MadPadraic
Active member
We splurged on a condo at Sugarloaf over MLK weekend. Monday was supposed to be the choice day, but the storm busted.
Sunday night, Sugarloaf decided not to send out their groomers, which resulted in only three trails opening; they still charged full price for lift tickets. Also, Tote Road, the their main blue off the Super Quad, opened late as as result of grooming around 9ish. From what I can tell, Saddleback and Sunday River both managed to have their normal full compliment of lifts and trails running.
Here's what I don't get: why didn't they groom overnight? Does sending the groomers out in the rain endanger the drivers (really good reason not to do it) or somehow hurt the snowpack? By closing time on Sunday, clear ice was the dominant condition so they can't have been too worried about new ice forming on top of existing ice. Also, since they demonstrated that they were clearly able to open trails after a pass of the groomers (e.g. Tote Road), why didn't they work to open more terrain as the day went on? Why stop with just one trail off the quad? It is this last question that really bugs me. It feels like they abandoned their part of the implicit deal between skiers and resort operators: when booking non-refundable vacations in advance, the skiers take on all the weather risk, but in exchange the resorts are supposed to operate at the previously expected level.
As a side note, does anyone know if something is wrong with double runner east? We didn't see it running at all this weekend, which included a period when the Super Quad went down and lift lines everywhere else became 20 minutes plus.
Sunday night, Sugarloaf decided not to send out their groomers, which resulted in only three trails opening; they still charged full price for lift tickets. Also, Tote Road, the their main blue off the Super Quad, opened late as as result of grooming around 9ish. From what I can tell, Saddleback and Sunday River both managed to have their normal full compliment of lifts and trails running.
Here's what I don't get: why didn't they groom overnight? Does sending the groomers out in the rain endanger the drivers (really good reason not to do it) or somehow hurt the snowpack? By closing time on Sunday, clear ice was the dominant condition so they can't have been too worried about new ice forming on top of existing ice. Also, since they demonstrated that they were clearly able to open trails after a pass of the groomers (e.g. Tote Road), why didn't they work to open more terrain as the day went on? Why stop with just one trail off the quad? It is this last question that really bugs me. It feels like they abandoned their part of the implicit deal between skiers and resort operators: when booking non-refundable vacations in advance, the skiers take on all the weather risk, but in exchange the resorts are supposed to operate at the previously expected level.
As a side note, does anyone know if something is wrong with double runner east? We didn't see it running at all this weekend, which included a period when the Super Quad went down and lift lines everywhere else became 20 minutes plus.