The "Sugarbush Thread"

HowieT2 said:

This sucks.
Can someone please explain why they have to close castlerock even if the only access is from North lynx via the cr connection?
Also, the mountain and the valley are sold out for the eclipse weekend. they should run the gmx/summit even nif they can't staff the lodge/food.

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Not the runout but lower downspout and gondolier. so when you exit you may run into dirt. I am not sure how much work they will get in next week but would bet castlerock is not looking all that good today after all the rain and fog.

HowieT2 said:

This sucks.
Can someone please explain why they have to close castlerock even if the only access is from North lynx via the cr connection?
Also, the mountain and the valley are sold out for the eclipse weekend. they should run the gmx/summit even nif they can't staff the lodge/food.

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Yea...I'm not really understanding the CR thing either. The runout dumps out low enough on Gondolier where you should be able to patch some kind of narrow path together for that short distance to get you back to the base even if you turn the Gondolier/Lower Jester/Lower DS route into a work road to get equipment up to HG. And like you said, just limit access to only from the NL side.

And fully agree with you on running GMX/Summit. Makes zero sense to have the majority of the resort closed for what will be one of the busiest weekends of the season.

(This is another perfect reason why NRX should have been done first...next year you wouldn't have the eclipse topic to deal with!)

Hawk said:

Not the runout but lower downspout and gondolier. so when you exit you may run into dirt. I am not sure how much work they will get in next week but would bet castlerock is not looking all that good today after all the rain and fog.

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Might not be looking good now...but of course the GFS, Euro, and Canadian models are all showing the potential for a decent amount of snow next week prior to the weekend.

Great timing!

drjeff said:

Just a hunch, that it likely has to do with them probably using Castlerock Runout for a work road, and then they won't want anyone who isn't supposed to be in the area in/around the liftline for the current HG triple as they start taking the chairs off the haul rope and taking the haul rope and com lines off the towers and then possibly dropping the towers if they aren't planning on flying them out, so that would have them not wanting anyone exiting the CR pod via Bailout either.

It's likely not that much different for the reasoning why they don't want anyone, who isn't authorized to be there, on a trail when a winchcat is actively winching, 100% safety reasons. Short term inconvenience for a long term upgrade situation

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Isn't this assuming that they're going to be actively working on a weekend? I doubt that's true.
Think its more likely that they assumed in planning this that castlerock would be cooked for the season by this time. That would be more than a reasonable assumption but appears it may not to be the case given the recent snowfall.

Screw it. I'm going down to Killington to ski with Ben and Jenny anyway. You should come Howie.

cdskier said:

Might not be looking good now...but of course the GFS, Euro, and Canadian models are all showing the potential for a decent amount of snow next week prior to the weekend.

Great timing!

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Really. All three? I need to look at that. I thought it was iffy as best.

thetrailboss said:

Well, if social media is anything, SB has told folks that they can certainly hike up Mount Ellen after April 1st. That message is not going over too well at all!

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The FB post states "will be very likely be open for uphill travel to the summit next" not exactly a full commitment & if they do it may be for just 1 week. Post seems written with a built in loop hole.

machski said:

True on JHMR during tram replacement, but correct me if I'm wrong, they put in a temporary chair to the top of rendezvous, no?

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You are correct, what is currently the Marmot Double was initially installed in a different alignment as the East Ridge Double to provide summit access during the period when there was no tram running. So unlike Sugarbush JHMR was able to maintain summit access during summit lift replacement.

Hawk said:

Screw it. I'm going down to Killington to ski with Ben and Jenny anyway. You should come Howie.

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I blew them off last weekend but I'm stuck at home until the weekend after the eclipse.

Hawk said:

Really. All three? I need to look at that. I thought it was iffy as best.

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I'm sure it will change...but was surprising to see substantial snow showing on all 3 for now. Canadian keeps the heaviest snow south of us, but GFS and Euro both had potentially a foot plus if you take them at face value (again somewhat fantasy at this range...but this would end up being the one time they're actually right with our luck)

Hawk said:

Looks like my evil plan is working. LOL by next year no one will be skiing sugarbush HA HA HA

Keep it up people. Fire away.

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Right on, we will see how many people sell there ski homes, don't purchase an ICON pass & move on to another mountain to ski. I'm guessing he mountain will not suffer any financial loss due to this PR move. This is the 2nd big event in since covid that has gotten many pissed off, I doubt many will throw the towel in & sell their property & go ski somewhere else, if they do people are ling up to buy. That is why they can do what they do the way they do it. I'm I pissed we about yes, I am happy about a new lift yes, the price we have to pay.

