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The "Sugarbush Thread"

rocks860

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Tuesday Wednesday @ LP Thursday and Friday @ MElllen ($30 & $17) Saturday & Sunday @ LP. If Tuesday is windy use the ticket on Monday instead. Also all of those days you could head over to Bolton and ski @ night from 4pm - 10pm for 20 bucks. From Tuesday @ 8am until Sunday @ 4pm there are only 40 hours you can't ride a lift but there is always skinning.

Ive got the quad pack which was a gift so I'm gonna use those tickets for sure. I'm leaving on Saturday and I don't know if I can survive more than 4 days so I'll probably just ski those 4. I would definitely die if I followed that plan


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bushpilot

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Ive got the quad pack which was a gift so I'm gonna use those tickets for sure. I'm leaving on Saturday and I don't know if I can survive more than 4 days so I'll probably just ski those 4. I would definitely die if I followed that plan


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You can do it! I'll be there by your side the whole time! Already told my boss I'm out at lunch time on Tuesday and don't expect me on Wednesday. Bring it on!!!
 

rocks860

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You can do it! I'll be there by your side the whole time! Already told my boss I'm out at lunch time on Tuesday and don't expect me on Wednesday. Bring it on!!!

Haha I think you may underestimate how out of shape I am but I will definitely be out and will take some runs if you want


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smac75

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Does anyone have any experience with their seasonal programs for kids? I want to make Sugarbush our home mountain next year, but was hoping to get some intel first on the quality of their seasonal program (I have a bunch of kids) and anything overall to be aware of or to keep in mind. We were at Cannon last year and are Bretton woods this year.... I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts... Please feel free to pm me as well. THANKS!

Second year of Blazers for us. Loving it this year. Struggled last year which I think is common for newcomers to the program. So much assessing at the beginning and I felt so many groups are carry overs from previous years. This year my oldest was back with most of same kids which is great but a new coach which has also turned out to be great. We lucked out and got a local ski bum. There seems to be high turn over with the coaches but every single one we have met so far are very nice and really seem to love the job. I know kids in the mountaineering program as well - they do some cool stuff! And those coaches and hard core SB lifers. Overall we are very happy. Kids would rather ski with their groups than us and we are equally happy to go off and do our own thing. It's been a nice lesson in independence for them as well. I hope that helps!
 

rocks860

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This isn't totally relevant to your question but I grew up taking lessons at sugarbush and I loved it


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benski

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We lucked out and got a local ski bum. There seems to be high turn over with the coaches but every single one we have met so far are very nice and really seem to love the job. I know kids in the mountaineering program as well - they do some cool stuff! And those coaches and hard core SB lifers. Overall we are very happy. Kids would rather ski with their groups than us and we are equally happy to go off and do our own thing. It's been a nice lesson in independence for them as well. I hope that helps!

Think there is much higher turnover for younger groups than older groups, at least thats how it was a few years ago. Coaches for the older groups seems to be the same people year after year.
 

thetrailboss

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Win said just for GMVS on MRV. Way to taget your demographic.

IIRC GMVS pays for the trail use, including snowmaking. GMVS is competing with BMA and Cannon to some extent.

Are any of you surprised that SB is not making snow elsewhere? I'm not. We've had this conversation about SB's snowmaking ad nauseum.


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cdskier

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IIRC GMVS pays for the trail use, including snowmaking. GMVS is competing with BMA and Cannon to some extent.

Are any of you surprised that SB is not making snow elsewhere? I'm not. We've had this conversation about SB's snowmaking ad nauseum.

Agreed on all counts. I was surprised they ended up making snow last weekend. Conditions this weekend were ok, but were better last weekend. Saturday at least you had a couple inches of natural that fell as long as you avoided the wind blown spots. Today was just pure fast and firm everywhere. Saw several spots where you had ice showing (I'm guessing wind overnight blew off whatever they groomed in those spots since I was out early today and there were not many people there so it shouldn't have been scraped off that quickly).

Hopefully this storm delivers some decent snow so I don't need to keep skiing groomers non-stop.
 

