dlague
Active member
Sugarbush
Conditions: Day 1 - 3-4 inches of powder, to packed MM, to scraped off conditons, to frozen bumps. Day 2 - very firm groomed, found blower pow in the trees in some spots on top of frozen snow.
Trip Report:
We this was a Ride and Ski weekend and the NFL even scheduled the Patriots game for the Apres Ski party. We actually stayed for the weekend and were very excited about skiing SB. The only concern was the winds that they were predicting and the prediction held true. The highlight of the weekend was meeting Ryan (Flyin' Ryan) Hawks' Dad - if you do not know who i am talking about then check this out - http://www.flyinryanhawks.org/.
In any case we got up early Saturday morning to -2 degrees at the base and the winds blowing in good shape. We had all of the gear to protect ourselves to have a good time, however, what we would experience next made us adjust even more. For our first run we decided to head up on the Bravo lift even after we heard the a woman was blown off the chair (never put the bar down or lifted the bar way too early). That shut down the chair until she was cleared out of there. As we headed up on the lift, we were covering exposed skin as much as possible but as we got closer to the top 20-30 MPH wind gust were blowing at us head on and adding the chairs speed to that - the wind cut through any opening and it was piercing. So we took a slow trail to Snowball - to warm up sort of speak and while headed down Lower Snowball and found nice untracked powder which skied really nice whe headed back up on the Valley House Chair to do that trail again - BTW VH chair had better wind protection. We then went up VH chair again and we skied down Stein's Run which was scrapped off down the middle but had some nice snow off to the side. There were no bumps there either! In fact, there were not many trails with bumps.
We head over to Gate House Chair after adding a little more protection and lapped that a few times skiing all the possible runs in that area before heading in to warm up. We then headed back to the same chair but headed up higher on the Lynx Triple (this chair also seemed to be better protected against wind). We skied two runs Sunrise and Birch Run. Birch Run was groomed and skied very nice and is actually a fun trail IMO, where Sunrise was left natural with 3-4 inches of freshies. There were bumps on that trail but the were firm and the layer of powder helped is you could find untracked otherwise the frozen bump was exposed and almost caught me of guard a couple of times. We then made a few runs off Goat House before heading in for lunch
We ended up eating at Timbers (reluctantly) because Castle Rock Pub was utter chaos! The food at timbers was OK - we had Fondu and it was a little on the sweet side. The IPA was always good.
In the afternoon, expecting higher temps, we headed back up Super Bravo and outside of being about 10 degrees warmer, the winds seemed to be stronger. However we wanted to head up Heavens Gate and visibility up there was limited due to snow making right under the chair (not very nice). We skied 2 run first was Jester which is a nice turny New England style trail. However, the turns were ice and after the first turn we skied the turns tight on the inside. Someone had gone off the edge on the first turn but was OK. On our next run we opted for Organgrinder which was relatively flat with smallish bumps now and then. Speed was limited because of visibility and not knowing how the trail was. Wife was not liking the limited visibility - Oops! Lower Organgrinder was nice though. We ended up making one more run off Bravo via Down Spout which was developing scraped off spots but still skied fast and very nice. And another run down Sleeper Chutes and Sleeper (we like that run as a fun run).
We wrapped up the day at the Ride and Ski party which ended around halftime and we watched the remainder of the game at Timbers.
Day two gave us a little bit warmer temps and stronger wind - the starting temp was equal to the previous days high. Sunday was a repeat of much of the same trails as the day before, however, the trails were much firmer than on Saturday which was surprising to me. Steins was skipped due to snow making. Birch Run and Sunrise were both groomed and skied really nice, we skied a lot off Gate House - Sleeper Chutes and Sleeper, Hot Shot (should be one trail name but is three) and we also repeated Slow Poke a couple of times because they had nice rollers that were fun to catch air on! On one of the runs, is where we got to meet Flyin' Ryan's Dad and shared a lift ride with him. He talked a lot about the foundation in his sons name sake and told us about some of the things they are doing - it was pretty cool!
Overall the trails were in decent shape and we had a great time!
