Sugarbush AlpineZone Day - 3/21/08

[snowmonster]

It was great meeting up with AZers last Friday. I also hoped to ski with the rest of the folks but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Anyway, 2knees, I will be waiting for my mogul skiing lesson.

Sugarbush was awesome! Thanks again, win (Nice ski boots, BTW. Andy, gave me heat for the color of my 120's until he saw you had the same pair). Trailboss, andyzee, beano and I just went nuts in the woods. We got to Eden early enough before it got all tracked out and there was powder all around. Even in the late afternoon, we hit Eden and we went to the extreme left side and found untracked stuff. Had a random conversation with a family on a lift. The kids were in the ski program and this 12 year old offered to take me on a tour of stuff not on the trail map! I would have taken him up on his offer but had to meet up with the crew.

Most challenging run of the day was on Stein's. It tested all your skills with the variety of snow conditions there -- powder, hardpack, ice and crud all on the same run. I think I learned some new techniques on the way down. It was great to get last chair up the mountain -- though I marked it by pulling a total gaper move by overshooting the chair while unloading then dropping my poles. Anyway, it was great to meet reefer and his posse for the last run.

Beers (and cocktail) at the pub was great. Greg showed me the video of madskier's son and, I just want to say that, I hope to ski as well as him someday.

The best part of these gatherings is the opportunity to put a face to the names on this board. I come here everyday to look at the posts and it's good to finally meet the people that populate this virtual ski bar in cyberspace.

Beano, nice to meet you, buddy. If you need company on that backcountry excursion, let me know. I'll be up for that.

Andy, good to see you again. Next time we share a room, bring earplugs.

Trailboss, you still owe us beers. Thanks for making us immortal on youtube.

Regards to all.

 

[andyzee]

About time you check in. Was starting to worry bout you

 

[snowmonster]

Got in late last night and did errands the whole day. Hope your wife didn't miss you too much!

 

[2knees]

so i was mouthing off thursday night.

crap. i hope i didnt offend anyone. :lol:

i had fun and meant no harm.

 

[andyzee]

so i was mouthing off thursday night.

crap. i hope i didnt offend anyone. :lol:

i had fun and meant no harm.

Damn, I missed that! :lol:

 

[BeanoNYC]

so i was mouthing off thursday night.

crap. i hope i didnt offend anyone. :lol:

i had fun and meant no harm.

You weren't mouthing off at the smokehouse. I miss all the good stuff.

 

[reefer]

Great Day!

Great Day Everybody! Wish I could have spent more time with everyone, but my daughter Sheila “miss reefer” who I haven’t seen since November, called me from Texas Monday and the conversation went “Dad, I’m flying into Boston tomorrow, when are we skiing, and I’m tied up over the weekend?”
So plan “D” went into effect and she was skiing Stowe and Sugarbush with Chris and me for her first two and only days this year. I cut my trip two days short to get her home for the weekend. So see you guys with kids – it never ends. But there is not a better feeling than I had skiing with her these two days. Some things are just priceless, and to be able to adjust and spend a solid two or three days with her was great!
Hit the Golden Lion about 10:00 Wednesday night. Thanks again Michael and Melinda. You guys are the best! Woke up after a downpour all night, checked the weather channel radar, saw it snowing up the road at Stowe so off we went. Very disappointed to find “ice” holds but had a great day off the triple and double. Every run got better in a solid moderate snow – at times blizzard like, and wind all day! Hayride was the choice trail especially with the late day “reserved” on the upper half!
Hit the beer store, met Brian, Pat, Beano, Grassi at Golden Lion. They headed out for dinner and we headed for the hot tub, sorry guys….. priorities. Did I mention the hot tub at the Golden Lion is to die for. I am getting one this summer for next year……….
After being dragged out totally prune like, we hit the Blue Moon for Burgers. Had a great time there. Breakfast was booming at the Lion Friday. Snow falling like crazy! Great to chat with Greg, Brian, Andy Z, 2Knees, Beano, Grassi, MrsGrassi, and Michael.
Was late getting to the Bush, but as we walked out of the Lodge we got first chair on Bravo as it was opening up late. Hit Murphy’s to lower birdland first tracks. Was great deep snow, frozen stuff underneath. Went up again and had nice tracks down Moonshine before the Tele race blocked it off! Next went to meet Greg and the crew at 11:00. Did twist with them. We were frozen and beaten down. Cold and snowy all morning and all the previous day. Had lunch. Stopped snowing and the afternoon turned even more magical, ending up as total bluebird. Pretty amazing. We got our second wind and ripped it up all afternoon hitting Middle Earth, Castlerock, and Cotillion, in there which were all skiing better than I expected for the afternoon with plenty of snow piled up. Picked up last chair at 4:06 and met Trailboss and Snowmonster for last run off Bravo. Thanks for that video TB. That will be getting some Texas hits this week. Totally priceless. Great to meet you, snowmonster, and Beano for the first time. All great people!
Sheila says high to everyone she met, and to tell AndyZ to “watch his gear” if they ever meet again! She thought it was great that we have these gatherings. I do too. Thanks everyone especially Win and Greg for setting this up! Hope to see many of you out there again soon!

