The "Sugarbush Thread"

tumbler said:

You have to waterproof the Kincos or they are worthless. I use the gloves and when it get super cold I switch to the mittens.

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I have good waterproofing stuff I use on my work gloves. I am going to give this a whirl with the Kinkos just to see.

Hawk said:

I have good waterproofing stuff I use on my work gloves. I am going to give this a whirl with the Kinkos just to see.

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Snoseal works great, you just have to do it in your oven and it stinks up the house. It's lasted 3 seasons so far without having to reapply.

check youtube for how to waterproof the kinkos gloves. heat in oven at 175f, coat in snoseal. repeat multiple times until the leather is saturated.
they shouldnt be getting wet at all.

HowieT2 said:

check youtube for how to waterproof the kinkos gloves. heat in oven at 175f, coat in snoseal. repeat multiple times until the leather is saturated.
they shouldnt be getting wet at all.

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Correct, but don't leave them to long, they don't need to get very warm. If too hot the snoseal gets too liquidity and soaks through the leather and into the insulation. I learned that on the first pair I tried.

A couple of things:

Thank you to all who provided glove feed back. I have a pair of leather hestra army heli's that I like quite a bit. They are plenty warm, but not ideal on wet days. I'll look at the hestra army heli goretex. I'm not a guy who spends $ just to spend it. But I have no problem paying for a great product that I will get a ton of use out of.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty epic IMHO. Especially when you consider what we've been skiing so far this season. I drove up on Sunday and grabbed a room at the Sugar Lodge...skied bell to bell on Monday and 9am to 1pm on Tuesday before hopping in the car and driving back to NJ. I rarely stay at the mountain...usually in Burlington. But I wanted to be close by as I didn't really want to drive in the storm. It was fun as I got to catch the torchlight parade and fireworks on Sunday night. Also got to eat at Rumbles. Wish I wasn't doing dry January as it would have been the ideal situation to enjoy Apres at the mountain.

Even though I knew it would have been a good idea to wait until the next storm cycle to try out the woods, I couldn't resist and popped into the top half of Deeper Sleeper as my last run on Tuesday. I had fun, but it needs more coverage. It's actually deceiving as it looks pretty good, but there are obstacles that are poking through and ones that are covered by a half inch of snow.

Castlerock. I love everything about CR. It's special. And I get that there is a contingent who would keep it as hiking only if they had their way. I'm totally cool with starting the CR season as hike only to "ski" in the moguls. Count me firmly in the camp of "there is a lift there for a reason". I like that the lift is slow and the chairs spaced. It never feels crowded up there and anyone who shouldn't be up there finds out the hard way and doesn't go back for a second run. I've done the hike and I'm happy I've tried it, and every once in a while it's fine. But if its a fun day on the mountain and I want to get in a bunch of runs, hiking doesn't work.

I Snosealed mine when they were new. Think they can be washed and reapply it once clean(er)?

I am not a fan of the final skiing portion of the 'hike' to CR. I get nervous w/ the narrowness of the trail and possibility of someone coming in fast behind me. Always worth the effort though. Any thoughts on when the CR chair will start running? I forget how long they leave it open for hiking only. The conditions update says 'near future'.

There are lift maintenence sleds at CR as seen on the web cam. That is a good sign. The also need staff. Haven't heard the status. I bet this weekend.

ingsy said:

I am not a fan of the final skiing portion of the 'hike' to CR. I get nervous w/ the narrowness of the trail and possibility of someone coming in fast behind me. Always worth the effort though. Any thoughts on when the CR chair will start running? I forget how long they leave it open for hiking only. The conditions update says 'near future'.

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I agree with what you are saying on the "final ski" of the hike to Castlerock. I personally don't mind the hike as its a nice workout - its the last ski section that is a bitch! Its really bad when there is a ton of traffic and the trail has open/exposed areas.

Hey, its really nice that we are actually talking about Castlerock now! A few weeks ago we didn't even have North Lynx. Lets hope the weather pattern stays cold and we can start talking about skiing Slidebrook!

Hawk said:

Crank, my comment had nothing to do with the lift by the way. I was just looking back at old pitures and vids from a bunch of years back when we were skiing early season pow at Castlerock, long before the lift was open. It used to be that only locals and long time regulars skied castlerock before it was open and the ski patrol just looked the other way. We have skied waste deep pow over there in the past with no one around. That is why I laughted at the "good as it gets". Johny is new so we will cut him some slack.

Slidebrook will probably open soon now that they have snow on the ground. The other thing they usually need is enough snow to get skiers out of slidebrook in the event of an evacuation. Not sure if we are there yet.

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For what it's worth, I've worked at Sugarbush for 10 years, so not new by any means! But I hear you. Point is the Castlerock skiing was excellent. Pre-lift spinning it's always worth the hike in my opinion. We just don't get to ski that much untouched powder without moguls underneath typically. Skiing any natural terrain before it transforms to bumps (and I love bumps) is a great time.