Griswold

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Agreed on all counts. I was surprised they ended up making snow last weekend. Conditions this weekend were ok, but were better last weekend. Saturday at least you had a couple inches of natural that fell as long as you avoided the wind blown spots. Today was just pure fast and firm everywhere. Saw several spots where you had ice showing (I'm guessing wind overnight blew off whatever they groomed in those spots since I was out early today and there were not many people there so it shouldn't have been scraped off that quickly).

Hopefully this storm delivers some decent snow so I don't need to keep skiing groomers non-stop.

You must be talking about lower organ grinder, right? Couldn't believe how bad it was first thing this morning, considering it was groomed. I think you're right about this wind blowing off all the snow. It was actually much better after lunch.


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cdskier

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You must be talking about lower organ grinder, right? Couldn't believe how bad it was first thing this morning, considering it was groomed. I think you're right about this wind blowing off all the snow. It was actually much better after lunch.

You hit the nail on the head with lower OG. In particular the turn it makes below the last intersection with lower Jester was really ugly.
 

Hawk

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Think there is much higher turnover for younger groups than older groups, at least thats how it was a few years ago. Coaches for the older groups seems to be the same people year after year.
This is the case for most mountains. No one wants the younger groups because they are high maintenance and you are limited to where you can go and what you can do. At Sugarbush the older groups go pretty much everywhere and most of them spent the whole day in the woods. There is very little turn over with the older Blazer groups. Same guys pretty much every year. The Mountaineering Blazers has been Diggity and Rick Hale for years and now Waitie. Those guys do a great job and go everywhere. I saw them headed up to Alyns Lodge on Saturday for a sleep over.
 

Hawk

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Does anyone have any experience with their seasonal programs for kids? I want to make Sugarbush our home mountain next year, but was hoping to get some intel first on the quality of their seasonal program (I have a bunch of kids) and anything overall to be aware of or to keep in mind. We were at Cannon last year and are Bretton woods this year.... I'd greatly appreciate any thoughts... Please feel free to pm me as well. THANKS!
I am not sure of your experience is with Kids groups but I think that Sugarbush it a little different that other places. They stress more of a Free skiing itinerary and based on the group and conditions, they may spend most of the time skiing trees and advanced terrain. The kids love it. And as stated before, the turn over in the older groups for instructors is low and the Mountaineering Blazers coaches, Diggity, Rick and Waitie have been at SB for over 20 years.
 

cdskier

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Passholders were told in the same e-mail that gave us a preview of the new pass prices that Village Double and Sunshine double would both be replaced over the next two years. I think I posted that here, although the news that they are replacing them both this summer instead of over the next 2 years is brand new and I just read about it myself in Win's blog a few minutes ago. So you're definitely first posting that info.
 

thetrailboss

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Happy to see that both Sunnyside and Village will be replaced.

I'm interested as to who will do the install and if there will be a reallignment.
 

cdskier

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Happy to see that both Sunnyside and Village will be replaced.

I'm interested as to who will do the install and if there will be a reallignment.

Village will be realigned a bit - "The new lift will begin a bit higher on the mountain-- near the existing tower 2--and terminate at the same place."
 

benski

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Village will be realigned a bit - "The new lift will begin a bit higher on the mountain-- near the existing tower 2--and terminate at the same place."

Thats new. The Rice/Gad brook plans show it ending much lower and on the other side of the trail. I wonder if this has anything to do with Stowe. Also the Village lift is Done for the season so I expect more stops on Gate house. Also is North Ridge done for the season but Catlerock and Slide Brooke are going to run this weekend.
 

xwhaler

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Yea, was annoying to have the NRX down yesterday. We lapped the GMX but the 2 trips up on the slow summit quad was all we could take.
4 days in the bitter cold/wind so weren;t overly motivated to ski hardpack groomers after skiing trees the previous 3 days further north.

This storm will help but it was amazing how little natural snow there is in the MRV and on SB vs further north (stowe, smuggs, Jay)
 

dlague

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Yea, was annoying to have the NRX down yesterday. We lapped the GMX but the 2 trips up on the slow summit quad was all we could take.
4 days in the bitter cold/wind so weren;t overly motivated to ski hardpack groomers after skiing trees the previous 3 days further north.

This storm will help but it was amazing how little natural snow there is in the MRV and on SB vs further north (stowe, smuggs, Jay)

You need to report on those three days!
 
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