Pics: Sheila at Stowe, prepping for battle at Sugarbush, first tracks on Murphys, the sun! Reserved on Hayride at Stowe!

 

[thetrailboss]

Trailboss, you still owe us beers. Thanks for making us immortal on youtube.

I do????? I guess after my first million :wink:

 

[madskier6]

What a great day on Friday! I only got a half a day in (first run after 1:00) but doing laps on Castlerock was great. Final run of the day on Egan's Woods was very nice. The Bush has a ton of snow!

Too bad I wasn't able to meet up with more people. Great to ski with Greg & Brian as always. It was cool to have a couple of beers & chat with Beano, snowmonster & trailboss even though I didn't get to ski with you guys.

Thanks for all the kind words about my son Kevin. I'm really proud of him & am amazed how his skiing has progressed. He loves to ski. I'll have to keep bringing him with me. :smile:

 

[Greg]

so i was mouthing off thursday night.

crap. i hope i didnt offend anyone. :lol:

i had fun and meant no harm.

Nah...it was fun watching you go from slightly being able to communicate to speaking in some sort of foreign tongue... :lol:

 

[WWF-VT]

Nice to meet fellow AZers at Castlerock on Friday. Another great weekend at Sugarbush. Early tracks in Slidebrook on Saturday and the woods at Mt Ellen

 

[downhill04]

Shame on me for not making the trip for fear of wind holds.:dunce::dunce::dunce:

Looks like an epic day. The vids came out excellent. Great skiing everyone. Hopefully I can join you next time.

Pat how is the knee feeling today?

 

[lerops]

Looks great. Glad for you. You guys are favored by high places, 12 inches!

 

[2knees]

Shame on me for not making the trip for fear of wind holds.:dunce::dunce::dunce:

Looks like an epic day. The vids came out excellent. Great skiing everyone. Hopefully I can join you next time.

Pat how is the knee feeling today?

Feels pretty good now. Saturday was a bit rough. I'll be back at full speed in 1-2 weeks i think.

 

[thetrailboss]

Date: March 21, 2008

2006 Trip Report #: 49

Resort: Sugarbush

Conditions: 12” of new snow on top of frozen MG (ice).

Weather: Snow and wind giving way to bluebird skies. Cold, with temps in the teens.

Trip Report: What an AlpineZone day. I drove through the snow to the mountain and scored a great spot in Section A. Folks had been worried that the winds were going to wreak havoc, but I could see Bravo and Gatehouse spinning through the sideways snow.

I went in the lodge and promptly met Beano. As he went to get his ticket, I went upstairs to see if anyone else was around. When I returned to the basement, I met Greg and Brian.

“Castlerock is spinning.” Greg said with a smile.

We booted up and headed out. While Beano was getting his skis, Greg and Brian went ahead. Beano and I rode up the lift…peering down Sleeper and smiling. We decided to take a detour to Sleeper Chute. Wow. Knee deep drifted snow and it was amazing. Beano and I were ripping…it was amazing.

On the way down to Gatehouse, we found “Lostone.” On everyone of my SB outings, I find Lostone…so he is not so lost it would seem.

We repeated the same run…and followed Lostone for some nice pow shots. Linse, rather, and repeat. We had given Andy and snowmonster instructions to meet us…so we were watching the time, but we saw the ropes drop on Bravo and made a beeline.

We scored first tracks down a tasty Lower Organgrinder:



Wow, amazing. After picking up Andy and snowmonster, we headed back to Bravo and pretty much did not move. First run was down Murphy’s Glade, which was amazing…deep drifted snow and great chowder. We hit Bravo to find it was down due to chair spacing problems. We were stuck for about 15 minutes…which meant no AZ rendezvous for us…we got there a bit too late after a spin down Domino (with yours truly taking a tumble in the powder). Lower Domino was icy bumps under pow, but still fun.

Back up Bravo and Beano suggested that we scope out the trees of Eden. Best call of the day. It was sick. We found great lines and deep snow. No crowds. The race course was a bit tough to brave. Rinse, lather, and repeat.

Beano’s next call was not so great. We peered up Stein’s and wondered why it was not traveled. Well, Trailboss here handed the reins over and we charged down Steins to find nasty crust everywhere. It took forever for me to descend…that ice was just nasty…and I did get vertigo at times. That meant lunch break.

Good bar scene. Beano and I were scanning the crowd and thought that the help was doing a great job. Back to skiing.

Gatehouse was the next focus…since it was sunny and we were hoping that Lynx was spinning. The lines were insane at both HSQ’s. No luck with Lynx, so back to the trees. Deeper Sleeper was in our crosshairs and again the jackpot. Nice lines and snow.

Repeated this at least once more before Andy had to leave. So the three of us went back to Bravo and rode single to save time. We popped off three runs in Eden before SM and I slid into Bravo and single handedly shut down the lift at 4:05 due to our slipping and sliding.

We caught up with Reefer’s crew and hit Birdland top to bottom. Amazing. Great skiers as well:



Then it was bar time. Met up with the crew and hung out.

Amazing time. Only annoyances were that Lynx did not spin and that Bravo stopped REPEATEDLY and got backed up. Argh. Oh well, small price to pay for amazing conditions.

The gallery.