• 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"

WinS

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 25, 2017
Messages
680
Points
63
Win if you are out there. What year did you upgrade to RFID? I am debating with my wife. LOL I suffer from CRS....
HMMM. I think it was winter of 2016/2017. I will refresh my memory next time I see John or Kevin
Win if you are out there. What year did you upgrade to RFID? I am debating with my wife. LOL I suffer from CRS....
 

slatham

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 17, 2012
Messages
2,439
Points
83
Location
LI/Bromley
Finally got back to Sugarbush, skied Mt Ellen. I now know first hand the frustration with an unreliable NRX (people stuck for 45 minutes, lift down all afternoon) and a non-working Inverness. Apparently it’s not even available as a back up contingency plan?. A friend has ridden it this year so it’s run, but perhaps it’s down? Or is management just not interested in letting the public ride it? The best afternoon snow was over there after racers left.

Needless to say long lines. Got way more skiing riding a slow Red Friday……
 

Cheetah440

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
33
Points
8
Finally got back to Sugarbush, skied Mt Ellen. I now know first hand the frustration with an unreliable NRX (people stuck for 45 minutes, lift down all afternoon) and a non-working Inverness. Apparently it’s not even available as a back up contingency plan?. A friend has ridden it this year so it’s run, but perhaps it’s down? Or is management just not interested in letting the public ride it? The best afternoon snow was over there after racers left.

Needless to say long lines. Got way more skiing riding a slow Red Friday……
Summit not running, Inverness not running, first ride up GMX stopped for 10mins. Not good.
 

Cheetah440

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
33
Points
8
We i

We installed Axess gates on all lifts a few years ago.. Sunapee had just purchased them when they were purchased by Vail, so we bought them at a disount. There were three reasons for putting them on all lifts. 1). It did prevent the few who got by the lower gates and skied free. 2) it gives us good data about where guests are skiing, 3). If one gets lost we can see the last lift ridden to help in the search.
The analytics you could get would be extremely valuable for sure.
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,483
Points
113
Location
NJ
Finally got back to Sugarbush, skied Mt Ellen. I now know first hand the frustration with an unreliable NRX (people stuck for 45 minutes, lift down all afternoon) and a non-working Inverness. Apparently it’s not even available as a back up contingency plan?. A friend has ridden it this year so it’s run, but perhaps it’s down? Or is management just not interested in letting the public ride it? The best afternoon snow was over there after racers left.

Needless to say long lines. Got way more skiing riding a slow Red Friday……

I had 20K in by noon yesterday at ME...

As for Inverness, it was talked about in the Sugarbush blog post that was linked previously a week or so ago that covered the lift topics. As of that post, it was available as a backup if GMX was down for an extended period of time, but would be running at reduced speed due to an issue that can't easily be fixed mid-season. So they're avoiding running it unless absolutely necessary.

On a separate note, whale-hunting on Stein's under the guns was excellent today...
 

Getskied

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Messages
35
Points
8
Pretty heavy crowds at ME today and both NRX and Summit were down for a while in the morning. That’s in addition to Inverness and Slide Brook (which may not be technically “down” but it sure ain’t up yet on a peak midwinter weekend, and could have alleviated a bit of cluster-F’ing were it running). I’m not here to whine about lift closures on an internet ski forum per se, just pointing out that it sure feels like a mess at ME at the moment.
 

WinS

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 25, 2017
Messages
680
Points
63
Pretty heavy crowds at ME today and both NRX and Summit were down for a while in the morning. That’s in addition to Inverness and Slide Brook (which may not be technically “down” but it sure ain’t up yet on a peak midwinter weekend, and could have alleviated a bit of cluster-F’ing were it running). I’m not here to whine about lift closures on an internet ski forum per se, just pointing out that it sure feels like a mess at ME at the moment.
First year with them was 17/18 but only lower mountain lifts had them.
HA. Knew you would know that 😊
 

Cheetah440

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
33
Points
8
Pretty heavy crowds at ME today and both NRX and Summit were down for a while in the morning. That’s in addition to Inverness and Slide Brook (which may not be technically “down” but it sure ain’t up yet on a peak midwinter weekend, and could have alleviated a bit of cluster-F’ing were it running). I’m not here to whine about lift closures on an internet ski forum per se, just pointing out that it sure feels like a mess at ME at the moment.
After 11 it was no problem though. Cars were parked down the access road. I thought even with Inverness down and once summit opened we never waited more than 2mins. Skied better today on ME than LP yesterday.
 

Dickc

Active member
Joined
Dec 5, 2013
Messages
567
Points
43
Location
Northeast Mass
HMMM. I think it was winter of 2016/2017. I will refresh my memory next time I see John or Kevin
A quick Internet search show summer of 2018 as hen Vail was purchasing these Resorts.

 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,483
Points
113
Location
NJ
Skied better today on ME than LP yesterday.

I made a somewhat similar comment today to someone - ME yesterday skied better than LP today with the sole exception of Stein's at LP...other than Stein's, all the groomers were much firmer and scraped off within no time at LP compared to ME yesterday which I thought was surprisingly really good on the groomers.
 

Getskied

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Messages
35
Points
8
After 11 it was no problem though. Cars were parked down the access road. I thought even with Inverness down and once summit opened we never waited more than 2mins. Skied better today on ME than LP yesterday.
Mt Ellen weekend crowds seem to disperse pretty well to Inverness race spectating, the terrain park, the uphill route, and the dysfunction junction above the base of NRX. Also at 11am all the Blazers groups head in for lunch. Lines only really pop up on powder days when the typical skier is there to take laps and not do something else.

