2020-21 Sunday River

[machski]

Lines were reasonable all day aside from Barker and South Ridge. North Peak was busy at times, the Escapade side needs to be corraled up the trail rather than letting the line move across the entire bottom of the trail. Locke, White Cap, Aurora and Jordan were mostly ski on. T2 was open to the public in the morning anyway. Heads up for the weekend, the Gould weekend only program kids are on hill in the morning, the full program kids in the Afternoon. Sea like they like to keep the weekend kids on snow as much as possible, meaning they focus on T-Bar and MM.

 

[machski]

Thanx for the report. I am anxious to run my bronze pass thru the gates tomorrow!

How were the lines managed at SR and Barker? I have seen the lines behind the gates become a cluster, clearly with no social distancing, only top be totally clustered between the gates and the chair. Often times the lifties just keep waving people in, contributing to the clustering. Then I have seen other lifties holding people in line in the corrals until the last group at the gates is at the gate. Then they call the groups at the front of the two lines on either side, alternately, eliminating the cluster effect at the gates. And never an empty chair going up. No one was getting to the chair any faster or any slower.

At Barker, it was well managed all weekend. Laterally spaced lines and I'm co for table with ski tail to tip longitudinal spacing. Good sequence of lines from liftie managing. Cannot comment to SR, didn't bother to venture there with North Peak spinning. North Peak was a bit of a mess Saturday, the Escapade line side stretched across the base of the run. They need to rope that and pull it up beside the lift. Wasn't much line control of the three merging at the RFID gates Saturday though most groups allowed a respectful flow. They had a liftie there on Sunday and it was more managed than Saturday. Overall, I thought lines were not a big issue.

 

[thetrailboss]

So who is excited for the Merrill Hill expansion? In all seriousness, looks like no significant terrain to speak of. Just real estate and access.

 

[Dickc]

Sunday River accelerates Merrill Hill Project

 

[machski]

So who is excited for the Merrill Hill expansion? In all seriousness, looks like no significant terrain to speak of. Just real estate and access.

I have a friend who lives down on Monkey Brook Road (road out to the Jordan hotel) and he is stoked as he already has a skin route up the old cross country network to top of Merrill and backcountry line back down. So he will have direct skin up access with lift served BC ski back. Beyond that, while the runs are mostly ski access for the homes, I have seen some of the terrain, they may be fun to change things up/get away from crowds for a bit. I'm far more interested to see if they did this right and it helps pump $$ back into the resort for other needed upgrades (west side water line and new Barker/Jordan lifts for starters).

 

[Newpylong]

FYI the west side water source is not really a priority any more with the rebuilt River pumphouses and new feed line. They can get water pretty reliably over there.

The terrain looked kinda cool to the naked eye even if only condo access. Like you said, a nice change of pace if they're open to the public. My son loves exploring off the beaten path stuff like that. He makes us lap Sunrise at Killington lol.

 

[thetrailboss]

FYI the west side water source is not really a priority any more with the rebuilt River pumphouses and new feed line. They can get water pretty reliably over there.

The terrain looked kinda cool to the naked eye even if only condo access. Like you said, a nice change of pace if they're open to the public. My son loves exploring off the beaten path stuff like that. He makes us lap Sunrise at Killington lol.

I will never forget my first trip to Killington in March 1999 when on a whim a friend and I skied all the way down to the Sunrise Base and rode that long-ass triple back up. Alas, it was gone shortly after that. Some very interesting terrain down there.

 

[machski]

FYI the west side water source is not really a priority any more with the rebuilt River pumphouses and new feed line. They can get water pretty reliably over there.

The terrain looked kinda cool to the naked eye even if only condo access. Like you said, a nice change of pace if they're open to the public. My son loves exploring off the beaten path stuff like that. He makes us lap Sunrise at Killington lol.

Reliably getting water over there hasn't really been the concern. It's been being able to blow a lot efficiently on both ends simultaneously. The west water supply is how they boost water capacity to upwards of 15,000 GPM onto the hill. After this deluge coming right at Christmas, the ability to push that much snow right after an event like this for a holiday week may advance that project to the top of the heap again. And I am assuming Merrill Hill is happening like the Snowmaking add to Ridge Run did with the Glades development, all the infrastructure on hill came out of the real estate budget/accounts and not mountain ops.

 

[2Planker]

Sunday River accelerates Merrill Hill Project

Been skinnin' those hills since the late 80's.
Before Aurora/Jordan was even a twinkle in LBO's mind..

 

[Newpylong]

I will never forget my first trip to Killington in March 1999 when on a whim a friend and I skied all the way down to the Sunrise Base and rode that long-ass triple back up. Alas, it was gone shortly after that. Some very interesting terrain down there.

