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The "Sugarbush Thread"

Howitzer

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NRX has indeed be hit several times by lightning during my ownership and after. It is a top drive and we replaced the drive in it a couple of years ago. GMX was hit a few years ago, and we had to run on diesel for the entire winter. Fortunately, it has two diesel engines. I took the insurance company months to finally agree to a new drive. If one has not seen a drive it is hard to imagine that it is a sophisticated computer and requires a skilled electrical engineer at times to diagnose and fix a problem when it occurs.

The former post about snowmaking is correct. After we put in the new VH chair our goal was to try to open both terrain on the GH side as well as Snowball/Spring Fling. That makes for an ideal opening to appeal to different levels of skiers and snowboarders. But it does require at least 72 hours of cold Temperatures. That did not happen this year.
Any update on a NRX replacement from Sugarbush? Having a key lift down at ME for the primetime XMAS/New Years period over the last two years is less than ideal. If I remember correctly, replacement has been discussed but HG is a higher near term priority. From Lift Blog HG will be a Dopplemayr, but Northridge replacement has been postponed.
 

cdskier

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Any update on a NRX replacement from Sugarbush? Having a key lift down at ME for the primetime XMAS/New Years period over the last two years is less than ideal. If I remember correctly, replacement has been discussed but HG is a higher near term priority. From Lift Blog HG will be a Dopplemayr, but Northridge replacement has been postponed.

As much as NRX being down sucks...it was in no way needed during this holiday period. I was at ME yesterday and it was empty. If GMX and Summit both have virtually no lines, there's not much need for NRX (other than it being a "nice to have" since lapping that lift is a lot more fun than either GMX or Summit). I drove home today, but just looked at the webcam footage and looks like once again GMX and Summit were ski on pretty much all day today.

That said...I'm also interested in an update on NRX in general. Hammond at the end of last season said it was being done this coming off-season along with HG, but any updates since then seem to only mention HG.
 

Getskied

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Jan 5, 2014
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As much as NRX being down sucks...it was in no way needed during this holiday period. I was at ME yesterday and it was empty. If GMX and Summit both have virtually no lines, there's not much need for NRX (other than it being a "nice to have" since lapping that lift is a lot more fun than either GMX or Summit). I drove home today, but just looked at the webcam footage and looks like once again GMX and Summit were ski on pretty much all day today.
Came here to say same. Hasnt been needed to the point I assumed it just wasn’t being run for cost savings or lack of crowds.

That said, if you’re looking to maximize vert on limited time or with limited interesting terrain to choose from I don’t believe any lift at either mountain has more of it than NRX. Castlerock is a close second for vertical drop but obviously moves at a fraction of the speed when it’s moving.
 

cdskier

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Heard a pipe burst around the base of NRX today. Anyone see it?
That sucks...webcam footage seems to confirm. Here's a few shots I just grabbed from the NRX webcam:

Everything fine one minute...
1704076565205.png

A minute or so later water is clearly running down under the lift:
1704076619230.png

Very visible a few minutes later including people watching it:
1704076672198.png

Hopefully an easy/quick fix...
 

thetrailboss

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Lotso

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May 27, 2021
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Looks to have been pretty minor; they have a gun there coating the trail uphill of the water seen above.

Lots of floaters on Which Way and Straight Shot, but goes with the weather. Would be nice to lose the fog.

Guns going on FIS
 
Last edited:

crank

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Mar 3, 2005
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CT
Back from our foggy, rainy week in MRV.

Tuesday, our first day skiing was the best with soft spring like snow and some sun and no rain. Wednesday - Friday snow remained fairly OK but even when it wasn;t spitting out you had to ascend and descend through misting clouds and, mostly, ski with goggles propped up if you wanted to see.

