The "Sugarbush Thread"

[vtski802]

I am guessing by the fact that the bottom ramp on GMX has not been rebuilt that they don't expect to have it soon. And since NRX cam is turned off, no idea what's happening there. Maybe that's the point...

I'm surprised they haven't turned off all the cameras at North!

They are graciously allowing us to hike from 10-3 but not above the base of Summit!

Management needs to go. Actively hiding what the issue is and the timeline for fixing it is maddening. I understand they are trying to sell passes, and communicating what's wrong with their lifts doesn't help sales. But christ almighty, I'm almost at the point where I'll switch back to Epic and deal with the parking and crowd horseshit at Stowe. At least their lifts work - and when they don't, they clearly communicate what the problem is and when it'll be fixed.

Even Guest Services is being kept in the dark. Their default answer is to email gservices@sugarbush.com and register your complaint there. Maybe someone will see it and get back to you?

 

[vtboarder]

From past experiences - nobody will respond to anything you send to a guest services email.

I see they've realized few are going to hike/skin/whatevers the Northway to get to Summit.

As someone else noted, the current mountain management is either incompetent, willfully negligent or in far over their heads. Thank god we got the snow we did ths winter or peeps might have been up their with pitchfoks and torches.

 

[solar]

They're deleting a lot of the comments and questions about the ongoing issues and perk removals on social media, too.

 

[jimmywilson69]

i hate the deleting comment thing from social media... You either let it ride or don't participate in social media. The later is not acceptable in 2026. Controlling the narrative is a much much worse look.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i dont even know what i said, it was like a year or two ago. but i made some critical comment on an ig post, and then months later i tried to post a pic and tag sugarbush to like promote great conditions and stoke, and got a message that ive been blocked from tagging sugarbush. thin skin.

 

[solar]

Same. I got muted years ago for asking a "what about X..." question. I think it was in regard to some conflicting information they had posted re: HG's installation.

 

[cdskier]

Is the snow report even accurate about what was groomed last night? Seems odd that nothing was groomed off HG (and Ripcord on the webcam sure looks like it was flattened last night). At this point half the report is talking about what lifts are closed...

 

[mikec142]

Looks like I picked a good season to be injured.

 

[elfnif1016]

Not to defend Alterra, but short of replacing lifts, all these issues (lift maintenance, communication, snowmaking) fall on local management. Which from an outside view, has seemed incompetent since Win sold the place.

I posted a comment back in October about the presentation (or lack thereof) of the state of the mountain by John Hammond. He was at a podium in the middle of the courtyard, mumbled for a few minutes about nothing in particular, and that was it. It was particularly astounding to watch/listen to his joke of a speech when Win Smith was seated directly in front of me. Back in the day, he would give a corporate type talk every year with slides, etc. Granted, his background is a lot different than Hammond's, but the contrast between what we would learn say, ten years ago, to what comes out of SB communications today is pretty stark. And the difference is not good. The past week is a case in point.

 

[cdskier]

New state of the mountain blog post gives details finally. Capacitor bank in the drive blew. Air freighting drive from Europe but not sure if it will make it by end of month…

 

[slatham]

Somebody needs to buy Mt Ellen……..

 

[Lotso]

Somebody needs to buy Mt Ellen……..

I was considering it but effects of the latest dalliance in the Middle East has cut into my stock value as well as cost me too much at the pump. Will have to wait a few years

 

[Blurski]

New state of the mountain blog post gives details finally. Capacitor bank in the drive blew. Air freighting drive from Europe but not sure if it will make it by end of month…

I wonder what kind of aircraft/service they are flying the part on, most flights to Europe take 6-8 hours. I once had to have a critical part flown to the states from Germany, had it the next day, paid $20k.

 

[shadyjay]

Well, it was interesting conditions on the mountain today for sure. I get what they were up against, with a thaw-freeze and considerable snow melt. Checked the report in the AM and found it strange that nothing was shown off the peaks as groomed. No Birch.... no Jester. No Murphy's. I would've thought "all hands on deck" last night, considering Mt Ellen's situation.

Gate House wasn't too bad in the AM as it was sitting in the sun. After talking with the lift ops at North Lynx, I decided to give Birch a shot. It was groomed and was worthy of a repeat. Then over to Bravo and up HG. Surely Jester was groomed. Well, if it was, it was super early cause it was frozen solid... an ice luge pretty much. And some corners were very very thin. Lower Jester considerably better. Snowball was almost similar conditions to Jester, but not quite as bad. Honestly, the best run on Bravo side was Downspout. Yup! And that's with a very large bare spot in the middle of the trail on the final pitch before Heaven's Gate. With the clouds in full effect, I headed back to Gate House for a couple more runs before calling it. Not the day that I had envisioned when I booked my vacation a month+ ago, but it still felt good to get out and about at my former home mountain.

