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The "Sugarbush Thread"

MEtoVTSkier

Active member
Joined
Jan 25, 2011
Messages
1,234
Points
38
Location
Aroostook County, ME
Never had a hard time getting a seat at spruce peak? you must be kidding (unless you are talking midweek which then all bets are off for all of this), ive been stowe 15-20 days a year since it was built. that layout and trying to get a table in the middle of that cluster is the dumbest set up i have ever seen. Full disclosure i hang on the other side :) but have witnessed enough guests trying to spend their 100 dollar lunch there.

Wow, you can tell the stress level is high this winter, even the Lurkers are coming out of the woodwork! :lol:

Welcome! 13 months before your first post. You must rank up in the top 3 Lurkers haha!

:thumbup::beer:
 

Tonyr

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
782
Points
63
Never had a hard time getting a seat at spruce peak? you must be kidding (unless you are talking midweek which then all bets are off for all of this), ive been stowe 15-20 days a year since it was built. that layout and trying to get a table in the middle of that cluster is the dumbest set up i have ever seen. Full disclosure i hang on the other side :) but have witnessed enough guests trying to spend their 100 dollar lunch there.

The Hourglass lounge inside the hotel is never full during lunch and that includes the times I've been there over MLK and President's weekends. The main dining hall at Spruce does get very busy.
 

Tonyr

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
782
Points
63
Wow, you can tell the stress level is high this winter, even the Lurkers are coming out of the woodwork! :lol:

Welcome! 13 months before your first post. You must rank up in the top 3 Lurkers haha!

:thumbup::beer:

I wonder who that could be?!
 

crippity

Active member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
102
Points
28
full on lurking like a madman for last few months, have had a good season during vaca weeks but kids hoops in a great/miserable way has kept me from VT for last few weekends and am losing mind :). do have plenty to offer on all these topics so i will be proactive going forward as i bush/stowe/bolton have been my goto for last 20years, keep up good work
 

crippity

Active member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
102
Points
28
and i hear both sides 100 percent but i am leaning on side of leaving ellen way it is (vibe wise, sure bigger deck would be nice)
 

shadyjay

Active member
Joined
Nov 24, 2007
Messages
243
Points
28
Website
linktr.ee
Today it turned out a rodent chewed through a wire! This happens occasionally. Try problem solving that one! I am very proud of the lift team we have.

Haha - yes it does. I remember (and Win might too) when I was working top of Bravo one day a few years back and we had 10-15 "mystery" stops within a 15-20 minute period. One of them occurred right as Win got to Tower 18, just shy of the ramp. After some investigation by lift maintenance, it was determined a rodent chewed through the wire going to one of the stop buttons. It was just enough not to trigger all the time, as everything checked out in the AM. It does happen, but it took some diagnosing. Always enjoyed working lifts and dealing with the lift maintenance staff.... great group of guys. They didn't like me so much during snowmaking, but that's a different story for another time. :lol:

Can't wait for my now-yearly visit next week!!!
 

WinS

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 25, 2017
Messages
671
Points
63
haha - yes it does. I remember (and win might too) when i was working top of bravo one day a few years back and we had 10-15 "mystery" stops within a 15-20 minute period. One of them occurred right as win got to tower 18, just shy of the ramp. After some investigation by lift maintenance, it was determined a rodent chewed through the wire going to one of the stop buttons. It was just enough not to trigger all the time, as everything checked out in the am. It does happen, but it took some diagnosing. Always enjoyed working lifts and dealing with the lift maintenance staff.... Great group of guys. They didn't like me so much during snowmaking, but that's a different story for another time. :lol:

Can't wait for my now-yearly visit next week!!!

welcome home!
 

Hawk

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 22, 2016
Messages
2,430
Points
113
Location
Mad River Valley / MA
The problem with a hotel at the scale of the Claybrook is that there isn't enough regular sized hotel rooms to fill the demand for slopeside lodging. I don't know if you've ever tried staying at the Claybrook or not but they have very few hotel style rooms, if you want to stay there more times than not you have to book a 1,2,or 3 bedroom suite which costs substantially more than a regular hotel room. The Claybrook also requires a 4 or 5 night minimum stay during peak season every time I've tried to book there.

Spruce Peak is very large but on the other hand has plenty of rooms. During MLK week (Monday thru Thursday) they had standard rooms going for around $200 per night with no minimum stay requirement. The Claybrook's standard rooms during that time where 2 or 3 times that price assuming that you could even get one. I've also never had a hard time getting a seat for lunch at Spruce Peak.

Other than the skating rink at Stowe both Spruce and Lincoln Peak villages have a very similar posh feel to me. Saying that the Spruce Peak development ruined the ski resort and should "F" themselves but the Claybrook/Lincoln Peak development is fine because of its scale sounds incredibly silly to me. Isn't Sugarbush trying to add more slopeside lodging to Lincoln Peak anyway?