Saturday was firm and we made the mistake of skiing Organ Grinder which was good old Vermont boiler plate with little bits of man made snow on top of some of teh bumps. I used to be able to ski those conditions. Now it was survival skiing. Skiing that is good for you. Sunday was a lot better with another day to makes snow and groom stuff. We did not ski OG again. lol

Woke up New Years day to a couple of inches and a fairly steady snow down at the village. Skiing would have been good but we were lazy and took our time packing up, loading up the car and stopped at the Warren Store for some great sandwiches for the long drive back to Rye Brook..


Food and music and stuff. We did not make reservations for NYE but went and sat at the bar at Chez Henri and we were very glad we gave them a second chance. I ordered Lamp and the bartender told me to order it more well done because, "He undercooks everything."

We went to Emily's for drinks and a local band playing a bunch of Dead and other old hippie stuff like Willin' etc. The were not well rehearsed but were good players. Turns out one of the main gus had lived in teh valley for 25 years and was back visiting fromCA and they were friends of Emilys. We went back there for dinner Saturday and saw another band, Red River North, country, they were OK but meh because every song sounded the same and the pedal steel player played the same riffs over and over again. Food there was limited but good.

We stopped in at Lawson's one afternoon around 5 and it was suer busy and packed and there was a girl who could barely change chords on guitar wailing and we just turned around and went and had a nice quiet happy hour at Bluestone. So much nicer

Tried Mad River Barn Wednesday dinner and that was good. Had reservations with a group of 8 at Hideaway on Thursday and it took a while but was also pretty good.

Some of our friends are members of the Swiss Ski Club out of NYC and they have a lodge not far from Bridge Street in Waitsfield and they gave us a tour and fed us dinner on Tuesday. Might come up and stay there later this winter.

Good, mellow band for apres at Castlerock Sunday called Amerikana Blues. Guitarist sounded just like I do. We have the same patina - gray beards.

Fun trip and we got or ski legs working but I bought a guitar to noodle around on and this is what came out:

A ski vacation in the rain
It's a special kind of pain
Will it ever snow again
A ski vacation in the rain
 

tumbler

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Fun week up there even though not 100% open. We always try to make the best of it. The most surprising was the total lack of a crowd, there was never a liftline. Not sure if people bailed on their trip with weather and having the Ikon base blacked out had to help. There were certainly a lot of people visiting but just not skiing.
 

cdskier

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Fun week up there even though not 100% open. We always try to make the best of it. The most surprising was the total lack of a crowd, there was never a liftline. Not sure if people bailed on their trip with weather and having the Ikon base blacked out had to help. There were certainly a lot of people visiting but just not skiing.

Agreed. My condo parking lot was full...but I never waited in any lift lines and barely even shared a chair with anyone most rides up the mountain. Felt good to get some skiing in...
 

KustyTheKlown

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i skied sugarbush on wednesday. i meant to ski stratton but it was dumping rain in so vt so i just kept driving. skied 9:30 - 11:30. got so wet. was wearing my shell pants which i thought were more waterproof. i was soaked

skied bolton thursday and again got so wet. better pants so less wet. but wet. and htat lift is so slow and barely serves 950 vert

skied sugarbush friday and loved the soft spring conditions and mostly dry weather

skied killington saturday and an inch of fresh snow makes things much better

skied stratton for just 2 hours sunday morning on the way home. good til the groom got skied off and hordes showed up.

one of the worst ski 'vacations' ive ever had, but it was still skiing...
 

crank

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Yes, no lines.

Due to limited terrain - plenty of meat missiles. Fortunately there are a lot of decent skiers up there. Unfortunately most of them have no regard for any margin of safety when overtaking.

Mini rant: Adjust your effing line if you're going to be passing within a foot or so of me. How hard can that be? I guess I used to not care because they would just bounce off of me. Now I'm getting to an age where I'm likely to get hurt and that honestly scares me.
 

HowieT2

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All things considered, I had a very nice holiday and got 5 abbreviated days of skiing in.

most crowds I saw were in the Mehurons parking lot.

I saw that pipe burst at mellon sunday. cut a gauge through the trail. Have to disagree with cdskier about not missing the nrx. The top of the mtn was fogged in and without the NRX running, everyone had to do the runout all the way down to GMX. Inverness was closed for gmvs too. So it was missed.

