Zand
Well-known member
I've only done Goat. I was there St. Pattie's last year and even with 3 feet of snow, the upper part of the trail was only open for about 2 hours out of the entire weekend. While it may look decently wide from below, the upper steep (something like 39 degrees) is only skiable on the left side during a year like '07. The time I skied it, the snow cover was about a mogul and a half wide. To the left, the trail sloped sharply into the woods, to the right was all rock. I also skied it in 40-50 MPH winds (blew me over twice) which didn't help matters.
The second half of the trail (after the cut-in from Liftline) is very Castlerock-like. Just a little wider and a little less steep than the single diamonds on Castlerock, but just a blast to ski and it had spectacular bumps.
As for Rumble, I've been to Sugarbush 3 times. First was in '04 and I was only an intermediate. I did Castlerock Run but that beat me up pretty bad so I didn't explore Castlerock any further. I went back in March of 06 and the peak was open on about a foot of snow... barely enough for Middle Earth nevermind Rumble. Last February the snow still wasn't great (friggin 2 days before Valentines... great luck there) so I didn't hit it. This year for the Sugarbush AZ meet, if it's open, I'm hitting it. I'm sick of looking at the pictures and not hitting it. Same for Paradise at MRG.
For the Front 4 vs Castlerock debate... Starr and Goat are the only 2 front four trails really worth debating about. Liftline and National (besides the very top of Liftline) shouldn't even be in the same sentence as Goat and Starr. Lookout should be. I'll take Castlerock as the more fun to ski, but Goat and some of Starr is tougher.
The second half of the trail (after the cut-in from Liftline) is very Castlerock-like. Just a little wider and a little less steep than the single diamonds on Castlerock, but just a blast to ski and it had spectacular bumps.
As for Rumble, I've been to Sugarbush 3 times. First was in '04 and I was only an intermediate. I did Castlerock Run but that beat me up pretty bad so I didn't explore Castlerock any further. I went back in March of 06 and the peak was open on about a foot of snow... barely enough for Middle Earth nevermind Rumble. Last February the snow still wasn't great (friggin 2 days before Valentines... great luck there) so I didn't hit it. This year for the Sugarbush AZ meet, if it's open, I'm hitting it. I'm sick of looking at the pictures and not hitting it. Same for Paradise at MRG.
For the Front 4 vs Castlerock debate... Starr and Goat are the only 2 front four trails really worth debating about. Liftline and National (besides the very top of Liftline) shouldn't even be in the same sentence as Goat and Starr. Lookout should be. I'll take Castlerock as the more fun to ski, but Goat and some of Starr is tougher.
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