The "Sugarbush Thread"

[Hawk]

heading up to vt tomorrow so I just checked conditions at mt snow killington and sb. For all the snowmaking complaints, kton and sb have essentially the same number of trails/acreage open. And mt snow is significantly behind both.

Howie, ping me and T and I will buy you a drink. We are also heading up tomorrow.

 

[djd66]

Looks like they are getting ready to open Castlerock! If so,... this would be quite early for them to run the lift!

 

[ducky]

I prefer Castlerock when the lift is closed.

 

[mikec142]

I prefer Castlerock when the lift is closed.

You just gave us an argument that could go for 2-3 pages. Well played! I tip my chapeau to you.

 

[Lotso]

You just gave us an argument that could go for 2-3 pages. Well played! I tip my chapeau to you.

I will bite. I agree. Unless it's a storm day and tracks get refilled....and a weekday.

 

[cdskier]

You just gave us an argument that could go for 2-3 pages. Well played! I tip my chapeau to you.

It has probably gone for more than that in the past!

If they open CR now, I think that is definitely one of the earliest CR openings I can remember. I'm inclined to think it is still too early and would rather they give it more time to accumulate a bit with limited traffic...

But again I feel like they are pressured with 1) not being able to offer as much snow-making terrain yet and 2) other resorts having a substantial amount of terrain open already

 

[tumbler]

They should open Ellen!!

If they are going to open CR then why not open North Lynx?

 

[mikec142]

I will bite. I agree. Unless it's a storm day and tracks get refilled....and a weekday.

It's cool. There's no right or wrong answer. Well, maybe my answer is the right one.

My take (as a guy older than 50) is that keeping it as hike to only sucks. I get it in the early season where it can get skied off quickly. But once there's enough snow on the ground it's simply uncool. It's in bounds, lift served terrain. Keeping it as hike to unneccessarily gate keeps one of the best pods in VT. It's already limited by the slow lift with the widely spaced chairs. The folks that have no issues hiking to CR from HG have plenty of hike to stuff in the Slide Brook side country.

Sugarbush charges X amount of dollars for a lift ticket and part of the expectation is that as much of the lifts are running and as much terrain as possible are opened up. If Sugarbush wants to keep Castlerock for a small segment of the skiers on the mountain, then they should have two types of lift tix. Sugarbush and Sugarbush minus Castlerock.

The vast majority of SB patrons can't or don't want to hike to CR. Should SB cater to them or to the minority?

 

[Plowboy]

For sure. Possibly not known is, GMVS has poured capital money into the snowmaking upgrades and t-bar. Sorry to offend using the "baby winch" term. My PB bias was showing a bit.

Not offended at all, actually thought it was funny. I'm sure you're not the only one around here with PB bias, lol. I'm old enough to remember when the narrow single cab Thiokol's replaced the old Tucker's at Glen Ellen/Sugarbush North. I remember watching Meriden Nelson groom FIS with a Thiokol, he would go up and turn around on the top steep pitch then go back down with the tracks in reverse to slow him down. This was after Roy Cohen the owner of SB bought him 2 beers and 2 shots of Jack in the GML to "calm his nerves"! LOL