Sugarbush- Mt Ellen December 29, 2011

[WWF-VT]

Date(s) Skied: 12-29-2011

Resort or Ski Area: Mt Ellen at Sugarbush

Conditions: Blue skies, temps in the single digits at the summit, teens at the base. Powder!

Trip Report: After the slow start to the season, the Mad River Valley was ground zero for 10-12+ inches of fluff that fell on December 28th. I skied at Mt Ellen on Monday, December 26th with one route down from the top on primarily manmade snow. The weatherman predicted a few inches of snow on the tail end of a rain event on Tuesday and it turned into a dumping of dry fluff on Wednesday, Dec 28th. I made the call to walk up the hill and for an early start in anticipation of ropes dropping on new terrain. I lucked out as my first run off the GMX was down Which Way which was pretty much untracked boot deep powder. I hustled onto the North Ridge chair to find out that everything but FIS was now open on the upper mountain. I did multiple laps of Exterminator, Bravo and Elbow with a huge grin with every turn. Let’s hope that we get more snow soon! I didn’t take much time to stop for pics – too cold and who wants to stop when the conditions were so good.

Looking downhill on Exterminator:

A few other people having fun:

 

[Cornhead]

Thanks for the TR, I'll be making my first trip to Sugarbush the week of the 23rd, can't wait, looks good. Ditto, on the cold plus good conditions not being conducive to picture taking, thanks for the ones you did take.

 

[2sons]

Way to go WWF. I was hoping somebody on AZ got the goods at Sugarbush. Tremendous that they and MRG were able to open up most of the mountain on a foot of pow.
Can't wait to get up there in March.

 

[rocojerry]

Thanks for the TR -- heading up this weekend.

 

[billski]

SWEET. They must have been blowin' big time.

 

[WWF-VT]

SWEET. They must have been blowin' big time.

All natural snow on Exterminator, Bravo and Black Diamond. They have made minimal snow so far this year on Elbow.

 

[WWF-VT]

Friday, Dec29th I hit Lincoln Peak early in the AM as I had heard that the North Lynx chair would open. Sure enough I caught early powder runs on Sunrise, Morning Star and Birch run when the chair opened. The snow was not as deep and light as Thursday on Mt Ellen as the North Lynx area is at lower elevation and the snow had set up after the sunny day on Thursday. I got in a few laps off the North Lynx chair and departed once the crowds arrived to look for other newly opened trail options. I took the Super Bravo chair to the Valley House Traverse which had guns going. Took Snowball – guns blazing with manmade snow to natural snow on Twist. Twist was fun but had been hammered by other skiers by the time I got to it. Lower Twist was a fine mix of snow, dirt and grass and it got uglier and thinner on the runout on The Mall to the Valley House Double Chair. Took the VH chair and decided to do a few laps ofSnowball and Spring Fling. Spring Fling had good manmade coverage with creamy snow and decent visibility away from the guns.

 

[thetrailboss]

They have made minimal snow so far this year on Elbow.

Wow. Something is wrong there.

 

[WWF-VT]

Wow. Something is wrong there.

Slow start at Mt Ellen with snow making. The focus was on Inverness for GMVS and there is solid cover on Rim Run, Looking Good, Cruiser, Cracker Jack to get top to bottom. Riemmergasse aka the terrain park got buried last weekend. My guess is that Elbow is on the near term plan for snow making.

 

[thetrailboss]

Slow start at Mt Ellen with snow making. The focus was on Inverness for GMVS and there is solid cover on Rim Run, Looking Good, Cruiser, Cracker Jack to get top to bottom. Riemmergasse aka the terrain park got buried last weekend. My guess is that Elbow is on the near term plan for snow making.

It is interesting because Elbow is such a thoroughfare for Mount Ellen and is actually used by GMVS a fair amount. It used to be the first run open (as you know) with RR to get you back to Summit Quad. It is a large area to cover though and as you said they just ran out of time and had to get open top to bottom.

 

[shadyjay]

As my luck would have it, on that Wednesday, the 28th, as the snow was falling (heavily at times), I forgot my goggles in my locker and had to "squint" my way down from Heaven's Gate. No ropes dropped until the next day, which was my first day of snowmaking. I kicked myself when I heard the ropes dropped pretty much everywhere, but still making snow on VHT-Snowball-Spring Fling was a fun new challenge.

There'll be more powder days, but it was awesome to see so much terrain open so quickly. By Saturday, we had 90 trails open (including Castlerock) - the most in all of New England.

 

[salsgang]

Long time from now but we are looking forward to skiing Sugarbush and MRG in early March.