Wife and I with Flyin' Ryan's Dad
Conditions: Day 1 - 3-4 inches of powder, to packed MM, to scraped off conditons, to frozen bumps. Day 2 - very firm groomed, found blower pow in the trees in some spots on top of frozen snow.
Trip Report:
We this was a Ride and Ski weekend and the NFL even scheduled the Patriots game for the Apres Ski party. We actually stayed for the weekend and were very excited about skiing SB. The only concern was the winds that they were predicting and the prediction held true. The highlight of the weekend was meeting Ryan (Flyin' Ryan) Hawks' Dad - if you do not know who i am talking about then check this out - http://www.flyinryanhawks.org/.
In any case we got up early Saturday morning to -2 degrees at the base and the winds blowing in good shape. We had all of the gear to protect ourselves to have a good time, however, what we would experience next made us adjust even more. For our first run we decided to head up on the Bravo lift even after we heard the a woman was blown off the chair (never put the bar down or lifted the bar way too early). That shut down the chair until she was cleared out of there. As we headed up on the lift, we were covering exposed skin as much as possible but as we got closer to the top 20-30 MPH wind gust were blowing at us head on and adding the chairs speed to that - the wind cut through any opening and it was piercing. So we took a slow trail to Snowball - to warm up sort of speak and while headed down Lower Snowball and found nice untracked powder which skied really nice whe headed back up on the Valley House Chair to do that trail again - BTW VH chair had better wind protection. We then went up VH chair again and we skied down Stein's Run which was scrapped off down the middle but had some nice snow off to the side. There were no bumps there either! In fact, there were not many trails with bumps.
We head over to Gate House Chair after adding a little more protection and lapped that a few times skiing all the possible runs in that area before heading in to warm up. We then headed back to the same chair but headed up higher on the Lynx Triple (this chair also seemed to be better protected against wind). We skied two runs Sunrise and Birch Run. Birch Run was groomed and skied very nice and is actually a fun trail IMO, where Sunrise was left natural with 3-4 inches of freshies. There were bumps on that trail but the were firm and the layer of powder helped is you could find untracked otherwise the frozen bump was exposed and almost caught me of guard a couple of times. We then made a few runs off Goat House before heading in for lunch
We ended up eating at Timbers (reluctantly) because Castle Rock Pub was utter chaos! The food at timbers was OK - we had Fondu and it was a little on the sweet side. The IPA was always good.
In the afternoon, expecting higher temps, we headed back up Super Bravo and outside of being about 10 degrees warmer, the winds seemed to be stronger. However we wanted to head up Heavens Gate and visibility up there was limited due to snow making right under the chair (not very nice). We skied 2 run first was Jester which is a nice turny New England style trail. However, the turns were ice and after the first turn we skied the turns tight on the inside. Someone had gone off the edge on the first turn but was OK. On our next run we opted for Organgrinder which was relatively flat with smallish bumps now and then. Speed was limited because of visibility and not knowing how the trail was. Wife was not liking the limited visibility - Oops! Lower Organgrinder was nice though. We ended up making one more run off Bravo via Down Spout which was developing scraped off spots but still skied fast and very nice. And another run down Sleeper Chutes and Sleeper (we like that run as a fun run).
We wrapped up the day at the Ride and Ski party which ended around halftime and we watched the remainder of the game at Timbers.
Day two gave us a little bit warmer temps and stronger wind - the starting temp was equal to the previous days high. Sunday was a repeat of much of the same trails as the day before, however, the trails were much firmer than on Saturday which was surprising to me. Steins was skipped due to snow making. Birch Run and Sunrise were both groomed and skied really nice, we skied a lot off Gate House - Sleeper Chutes and Sleeper, Hot Shot (should be one trail name but is three) and we also repeated Slow Poke a couple of times because they had nice rollers that were fun to catch air on! On one of the runs, is where we got to meet Flyin' Ryan's Dad and shared a lift ride with him. He talked a lot about the foundation in his sons name sake and told us about some of the things they are doing - it was pretty cool!
Overall the trails were in decent shape and we had a great time!
Wife and I with Flyin' Ryan's Dad
