• Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!

    You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!

The "Sugarbush Thread"

BenedictGomez

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 26, 2011
Messages
12,182
Points
113
Location
Wasatch Back
Yup...check out lodging prices during sundance....I don't print that kind of money

You could try Heber City for much lower prices. There's a Holiday Inn and a Best Western that are both fairly new, affordable, and nice.

Or Heber Inn if you want to go Kusty-style. Plus you could say you stayed in the Dumb & Dumber motel.

1705115723251.png
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,492
Points
113
Location
NJ
Is Castle Rock going to spin tomorrow? They were playing with it today and moving snow in the loading area.

Yes, CR and North Lynx are both in the plans for tomorrow along with all 111 trails. Mother nature may change those plans though...we'll see in the morning.
 

Lotso

Active member
Joined
May 27, 2021
Messages
201
Points
43
Ropes dropped on everything today. CR lift on wind hold, like half the resort. It's pretty windy...
 
Last edited:

Lotso

Active member
Joined
May 27, 2021
Messages
201
Points
43
Changing focus back to food: Ate Dino Bones last night. Very yummy. Brisket, taters, beans, and something wrapped in bacon, which was crazy good. Will be back.
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,492
Points
113
Location
NJ
Back to skiing...was on the fence this morning about going out, but glad I ultimately did. Domino, Moonshine, skier's right on Murphy, etc all skiing really nice. I bet the top of the mountain is even nicer assuming it isn't windblown. A little wetter near the bottom, but not much unfrozen precip so far. Lift lines about 5-10 minutes, which honestly isn't bad considering half the lifts are on windhold.

Did have a weird experience on Bravo though one time. Unloading the chair somehow seemed to throw us off the chair. Weirdest thing I've ever felt and the person who was next to me agreed they never experienced that either. Not sure if it was a sudden burst of wind or what...just strange.
 

WinS

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 25, 2017
Messages
682
Points
63
Back to skiing...was on the fence this morning about going out, but glad I ultimately did. Domino, Moonshine, skier's right on Murphy, etc all skiing really nice. I bet the top of the mountain is even nicer assuming it isn't windblown. A little wetter near the bottom, but not much unfrozen precip so far. Lift lines about 5-10 minutes, which honestly isn't bad considering half the lifts are on windhold.

Did have a weird experience on Bravo though one time. Unloading the chair somehow seemed to throw us off the chair. Weirdest thing I've ever felt and the person who was next to me agreed they never experienced that either. Not sure if it was a sudden burst of wind or what...just strange.
The wind early yesterday was from the SSE. We rarely see that here so it indeed may had been a burst from behind you. Loved Twist. No one on it early.
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,492
Points
113
Location
NJ
Too quiet in here...

Sunday at Ellen was decent. Exterminator in particular was quite nice when NRX first opened. Too bad Summit never opened. I wanted to ski a groomed FIS as it has probably been around a decade since the last time I did that. Oh well. Considering Summit wasn't running (and neither was Inverness), lift lines weren't too bad at all. Most runs the lines were 2-3 minutes tops in the singles line. NRX was having some issues with the chairs not catching properly in the bottom terminal so one of the lift mechanics was there helping anytime a chair didn't catch properly. That caused some extra stops and slowdowns on NRX as well. And even with that, the line still was nothing for a holiday.

Was back at LP again this morning. Wind was coming straight down the Bravo liftline first thing so that was freezing cold. Heaven's Gate was calmer. Ripcord was nice. Weird that today was the first time I skied Ripcord this season (not sure I've ever skied a bunch of natural trails like Domino, Moonshine, Exterminator, etc all before hitting Ripcord for the season). Then I went over to the Gate House side. Sun was out over there and it felt much warmer. Birch was really nice. Then Sunrise was nice as well with the snow from the guns on it. Longest line this morning while I was out was North Lynx shortly after it opened (maybe 2 minutes). I think more people were taking North Lynx than usual due to essentially having only 1 groomed route off GH with Sleeper closed for snowmaking and the Hot Shot/Waterfall route still being open only on natural. I'm guessing Hot Shot/Waterfall will be coming up soon on the snowmaking list once they're done with Sleeper and/or Sunrise.

If there's any complaints to be had...it would be accuracy and timely updates of the snow report. It still doesn't even list Sunrise as having snowmaking active. On Sunday I think it was closer to 10AM before they finally listed Summit as delayed. Even Saturday Super Bravo opened late and there was no mention of it being delayed (the only hint that it might not open on time was that Valley House was mentioned as the Early Ups lift). At least I can look at the webcams and figure out for myself what lifts are running or potentially delayed.

All in all I was happy this weekend and had some good runs every single day.
 

Shredmonkey254

Active member
Joined
Feb 23, 2017
Messages
215
Points
28
Location
Nowhere now, but everywhere
Too quiet in here...

