Sugar Bush, Mt Ellen - 2/10/2010

[Grassi21]

Not sure why... but we got a late start this morning. 2knees and I were booted up by around 11 I think. Flurries all day, visibility at the peak was rough at times. The surface was nice just about every where. Some of the steeper bumped up trails looking kinda gnarly. 2knees hit a few of the gnarlier trails while I cruised an adjacent trail. Bumps and snow were real nice on the Cliffs and Bravo. We cruised around a bit but ended up lapping those liftline bumps after lunch. 2knees highly recommends the chili. Bumped into Bush Mogul Master. Good to see him. We wrapped kinda early due to sore legs and a healthy hangover. Just lazing around the Golden Lion before grabbing some grub tonight. Reinforcements are arriving tonight to kick up the partying.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Glad you guys enjoyed it. Sorry we never actually crossed paths on the mountain for a few runs, but it was good to see you there.

Cliffs was absolutely off the hook today. Especially the bottom 2/3 of the trail. Unbelievable. Bravo and Encore were both great as well. Tumbler was also very nice, but needs a little traffic. Still some bones sticking out as well. Exterminator, unfortunately, is not skiing well. It's hard and scratchy, with some ledge showing. It need snow. Everything else is nice, though.

Did you ski "Joe's Cruiser," Grassi? I spent an entire grooming shift pushing whales out and trying to cover some rough spots on skiers' right. Looked like it came out pretty nice, just curious how you thought it skied.

 

[marcski]

Not sure why... but we got a late start this morning. 2knees and I were booted up by around 11 I think. Flurries all day, visibility at the peak was rough at times. The surface was nice just about every where. Some of the steeper bumped up trails looking kinda gnarly. 2knees hit a few of the gnarlier trails while I cruised an adjacent trail. Bumps and snow were real nice on the Cliffs and Bravo. We cruised around a bit but ended up lapping those liftline bumps after lunch. 2knees highly recommends the chili. Bumped into Bush Mogul Master. Good to see him. We wrapped kinda early due to sore legs and a healthy hangover. Just lazing around the Golden Lion before grabbing some grub tonight. Reinforcements are arriving tonight to kick up the partying.

Nice, I might be hitting the Bush on Saturday.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

BTW, how did our bumps compare to Killington????????

 

[2knees]

i was shocked how good the bumps were under the north ridge chair. bravo had some hairy spots but the rest was just super soft with awesome natural lines. i would highly recommend ellen to anyone. hit bravo woods and went way off the beaten path. tons of deep in there but i got in a little over my head.

great day, albeit short. was looking for you bmm but never got synched up.


later fooooos

 

[Grassi21]

Glad you guys enjoyed it. Sorry we never actually crossed paths on the mountain for a few runs, but it was good to see you there.

Cliffs was absolutely off the hook today. Especially the bottom 2/3 of the trail. Unbelievable. Bravo and Encore were both great as well. Tumbler was also very nice, but needs a little traffic. Still some bones sticking out as well. Exterminator, unfortunately, is not skiing well. It's hard and scratchy, with some ledge showing. It need snow. Everything else is nice, though.

Did you ski "Joe's Cruiser," Grassi? I spent an entire grooming shift pushing whales out and trying to cover some rough spots on skiers' right. Looked like it came out pretty nice, just curious how you thought it skied.

I did cruise down Joe's. Thumbs up from me. I didn't notice any rough spots.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

I did cruise down Joe's. Thumbs up from me. I didn't notice any rough spots.

Cool... that's what I wanted to hear!

 

[thetrailboss]

Bravo skied well on Saturday, but I did not venture down Exterminator. I agree with the assessment about Bravo Woods. Some nice lines in there. Glad you had a good day. Did you guys ski FIS or Lower FIS?

 

[riverc0il]

i was shocked how good the bumps were under the north ridge chair. bravo had some hairy spots but the rest was just super soft with awesome natural lines. i would highly recommend ellen to anyone. hit bravo woods and went way off the beaten path. tons of deep in there but i got in a little over my head.

great day, albeit short. was looking for you bmm but never got synched up.


later fooooos

Sounds like conditions have improved a lot since last weekend. Good to hear!

 

[thetrailboss]

Sounds like conditions have improved a lot since last weekend. Good to hear!

