Sugarbush AlpineZone Day - 3/21/08

[2knees]

Date(s) Skied: Friday 3/21

Resort or Ski Area: Sugarbush

Conditions: Powder/some crust

Trip Report: I'll kick this one off. Today was one of those days you love. Why? cause we expected squat and got 12" new instead. Nice light terrain induced fluff. Yeah, it was on top of some breakable but still pretty damn good. I only took about 8 runs. Went in for lunch and mulled over my options. I decided to call it a day as my knee was feeling weird. I'd rather have 8 good runs and leave smiling then take 16 and leave on crutches. My plan was to take it real easy today and i hung to that. It was a hard choice walking away without hitting castlerock but one i can live with. I feel like i lost the battle but won the war.

Geez, forgot to add that it was great to meet Win and take a few runs with him. Very nice guy and one hell of a skier. Thanks again.

I'm sure i'll take some heat for thursday night. :lol:

It was great to meet Beano, Mrs. Grassi, Gmcunni and son and to see reefer and buddy again.

I'll leave the blow by blow updates for someone who skied more and harder then i did.

 

[Grassi21]

Great couple of days. Today was by far the best day I've had. It was MrsGrassi' first time in that much fluff. It was nice seeing her try some different stuff with a little convincing. She is already talking about next season. I told her this season isn't over yet. As always, had a blast skiing with Pat. I wrapped up the day with the crew on Twist and then hit Lower Moonshine (I think). Great way to end the day.

Great to meet BeanoNYC. Within 5 minutes of meeting you we had a cocktail, talked religion, politics, and you took your shirt off.

Had a blast at dinner with Beano, Pat, Brian, and the wife. The festivities afterwards were quite comical as well.

Great to meet a ton of AZers today. Some cool people on this board.

Thanks to Michael and Win. Some great hospitality in the MRV.

 

[MR. evil]

Glad to hear the conditions are good. Marge and I are heading up to SB for the day tommorrow, should be sweet!

 

[2knees]

Great couple of days. Today was by far the best day I've had. It was MrsGrassi' first time in that much fluff. It was nice seeing her try some different stuff with a little convincing. She is already talking about next season. I told her this season isn't over yet. As always, had a blast skiing with Pat. I wrapped up the day with the crew on Twist and then hit Lower Moonshine (I think). Great way to end the day.

Great to meet BeanoNYC. Within 5 minutes of meeting you we had a cocktail, talked religion, politics, and you took your shirt off.

Had a blast at dinner with Beano, Pat, Brian, and the wife. The festivities afterwards were quite comical as well.

Great to meet a ton of AZers today. Some cool people on this board.

Thanks to Michael and Win. Some great hospitality in the MRV.

Yes, thanks for skiing with me today, i had a total blast. I just wish i had my camera with me. Your frozen beard was cracking me up big time.

 

[Grassi21]

Yes, thanks for skiing with me today, i had a total blast. I just wish i had my camera with me. Your frozen beard was cracking me up big time.

when i went in i ran to the bathroom to check it out. ohh man. i looked awesome. i had some globs of ice that were easily the size of a lima bean.

 

[gmcunni]

Good to meet several AZ'ers today. Win, thank you very much for the hospitality and wonderful mountain. Sorry Jake and I didn't hang around long. When Win took the group down The Mall Jake was a little worried so we bailed to a different trail. At the same time I realized that my lift ticket had come off on the previous run down Twist (must of been one of several my up close and personal inspections of the snow :smile: ) so I had to head back into the lodge to get a new one.

As 2knees said (and other will too) the day was great, especially after all the moaning we did yesterday predicting horrible winds ruining the day. When we pulled in the parking lot @ 8:15 and the wind was howling I got very worried. We were 5th or 6th in line for the Bravo chair @ 9 when they announced that lift was closed for a 10-60 (which I assume is wind hold). We headed over to the gate house lift and caught chair 9 or 10. During the ride up is when I realized how much snow they'd gotten. We skied shin deep powder for 3 runs off gate house before heading over to Castle Rock chair. Jake and I took a run down Middle Earth. WOW!!! WOW!!! WOW!! Thigh deep in places! I loved it, Jake not so much. Ski patroller going down at the same time summed it up well "this doesn't suck!". Next over to Castle rock which was almost as good as ME but not quite. Then we headed over to the meet up with AZ.

After we left the group we ended up skiing mostly over off the gate house lift. Eventually Waterfall got a little bumped up so we took turns between that, Deep Sleep woods and a few other trails in that area.

I guess folks started arriving for the holiday weekend as the lines got longer as the day went on.

Definitely not the spring day I figured it would be when first planning a trip for March 21 but a great day none the less.

Hitting MRG tomorrow, hopefully for more of the same fun!

