Sunday River 22-23

[thebigo]

I doubt locke is even remotely on the radar for upgrade. It is a part time lift that serves a function early season but excluding the top couple hundred vertical on a few trails, the terrain is entirely served by barker.

tempest, south ridge, north peak and aurora are all mentioned for upgrade on the 2030 plan.

if SR regularly wanted to go into may, right stuff with a widened connection to rocking chair at the bottom would be the best setup.

 

[machski]

I wonder where Locke replacement is on their road map and if the intention is a HS lift. I agree that T2 to Punch probably makes the most sense. Though Monday Morning would be a great option too. It faces the sun more and would lose snow faster than Punch, but it also can be seen by Barker Lodge deck. It's not up close like Superstar / UBar, but it's better than Punch which can't be seen at all.

One thing that makes for a great spring venue is proximity of a lodge / bar to the slope being used. That's part of what makes SS the best venue for spring skiing in the East. It's the overall atmosphere of the setup.

Jordan really makes little sense for early / late season outside of the hotel

I would not change Locke from a Triple. Depending on cost, a redesign that would allow for more download capacity and from the top down rather than load downhill at the midstation would be great for early season. Why downloadf from the top? They would have the possible ability to load skiers/riders on skis/boards assuming they could get enough down at the base to allow riders to slide off the chairs and away far enough to then gear off. This would end the endless stops once downloading begins for boarding and getting off which slows the chair to a crawl during mid ops.

 

[machski]

Downhill capacity aside the lift profile certainly warrants a HSQ but if they wish to retain the mid-station that would prevent that. If that was the case I would say a carpet loading fixed grip quad would probably be the next best thing. It's closed mid-week anyway.

I still think White Cap/Tempest to HSQ needs to be their next replacement.

Would love to see that upgrade happen and hopefully they pivot thinking to that. I don't think its next, I think SRX to a HSS is likely next due to the Chondi's wind vulnerability. They need more backup capacity out of South Ridge or just capacity in general. A HSQ vs current Tempest quad won't increase moving capacity out of WC that much, but obviously guests would appreciate the speed. Would be nice to start in WC and actually be able to be first in line at WHQ (currently, you watch going up upper tempest as skiers/riders off Barker come screaming Tempest headed to WH ahead of you).

 

[thebigo]

I would not change Locke from a Triple. Depending on cost, a redesign that would allow for more download capacity and from the top down rather than load downhill at the midstation would be great for early season. Why downloadf from the top? They would have the possible ability to load skiers/riders on skis/boards assuming they could get enough down at the base to allow riders to slide off the chairs and away far enough to then gear off. This would end the endless stops once downloading begins for boarding and getting off which slows the chair to a crawl during mid ops.

Are you recommending to load everyone on the uphill side of the midstation then send the downloaders around the bull wheel?

Interesting idea but not sure i have seen anyone sending customers around a fixed grip bullwheel other than amusement parks.

I continue to think the long term solution for early season is oz. Cut a trail off the top towards Jordan with a walking path for downloding. Of course gun density on oz would need a significant investment but they cannot go into thanksgiving again downloading on locke. Buddy that was there still talks about the shit show.

 

[Newpylong]

You can't send people around a bull wheel in regular service FYI.

Interestingly when they rebuilt the valve house on Oz they added spots for the lift line and future trails off the back. I am sure you guys know more about that expansion that I do, I have just seen the valve house.

I think the point of a White Cap HSQ isn't necessarily to increase capacity but it is the only base area without a detach, which is pretty bad. Moving in that direction would certainly make it more appealing, keep people over there and make lapping it that much more enjoyable.

I can see them wanting to do something with South Ridge, North Ridge Express is a huge question mark though - that lift has no hours on it! Do they remove both it and SR and replace with two more lifts, one roughly serving the beginner terrain that SR serves and putting another T2B lift to North Peak for redundancy to the chondola up where the old Lift 5? double was.

 

[machski]

Are you recommending to load everyone on the uphill side of the midstation then send the downloaders around the bull wheel?

Interesting idea but not sure i have seen anyone sending customers around a fixed grip bullwheel other than amusement parks.

I continue to think the long term solution for early season is oz. Cut a trail off the top towards Jordan with a walking path for downloding. Of course gun density on oz would need a significant investment but they cannot go into thanksgiving again downloading on locke. Buddy that was there still talks about the shit show.