Tony, the Claybrook was designed and sold as a time share with the units designed for families. It is not a hotel by any means and because of this there are very few studio units. I looked at one a while back as in investment but backed away at the time. So people are basically selling their slot based on what their cost is based on the spend for their week. It is bound to higher because of that fact.
Also the spruce village area and the Claybrook area are nothing alike. Just last weekend on Saturday there were hundreds of people hanging our in the plaza with (2) bars open plus the outside bar. It was really cool that you could walk around and catch two different bands for free and you were aloud to walk around with a cocktail or beer freely. This only gets bigger as the spring rolls on. Once it gets warmer Win has bands outside. There is nothing like that at spruce so your comparison is off. Sugarbush is way cooler.
 

Tonyr

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Joined
Jan 6, 2019
Messages
782
Points
63
Tony, the Claybrook was designed and sold as a time share with the units designed for families. It is not a hotel by any means and because of this there are very few studio units. I looked at one a while back as in investment but backed away at the time. So people are basically selling their slot based on what their cost is based on the spend for their week. It is bound to higher because of that fact.
Also the spruce village area and the Claybrook area are nothing alike. Just last weekend on Saturday there were hundreds of people hanging our in the plaza with (2) bars open plus the outside bar. It was really cool that you could walk around and catch two different bands for free and you were aloud to walk around with a cocktail or beer freely. This only gets bigger as the spring rolls on. Once it gets warmer Win has bands outside. There is nothing like that at spruce so your comparison is off. Sugarbush is way cooler.

I'm not denying that Sugarbush is way cooler!!! It's my favorite place in the east to ski.
 

Orca

Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2017
Messages
251
Points
16
Going to be a short season if March doesn't start producing more snow than rain. Friday looks dismal.
 

Slidebrook87

Active member
Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Messages
584
Points
28
Location
CT
Going to be a short season if March doesn't start producing more snow than rain. Friday looks dismal.

Down here the buds are already coming out on the trees. What happened to winter???


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

mikec142

Active member
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
Messages
738
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43
I read somewhere recently that there have been more days above 60 degrees than days below freezing this winter in NYC. With the exception of just a handful of days, I've worn a relatively light puffer jacket instead of my winter coat.
 

Slidebrook87

Active member
Joined
Nov 24, 2019
Messages
584
Points
28
Location
CT
I read somewhere recently that there have been more days above 60 degrees than days below freezing this winter in NYC. With the exception of just a handful of days, I've worn a relatively light puffer jacket instead of my winter coat.

Yeah it’s been insane. For Sugarbush at least, February was great, but December, January and March have all sucked.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

icecoast1

Active member
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
Messages
757
Points
43
I read somewhere recently that there have been more days above 60 degrees than days below freezing this winter in NYC. With the exception of just a handful of days, I've worn a relatively light puffer jacket instead of my winter coat.

Alaska has broken records for the cold they've seen this year, unfortunately the rest of us are seeing above average temps.
 

Bhumper

New member
Joined
Mar 19, 2018
Messages
1
Points
1
Win -

I hate to even bring this up, but with the current events surrounding Covid-19 and many events being cancelled, the closure of Berkshire East and Catamount could you share how the Sugarbush team is thinking about this? Thanks
 

WinS

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 25, 2017
Messages
671
Points
63
Win -

I hate to even bring this up, but with the current events surrounding Covid-19 and many events being cancelled, the closure of Berkshire East and Catamount could you share how the Sugarbush team is thinking about this? Thanks

I am going to send a note out to everyone tomorrow with more detail. We have not changed our operating plan and are following CDC guidelines to protect the safety of employees and guests. Quite a few people enjoying last night's grooming. I skied Lower Spring Fling where we still have 8-10 feet of depth. If you know where the mountain biking trails comes out from Moonshine you can see how much snow is left there. The natural trails are getting thin, and we can't operate Slidebrook until we get more snow. We have been shoveling at CR so that is still open. I was very pleasantly surprised how nice the groomed trails were this morning. As of this morning still had 101 of 111 trails open. Will reopen Cliffs once groomed tonight. One of our winch cats went down last night but brought our second from LP over to ME today to get to Cliffs tonight.
 

KustyTheKlown

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Joined
Mar 1, 2013
Messages
5,365
Points
113
Location
Brooklyn
how do you think we'll weather the rain and freeze? i'd love to ski this weekend to take my mind off of the nightmare that this world is becoming. wary of conditions, but also wary of the ability to keep skiing over the next month or two due to lack of snow and the end of the god damn world.
 

tumbler

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Joined
Jan 10, 2014
Messages
1,404
Points
83
how do you think we'll weather the rain and freeze? i'd love to ski this weekend to take my mind off of the nightmare that this world is becoming. wary of conditions, but also wary of the ability to keep skiing over the next month or two due to lack of snow and the end of the god damn world.

Just go ski
 
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