I'm sure a couple more grooming cycles will help matters. But there is a lot of damage still to repair. Hopefully the weather coming on Monday doesn't do more harm. More natural snow would help, but this time of year, unless its a foot or more, its going to make matters worse than better. And that warm March sun takes its toll on any natural snow. Regardless, I'm not entirely optimistic that it'll be worth it for me to use my TBD "bonus day" (that's 3 years getting skunked out of that). And I really hope that they have better luck with GMX and NRE. It's embarrasing to see the trail report show groomed trails you can only get to by hiking at ME while LP gets a "soft groom". And given Jester's lackluster groom, I understand why it wasn't shown as groomed in the reports... to keep the masses away. But that's such an iconic trail at Sugarbush. At least 1 run off the top of every chair (except CR) should be groomed, especially on a Friday and especially when the mountain's other half is closed, and staff turning away customers.

 

[Plowboy]

A friend sent this to me today.

 

[urungus]

|

 

[thetrailboss]

In Vermont now. Skied at Middlebury yesterday. It was on comps but woof, it was rough (understandably so). Arrived at the Snow Bowl at about 10:30am. Only Sheehan with two groomed routes that were initially soft, but were freezing up as things went along. Cold wind. I figured that we would be the only ones there, but there were quite a few folks (passholders and school programs). The new Sheehan is nice. Snowmaking runs were solidly covered. The new nightskiing looks nice (an alum donated the lights to the ski area). Much more activity and energy than when I was a student.

After a visit to Middlebury College, I headed back to Northfield (where my sister and her fam lives) via good old Route 17. I drove that road all the time back in the day and love it. MRG was closed (as to be expected). I imagine that they will hustle to get things patched up.

Called an audible and dragged my fourteen-year-old daughter up German Flats Road to Mount Ellen at just shy of 4pm to get some merch. I had not skied there in 15 years. Some small changes from my quick view. Inverness was running, but empty. GMX was silent as advertised. Coverage looked decent overall compared to MRG and Middlebury.

The store moved slightly from where I remembered it being. I was able to grab some stickers for my nephew and niece (and friends) as well as a couple of posters (trail map on one side, princess skiing on the other). The shop had some neat items--only Glen Ellen items left were the hats (at over $40 each, yikes), one hoody, and pins. The custom Sugarbush Skida Hats were on sale--perfect for me! Love the red. Grabbed some stickers, an FIS replica sign, a few pins, and chatted with the clerk for about ten minutes. He worked Bravo last year and lives in Barre. I was probably his last customer of the day and judging by the empty parking lot one of his few (there was some kind of a conference going on in the lodge....interesting).

We chatted about the lift situation, the ownership and management, and just Sugarbush in general. He told me that Alterra HQ had final say on any merch. When Mount Ellen turned 60, the retail manager decided to "go rogue" and design the special items herself and without Alterra approval because she figured that they would say no. Seemed odd. He had not been there long enough to know much (or anything really) about Win. He said he is considering moving west to work at a bigger resort. Overall, the lodge looked nice still and the snow coverage looked pretty damn good considering the weather.

I was at Burke today. Natural snow trails, and a couple of snowmaking "supplemented" trails are just patches of ice and hard snow. The lower mountain skied pretty damn well--even at the end of the day. The groomers worked the hell out of it. I was impressed. I say lower mountain because my eight-year-old nephew was on his second day of skiing and he was with me and family.

My daughter and I did a spin up top on Carriage Road (very soft and nicely groomed, but icy in spots) and a decent Dippers. Tomorrow at Burke, and SB I imagine, will be better as they will have had more time to groom. I even saw some of the snowmakers at Burke checking guns and a fan gun at the lower mountain. I would not be surprised if they make snow--they have a big race next week and still a lot of season left. Relatively busy for a Friday, but dead up top.

It was nice to be in Vermont. If this was a "ski trip" then I might have understandably canceled. But this is a visit with family with "some skiing" so I am very happy. Any day on snow is great.

Hoping that Alterra gives Sugarbush some love.

 

[vtski802]

i dont even know what i said, it was like a year or two ago. but i made some critical comment on an ig post, and then months later i tried to post a pic and tag sugarbush to like promote great conditions and stoke, and got a message that ive been blocked from tagging sugarbush. thin skin.

Same. John B pm'd me about "tough" comments I'd made, asking if I wanted a dialog instead of public criticism

 

[ducky]

Regarding North Ridge and going back maybe 12-15 years ago, the person working the MtE guest services desk had written Win's email address on hundreds of strips of paper and was handing them out everytime she got a complaint about the lift. She said she was so sick of it, and this is a long time ago.

 

[Lotso]

This morning:
March 14th, 6:11 AM
*Mt. Ellen will open with Inverness at 8:00 AM and Northridge soon after*

Fingers crossed