No, to download you'd have to ski off the lift at the top and then get in the download line. It would be a bit odd but IIRC, Killington used to do this exact thing early season with the old Killington Peak Double. Midstation only uploaded. Like I said, my idea is to eliminate the constant stops when downloading is used. Only way to do that is to have riders ski/ride on/off. Midstation platform doesn't have he room for safely loading in gear and would hate to see how big it would get to do so.

I don't see Oz as an option. Not only is it not set up for it, neither is Jordan from a layout perspective. If they want something different, the best option IMHO is to use Spruce and up/download Chondola. You could use the Peak Lodge for food/Bev and facilities and I would make AmEx first with Overdraft back to Chondi and then lower DD to the new incut back onto AmEx. Might need a few extra gun positions on upper AmEx but the fans on lower give you plenty of firepower. And if cold enough for long enough, you can make Upper DD too.

 

[machski]

You can't send people around a bull wheel in regular service FYI.

Interestingly when they rebuilt the valve house on Oz they added spots for the lift line and future trails off the back. I am sure you guys know more about that expansion that I do, I have just seen the valve house.

I think the point of a White Cap HSQ isn't necessarily to increase capacity but it is the only base area without a detach, which is pretty bad. Moving in that direction would certainly make it more appealing, keep people over there and make lapping it that much more enjoyable.

I can see them wanting to do something with South Ridge, North Ridge Express is a huge question mark though - that lift has no hours on it! Do they remove both it and SR and replace with two more lifts, one roughly serving the beginner terrain that SR serves and putting another T2B lift to North Peak for redundancy to the chondola up where the old Lift 5? double was.

I don't see that second lift you show out of SR. I think they upgrade SRX to a six, then not sure if they really upgrade North Peak or not. That HSQ is in decent shape (it did spin a lot more in the past prior to the Chondi for the bike park in the summer so it hours may not be as low as thought). It is considerably newer than Jordan was so should make a good Dopp refurb (and put that up Tempest is my thought) except half the towers will be scrapped. They reused many of the Borvig Triple towers for that HSQ.

 

[deadheadskier]

I think Tempest going HS is a great option and would be highly appreciated. When I was a SR regular, I almost always tried to start my day at WC. The only thing that stunk about it was the slow ass Tempest quad. That base would be much better utilized with a HSQ servicing it

I don't like the idea of a third lift coming out of SR going to NP summit for a couple of reasons. For one, it will just slam even more traffic down to an already busy base area. For two, the existing NP quad makes for a great, relatively low traffic terrain pod with minimal run out as it's currently configured. I like it as is.

To improve flow out of the SR base, I'd simply upgrade the SR quad to a 6 or 8. Maybe when they did that, they could refurbish the existing SR quad and move it to Tempest or Aurora.

 

[drjeff]

I think Tempest going HS is a great option and would be highly appreciated. When I was a SR regular, I almost always tried to start my day at WC. The only thing that stunk about it was the slow ass Tempest quad. That base would be much better utilized with a HSQ servicing it

I don't like the idea of a third lift coming out of SR going to NP summit for a couple of reasons. For one, it will just slam even more traffic down to an already busy base area. For two, the existing NP quad makes for a great, relatively low traffic terrain pod with minimal run out as it's currently configured. I like it as is.

To improve flow out of the SR base, I'd simply upgrade the SR quad to a 6 or 8. Maybe when they did that, they could refurbish the existing SR quad and move it to Tempest or Aurora.

I wonder if they're thinking more long game, than short game *IF* they were to make changes to the SR/NP portions of the resort like that. Since if (or maybe more like when, they start building their master expansion plan whereas Jordan basically becomes the "center" of the resort, then added capacity out of the SR base and it's condos and parking lots, let alone the condo and parking lots in the Barker down to WC base areas, more over towards Jordan and the potential substantial expansion beyond makes sense. Kind of like I suppose why they made Jordan an 8 vs a 6 when they installed the bubble there a few seasons ago.. They didn't really need the extra capacity now, the majority of the time, but if/when that expansion out past Jordan begins, they'll likely need it then.

Nice to see a ski area potentially thinking long game, as it seems like more areas, more often these days are often in a short term, fix it only when we really have to, type mindset, and maybe as skiers/riders/consumers, we're just used to that type of reactionary infrastructure changes??