Almost forgot, 2 thumbs up for the Golden Lion. Michael and Melinda have a great place. Will stay here again next time I'm in the neighborhood.

 

[wa-loaf]

Sounds like some great skiing despite the wind situation.

Now lets see some pictures!

 

[severine]

Sounds like a great day! Glad to see a report up. Brian's still on the road so I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it yet.

 

[KingM]

The ice-man beard was great. Like Ullr himself, come out of the mountains. Didn't anyone get a picture?

There are some darn good skiers in that group and I skied some stuff that I usually hit only when conditions are perfect. It was good for me and I wish I had someone to push me like that more often.

Grassi, that last trail was Snowball. It was in good condition.

Edit: Oops, you're right, that was Moonshine. I don't know why I misread that.

 

[Zand]

Awesome day at Sugarbush, even with all the wind holds. Headed straight to Castlerock and saw how deep the powder really was... hit Middle Earth first run and it was just sick. Very dry powder with temps around 5 and about thigh deep. Ran into Greg and bvibert during the run (Greg on Middle Earth? Never!).

Hit Rumble next run. Again, pretty much untouched and an awesome trail. My first time down it and it lives up to the hype. Not incredibly hard, but very narrow and just a blast. Pretty much a narrower Lower Goat at Stowe. Greg went mudding during the run which I'm sure he'll tell us about when he gets back.

Lines were starting to build now as we headed up. After a stop in the warming hut (place was more like a sauna than a warming hut), we hit Castlerock Run which was starting to get a bit scraped because it was the most traveled trail of the morning. It was pushing 11 so we took Bailout over to a sweet Lower Ripcord. Hit the AZ meeting spot at Heavens Gate where about 10 members showed up, including Win.

We went down to Super Bravo and decided on Twist. Unfortunately, they had a bunch of fencing set up for the telemark race which went straight to Twist. While you could get through to keep going down Snowball, most people just went down Twist anyway. We decided to hit the battlegrould anyway which had some awesome knee deep crud down the left.

Next up was the Mall which was deserted and had some nice bumps. Some untracked areas had Thursday's breakable crust although some places were becoming unbreakable so it was best to stay in the tracked stuff.

We decided to go back over to Castlerock after that so we hit Downspout which had some nice snow although it was a major wind tunnel. Castlerock had a 10 minute wait but we hit it anyway. He hit Castlerock Run with KingM and his son. The trail was really getting scraped by then but we had fun. Lower was in better shape, especially when we found some short narrow chute to the left of the trail. At the bottom I bid farewell to the group because I was getting very hungry and headed off to lunch.

After a good lunch I headed back out at 2 and hit Domino over to Castlerock. Domino was pretty scraped in between bumps and wasn't all that pretty. The line was as long as ever but I managed to sneak up with a single. Spotted Greg, Brian, madskier6 and his son below on Leftline during my ride. I went to hit Rumble, but it had already been roped for the day (closes at 3) so I hit Liftline. Getting a little scraped, but not too bad and some really fun lines here and there.

Next up was Middle Earth which was very scraped in between bumps and actually not too fun. Pretty much just a bunch of skidding and then slamming into the bumps.

Last run of the day was at 4 PM (line was so long that it took till 4:05 to clear it out even though they shut down the line at 3:40) and hit Castlerock Run. Made a sidetrip down Hi and Lo road. Hi road is just a traverse to Liftline, but Lo road is a nice moguled chute back and had awesome snow on it. Castlerock Run wasn't much better than Middle Earth so I peeled onto Cotillion. It was much nicer with better snow and nice bumps. Good last run of the day.

All in all it was an awesome day meeting some more AZers. Also had a nice stay at the Golden Lion (besides the guy above me who seriously sounded like he was jumping around with bricks on his feet at 7 AM, but oh well) and breakfast was great as well. Also happy to say that I set a new personal record for days in a season at 32 today and counting. Looking forward to about 5 more including one more AZ day at Mt. Snow in mid-late April.

 

[2knees]

The ice-man beard was great. Like Ullr himself, come out of the mountains. Didn't anyone get a picture?

There are some darn good skiers in that group and I skied some stuff that I usually hit only when conditions are perfect. It was good for me and I wish I had someone to push me like that more often.

Grassi, that last trail was Snowball. It was in good condition.

dude, great to ski with you, even if it was only briefly. i had a great time at your place, well run and maintained. thanks for everything.

kingm rules!!!

 

[Greg]

Radical

Wow! What a day.

Got to the Lion last night a bit before 11 pm. Had a few beers and enjoyed observing Pat. :razz: Slept very well. Woke around 7 am and had a nice breakfast (thanks Michael and Melinda!). Grabbed some noski cookies for the road (thank you! ).