Sunday at Ellen was decent. Exterminator in particular was quite nice when NRX first opened. Too bad Summit never opened. I wanted to ski a groomed FIS as it has probably been around a decade since the last time I did that. Oh well. Considering Summit wasn't running (and neither was Inverness), lift lines weren't too bad at all. Most runs the lines were 2-3 minutes tops in the singles line. NRX was having some issues with the chairs not catching properly in the bottom terminal so one of the lift mechanics was there helping anytime a chair didn't catch properly. That caused some extra stops and slowdowns on NRX as well. And even with that, the line still was nothing for a holiday.

Was back at LP again this morning. Wind was coming straight down the Bravo liftline first thing so that was freezing cold. Heaven's Gate was calmer. Ripcord was nice. Weird that today was the first time I skied Ripcord this season (not sure I've ever skied a bunch of natural trails like Domino, Moonshine, Exterminator, etc all before hitting Ripcord for the season). Then I went over to the Gate House side. Sun was out over there and it felt much warmer. Birch was really nice. Then Sunrise was nice as well with the snow from the guns on it. Longest line this morning while I was out was North Lynx shortly after it opened (maybe 2 minutes). I think more people were taking North Lynx than usual due to essentially having only 1 groomed route off GH with Sleeper closed for snowmaking and the Hot Shot/Waterfall route still being open only on natural. I'm guessing Hot Shot/Waterfall will be coming up soon on the snowmaking list once they're done with Sleeper and/or Sunrise.

If there's any complaints to be had...it would be accuracy and timely updates of the snow report. It still doesn't even list Sunrise as having snowmaking active. On Sunday I think it was closer to 10AM before they finally listed Summit as delayed. Even Saturday Super Bravo opened late and there was no mention of it being delayed (the only hint that it might not open on time was that Valley House was mentioned as the Early Ups lift). At least I can look at the webcams and figure out for myself what lifts are running or potentially delayed.

All in all I was happy this weekend and had some good runs every single day.
looks like they need to do some pruning at the mid mountain snow stake... which is looking good!
 

mikec142

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
750
Points
43
Back to skiing...was on the fence this morning about going out, but glad I ultimately did. Domino, Moonshine, skier's right on Murphy, etc all skiing really nice. I bet the top of the mountain is even nicer assuming it isn't windblown. A little wetter near the bottom, but not much unfrozen precip so far. Lift lines about 5-10 minutes, which honestly isn't bad considering half the lifts are on windhold.

Did have a weird experience on Bravo though one time. Unloading the chair somehow seemed to throw us off the chair. Weirdest thing I've ever felt and the person who was next to me agreed they never experienced that either. Not sure if it was a sudden burst of wind or what...just strange.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one...my first ride up Bravo on Saturday and I felt like I was ejected when I offloaded. Was really strange but it didn't happen again.
 

Hawk

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2016
Messages
2,463
Points
113
Location
Mad River Valley / MA
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one...my first ride up Bravo on Saturday and I felt like I was ejected when I offloaded. Was really strange but it didn't happen again.
I was told by someone that they speed up the top reciever belt to respace the chairs. I was on Bravo and experienced that also. It was not that bad and I actually liked how it launched you off the chair with a little speed. LOL
 

mikec142

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
750
Points
43
Was up this weekend as well. Skied LP on Saturday and Sunday and ME on Monday. Stayed in Burlington. Friday night, dinner was at Paradiso Hifi. I know that Burlington is out of the way for MRV skiers, but this place is off the charts. NYC level cooking and cocktails and a Brooklyn meets Vermont vibe.

Saturday was wild. Skied from about 9:30-3pm with a 45+ minute break at Allyn's to dry out. On the drive in from Burlington, I got blown across a lane on 89S on one of the flats. I kept on watching the temperature hoping the rain would turn to snow and when I pulled into the lot, it did turnover. All day, on and off, snow, rain, snow, rain all mixed with a lot of early wind. Spring conditions and a surprising amount of snow made for some fun skiing. HG, NL, and CR were all on wind hold for most of the day. Runs of the day for me were Moonshine and Domino. Murphy's was good too. Spring Fling was messy. When I took a break at Allyn's it was raining. Side note, great PB&J. Also, I'm doing dry January and when I looked around, I was pretty much the only adult drinking water. This was around 1:30pm. While I was inside it started dumping snow so I geared back up and headed out as I heard that HG was spinning. Took Downspout to HG and by the time I was one lift pole up the lift it stated raining hard. My gloves had given up around 11am so at this point I was done. Took Jester most of the way down and called it a day. When I was leaving, it was dumping snow again. When I got back to my hotel...I wrung out my glove liners and couldn't believe how wet they were. Also, my Arc'Teryx shell is waterproof but the outside pocket zippers are not. I had one inch of water inside all three outer pockets. Side note, with the upper mountain lifts closed, VH, GH, and SB were pretty packed. But all in all, the singles line did the trick.

Saturday night, dinner at Folino's in Burlington...the bacon/leek pizza is so ridiculously good. It's not on the menu, but I remember it from years back and they make it if I ask.

