The "Sugarbush Thread"

[ducky]

Hiked over today. Plenty of rocks, open water bars, and mostly wind slab. Only went once as a result.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Hiked over today. Plenty of rocks, open water bars, and mostly wind slab. Only went once as a result.

yea that makes sense. think i will stick w original plan to ski ellen tomorrow. havent been yet this year and would like to avoid Saturday pile ups waiting for heavens gate

 

[shipyardcreek]

Middle Earth was good except for Jaws. The down hill sections of the Long Trail had rocks and other debris so be cautious if you go over.

 

[STREETSKIER]

yea that makes sense. think i will stick w original plan to ski ellen tomorrow. havent been yet this year and would like to avoid Saturday pile ups waiting for heavens

 

[WinS]

Jay and the boys work very hard. I greatly appreciate what they do. I have always wondered why SB has not budgeted and provided more hoses and gun set ups so that they do not have to break down and move the stuff. That is a huge waste of time and effort. This is what other mountains do. I wonder what the payback is if you look at the hours spent breaking down, lugging equipment and setting up.
Also, If you run compressors with energy produced by solar or wind energy then you take that out of the equation. Make no mistake, snowmaking made with more air is far better quality snowmaking. Generally is has less water content at temps between 20 - 30. This is fact not my interpretation.
Again it comes down to the philosophy of the mountain. They do the best they can with the funds they have allotted.

Every year there are many many CAPEX requests and available dollars need to be prioritized. A lot of land gear has been added and each year hose is purchased. If one had unlimited capital or free money of course the ideal would be to have all hydrants set up and ready to go, but that is not practical. Part of the annual snowmaking capital improvement dollars have gone to repairing valves and hydrants, patching and /or replacing older pipe as well as purchasing new towers, land guns, hoses, compressors, manifolds, pumps, etc. There is a lot that goes into maintaining a snowmaking system.

Snowlogic (an Australian company) actually pioneered the low energy equipment over a decade ago, and we were one of the first in the USA to use them. The first were very large, heavy and challenging to move around, but they added towers and smaller land guns which you now see. HKD followed and Sugarbush has also purchased their SV-10 towers and land guns. Each have certain advantages.

Hawk is right about air, but just about everyone I know has moved to low energy equipment when they purchase new equipment. Of course, many like Killington who have very large air capacity still use ratniks and other “air pigs” but the future is low energy for many reasons.

Also it is important to understand that every mountain has unique characteristics that determine what equipment is best for them. Ideally one would love to have towers but they can not be used on narrow trails like Jester or under lifts. They are great on trails like Snowball, Spring Fling, Stein‘s, Cruiser, Inverness. Wind is also a consideration.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

ellen was fun today. thin as all fuck, but widely open and fun. i went to the woods skiers left of bravo just to pee and look and promptly turned around post pee. woods are sketch, especially ellen woods which tend to be kind of tight and debris-ish. and i have a high tolerance for sketch woods.

 

[Boxtop Willie]

Absolutely a beautiful day at SB. Sunny, low 20s, not too crowed, snow is good.. Gate House was busy, Bravo not so much, Valley House ski on at 11am. Heavens' gate ebbed and flowed. They are blowing a ton on snow. Guns on Murphys and Birdland, towers and land guns on Snowball, Lower Snowball and Racers Edge. Based on Win's snow making math from earlier in this thread SB is making snow at their maximum water capacity.
Given reports from other New England resorts, anybody else real happy SB was sold to Alterra and not Vail?

 

[Slidebrook87]

Absolutely a beautiful day at SB. Sunny, low 20s, not too crowed, snow is good.. Gate House was busy, Bravo not so much, Valley House ski on at 11am. Heavens' gate ebbed and flowed. They are blowing a ton on snow. Guns on Murphys and Birdland, towers and land guns on Snowball, Lower Snowball and Racers Edge. Based on Win's snow making math from earlier in this thread SB is making snow at their maximum water capacity.
Given reports from other New England resorts, anybody else real happy SB was sold to Alterra and not Vail?

Agreed. Pretty incredible snow conditions (on snowmaking trails) and weather with that awesome inversion this morning. Other than Sunrise, every other groomed trail was incredible.

 

[nhskier1969]

The whales on Murphys are gigantic, Are they going to try to keep it open latter in the season?

Edit: Beautiful inversion on top of HG today

 

[WinS]

Agreed. Pretty incredible snow conditions (on snowmaking trails) and weather with that awesome inversion this morning. Other than Sunrise, every other groomed trail was incredible.

First grooms on trails line Sunrise are rarely great except for first runs down. I was one of the first down Sunrise, and it skied well but after that ”chicken heads“ appear. Second groom will be must better. What has helped a lot is temperatures have stayed below freezing so the quality has held up. While you see a lot of guns running the temps have been marginal so they are probably only running on bank two. I suspect Murphy’s will be shut down and capacity used elsewhere. The Whales have been this big in prior years and the snow is pushed over to cover Skier’s left.

 

[tumbler]

*skiers right

 

[WinS]

*skiers right

Of course, looker’s left skier’s right! Must be tired after a good day on the slopes

 

[Slidebrook87]

First grooms on trails line Sunrise are rarely great except for first runs down. I was one of the first down Sunrise, and it skied well but after that ”chicken heads“ appear. Second groom will be must better. What has helped a lot is temperatures have stayed below freezing so the quality has held up. While you see a lot of guns running the temps have been marginal so they are probably only running on bank two. I suspect Murphy’s will be shut down and capacity used elsewhere. The Whales have been this big in prior years and the snow is pushed over to cover Skier’s left.