I didnt ski tuesday through friday but conditions on what was open were pretty good
 

cdskier

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All things considered, I had a very nice holiday and got 5 abbreviated days of skiing in.

most crowds I saw were in the Mehurons parking lot.

I saw that pipe burst at mellon sunday. cut a gauge through the trail. Have to disagree with cdskier about not missing the nrx. The top of the mtn was fogged in and without the NRX running, everyone had to do the runout all the way down to GMX. Inverness was closed for gmvs too. So it was missed.

I didnt ski tuesday through friday but conditions on what was open were pretty good

LOL about Mehurons parking lot...I actually thought both Mehurons and Shaws were the most crowded I had ever seen them when I went there.

As for NRX, just to clarify my comment...it wasn't that it wasn't "missed", but it wasn't "needed" (as in needed from a capacity perspective). I certainly missed it myself as I'd rather lap that than do the runout down to GMX (and Straight Shot was kind of crappy the day I was at ME).
 

Ethanengmann

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Heading up again after skiing Friday - Sunday last week. Although Friday was wet the soft conditions made for some decent skiing and limited consequences on a poorly executed park run. Saturday and Sunday were firm and fast but groomers skied well throughout the day.

Hoping to try a reopened Ripcord and FIS if the snowmaking is completed in time.

Usually stay in the woods when I come to bush but going to have to wait a bit. Hopefully this potential storm I’m seeing for Saturday night - Wednesday helps my cause.
Saw anywhere from 6-15 inches. Looks like it might be a base builder rain as it might be followed by rain.
 

Lotso

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May 27, 2021
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FIS guns turned off, bummer.

But Rob Roy opened again today!

Storm maybe next week but won't get too psyched until it's really on the horizon. Totals are inches of snow- 15-day total. Would be nice. Looks like Cats, ADK and Southern Greens/Berks will get most, but we would have a healthy amount

9ewr8w6irzjo.jpg
 

mikec142

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Drove up in the rain on Thursday. Stayed in Burlington. Had an excellent dinner at Paradiso Hifi. Drove to the mountain Friday morning in a mist...couldn't really tell if it was coming from the cars in front of me, the cloud I was in, or actual rain. Got on the mountain at 9am and found (not surprisingly) wet, sloppy spring conditions. In the scheme of things, it wasn't bad, but it was tough skiing for my first day of the season with my out of shape legs and body. I just wanted to carve some GS turns and it was tough cuz stuff got choppy and bumpy quickly. Dinner with extended family at Folino's was great as always. Saturday was a mess. The mountain got a cosmetic dusting (let's call in less than an inch) which made the place look better, but because it was cold enough to snow, it froze all the wet, sloppy stuff from the day before. Lot's of icy groomers which wasn't ideal. Someone mentioned skiing OG above...I can only imagine. It's one of my least favorite trails when it's icy. We had fun, but my youngest took a spill and we called it a day. She was hurting so we got her checked at the clinic (nice people) and rechecked this AM...seems like she's okay, but the conditions weren't worth it to push it. It wasn't the best trip skiing wise, but my wife and college aged kids were all excited to be up in VT which thrilled me.

Probably not back up until MLK weekend...fingers crossed for much needed snow.
 

JimG.

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i skied sugarbush on wednesday. i meant to ski stratton but it was dumping rain in so vt so i just kept driving. skied 9:30 - 11:30. got so wet. was wearing my shell pants which i thought were more waterproof. i was soaked

skied bolton thursday and again got so wet. better pants so less wet. but wet. and htat lift is so slow and barely serves 950 vert

skied sugarbush friday and loved the soft spring conditions and mostly dry weather

skied killington saturday and an inch of fresh snow makes things much better

skied stratton for just 2 hours sunday morning on the way home. good til the groom got skied off and hordes showed up.

one of the worst ski 'vacations' ive ever had, but it was still skiing...
That's the spirit.
 
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