One challenge with just GMX running and loading full chairs is that there are approximately 2000 people on Straight Shot at any given time, all of different ability. One of them in particular almost ended my 4.5 year old daughter’s day today if not worse. On a sunny glorious day like today that seems to thin out as the upper mountain opens and many folks stay on the upper lifts.
 

Cheetah440

Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2013
Messages
33
Points
8
Mt Ellen weekend crowds seem to disperse pretty well to Inverness race spectating, the terrain park, the uphill route, and the dysfunction junction above the base of NRX. Also at 11am all the Blazers groups head in for lunch. Lines only really pop up on powder days when the typical skier is there to take laps and not do something else.

One challenge with just GMX running and loading full chairs is that there are approximately 2000 people on Straight Shot at any given time, all of different ability. One of them in particular almost ended my 4.5 year old daughter’s day today if not worse. On a sunny glorious day like today that seems to thin out as the upper mountain opens and many folks stay on the upper lifts.
My wife freaks out when I show her videos of my daughter skiing in the woods or going down icy death bumps etc, but Intell her the most dangerous trails to ski are blue groomers. Even the green ones have Bodie wannabes going 50+. That more than anything really bothers me since beginners need a place to work their way down.why does anyone need to bomb Northstar? Saw two today, carving at 30-50 in and out of beginners basically snowplowing. I just don’t get what some people are thinking.
 

Hawk

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2016
Messages
2,462
Points
113
Location
Mad River Valley / MA
Fortunately or Unfortunately however you look at it, Mt. Ellen is the racers mountain. Racers have been flying around that mountain as long as there has been a racing program. GS and Super G skiers use all the trails to train or get warmed up. and Yes Northstar is one of those trails. Big picture, at lease they cant get going that fast, the trail is kind of flat most of the way down. Looking at it on the bright side, I trust those kids a lot more then the general Mahem that goes on at Lincoln Peak. I always have my head looking up hill all the time. Especially when I am stopped. But since I ski Bumps, woods and trail edges, I don't have that kind of issue that often.
 

Getskied

Member
Joined
Jan 5, 2014
Messages
35
Points
8
Fortunately or Unfortunately however you look at it, Mt. Ellen is the racers mountain. Racers have been flying around that mountain as long as there has been a racing program. GS and Super G skiers use all the trails to train or get warmed up. and Yes Northstar is one of those trails. Big picture, at lease they cant get going that fast, the trail is kind of flat most of the way down. Looking at it on the bright side, I trust those kids a lot more then the general Mahem that goes on at Lincoln Peak. I always have my head looking up hill all the time. Especially when I am stopped. But since I ski Bumps, woods and trail edges, I don't have that kind of issue that often.
I respect racers. I used to be one many years ago, and still enjoy very high speed arcs on empty groomers. They typically aren’t the ones that make me fear for my kids safety though. There are just hordes of terrible skiers that go super fast. I wonder if high speed lifts are partly to blame because they lower the penalty of only spending 2 minutes skiing before sitting on one’s butt again.

Would it kill Sugarbush ski patrol to station someone on North Star during peak hours of peak weekends to encourage traffic calming? There is a time and place to ski that trail at 50 mph and it wasn’t yesterday.
 

cdskier

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 26, 2015
Messages
6,483
Points
113
Location
NJ
I respect racers. I used to be one many years ago, and still enjoy very high speed arcs on empty groomers. They typically aren’t the ones that make me fear for my kids safety though. There are just hordes of terrible skiers that go super fast. I wonder if high speed lifts are partly to blame because they lower the penalty of only spending 2 minutes skiing before sitting on one’s butt again.

Would it kill Sugarbush ski patrol to station someone on North Star during peak hours of peak weekends to encourage traffic calming? There is a time and place to ski that trail at 50 mph and it wasn’t yesterday.

Generally of any people I see flying on Northstar, I agree that they're not racers as they're adults I usually see doing that. Typically it is more random people coming down from Exterminator and then just booking it once they hit Northstar. I always try to go slower on Northstar particularly if I see people going slowly on the trail. Even though it is a flat trail, there are certainly some people that carry a LOT of speed down that trail.

Maybe blaming Ikon is wrong, but I think that has certainly brought a bit of a different crowd to the mountain than what you had in the past.
 

thetrailboss

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
32,437
Points
113
Location
NEK by Birth
Generally of any people I see flying on Northstar, I agree that they're not racers as they're adults I usually see doing that. Typically it is more random people coming down from Exterminator and then just booking it once they hit Northstar. I always try to go slower on Northstar particularly if I see people going slowly on the trail. Even though it is a flat trail, there are certainly some people that carry a LOT of speed down that trail.

Maybe blaming Ikon is wrong, but I think that has certainly brought a bit of a different crowd to the mountain than what you had in the past.
It's been years for me, but IIRC they used to have prominent "SLOW" signs on Northstar. Has that changed?
 

thetrailboss

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jun 4, 2004
Messages
32,437
Points
113
Location
NEK by Birth
Still there...often ignored...
Yeah, well, maybe it is time for SB to enforce them. Out here ski areas do post ski patrol/mountain hosts at problematic places at problematic times to help enforce speed and control.

Has anyone here spoken to ski patrol?
 
Top