Hopped on Gate House with Brian around 9:15 and beelined Castlerock. First run was Middle Earth. Brian and I had probably 4th or 5th tracks down it. Unreal. Best run of the season. Snow billowing into the chest and over the shoulders the whole way. A solid foot up there. Met up with Zand towards the bottom.

Then hit Rumble. Fantastic! Could have done without the double ejection mud pit lawn dart at the bottom though. :-o After a brief de-mudding/icing period we went back up and took CR Run to Bailout to make the 11 am meetup. Untracked lines on Lower Ripcord. Sweet!

Met about 75% of the group. Apparently TTB, andyzee, snowmonster and Beano were hung up on Bravo which stopped periodically due to the wind. We split around 11:15 and boarded Bravo for a run on Twist with Win and the group. Kinda crowded, but good stuff. A few broke off. Pat, Brian, Zand, Win and I then hit the Mall. Great stuff. Some breakable crust there which sounded like shattering glass, but the abundant powder made it very skiable and enjoyable. Win thanked us for helping to "groom" the run. We then bid farewell to Win as well as Pat.

Made our way back to Castlerock. Took CR Run with KingM and son Ethan. Skied it leisurely and chatted here and there. Ethan is a helluva skier and a very personable and friendly kid. You should be proud Michael. I spaced out and forgot to grab any vid on that run though. Duh!

Then met up with madskier6 and his youngest son, Kevin (3rd place in the Sundown comp, remember...). Another little ripper and also a very nice kid. We hit Middle Earth and then Liftline. Both very good, but some scrape and crust here and there. Saw WWF-VT from time to time on Castlerock. Then Brian and I decided to take our 3 pm lunch! Kevin cruised to Gate House with us.

After lunch we took a few runs off Gate House to finish the day including Waterfall bumps/Deeper Sleeper, Sleeper and then a final run in some trees left of Watefall. Despite only doing ten runs, I was spent.

Back at Gate House, I had a few beers with madskier, Brian, Beano, snowmonster and TTB. Wish I had the chance to ski with the TTB crew today; that would have made the day complete. Also wish I got in more time with reefer, Chris and daughter, as well as the Grassis. Next time guys! Hopped in the car at 5:40 and rolled into the garage 4 hours later. The high res vid is done and uploading. I probably won't get to a YouTube version tonight.

Great day everyone! Thanks Michael for the hospitality and thank you Win for hosting a really great AZ gathering. I love Sugarbush.

 

[Greg]

High Res Video

It will be finished uploading and available aorund 12:30 am. Enjoy:

Sugarbush: 3/21

Good night!

 

[andyzee]

Greg. find any bumps?

 

[o3jeff]

Looks like you guys had a great time yesterday. Who is that Madskiers son? Kid really rips!

Anyone else having a problem with the vid stopping about 3/4 way through around the lift ride scenes?

 

[danny p]

sounds like an epic day! glad az got the goods!

 

[thetrailboss]

Report coming soon...I will say it was great to bump into many fellow AZer's today....

Some vids to wet your appetite:

Powder Skiing...First Tracks on Lower OG with Lostone and BeanoNYC:



Tree Skiing with Andy Zee and Snowmonster:




Bump Skiing on Lower Birdland with Reefer and crew:

 

[KingM]

Made our way back to Castlerock. Took CR Run with KingM and son Ethan. Skied it leisurely and chatted here and there. Ethan is a helluva skier and a very personable and friendly kid. You should be proud Michael. I spaced out and forgot to grab any vid on that run though. Duh!

Thanks, I am. He's a good kid. I said to Melinda and Ethan that Greg had mentioned Ethan on the board and they came over to read. Melinda said, "Ah, personable and friendly. That's great."

Ethan says, "Woa, helluva skier!"

 

[Greg]

Greg. find any bumps?

Yesterday wasn't really about bumps. Some lines formed later in the day of course.

Looks like you guys had a great time yesterday. Who is that Madskiers son? Kid really rips!

Anyone else having a problem with the vid stopping about 3/4 way through around the lift ride scenes?

Yup, that's Kevin, madskier's boy. It looks like the first upload attempt last night crapped out. It should be working now:

Sugarbush: 3/21

Working on a YouTube version.

 

[Greg]

Report coming soon...I will say it was great to bump into many fellow AZer's today....

Some vids to wet your appetite:

Powder Skiing...First Tracks on Lower OG with Lostone and BeanoNYC:



Tree Skiing with Andy Zee and Snowmonster:




Bump Skiing on Lower Birdland with Reefer and crew:

Great vids. Again, wish I had the chance to ski with you all. Beano - holy crap! You're a totally different skier than the guy I met a few years ago. Miss Reefer rips too!