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The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
FBGM
Well-known member
These guys ever hire a new mountain ops director?
Hawk
Well-known member
That's a good question. I have not heard anything on that. I wonder if Hammond is GM and also still has his Mountain ops responsibilities.
That was me and some of John’s mangers checking out the conditions for noon opening. Downspout, Jester, Organgrinder nicely groomed with light snow falling. Organgrinder was superb, just be careful halfway down on skiers left. Snowball and Spring Fling have big whales with good quality snow. Plan is to groom them out tonight. With trails getting skied in a bit today and groomed tonight the morning conditions should be excellent. Making snow on Ripcord, but it is warming up through the weekend so I am sure snowmaking will be off. I know they have set up Lower Downspout through Coffee Run to get another way to the bottom when temps allow, hopefully early next week. Good to be back on skis after nearly nine months.
CastlerockMRV
Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2019
- Messages
- 72
- Points
- 8
Just got back from taking a few laps between calls. The gunpowder on Snowball and Spring Fling was fun!
So happy to see that they opened. 
Hawk
Well-known member
I have been getting pics texted to me all afternoon. Very frustrating to be working and have this happen. DOAH!
Castlerockrisk
New member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2016
- Messages
- 24
- Points
- 3
The mountain skied great. Edge to edge cover on everything open with good consistent edge-able product. I noticed that the snow makers were constantly adjusting guns on ripcord and all of the guns were producing snow and not slurpie glop. Noticeably absent was a wet gun or a big area of ice on the runs from a poorly adjusted gun. On snowball, jester and spring fling they added some good amount of air to the snow on the last layer and it remained dry and powdery all day. There are some large mounds “curing” below valley house upper on snowball and spring fling. Upper organ-grinder and downspout skied well but had some cookies. Jester, snowball and spring fling had no frozen ice balls. I hope that is is what we will get from John’s team now that he is the head chef, cook and bottlewasher. Well done Sugarbush!!
ps everyone was wearing a mask in the corals and offloading locations - it felt very safe.
ps everyone was wearing a mask in the corals and offloading locations - it felt very safe.
Hawk
Well-known member
Interesting. You are the 3rd person I have heard say this. Hmm, maybe they have figured it out. That would be awesome.
Also the 6” of relatively dry real snow probably didn’t hurt the product.
This will be of interest to folks:
FAQ LIVE: Win Smith answers your questions about the pandemic ski season
'Hopefully people are going to act responsibly. And if they don't, that puts the entire sport in jeopardy,' Smith says.
vtdigger.org
I was actually just wondering if there were any updates on the John Egan situation...here's a letter direct from John:
Seems like he only fired off 1 barrel, but very telling.
Hawk
Well-known member
I'm sorry but this pisses me off. I will miss seeing him.
ducky
Active member
Lines were well managed today and this is much appreciated. An attendant was there to keep the flow from each line in a fair manner. Masks must be worn over the nose and mouth while in the base area, lift line, and lift ride all the way to the top and the supervisors were enforcing this. Once you're on snow at the top they can come off. "Don't be the reason we don't have a season" was the word. Someone in the line mentioned that Lake Tahoe just shot down to locals only today.
Heaven's Gate was about 15 minutes' wait around 10:00am. Valley House is running and no wait at Bravo.
Heaven's Gate was about 15 minutes' wait around 10:00am. Valley House is running and no wait at Bravo.
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I found this line to be particularly interesting..."When my colleague’s promotion was announced from vice president of mountain operations and recreational services to president and COO, my phone rang off the hook with speculation that one of his first moves would be to eliminate my position."
Why was this speculation so rampant? That thought would have never entered my mind, but I also don't know Hammond that well.
Agreed...Would things have been different if the transition happened during a normal year where there wasn't any major budget challenges expected?
seems there was no love lost between Hammond and Egan. I'd imagine Hammond working his ass off for 30 years while Egan got paid to ski might have something to do with it. That being said, I hope they can work something out. Egan to me is like a community leader. The soul of sugarbush. I'm going to miss his presence even though his tangible work for the resort is impossible to quantify.
Yea, I could see that. I was thinking something along those lines, but didn't want to really jump to any conclusions since I don't know Hammond well enough.
You're completely right that it is hard to put a firm ROI value on someone like Egan. I'd love to say I hope Hammond changes his mind one day, but even if he does, it may be too late at that point.
Well, this is pretty direct.....
If I had to guess, it was a corporate decision made at Alterra headquarters in Colorado. I imagine that they said, "so, what exactly do you do around here?"
That's the downside of a discount IKON pass. Certainly common for a corporate ski resort. Doesn't mean it is right, but it is what it is.
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