I skied Saturday with Edd and was pleasantly surprised at how well the natural runs had filled in. Lower FIS had some good snow on it. Encore was the scratchiest, but by Encore standards it was not bad at all.

Hope you guys liked the vibe at Mount Ellen. It is pretty laid back...

 

[hiroto]

Where would I find easier bumps at Sugarbush? Spending the president week there and like to have my daughter try some bumps. I remember bottom half of Morning Star was nice and easy last year. Anywhere else you guys recommend?

 

[o3jeff]

Where are the pics? Video?;-)

 

[thetrailboss]

Where would I find easier bumps at Sugarbush? Spending the president week there and like to have my daughter try some bumps. I remember bottom half of Morning Star was nice and easy last year. Anywhere else you guys recommend?

For low angle stuff, try Which Way. Last weekend half of Elbow was kind of bumped up. They let one side of Lookin Good bump up last season--not so much this season.

Paging BMM....

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Where would I find easier bumps at Sugarbush? Spending the president week there and like to have my daughter try some bumps. I remember bottom half of Morning Star was nice and easy last year. Anywhere else you guys recommend?

Very nice low-angle moguls on Which Way. It is also half groomed, so it's easy to bail out of the bumps if necessary.

We're leaving half of Lookin' Good ungroomed as well, so we'll see if that bumps up over the weekend. That would be another good learning area if it does bump up.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Hmmm, do I hear an echo? :wink:

Guess we were posting at the same time!

 

[BushMogulMaster]

For low angle stuff, try Which Way. Last weekend half of Elbow was kind of bumped up. They let one side of Lookin Good bump up last season--not so much this season.

Paging BMM....

Elbow unfortunately did not bump up nicely. It has been over-tilled, and the snow is worn out. Even if we got 16" of natural, we wouldn't get nice bumps on that trail right now. We groomed it last night, and it came out pretty good.

We haven't groomed skiers' left of Lookin' Good in a couple weeks, but it just doesn't want to bump up. The natural snow we got last week was too light, and in general people just like to go kinda straight down it, so the skiers aren't making enough turns to form bumps. Maybe this weekend.

 

[thetrailboss]

Hmmm, do I hear an echo? :wink:

Guess we were posting at the same time!

Great minds think alike. I will say that the effort to leave some of Elbow untouched was nice. The skiing at Ellen has been consistently good despite the relatively low snow year we are having. Everything above say the base of North Ridge has been good; everything off of the Summit Quad has been great. Glad that you guys ironed out Walt's Way. That is a nice alternative but man was it real shallow for most of the season and those waterbars were nassssssstttty.

Hope that Brambles is open this weekend.

 

[Edd]

Saturday was my first day at Mt Ellen. I was too lazy to post a TR but TrailBoss was a great guide. It was a nice Saturday with good conditions and I barely waited more than 3 chairs all day. I loved Lower FIS, Bravo, the Bravo Woods, and I actually thought the ungroomed half of Elbow skied nicely. I dug the vibe there; my kind of hill.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Great minds think alike. I will say that the effort to leave some of Elbow untouched was nice. The skiing at Ellen has been consistently good despite the relatively low snow year we are having.

It all comes down to snow management. The right decisions are being made (for the most part :wink: ). It's only getting better.

Glad that you guys ironed out Walt's Way. That is a nice alternative but man was it real shallow for most of the season and those waterbars were nassssssstttty.

Hope that Brambles is open this weekend.

Yeah, those waterbars will probably get some summer attention this year. But Walt's is definitely pretty nice now. My colleague, Larry, did a really nice job on it last weekend with very little snow to work with.

Not sure whether Brambles will be open or not. It depends on the GMVS race schedule.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

I actually thought the ungroomed half of Elbow skied nicely. I dug the vibe there; my kind of hill.

Unfortunately, the wind got the better of the entire trail. The bumps were too widely spaced to catch snow and fill it in, so it got extremely hard. To be honest, I'm actually the one who suggested it be groomed. And I rarely suggest that anything with any bumps should be groomed! So that should be enough proof that it was really not in good shape. That trail is a great bump run under the right conditions, but now isn't the time.

Glad you liked it at Ellen. I'm more than happy to call it "home."