Sugarbush winds?

ceo · Mar 10, 2013

A friend and I are planning on day-tripping to Sugarbush tomorrow on freebies from the Warren Miller film. We did this last year and the upper mountain lifts were all on wind hold all day (and then it started pouring). Forecast tomorrow is for southwest winds gusting to 45, and I'd rather not drive >3 hours to ski only the lower mountain again. From the orientation of the mountain, I would thing southwest winds to be the least potentially problematic, but I don't know the local wind patterns at all. Anyone have better wisdom to impart?

steamboat1 · Mar 10, 2013

Plenty of good skiing on the lower mountain at both north & south.

thetrailboss · Mar 10, 2013

That might be a problem. Depends on the exact direction, but for most of the lifts that is a left to right direction. Hard to say really. With that speed and direction, the exposed summit lifts might be affected.

S winds can impact North Lynx.

What really concerns me though are those speeds.

BenedictGomez · Mar 10, 2013

ceo said:
A friend and I are planning on day-tripping to Sugarbush tomorrow on freebies from the Warren Miller film.

Make sure you each have your license on you.

Four of us used the WM freebie at Sugarbush on Friday, and they were sticklers on it. Even though 3 of us had our ID, the person who said, "it's in the car" really was made to hike back to the car and get it.

bdfreetuna · Mar 11, 2013

steamboat1 said:
Plenty of good skiing on the lower mountain at both north & south.

Yeah but really who wants to drive 3+ hours to ski only lower mountain terrain at any ski resort? And Sugarbush best terrain North and South is def upper mountain (Heaven's Gate, Castlerock and the summit pod at Mt Ellen) IMO.

thetrailboss · Mar 11, 2013

Damn, looks like you might have gotten screwed:

Super Bravo Express is currently on windhold so we have decided to open up Valley House Double in the meantime. Heaven's Gate and North Lynx are on windhold at Lincoln Peak. Summit, GMX, North Ridge, Sunny D, and Slide Brook are on windhold at Mt. Ellen.

Those winds look to be impacting many more lifts than normal.

steamboat1 · Mar 11, 2013

bdfreetuna said:
Yeah but really who wants to drive 3+ hours to ski only lower mountain terrain at any ski resort? And Sugarbush best terrain North and South is def upper mountain (Heaven's Gate, Castlerock and the summit pod at Mt Ellen) IMO.

Not saying the upper mountains doesn't have good terrain. I just said there is plenty of good terrain on the lower mountain at both areas. I could easily spend the day skiing the trail pod off the Valley House chair alone if there's good natural snow. Steins & the Mall are arguably the two best runs on the mountain not to mention Egan Woods. There are some fun trails off Gatehouse too. Castlerock is pretty sheltered & rarely put on wind hold. It is accessible from Gatehouse.

At Mt. Ellen there are several runs down from mid-mountain that are quite challenging. Under the chair & to the left & right are some of my favorite runs (forget the names). There are also some great cruisers. It can be a drag skiing down to the base every run but the chair zips along quite nicely. Inverness also offers several good runs. I wouldn't have a problem skiing only the lower mountain at either area. Of course it's nicer if the whole mountain is open.

edit: I see GMX at Mt. Ellen is on wind hold. That does limit your options.

Angus · Mar 11, 2013

skied at sugarbush yesterday...very good and we noticed the winds on mt. ellen were very noticeable. nothing on south peak but clearly a SW flow definitely appeared to impact mt. ellen more.

thetrailboss · Mar 11, 2013

Looks like Mount Ellen is completely closed.

Also looks like the winds are impacting the upper portion of Super Bravo Express (the very top is exposed to the S) and Heaven's Gate.

During my years at Sugarbush I was surprised by just how much wind was a real problem.

timm · Mar 11, 2013

My friend was saying they are closing all natural snow trails for the week for "preservation" as well?

bdfreetuna · Mar 11, 2013

Not a good sign for Sugarbush if early March they are in preservation mode.

But by the looks of what I saw pictures of the Castlerock Challenge a few days ago they don't have much natural base up there.

ski woods while you can.. nobodys gonna stop you =)

ceo · Mar 11, 2013

Followup: We looked at the weather reports this morning and decided to bag it, which turns out to have been absolutely the right decision. We did this last year, got a late start and got there around noon to find all the upper mountain lifts closed. Then a couple hours later it started to pour. My friend, being made of sterner stuff than I, kept skiing. I, being sensible, bailed for the Gate House bar. So we had no particular desire to make the same mistake a second year in a row.

timm · Mar 11, 2013

bdfreetuna said:
Not a good sign for Sugarbush if early March they are in preservation mode.

But by the looks of what I saw pictures of the Castlerock Challenge a few days ago they don't have much natural base up there.

ski woods while you can.. nobodys gonna stop you =)

Seems like a lot of places are going to need a real dump after this week unfortunately

ski_resort_observer · Mar 12, 2013

timm said:
My friend was saying they are closing all natural snow trails for the week for "preservation" as well?

The Bush is planning on reopening the natural snow trails on Wednesday.

noski · Mar 12, 2013

ski_resort_observer said:
The Bush is planning on reopening the natural snow trails on Wednesday.

....and you all will want to be here on Saturday for the fresh-fallen snow.....

HowieT2 · Mar 12, 2013

lift line can get particularly nasty after being skied off. I dont think the issue is so much the base on the other trails, as the runout which also gets skied off. They will haul snow over there if that is the issue but the bottom line is we need a dose of fresh snow to keep castlerock open much longer.

ScottySkis · Mar 12, 2013

HowieT2 said:
lift line can get particularly nasty after being skied off. I dont think the issue is so much the base on the other trails, as the runout which also gets skied off. They will haul snow over there if that is the issue but the bottom line is we need a dose of fresh snow to keep castlerock open much longer.

How weather looking for next weekend mini A zoners trip?

HowieT2 · Mar 12, 2013

temps turn colder. pray for snow

ScottySkis · Mar 12, 2013

HowieT2 said:
temps turn colder. pray for snow

I don't pray, but snow would be great.

Sugarbush winds?

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