It seems that the first groom is always chunky. Birch skied much better than yesterday. I remember Pushover’s first groom was similar. One thing I did notice was a Ratnik style gun running on Lower Snowball. It’s the only one I’ve seen running this season.

 

[mikec142]

Skied as a single both days. Couple of thoughts:

1. The inversion on Sunday provided some of the coolest views I've ever experienced in VT. I'd seen people post pix all week and rushed over on Saturday to see if I could see it firsthand. Was bummed that it wasn't there so I was pretty excited as I drove up on Sunday to see the clouds and sun. Couldn't wait to get up top.

2. Again, staff and skiers are making skiing during Covid a comfortable experience for me. Lifties are really managing the lines well. I never waited more than a few minutes anywhere.

3. While not ideal, I didn't mind the grooms on Birch and Sunrise. I finished the weekend with a run down Sunrise to Sleeper. Was planning to head straight to the car, but Sleeper was so good that I felt the need to take a quick ride up GH and do one more down Sleeper. I wanted to do a finishing run on Snowball to Lower Snowball, but didn't like the idea of finishing up under the guns and throwing all my wet clothes in the car.

4. On Saturday, I skied LP til 1pm and then hopped in my car and drove to ME. Wolfed down a PB&J along the way and skied ME from 1:30-3:30pm. I thought that ME's groomed runs (Rim Run, Joe's, Which Way, etc.) were significantly icier than any of the groomed runs at LP. Maybe it can be contributed to a later in the day thing or tired legs.

5. Was surprised at how packed the lot was at ME at 1:15pm although there were no lift lines at all.

6. What's the latest date that Slidebrook and Castlerock (lifts) ever started?

 

[Hawk]

The big talk form Sunday was the Spectacular sun-bow with multiple sun-dogs that appeared when you made it above the cloud level. People were saying that they have never soon anything like it.

 

[Powder Whore]

ellen was fun today. thin as all fuck, but widely open and fun. i went to the woods skiers left of bravo just to pee and look and promptly turned around post pee. woods are sketch, especially ellen woods which tend to be kind of tight and debris-ish. and i have a high tolerance for sketch woods.

"High tolerance for sketch woods." that's great! I might have to borrow that 1. I know I've found the goods when I get back to the lift and somebody tells me my face is bleeding.

 

[Slidebrook87]

Skied as a single both days. Couple of thoughts:

1. The inversion on Sunday provided some of the coolest views I've ever experienced in VT. I'd seen people post pix all week and rushed over on Saturday to see if I could see it firsthand. Was bummed that it wasn't there so I was pretty excited as I drove up on Sunday to see the clouds and sun. Couldn't wait to get up top.

2. Again, staff and skiers are making skiing during Covid a comfortable experience for me. Lifties are really managing the lines well. I never waited more than a few minutes anywhere.

3. While not ideal, I didn't mind the grooms on Birch and Sunrise. I finished the weekend with a run down Sunrise to Sleeper. Was planning to head straight to the car, but Sleeper was so good that I felt the need to take a quick ride up GH and do one more down Sleeper. I wanted to do a finishing run on Snowball to Lower Snowball, but didn't like the idea of finishing up under the guns and throwing all my wet clothes in the car.

4. On Saturday, I skied LP til 1pm and then hopped in my car and drove to ME. Wolfed down a PB&J along the way and skied ME from 1:30-3:30pm. I thought that ME's groomed runs (Rim Run, Joe's, Which Way, etc.) were significantly icier than any of the groomed runs at LP. Maybe it can be contributed to a later in the day thing or tired legs.

5. Was surprised at how packed the lot was at ME at 1:15pm although there were no lift lines at all.

6. What's the latest date that Slidebrook and Castlerock (lifts) ever started?

From what I’ve heard, there’s been a few seasons where Slide Brook and Castlerock either didn’t open at all or only operated for a few days. Looking at last year, January was kind of meh for the most part, but February was great. 100% open and quite a few bluebird days and a lot of snow too. February 2018 had that 70 degree day which knocked their trail count way down and even trails like Lower Jester were closed. I believe they also got a big storm in the beginning of March that year which allowed them to bounce back. I came later that month and it was pretty much 100% open IIRC.

 

[mikec142]

February 2018 had that 70 degree day which knocked their trail count way down and even trails like Lower Jester were closed. I believe they also got a big storm in the beginning of March that year which allowed them to bounce back. I came later that month and it was pretty much 100% open IIRC.

If I'm remembering my years correctly, March 2018 was winter storm Skylar where SB received 60" over 3 days. I skied the weekend that followed (3/17-18) and to this day it was one of the best weekends I can recall. I also skied two weeks later on 4/1-2 right after a quick warm spell and it was like night and day.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

"High tolerance for sketch woods." that's great! I might have to borrow that 1. I know I've found the goods when I get back to the lift and somebody tells me my face is bleeding.

glad to say that killington's sketch woods on Sunday were not too sketch to ski.

'dude's car got a little dinged up tho' - walter sobchek

 

[Powder Whore]

Any body been down tumbler? It's roped off at the bottom where the access road for the sb chair is . If one was to exit skiers left it's 70 yards or so of moderate uphill pitch. To the right its even more uphill all the way to sb lifeline. I ducked the rope and skied down in clear view of a patroller. I was nervous that we were going to have a " talk". Luckily said patroller didn't hassle me.