Sugarbush - 2/5-2/6

Date(s) Skied: February 5 & 6, 2012

Resort or Ski Area: Sugarbush

Conditions: Mostly frozen granular with patches of ice and thin cover

Trip Report: Though the conditions were not ideal, all the trails were open, and there was plenty of skiing to be had. In nearly two full days, I actually never made it over to Mount Ellen. :-\

Saturday was calm with temps in the high teens to low 20s. Spent most of Saturday morning on Lincoln Peak. Lots of Jester, Domino Chute, Ripcord, and Lower Paradise. My buddy, who is a much better skier than I, took Paradise early on and said it was junk. We took one run down Organgrinder and swore it off for the rest of the weekend -- full of icy bumps. That afternoon, we skied Murphy's Glade & vicinity, then finished the day on North Lynx.

Sunday was warmer, but the wind was blasting. Heaven's Gate chair was closed. Had the mountain to ourselves. Ahh... Mondays! Started the morning with a couple runs on North Lynx, then hiked over to the the Valley House chair. Skied Twist, Moonshine, Spring Fling, then finished the morning in the Sleeper Chutes/Deeper Sleeper, where there was some wet, heavy snow - quite a change of pace from the groomers and bare bumps we'd been skiing on. My friends left around 1, and my husband was nursing a sore knee, so I was on my own at that point. Finished with Birch Run, Sunrise, and a couple more runs through Sleeper.

This was my first trip of the season, and my first time to SB in several years. Stayed Saturday and Sunday nights at the Hostel Tevere, which is right by the access road. If you don't mind staying in a room with strangers, the place is excellent and MUCH cleaner than many of the motels I've stayed in. Everything is clean and comfortable. Awesome beds. The bar has a good beer selection and great food. Friendly people. The place is much quieter on week nights. Our party of 4 had a 6-bed room to ourselves on Sunday night, and the rooms on either side of us were empty.

I couldn't access the lift vouchers I had for Sunday on my phone (didn't print b/c I wanted to save 2 pieces of paper), so I had to pay full price for Sunday's tickets. The bright side is that I will probably be heading back up to Sugarbush this season!

This report sounds familiar, I was there on the 24th of January. I didn't make it over to Mt. Ellen either. I heard it was even scratchier than Lincoln Peak. I have two vouchers for Sugarbush that I didn't use on that trip. They've had some good conditions this year, 18" dump about a month ago, but then it warms up and returns to the conditions you described. I don't know if I'll use my vouchers unless things turn around. The high price of gas is a prohibitive factor. It cost me $130 to travel to and from. It was my first visit to Sugarbush, I was highly anticipating the experience, and though it wasn't terrible, it could have been so much better. This year sucks! I'm sick of frozen granular groomers. The lift rides at my home hill were depressing this weekend, it looked like November. Wa, wa, wa. Thankfully I'm not a snowmobiler, they've got it worse than we do.

Sorry I missed you.
We skied many of the same trails on Saturday. I am interested in how the conditions were on those trails on a Monday.

We ate dinner at Tevere on Saturday. It was good, but a very limited choice on Entree's (maybe 6 or 7). We stayed at the Barn, it was enjoyable, but there were three huge groups that essentially took over the place. One group was about 60 people, not staying at the Barn, just coming to celebrate a birthday.
Saturday dinner was Chicken Parm. which was well done and tasty.
They do have a licensed bar(tender) on the weekend.

Cornhead said:

This report sounds familiar, I was there on the 24th of January. I didn't make it over to Mt. Ellen either. I heard it was even scratchier than Lincoln Peak. I have two vouchers for Sugarbush that I didn't use on that trip. They've had some good conditions this year, 18" dump about a month ago, but then it warms up and returns to the conditions you described. I don't know if I'll use my vouchers unless things turn around. The high price of gas is a prohibitive factor. It cost me $130 to travel to and from. It was my first visit to Sugarbush, I was highly anticipating the experience, and though it wasn't terrible, it could have been so much better. This year sucks! I'm sick of frozen granular groomers. The lift rides at my home hill were depressing this weekend, it looked like November. Wa, wa, wa. Thankfully I'm not a snowmobiler, they've got it worse than we do.

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Ouch! $130 could almost get you a flight to someplace with more snow. Perhaps not this year, but you should definitely return to SB when there's a lot of snow. My only other trip there was during an early April storm. There was tons of snow and we had an excellent time. Took the chair back and forth to Mt. Ellen a number of times that weekend.

Cornhead said:

...... It cost me $130 to travel to and from.......

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OMG, where do you live and what do you drive? (Delaware? K3500 Suburban?) At 20mpg that would put you 325 miles away at $4 a gallon.

billski said:

Sorry I missed you.
We skied many of the same trails on Saturday. I am interested in how the conditions were on those trails on a Monday.

We ate dinner at Tevere on Saturday. It was good, but a very limited choice on Entree's (maybe 6 or 7). We stayed at the Barn, it was enjoyable, but there were three huge groups that essentially took over the place. One group was about 60 people, not staying at the Barn, just coming to celebrate a birthday.
Saturday dinner was Chicken Parm. which was well done and tasty.
They do have a licensed bar(tender) on the weekend.

Click to expand...

The conditions Monday weren't a whole lot different from Sunday except they didn't get skied off. The groomers had the same frozen granular. I didn't ski Sleeper or Sunrise on Sunday, so I can't really compare those. I spent a lot of time on them Monday because the conditions on Sunrise were decent enough. The snow on Sleeper was so wet and heavy, but I kept going back because of the novelty factor in comparison to the rest of the mountain. I wonder if that trail might have been a little better on Sunday with the colder temps.

Yes, the menu at Tevere was limited but very tasty. We got the rice ball app, which was not exactly like arancini, but so good. More like a mozzarella stick, covered in rice & tomato sauce, and deep fried. I ordered the same entree both nights - cassoulet w/ polenta and a nice chunk of bread. I regret not ordering the homemade Snickers cake. It looked amazing.

justjen said:

Ouch! $130 could almost get you a flight to someplace with more snow.

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No kidding, $130 round trip driving? Cornhead, where are you coming from and what are you driving that it costs $130 just to get there and back?

riverc0il said:

No kidding, $130 round trip driving? Cornhead, where are you coming from and what are you driving that it costs $130 just to get there and back?

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That's a lot of money.

Gas is my biggest expense on my forages back & forth to VT. from NYC. I'd guessimate that between driving back & forth & driving between ski areas over a 3 day period it runs close to $100. My little Subaru that I use gets close to 30mpg hwy.

I think Cornhead lives in New York state close to Greek Peak.

Ya it can be costs getting up to Vt a lot but it snows up their, i wish i was closer to north Vermont.