have confidence in the models regarding a storm in over a weeks time (they have been very poor of late, even the Euro). I do have more confidence in the ensemble mean 500mb pattern that looks to be changing across the three models I follow (GFS, Euro, Canadian). How that translates into the particulars of sensible weather at ground level is TBD.

I do hope for a repeat of last years MLK storm though!

cdskier · Jan 10, 2020

slatham said:
I struggle to understand how anyone could call this season "good" or "above average" from a snow conditions (vs. snowfall) perspective. The rain/thaws with no true dumps have not been pleasant. I am at "average" but unless the weather turns cold/snowy next week I will downgrade that assessment.

Now luckily from what I am seeing the pattern is looking to change so let's hope that verifies and holds for more than 5 days......

Exactly. Of course even a "below average" year can have great days. And I think there have been a number of those (particularly this week it seems when many of us were at work). So a few people here and there saying "well day xyz was great" does nothing to disprove that the season has only been "average" or even "below average" up to this point.

I'm hearing from multiple sources (even weather people here in NJ that don't care at all about skiing) that the pattern is changing soon. Hopefully that translates into some meaningful cold and snow for us skiers without anymore of these unpleasant events. Time will tell.

This is the first year in a long time that I've had MLK day off from work, so I'm looking forward to hopefully having a good long weekend next weekend.

WinS · Jan 10, 2020

Today was my 45th day out on the mountain, so I have seen most of the days this season. I can certainly remember far worse starts to the year and some better ones. The one thing I can say is that every season is different. There have been some really good days so far this year and many were midweek when many of you are not here, and there have been numerous mediocre and a few terrible days IMHO. Today, was incredibly windy but I got some nice early runs in at ME before heading into the office to work on some final transaction details. I think early tomorrow might actually be recent with soft snow and rain building later in the day. But the winds may be wicked so there will most likely be windholds. It is a WSW wind. The heaviest rain seems to be tomorrow night into Sunday and it is no clear when the cold will settle in. But our forecast does call for the cold to finally settle in next week and any precipitation will be snow through MLK weekend. We still have 110 days or more to go!

kingslug · Jan 10, 2020

I had a very good time at SB last monday (30th)to wednesday...
Steins was particularly sporty..
Have to get a pass next year as i think im liking the Bush better than Stowe

Scruffy · Jan 10, 2020

WinS said:
Today was my 45th day out on the mountain, so I have seen most of the days this season. I can certainly remember far worse starts to the year and some better ones. The one thing I can say is that every season is different. There have been some really good days so far this year and many were midweek when many of you are not here, and there have been numerous mediocre and a few terrible days IMHO. Today, was incredibly windy but I got some nice early runs in at ME before heading into the office to work on some final transaction details. I think early tomorrow might actually be recent with soft snow and rain building later in the day. But the winds may be wicked so there will most likely be windholds. It is a WSW wind. The heaviest rain seems to be tomorrow night into Sunday and it is no clear when the cold will settle in. But our forecast does call for the cold to finally settle in next week and any precipitation will be snow through MLK weekend. We still have 110 days or more to go!

Agreed. I was at Sugarbush this past week and it skied amazing well for the rain events that happened in the past few weeks. Every day we got a few inches of fresh. Kudos to SB for not grooming everything to death; moguls galore--thank you. I skied Mt. Ellen Thursday and Exterminator was the run, and I had it all to myself. Everyone was on Bravo, a rock strewn, skied out mess, but Exterminator was big puffy bumps, with virtually no one there.

ducky · Jan 11, 2020

Way behind Win with 34! Haven't made it to MRG or Stowe yet.

I noticed the snowmakers made large mounds near the main lifts presumably to rebuild if needed after the non-snow event tonight/Sunday. Good planning.

WinS · Jan 11, 2020

ducky said:
Way behind Win with 34! Haven't made it to MRG or Stowe yet.

I noticed the snowmakers made large mounds near the main lifts presumably to rebuild if needed after the non-snow event tonight/Sunday. Good planning.

Yes, we are going to need them. We have already lost quite a bit of depth,and we have another 30-36 or so hours until it cools down enough to begin making snow again. So far today has been dry with the rain looking to come in early afternoon with the heaviest overnight. Sunday is likely to be better than tonight, but the winds will still be around. It is howling from mid-mountain up. Glad we have at least some of the lifts going at LP. At ME the winds have shut down Inverness and GMX but Northridge and Summit are open so people are riding Sunny Q and hiking up Cracker jack to Northridge. In my memory that is a first. Southerly winds always have less of an impact on the ME summits.

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