Anyway, some news for all of you regarding lifts! Tomorrow we're doing our load test for North Ridge. That means we can't have anyone skiing near the lift as a safety precaution because we load barrels of water on the chairs to test weight. So heads up, Summit and Inverness will both have a delayed opening (we hope 11:00 AM at the latest), along with a number of trails they access. Spread the news. Cliffs will be groomed as the best route down from GMX.

Additionally, we're expecting both North Ridge and Castlerock to start spinning Saturday (potentially Friday). Hooray! Slide Brook isn't quite there yet.

Johnny B said:

For what it's worth, I've worked at Sugarbush for 10 years, so not new by any means! But I hear you. Point is the Castlerock skiing was excellent. Pre-lift spinning it's always worth the hike in my opinion. We just don't get to ski that much untouched powder without moguls underneath typically. Skiing any natural terrain before it transforms to bumps (and I love bumps) is a great time.

Anyway, some news for all of you regarding lifts! Tomorrow we're doing our load test for North Ridge. That means we can't have anyone skiing near the lift as a safety precaution because we load barrels of water on the chairs to test weight. So heads up, Summit and Inverness will both have a delayed opening (we hope 11:00 AM at the latest), along with a number of trails they access. Spread the news. Cliffs will be groomed as the best route down from GMX.

Additionally, we're expecting both North Ridge and Castlerock to start spinning Saturday (potentially Friday). Hooray! Slide Brook isn't quite there yet.

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Fingers crossed on NRX.

BTW, great opening video up on the Sugarbush web site right now. Looks like Johnny B has been doing a little more work than just talking to us on AZ,
Nice work.

Boxtop Willie said:

BTW, great opening video up on the Sugarbush web site right now. Looks like Johnny B has been doing a little more work than just talking to us on AZ,
Nice work.

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People actually go to the main page of the website? I just keep the conditions page open in a browser tab and look mainly at that.

Seriously though, it would have taken me probably weeks to notice that new opening video if you hadn't pointed it out. It does look great fwiw.

Newpylong said:

I Snosealed mine when they were new. Think they can be washed and reapply it once clean(er)?

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I always just piled more snoseal on whenever it felt like the waterproofing was fading, every couple weeks or so with daily work use. Those gloves got water, road salt, grease, gasoline, motor oil and hydraulic fluid on 'em and seemed to waterproof fine. I usually trashed a pair and a half in a season snowmaking.

IceEidolon said:

I always just piled more snoseal on whenever it felt like the waterproofing was fading, every couple weeks or so with daily work use. Those gloves got water, road salt, grease, gasoline, motor oil and hydraulic fluid on 'em and seemed to waterproof fine. I usually trashed a pair and a half in a season snowmaking.

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I will have to keep reapplying. Mine smelled like PB Blaster, and had pipe dope and Duck Butter all over them when I worked on the mountain haah.

Nothing like a pocket zipper breaking..on an arcterx.alpha jacket...only way to get it fixed is send it back to canada...its so beat and ripped..they will give me a new one...years from now?

Kingslug20 said:

Nothing like a pocket zipper breaking..on an arcterx.alpha jacket...only way to get it fixed is send it back to canada...its so beat and ripped..they will give me a new one...years from now?

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That sucks. They are great about standing behind their stuff though.

Yup..this is the one they gave me when the first one ripped..but now with all this going on i would not send it to them.
I have a backup one..just as good..but this one is better in some ways..
I tried to fix it..the pull just snapped...waterproof zippers are not very strong..

Kingslug20 said:

Nothing like a pocket zipper breaking..on an arcterx.alpha jacket...only way to get it fixed is send it back to canada...its so beat and ripped..they will give me a new one...years from now?

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As someone that make stuff for consumers,... how about just accept the fact that eventually products do wear out after normal use? I know they do have a very generous return policy, but come on, they already replaced the jacket for you. At some point, a business model of replacing a product that has been used for years - does not work. There are no jackets (or any clothing for that matter) that are meant to last for ever. Be reasonable.

djd66 said:

As someone that make stuff for consumers,... how about just accept the fact that eventually products do wear out after normal use? I know they do have a very generous return policy, but come on, they already replaced the jacket for you. At some point, a business model of replacing a product that has been used for years - does not work. There are no jackets (or any clothing for that matter) that are meant to last for ever. Be reasonable.

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Agreed. Darn Tough has a lifetime guarantee on their socks...yet I would feel absolutely terrible about taking them up on it for socks that I've used for a decent length of time. (Obviously their socks are a lot cheaper than Arc'terx jackets...but still your point is entirely valid...)

Now how did this turn into a clothing thread?