The "Sugarbush Thread"

Your posting seems to be working fine...I now see 3 posts from you in a row in this thread :beer:

Good to hear about minimal snow loss. We now have a nice solid base of ice to build on! I'll be up Friday-Sunday this week lapping the groomers!

Nice to see they've fired up the guns on DS, Birdland, Murphy's and OG too from the latest report.

cdskier said:

Your posting seems to be working fine...I now see 3 posts from you in a row in this thread :beer:

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Nick replied he was releasing them. Deleted down to one. Thanks.

Anyone know or care to speculate about what the IKON pass means for SB's participation in the Mountain Collective and whether Alta, Jackson et al. will be in both?

I've read that the MCP will continue alongside the IKON pass. I have the MCP for Sugarbush, Alta, Snowbird and Jackson Hole. All but SB are on the IKON so it's going to be tough to decide what to buy. If SB was on the IKON pass I think it'd be a slam dunk purchase for me. As the resort list stands now it'll depend on pricing for the IKON. If it's reasonable then I'll get the IKON and buy SB tickets at the window.

WinS, join the IKON pass!! ;-)

Big factor to consider is how many days this pass will have at each mountain and how closely clustered they will be. With SB as a home resort, it helps to have a few MCP mountains close together to limit driving. Under the MCP this year, the only real option for a full week out west without too much driving was to fly into SLC and ski 2 days at each of Alta, Snowbird and Snowbasin, plus the additional bonus day at one of them if you purchased the MCP in the spring. If you didn't purchase in spring, you could still get 50% off day passes if you want to ski more than 2 days at any of them. Will be interesting to see if Alta-Bird continue to be on the MC for 18-19 or if you have to jump on the Ikon pass and make it an Alta, Bird, DV trip. The Ikon would also (probably) allow for a week in CO doing Steamboat, WP, Copper, and Eldora although there's probably more driving involved, especially factoring in airport locations. Jackson Hole/Big Sky could be another possible 5-day trip.

I'm guessing the Ikon will be more expensive than the MLC is. Also, the Max pass had 5 days at each mountain. Will be interesting to see if Ikon stays in that range or drops down to something more along the lines of MC.

ETA: You could also add Aspen to the CO loop. One other wrinkle is that on the MLC, you only get 2 days total (plus maybe the bonus day) at the 4 Aspen Snowmass mountains. Kinda bullshit. If they would allow more days there, you could get a week in Aspen skiing all 4 mountains which would be another great trip option out West.

And I'm not sure what I'd like to see WinS do. Depends on pricing, what mountains stay on MLC, and how many days at each mountain on the Ikon.

the ikon FAQ says MC will still exist. a large number of the MC resorts are gonna be on ikon (alta, bird, squaw, mammoth, jackson), so I think there will be a lot of overlap. maybe they keep the MC as 2 days per resort and ~$450, and the ikon gets 5 days a piece and is ~$700? if ikon is still the MC 2 days per place, it's not very attractive to me. too much driving. too much out of pocket lift ticket expenses.

the ikon FAQ says MC will still exist.

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True, but it isn't clear to me if all the MLC mountains now on Ikon will stay on MLC, or maybe some of them become Ikon only. Wouldn't surprise me if they did go with a 2-tier offering with Ikon being the (higher priced) Cadillac offering. If that's the case, then SB would going for a ride in the Chevy if it just stays with the MLC. I would guess these are all the things WinS will be/already has weighed against what Stowe/Epic will have to offer.

Big storm next weekend. You heard it here first.

How is it that Mad River is 80% open and SB only has snowmaking trails open? Not complaining, just curious. I'm not looking for the rope to drop on Lower Birdland...

Hawk said:

Big storm next weekend. You heard it here first.

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Oh?

Hawk said:

Big storm next weekend. You heard it here first.

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Second?

tumbler said:

How is it that Mad River is 80% open and SB only has snowmaking trails open? Not complaining, just curious. I'm not looking for the rope to drop on Lower Birdland...

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It's all about tolerance. The Mad River people will ski on grass with rime ice on it. They have to or they would not be open for large stretches. Ski it if you can!

NY DirtBag said:

Second?

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The long range looks like the 3rd. It is a long way off but you have to have something to look forward to.

tumbler said:

How is it that Mad River is 80% open and SB only has snowmaking trails open? Not complaining, just curious. I'm not looking for the rope to drop on Lower Birdland...

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Exactly!! I just don’t understand this. It’s very frustrating.

Los said:

Exactly!! I just don’t understand this. It’s very frustrating.

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If you guys saw what the natural trails looked like up there you would understand. There is dirt and patches of ice with no snow on natural trails. Mad river has no snow making so they have no choice. Ski Dirt and rocks with ice or close the mountain.

Hawk said:

Big storm next weekend. You heard it here first.

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Yeah depending on which model of virtual reality your looking at. Yes certainly are indications but at 8 days out and the lack of forecast accuracy beyond 3 days this winter I think you're jumping the gun.

I put a caveat in my original email.

We need a storm. Stop bringing the bad vibes.

Hawk said:

I put a caveat in my original email.

We need a storm. Stop bringing the bad vibes.

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I hear you, but at this point nothing would bum me out more than something that looks real pretty on one of the models getting me all psyched up and then not happening. Personally I am more focused on whether this trough can go a bit more negative and pull more ashore from the coastal low.

That one get a little better each day but all the way to VT is a long shot. OK I will focus on that also.

Organgrinder - a tale of two guns!

Skied under the guns on og this morning. Top 75% or so is using the hkd towers. Beautiful dry silky smooth snow coming out. Awesome to ski. Tons of fun. Then on the bottom of og they are using the snologic ground guns. The difference is night and day. The snologics are putting out a wet sticky snow. And temps were single digits this morning...


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