I just mean the shortened Triple!

I miss the Northeast Passage, those trails had a ton of character below Hawk's Nest. Noreaster was an insane cruiser.

 

[Newpylong]

Reliably getting water over there hasn't really been the concern. It's been being able to blow a lot efficiently on both ends simultaneously. The west water supply is how they boost water capacity to upwards of 15,000 GPM onto the hill. After this deluge coming right at Christmas, the ability to push that much snow right after an event like this for a holiday week may advance that project to the top of the heap again. And I am assuming Merrill Hill is happening like the Snowmaking add to Ridge Run did with the Glades development, all the infrastructure on hill came out of the real estate budget/accounts and not mountain ops.

Yea but they're not looking at resolving it that way anymore. The two boosters for Jordan are 3,000 GPM out of a total 8,500 GPM out of Barker right now so it's not that bad. But the current plan is to put a booster station at the top of the Chondola and rebuild the Barker Pumphouse upping the total flow out of there.

 

[Smellytele]

Just in case you missed it, the River is closing tomorrow, including no uphill traffic. It's gonna be a wet windy mess. They have a bunch of whales blow here and there, and they will TRY, as they always do, get the mountain back in shape after 2-3 days.

fixed

 

[machski]

Yea but they're not looking at resolving it that way anymore. The two boosters for Jordan are 3,000 GPM out of a total 8,500 GPM out of Barker right now so it's not that bad. But the current plan is to put a booster station at the top of the Chondola and rebuild the Barker Pumphouse upping the total flow out of there.

You are likely right. They were having a hell of a time trying to figure out the water line route to Jordan from the river and how to put in some type of holding pond out that way. Given the new feed line of correct size and material, likely smarter to just boost that feed to the max.

 

[skinowworklater]

You are likely right. They were having a hell of a time trying to figure out the water line route to Jordan from the river and how to put in some type of holding pond out that way. Given the new feed line of correct size and material, likely smarter to just boost that feed to the max.

What could possibly go wrong???????
That cheapo Chinese pipe might hold for a time.........
Maybe.

 

[Newpylong]

It's ductile iron and it's pretty thick walled by design. I'd give it 30 years.

It is only 20" diameter so around 10,000 GPM max flowrate. They'll need to find another source if they want to go beyond that eventually. All the wet pits at the river are filled too so would need more powerful pumps.

 

[thetrailboss]

Ski the East just posted this:

 

[SLyardsale]

I managed to get the grandkids for some skiing today. It's been a couple years. So... I was looking for a way to keep this affordable. I was surprised to see that the Sunday River beginner ticket was very competitive with Mt Abrams and Lost valley, which both are still not open. Even if they were, you know the snow and conditions at the river are more dependable, if accompanied by a larger crowd. I was happy with the conditions they had for the kids, they were never leaving the beginner area, though they seemed to pick it up fairly quickly again. I even doubled down the savings on a twilight ticket, about $10.00 less each and thinned out crowds. Their lighting will not compete with Shawnee, but it was very good and we built some great memories with all the fun!

I couldn't quite talk them into going up the chondie to the top of North Peak. Seems they are learning to respect their abilities and conditions. They could have done it, but it would have been as struggle for them at some of the steeper areas. Hoping to get them again!

I'd check out Lost Valley based on this trip report..

https://www.sugarloaftoday.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=9188

 

[downdraft]

Glad you had fun with the grandkids! Overall conditions at SR were not too bad today. The snowmaking quality has been kind of quick and dirty - quantity over quality, but the grooming efforts have eventually compensated for it.
(My nieces grew up sking at Lost Valley!)

 

[Newpylong]

We had fun last night there.

Wind was brutal at times and the Chondie was running slower than South Ridge express. Tons of snowmaking going on they were maxed out on water.

Left side of Dreammaker had plenty of sugar left, but was very thin. Supposed to see a top dressing soon. That's all we did due to my novice daughter besides lower Escapade, Broadway etc. Forgot how good of a beginner area the SR Quad is. Tough to beat that.

 

[machski]

Cannot complain about the mountain's efforts. Today started out warmish (wind made it still feel cold) but they were pushing snow wherever they could, even if that meant only 4 guns down from the top of AmEx to start out on. Excalibur under the guns to the last 1/3 was fun, even if the temps were resulting in a very wet product coming out. Guns continued to come on lowere and lower on AmEx and Obsession as the day wore on and temps slowly kept dropping. Lower obsession was a blast, best quality snow from snowmaking yesterday and overnight. Risky a close second.