The "Sugarbush Thread"

HowieT2 · Apr 12, 2024

Hawk said:
Whatever they do it will be great to have more trails. The ones on the Bravo side are fun but you have to be expert to ride them. Very tech. I always thought that gate house would be a better place for riding. It is less steep. There used to be one or two trails you could ride over there. One you rode up castlerock connector and it went down next to Sleeper.

there are a couple of trails on the map from castlerock connection to sleeper that will be interesting for skiing too.

the proposal specifically refers to adapting the chairs on gatehouse to carry bikes.

HowieT2 · Apr 12, 2024

Lotso said:
I remember that one- pretty fun. Climb up work road not that much fun, but the descent was nice. Agreed on the Bravo side. Unless you have a full DH setup and don't have dependents to be answering to, they are rough.

agreed. I stopped riding my xc bike on them because it would cause more damage than the cost of renting a DH bike.

SteezyRob · Apr 12, 2024

cdskier said:
This weekend is the last weekend for Gate House.

dang. sugarbush is a huge L

Boxtop Willie · Apr 12, 2024

Some nasty r!@n moving in right now. Would be surprised if Gate House lasted much past Sunday. Ski and Ride closes on Sunday, too. Stein's still looks great. The groomers will have their work cut out for them farming snow on upper Snowball so people can get to Fling.

STREETSKIER · Apr 12, 2024

Guess I won’t make the drive up this weekend Again

SteezyRob · Apr 12, 2024

are they/have they put up a park on racer's edge? was really hoping for some medium sized jumps

cdskier · Apr 12, 2024

SteezyRob said:
dang. sugarbush is a huge L

Pretty normal for GH to either be done by now or closing by now. Too much sun exposure on that side to last.

SteezyRob · Apr 12, 2024

cdskier said:
Pretty normal for GH to either be done by now or closing by now. Too much sun exposure on that side to last.

yeah I get it. but killi's 130 trails or something is making us look pretty bad lol

cdskier · Apr 12, 2024

SteezyRob said:
yeah I get it. but killi's 130 trails or something is making us look pretty bad lol

Yea...their 60 groomed trails alone is more than what we have open total. Oh well. I'm not driving down that way again this weekend. It was worth it last weekend to drive an hour, but I'm over it now and willing to settle for whatever we have.

Hawk · Apr 13, 2024

Rob, we don't have the snow making they have. not even close. It not a fair comparison. We don't have water capacity, the pipes are old and leak and I am sure we don't have the budget they have. Things are going to get better but it is going to take time.

cdskier · Apr 13, 2024

K also has the elevation advantage. Nearly all the terrain they have open is essentially above the elevation of the top of GH here.

Lotso · Apr 13, 2024

HG towers down, it appears, at least at the top. Breakover towers and possibly one below them are gone.

thetrailboss · Apr 13, 2024

Hawk said:
Rob, we don't have the snow making they have. not even close. It not a fair comparison. We don't have water capacity, the pipes are old and leak and I am sure we don't have the budget they have. Things are going to get better but it is going to take time.

Alterra has much more money than POWDR. How they spend it is the issue.

solar · Apr 14, 2024

thetrailboss said:
Alterra has much more money than POWDR. How they spend it is the issue.

True, but Alterra is still a for-profit corporation and you're comparing one of the most successful mountains in New England (possibly the country) to one that is infamous for having a shortage of surrounding lodging (beds) and snowmaking capacity.

I suspect Alterra bought Sugarbush as a loss-leader to gain market share on Ikon sales. While they might run it at near-breakeven, I doubt they'd run it at a loss for any significant period of time. As a result, our infrastructure upgrades will likely be very slow to be implemented - especially where there's no material gain (e.g. replacing a triple with a triple).

Lotso · Apr 14, 2024

solar said:
True, but Alterra is still a for-profit corporation and you're comparing one of the most successful mountains in New England (possibly the country) to one that is infamous for having a shortage of surrounding lodging (beds) and snowmaking capacity.

I suspect Alterra bought Sugarbush as a loss-leader to gain market share on Ikon sales. While they might run it at near-breakeven, I doubt they'd run it at a loss for any significant period of time. As a result, our infrastructure upgrades will likely be very slow to be implemented - especially where there's no material gain (e.g. replacing a triple with a triple).

Thought new HG is a quad, and VH double was replaced by a quad? Snowmaking upgrades were big; weather sucked but they put significant dough into both mountains' systems. Once they have a better pond situation it will noticeably improve, I imagine.

solar · Apr 14, 2024

Lotso said:
Thought new HG is a quad, and VH double was replaced by a quad? Snowmaking upgrades were big; weather sucked but they put significant dough into both mountains' systems. Once they have a better pond situation it will noticeably improve, I imagine.

HG is being replaced with a fixed-grip triple. There's a very slight uphill capacity improvement in the form of increased speed (coupled with a loading conveyor like Valley). Good news is that it will be a shorter lift ride up, time-wise.

Correction edit: Quad: "we will be replacing the current Heaven’s Gate Triple with a new fixed-grip Heaven’s Gate Quad"

Lotso · Apr 14, 2024

solar said:
HG is being replaced with a fixed-grip triple. There's a very slight uphill capacity improvement in the form of increased speed (coupled with a loading conveyor like Valley). Good news is that it will be a shorter lift ride up, time-wise.

Got it, thanks. Caffeine had not kicked in yet to recall triple v. quad. Quad would have put too many additional people on those trails

Newpylong · Apr 14, 2024

No, HG is going to be a quad.

cdskier · Apr 14, 2024

solar said:
HG is being replaced with a fixed-grip triple. There's a very slight uphill capacity improvement in the form of increased speed (coupled with a loading conveyor like Valley). Good news is that it will be a shorter lift ride up, time-wise.

Umm...no. HG is definitely being replaced by a fix grip quad (with a loading conveyor).

solar · Apr 14, 2024

Ah, you're right! Was it originally spec'd as a replacement triple?

Also on their blog;
"we will be replacing the current Heaven’s Gate Triple with a new fixed-grip Heaven’s Gate Quad"

A Deeper Dive Into The Heaven’s Gate Lift Replacement - SugarBlog

After teasing this project dating back to last spring, we're excited to finally get underway with our big Heaven's Gate Replacement Project. As most of you already know, we will be replacing the current Heaven's Gate Triple with a new fixed-grip Heaven's Gate Quad to open for the 2024-25 winter...

blog.sugarbush.com

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