I had low expectations for Sunday as I knew it was going to be cold overnight and thought all that wet snow would freeze and would make for a shitty ski day. Turned out that the snow at the end of the day and a groom that ended up with another inch on top of it worked wonders. Lapped Birch Run for a bit. Laughed at what the guys who braved Sunrise looked like. Took HG up and looked at the boiler plate ice at the top of OG and also laughed. I then watched some guy jump right in to OG and ski it like a champ. It literally looked like a hockey rink and he had no trouble. Castlerock was open for a brief moment and then went on maintenance hold. Based on the conditions, I wasn't going up there anyway. I heard the top was good on Saturday and Sunday, but the lower part and run out were a mess. Jester was fun as was Murphy's. Had my first go down the new HG traverse...so much better. At about 1:45, it started to squall. Whiteout conditions. I took another few runs on Birch and then drove back to Burlington around 3:15pm in a serious squall. It was my first test of the brand new Blizzaks and they did the job. Had a kid tailgate me the last 7-8 miles before I got to Waterbury...dumbass.

I have to say that the scene in the courtyard at LP around 3pm was great. Music blasting, Tons of people around. The TGR merch stand was there. It felt awesome!

Sunday night dinner at Dedalus Wine Bar...the dry January thing is killing me. Another great find.

Monday was at Mount Ellen. Summit was closed all day. Ripped the classic groomers all morning. Rim Run, Elbow, Looking Good, Cruiser. There was another 1-2" overnight on top of the groom so it was great. I probably should have hit lower FIS but didn't. NRX seemed to have issues all morning. I first saw a chair hit the trip bar and that shut things down. Then around 11am I was on the lift and it stopped for a while. Felt like 10 minutes but I'm guessing it was less. Stopped again right before offloaded. I said to myself, let's skip this lift for now, but after another great run full of GS turns, I found myself getting back on NRX. And sure enough it stopped with me on it. My feet were uncharacteristically cold (it was a very cold day) and I took the chair stopping along with my feet being cold as a sign from above to call it a day right before noon. I still had to drive 5.5 hours and I already had 13k of vert. Run of the day was Rim Run. The lift lines at ME were basically non-existent. NRX was ski on or wait 1-3 chairs all morning.

Other than dry January, it was a great weekend. I was worried about the weather and conditions and while I definitely experienced every type of weather, the conditions were much, much better than I expected. Hope to be up again this coming weekend.
 
Last edited:

mikec142

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
750
Points
43
Wanna see something classy? My daughter fell and tweaked her knee at SB on 12/30. We got her checked out in the clinic. When we got home she went to the ortho who said she’s probably good to go. Seems okay now and she’s skied a couple of days since so likely just a scare.

Anyway; this showed up in today's mail…
 

Attachments

  • IMG_8931.jpeg
    IMG_8931.jpeg
    1.9 MB · Views: 67

tumbler

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Messages
1,417
Points
83
The notes from ski patrol are a nice touch, unfortunately we have gotten a bunch of them over the years both for the kids and adults. We are lucky to have the clinic open again.
Another weekend of making the best of it, but what I skied on Sunday was a rink. My one request is I wish they would put Birdland back in the usual grooming rotation, such a fun trail to start the day on.
 

mikec142

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
750
Points
43
The notes from ski patrol are a nice touch, unfortunately we have gotten a bunch of them over the years both for the kids and adults. We are lucky to have the clinic open again.
Another weekend of making the best of it, but what I skied on Sunday was a rink. My one request is I wish they would put Birdland back in the usual grooming rotation, such a fun trail to start the day on.
IMHO, Sunday was the worst of the three days, but still fun.

To me, it's too early to push myself to ski marginal stuff. I have a long season ahead where I'd like to ski some glades that I've never tried at SB, get into Slidebrook for my first time, and enjoy my two planned trips out west. I took one look at Organgrinder and laughed. Even though Moonshine and Domino were really fun on Saturday, I knew that Sunday they would be bad ideas. Thus, I stuck to the groomers. I did jump into Morningstar around mid-day and didn't love it. I had heard that it got better as it gained snow as the day went on, but I wasn't going to bother at the end of the day.
 

mikec142

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
750
Points
43
I know that the original plan was to replace HG and NRX after this season. I've seen the blog post about HG. Is NRX still in the plans for replacement during this offseason?
 

oldfartrider

Active member
Joined
Dec 9, 2021
Messages
188
Points
28
Location
Nashua
Wanna see something classy? My daughter fell and tweaked her knee at SB on 12/30. We got her checked out in the clinic. When we got home she went to the ortho who said she’s probably good to go. Seems okay now and she’s skied a couple of days since so likely just a scare.

Anyway; this showed up in today's mail…
The Sugarbush ski patrol is such a class act. Just awesome people. Whenever I stop on the side of a trail to rest cause I’m old and fat they always ask if I’m ok. They’re the greatest!
 
Top