Sugarloaf vs Sunday River Late November

[Guanz]

Hi friends, I am planning a 5-day trip to either Sugar Loaf or Sunday River late November 2025. I have skied Killington, Stratton, and Blue Mountain before. I just want to try new resorts. I have Ikon pass so there is no price difference. I do have to drive one more hour north for Sugarloaf (which I am ok with as long as I can enjoy skiing). Which one has better snow condition? I am a Blue/Black skier. My gf is a blue snowboarder.

 

[Edd]

Dicey timeframe there. Neither will have great coverage and have different strengths. I’d wait as long as possible to book anything, see how conditions develop.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

but if i had to book one now with a gun to my head id book SR for thanksgiving. they are more aggressive on snowmaking expansion imo.

 

[LoafSkier19]

For 5 days you might as well try to ski both!
Especially with the lack of terrain that will most likely be available at the end of November.

I know Sugarloaf is going with a new opening strategy this year. Blowing Sluice/Spillway and Lwr Winters/Boardwalk first instead of Tote Road top to bottom. Their opening day is slated for Nov. 21st.

Sunday River could either be open with all of Jordan Bowl or just the top half of Locke Mtn depending on snowmaking windows. Last year’s warm start resulted in just the top of Locke open for Thanksgiving week and it was literal hell even on Wednesday with uploading and downloading from the midstation. If that’s the case again this year skip it altogether.

 

[machski]

^^^^^^^^
Yes to what you said on SR last year. But if they stick to their plan they had and get decent snowmaking weather, the goal is to have it all connected by Thanksgiving weekend. If we get cold, the plan is skiing on Jordan, Spruce, SR and Barker Locke/ with Aurora being mostly just a crossover connection early on. We will see if it happens, but that is the goal.

 

[kbroderick]

For 5 days you might as well try to ski both!
Especially with the lack of terrain that will most likely be available at the end of November.

I know Sugarloaf is going with a new opening strategy this year. Blowing Sluice/Spillway and Lwr Winters/Boardwalk first instead of Tote Road top to bottom. Their opening day is slated for Nov. 21st.

Sunday River could either be open with all of Jordan Bowl or just the top half of Locke Mtn depending on snowmaking windows. Last year’s warm start resulted in just the top of Locke open for Thanksgiving week and it was literal hell even on Wednesday with uploading and downloading from the midstation. If that’s the case again this year skip it altogether.

Just to elaborate on the last bit for those who haven't experienced it: when people are downloading, they stop the lift twice per loaded downhill chair (once to load and again to unload). That makes for a very slow trip back up the hill, as well as a long wait to get down.

Once they have a route to the bottom open in some form, that gets much better, even if said route requires walking at the bottom or is covered in such a way that one trip a day is plenty.

With that said, lapping the top half of Locke can get old quickly unless you are into drills or very good at finding ways to entertain yourself on repeated short laps. It's awesome to be able to get turns at all when that's the only option, but I wouldn't think five days of that would stay exciting.

Sugarloaf isn't set up for the same sort of partial lap and tends to have a climate advantage for snowmaking windows. So they'll often get top to bottom operations before Sunday River, but they will open later. If the weather is only somewhat cooperative, spending some time at each may be reasonable (it's under two hours from one to the other, but I'm not sure where I'd stay in between if access to other stuff like restaurants mattered--Rumford or Mexico makes sense geographically but you may need to get lucky with wind direction).

I'd also note that early session conditions are very dependent on weather. I had a Facebook memory of skiing T2 pop up from 7 years ago today, and there was at least one year in the past decade where a pre-Thanksgiving storm had a lot of terrain open on natural snow, but Thanksgiving brought a thaw-freeze cycle for firm holiday skiing on a smaller amount of terrain. I'm a big fan of being able to get out early at all, but I'd be hesitant to make a significant bet on fun blue-square skiing that early without being closer to the date and able to adjust for weather.

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

I suggest making a good list of non-skiing activities

 

[deadheadskier]

Here's a question. Why doesn't Sugarloaf consider doing an upper mountain strategy? Ski off skyline and download on Double Runner. Is Double Runner too old to download on?

That would be a better opening option than Locke T2 as you wouldn't have the chair stopping issues that Locke does.

 

[kbroderick]

Here's a question. Why doesn't Sugarloaf consider doing an upper mountain strategy? Ski off skyline and download on Double Runner. Is Double Runner too old to download on?

That would be a better opening option than Locke T2 as you wouldn't have the chair stopping issues that Locke does.

If they followed the same risk-mitigation procedure of stopping the chair to load and unload all foot traffic, I'm pretty sure you could walk down the length of Double Runner, get a beer, and be at least halfway done in the time it would take to download.

I have no insight as to what they have or haven't considered, but I'm guessing the time window where that would come into play is relatively short most years (if not non-existent) with a late-November scheduled opening, and they get better bang for the buck from improving snowmaking capacity and the ability to take advantage of small windows

 

[thebigo]

doubt many operators are keen to download on a 50 year old double. depending on alignment of the new timberline, SL could be set up well for early season in a few years. up/download on bucksaw, get Bullwinkle's open early.

 

[Smellytele]

doubt many operators are keen to download on a 50 year old double. depending on alignment of the new timberline, SL could be set up well for early season in a few years. up/download on bucksaw, get Bullwinkle's open early.

Didn’t the line bump off the double runner a few years ago?

 

[ceo]

In order to use a lift for downloading in service, the drive system has to be designed for it, so it can handle the overhauling load.

 

[chuckstah]

Here's a question. Why doesn't Sugarloaf consider doing an upper mountain strategy? Ski off skyline and download on Double Runner. Is Double Runner too old to download on?

That would be a better opening option than Locke T2 as you wouldn't have the chair stopping issues that Locke does.

Sugarloaf has used Double Runner to download in the past at least once. That was the setup when they opened on June 1st in 1997. I think but can't confirm that it was done at least occasionally beyond that one day. Of course the lift is almost 30 years older now.

 

[machski]

Here's a question. Why doesn't Sugarloaf consider doing an upper mountain strategy? Ski off skyline and download on Double Runner. Is Double Runner too old to download on?

That would be a better opening option than Locke T2 as you wouldn't have the chair stopping issues that Locke does.

Actually, this is more in line with the supposed strategy this year. Though they plan to make all the way down Double Runner to start as well, but concentrating on upper middle of mountain and Skyline first. It does provide a shorter overall trail length needed to reach the base and you can funnel multiple upper trails into on concentrated on runout trail.

I do feel starting next year (assuming the TL6 project gets started quickly in the office season), that up/down on bucksaw and early on TL is their likely strategy moving forward. And with that, they could open way earlier than SR given the elevation advantage they will have.

 

[deadheadskier]

Actually, this is more in line with the supposed strategy this year. Though they plan to make all the way down Double Runner to start as well, but concentrating on upper middle of mountain and Skyline first. It does provide a shorter overall trail length needed to reach the base and you can funnel multiple upper trails into on concentrated on runout trail.

I do feel starting next year (assuming the TL6 project gets started quickly in the office season), that up/down on bucksaw and early on TL is their likely strategy moving forward. And with that, they could open way earlier than SR given the elevation advantage they will have.

You think the TL 6 will be wind resistant enough to do that? I'm sure it will be better than the current chair.

I like the Skyline plan they have in place now compared to Tote RD and SQ for sure.