Boxtop Willie said:

Weekend of April 6-7 is shaping up to be really busy. There's the potential for decent snow that week, the Valley is sold out for the eclipse, it's Pride Weekend and the PSIA is running their Spring Rally. All on half a hill. Oh, and the Wonderbar is closed for the season. The harmonic convergence of crowded.

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I’d guess every hotel within 100 miles of the path of totality is sold out from Texas to Maine, but not to skiers.

drjeff said:

That is true. Also why they HAVE to start the construction timeline when they do. They simply have to get a specific amount of the work done involving any clearing, demo of the old lift, terminal and tower pad site prep for the new lift, before the State mandated work stoppage for alpine environment animal breeding season.

Whether or not that is overkill? Fully open for debate and I am guessing that the fully environmentalist side thinks that no construction, ever, should take place and the full on "get the government out of my way" side thinks that this is just malarky. As a result, you get the "balance" that you have, and the resort and lift manufacturer and installation companies have to deal with the set guidelines to get the job done.

If one has never actually looked at an ACT 250 document for a lift installation, it's got so many details in it about everything from how many trees will needed to be cleared to water run off mitigation during construction times, to impact on local wildlife, to the amount of estimated earth moving that will need to be done over the course of the construction, and of course the technical specs of the new lift. Likely makes many a lawyer and various engineers a decent amount of $$ in the prepping and filing of the document to the state

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Urgh.

Oddly enough, there are plenty of hotel rooms available for that weekend. Even the Clay Brook Hotel is $500 off.

Zermatt said:

I’d guess every hotel within 100 miles of the path of totality is sold out from Texas to Maine, but not to skiers.

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apparently buffalo and rochester are making more money than ever before next week

"Hey homeslices. It's your neighbor from Stowe, Rob here. You know, I never take a break from being EPIC but I can't help noticing that you all are not happy. I think you all should go EPIC and experience what a REAL ski area is like! Stay EPIC my friends!"

The work road goes up Castlerock Runout then turns up Header to go up Lower Lower Jester to Lower Downspout. I know that road well. So even if you could keep CR Connection from Gate House open, there would be no runout. Also expains why everything past Lower OG would be closed... all those trails empty into Lower Downspout or Lower Lower Jester.

I recall something similar for the replacement of the Valley House chair... everything past Murphy's was closed due to the lift removal/blasting/etc. Of course, the lift went over the trail and there was some considerable blasting/clearing that took place to widen that whole area. I must say its a 10000x improvement than how it was. I even got a chance to shred a groomed Mall before the lift came down. That was something else!

Question, though.....

Is there anything stopping SB from keeping Mt Ellen as the late mountain instead of LP? Granted, its probably not going to happen this year, but in the future, if there was another major lift replacement scheduled. Perhaps those who own at CB/GB/RB would flip that they'd have to drive to go skiing, but outside of that... ?

And I do recall there was a time during Win's era where a "bonus weekend" at Mt Ellen was offered (for just the first weekend of April, because there was tons of snow). Realistically, you could just run GMX/Summit and do bare bones staffing in the lodge. No rentals, no lessons, alcohol only out of the GML, limited cafe downstairs.

And they are selling seats in the Lincoln Limo to the Mt Ellen summit for the eclipse viewing. But you can't bring your skis!

Based on the before mentioned model runs, and confirmed via BTV NWS, there is the potential for a long duration, elevation oriented, heavy snowfall Tuesday - Thursday.

THEY WILL GET NO WORK DONE!

Mother Nature will send her verdict on the asinine decision making process of Sugarbush “management” (using the term loosely as they can’t manage themselves out of a snow drift).

shadyjay said:

Question, though.....

Is there anything stopping SB from keeping Mt Ellen as the late mountain instead of LP? Granted, its probably not going to happen this year, but in the future, if there was another major lift replacement scheduled. Perhaps those who own at CB/GB/RB would flip that they'd have to drive to go skiing, but outside of that... ?

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I would think for them to use mt Ellen as the late season mountain would require an extreme change in snowmaking plans.

skiur said:

I would think for them to use mt Ellen as the late season mountain would require an extreme change in snowmaking plans.

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Yea...for this year you could use it as a bonus weekend, but beyond that would have required a massive shift in snowmaking plans. Although I think realistically once you get further into April, then people are ok with just Valley House. It really is the abrupt cutting of pretty close to 2/3 of your terrain in one shot that people aren't happy about (losing ME plus losing HG/CR and some terrain off Super Bravo). A single bonus weekend at ME would have gone a long way to pacifying people. What Shady suggested is realistically all you need. And he's right that we did have a bonus weekend at ME one year under Win when there was a lot of snow.