Sugarloaf Expansion

[UVSHTSTRM]

Hearing rumblings that Sugarloaf will add 150 acre glad next year with a total by 2012 of 450? Heard Spillway Lift will be replaced as well.

Can anyone say this official or just rumor?

Thanks

 

[thetrailboss]

I also heard rumors about the Spillway being replaced with a FG quad. Saw something on SkiLifts.org's chat room listing one of the manufacturer's stating that an order had been placed.

 

[BackLoafRiver]

Hadn't heard about the Glad but DID hear about the Spillway lift being replaced. Again, with a fixed grip

 

[wa-loaf]

East and West Spillway? Are they going to replace the whole thing and where is it going to end?

 

[deadheadskier]

What I heard was they were replacing the whole thing with a Fixed Grip Quad that has VERY heavy chairs to help with the wind. Will start where they both do now and finish at the current high point.

 

[wa-loaf]

OK, if all this is happens over the summer. I think the AZ Summit needs to return to Sugarloaf next year!

 

[thetrailboss]

OK, if all this is happens over the summer. I think the AZ Summit needs to return to Sugarloaf next year!

You mean to christen said lift?

 

[deadheadskier]

What I want to know is where they intend on cutting a 150 acre glade. Outside of Burnt or West Mountain, I don't see the space.

I do love Sugarloaf, but I have to say, it never really gets much criticism for the boulevarding previous mountain planners did to the place. It's a great mountain, but during the AZ Summit I thought to myself, why and the heck did they have to make so many SUPER WIDE trails. This is especially surprising at a mountain that has a reputation for wind scouring.

 

[wa-loaf]

What I want to know is where they intend on cutting a 150 acre glade. Outside of Burnt or West Mountain, I don't see the space.

I believe that's the way they are going.

I do love Sugarloaf, but I have to say, it never really gets much criticism for the boulevarding previous mountain planners did to the place. It's a great mountain, but during the AZ Summit I thought to myself, why and the heck did they have to make so many SUPER WIDE trails. This is especially surprising at a mountain that has a reputation for wind scouring.

Spillway, Sluice, Tote Road, Boardwalk, Gondi Line have always been as wide as they are since I can remember going back into the 70's. Narrow Gauge has been widened a little. What they did over in the King Pine area is what really upsets me. Those were great twisty gnarly trails along the line's of Bubble Cuffer and Winters Way.

 

[deadheadskier]

would've loved to skied those in their hay day.

For example, I just look at something Hayburner and Kings Landing. Instead of two MONSTER trails, why not 4 smaller ones.

Plenty of areas get BIG TIME bashed for over widening. K, Okemo, Stratton, even Stowe. Sugarloaf to me falls into that 'sacred message board' category. :lol: It's up there with Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Jay, Magic etc. where to criticize it is almost blasphemy.

The mountain still obviously has some very specail terrain and classic runs. Guess the fact is that with a mountain of it's size and consistent pitch, chainsaw happy managers could eff up 75% of it and it would still be pretty fantastic.

 

[wa-loaf]

For example, I just look at something Hayburner and Kings Landing. Instead of two MONSTER trails, why not 4 smaller ones.

Yes, those made me scratch my head. Double Bitter is a good example of what could have been in that area.

 

[deadheadskier]

love that trail. was bummed to not ski it during the Summit.

 

[wa-loaf]

love that trail. was bummed to not ski it during the Summit.

Paul and o3Jeff were not too happy I dragged them down it. It was a little scratchy ... lol

 

[riverc0il]

I do love Sugarloaf, but I have to say, it never really gets much criticism for the boulevarding previous mountain planners did to the place. It's a great mountain, but during the AZ Summit I thought to myself, why and the heck did they have to make so many SUPER WIDE trails. This is especially surprising at a mountain that has a reputation for wind scouring.

I had the same thoughts during the summit. But I also temper that thought with the fact that we did not get to ski the Loaf's best trails (nor any glades) because they were all closed so we only got to ski the wide groomers for the most part. But everything was really wide even if we did not get a balanced perspective.

Cannon is another mountain that falls into this category. Most consider Cannon a classic old school skiers mountain with a lot of narrow character trails. Fact is, most of Cannon's trails are pretty darn wide and not all that turny. But a couple of classics enable Cannon to retain that mystique. The same may hold true for the Loaf. Sometimes certain elements of a mountain are so good that they over come its down falls.

 

[thetrailboss]

Wide trails: that is what happened to many places in the 1980's because of the increased crowds, the demand and need for more snowmaking (which doesn't work well on narrow trails), and the use of more groomers. You see that many places were "modernized" through widening including Sugarloaf, Killington, Mount Ellen, and parts of Jay (the 'Can-Am Supertrail' was haled as a superwide run). The downside of course is the wind issue. Also some of Sugarloaf's terrain is used for racing and in order to be FIS/NCAA certified, the terrain must be a certain width, etc. Dartmouth and Middlebury just had to widen their race trails...Dartmouth I believe did it under protest.

 

[Mapnut]

For comparison: http://www.snowjournal.com/page.php?cid=galimg19883

I'm not sure this isn't a year or two earlier than 1980.

 

[UVSHTSTRM]

would've loved to skied those in their hay day.

For example, I just look at something Hayburner and Kings Landing. Instead of two MONSTER trails, why not 4 smaller ones.

Plenty of areas get BIG TIME bashed for over widening. K, Okemo, Stratton, even Stowe. Sugarloaf to me falls into that 'sacred message board' category. :lol: It's up there with Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Jay, Magic etc. where to criticize it is almost blasphemy.

The mountain still obviously has some very specail terrain and classic runs. Guess the fact is that with a mountain of it's size and consistent pitch, chainsaw happy managers could eff up 75% of it and it would still be pretty fantastic.

They did get bashed, but most widening happened years ago. Although I do remember some bashing recently when the widened one of the trails up towards the tree line.

I do agree, I don't get why a place like Sugarloaf did this. Imagine how late snow would hold with old traditional NE ski trails. For me Big Squaw had the best NE ski trails, narrow with good lines.

 

[wa-loaf]

For comparison:

I'm not sure this isn't a year or two earlier than 1980.

That's a good pic. You can see the old King Pine T-bar (now misery whip) with Widow Maker to the left. Also the big gap between Narrow Gauge and Double Bitter, where all the wide trails were put in. Skidder, Hay Burner, Kings Landing. That all could have been a really sweet area or glade.

 

[o3jeff]

Paul and o3Jeff were not too happy I dragged them down it. It was a little scratchy ... lol

Is solid and scratchy the same thing?
Was a fun trail though

 

[Angus]

point made by Wa-Loaf earlier, after my 20 year hiatus from sugarloaf, on my first visit back 5 years ago went over to the King Pine area and literally did not recognize any of it - character completely and totally changed. you got off that t-bar and it was completely crazy, narrow stuff with big drops, trees sticking out of the snow in the middle of the "trail." alot of the trails have been widened pretty significantly. There's a lot of stuff in the middle, natural snow mostly that still retain that old character but it can be kind of hard to find if you don't know where to go.