The "Sugarbush Thread"

[Duncanator24]

Anybody been on the mountain in this past week? I skiied through some heavy rain Dec 18th and the lower mountain areas were not looking good at the time. Saturday (Dec 17th) was absolutely amazing with 100% of the mountain open, some REALLY good stuff back in Slide Brook. Just curious if anyone has been up there since then and if it is still skiing alright. Weather reports haven't seemed promising.

 

[cdskier]

Anybody been on the mountain in this past week? I skiied through some heavy rain Dec 18th and the lower mountain areas were not looking good at the time. Saturday (Dec 17th) was absolutely amazing with 100% of the mountain open, some REALLY good stuff back in Slide Brook. Just curious if anyone has been up there since then and if it is still skiing alright. Weather reports haven't seemed promising.

I skied the 20-22nd. 20 and 21st were "stick to the groomer" days with fast and firm conditions. 22nd was nice with some new natural snow. Even Murphy's with only all natural snow was skiing great that day. I heard by Friday people were saying all that new snow was skied off though and then the weather yesterday/today has surely had an impact again as well so what it was like last week when I was there may no longer be relevant. If you're looking to ski natural terrain, then you'll need to wait until later this week after they get more snow. All the webcam views at the moment still show a decent amount of snow from what you can see...so at least there should be a firm base to build on when more snow falls.

 

[WWF-VT]

I skied Mt Ellen on 12/25 & 26 and it was typical early winter conditions. Groomers in good shape and the natural snow trails – Tumbler, Cliffs , Bravo, Encore and Exterminator were decent but had a few thin spots and could use a refresh of snow. Last night it warmed up and rained with the current temperature 35 degrees at the base of Mt Ellen. Today the natural snow trails are all closed and may not be worth skiing again until there is significant snowfall. Upper mountain at Mt Ellen was locked up frozen today and Cruiser, Northstar and Inverness were the only trails worth a repeat. Keeping my fingers crossed that we get a good amount of snow Thursday into Friday this week.

 

[rocks860]

From the other thread. 12/26

Well I ended up going to sugarbush and it was better than I expected. Got there around 915 and the first lot was only about half full. Took a run off of gatehouse and the snow was pretty nice. Then took a bunch of runs off heavens gate. Paradise had a good amount of snow and wasn't as sketchy as I thought it would be. Didn't ski ripcord as it looked and sounded pretty scraped off but took a few runs down organ grinder which was pretty nice. Run of the day was probably moonshine which had some bare spots but over all was a lot of fun. Not a bad first day of the season


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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Duncanator24]

I'm curious if there are ever going to be plans to improve the end of Lower FIS (or if that is even possible). I find that this is a really great trail and there are a lot of really good woods areas that drop off onto this as well. But the hike at the end is torture. I feel like the trail could be carved slightly differently to level out some of the uphill sections. I guess the only downside is then the trail would see more traffic. Sorry if I am lazy for wanting that haha.

 

[cdskier]

I wouldn't expect to see any changes. I like the fact that the traverse discourages some people from skiing Lower FIS as it helps preserve the snow over there.

 

[mikec142]

Skied at Lincoln Peak on 12/28 and 12/29. The 28th was fast and firm with my favorites being Birch Run and Eden's Glades. It snowed on the 29th which made a big difference. Murphy's was awesome. Ripcord was pretty good too. Would have like to have stayed and skied on the 30th, but the family was exhausted having skied 5 of 6 days and we still had a 5.5 hour ride home.

 

[benski]

I'm curious if there are ever going to be plans to improve the end of Lower FIS (or if that is even possible). I find that this is a really great trail and there are a lot of really good woods areas that drop off onto this as well. But the hike at the end is torture. I feel like the trail could be carved slightly differently to level out some of the uphill sections. I guess the only downside is then the trail would see more traffic. Sorry if I am lazy for wanting that haha.

There master plan shows a lift, though I think thats just wishful thinking. If they are going to make people go down to the Sunny D they might as well build a direct route, even if its just a bike trail.

 

[Duncanator24]

There master plan shows a lift, though I think thats just wishful thinking. If they are going to make people go down to the Sunny D they might as well build a direct route, even if its just a bike trail.

Master plan? Curious to see what else is in there.

 

[Duncanator24]

I wouldn't expect to see any changes. I like the fact that the traverse discourages some people from skiing Lower FIS as it helps preserve the snow over there.

I agree, it does help preserve the snow. This is why I keep going back there when I am at Mount Ellen, despite the hike. I also wonder if entering Slide Brook from there is worthwhile as well and end up at the road and take the bus back in. I know Slide Brook well enough from the Lincoln Peak side but have not explored the Mt Ellen side at all. Maybe if I find an elevation map that could help figure out if that is a good spot to enter.

 

[speeddemon]

I recently have been skiing out of a property above the condos in the Upper Village area. I skied home the other day. It was actually quite fun, but a bit of workout, I'll do it again. I was wondering if there was ever consideration of a lift put in, perhaps even a rope tow down to the condos area from the top of the Gate House Chair. Seems like a consortium of owners could get together and do this and it would significantly increase property values along that corridor, unless I'm missing something. The simple reason is the whole skiing down to the condos, catching a bus or walking thing is a bit tedious.

 

[cdskier]

Master plan? Curious to see what else is in there.

It is from 2008 and I'm sure not the current plan. That same plan that benski is referring to shows several new trail pods including one between North Lynx and CR and another above Inverness. A lot of the proposed tree skiing areas in that plan did become reality though as officially marked glades now.

 

[thetrailboss]

It is from 2008 and I'm sure not the current plan. That same plan that benski is referring to shows several new trail pods including one between North Lynx and CR and another above Inverness. A lot of the proposed tree skiing areas in that plan did become reality though as officially marked glades now.

Has there been any progress as to that plan? There were also some terrain expansions at ME.

 

[Duncanator24]

It is from 2008 and I'm sure not the current plan. That same plan that benski is referring to shows several new trail pods including one between North Lynx and CR and another above Inverness. A lot of the proposed tree skiing areas in that plan did become reality though as officially marked glades now.

Oh cool, I found the maps located in that end of that document. Even if it is not current, it is an interesting read:
http://www.iabsi.com/ski/sugarbush/2008_Sugarbush_Vegetation Management Plan_With_Figures.pdf

 

[cdskier]

Has there been any progress as to that plan? There were also some terrain expansions at ME.

Nothing that I've heard anyone mention. I'd say terrain expansion is a very low priority, especially with the proliferation of tree skiing these days. A number of people would push back on new trails as it would ruin their "secret, yet no so secret" stashes in the trees.

Any terrain expansion would almost surely have to be without snowmaking at this point (particularly at ME where Win has stated they cannot expand the snowmaking system at all due to a grandfathered permit that they have) which makes it somewhat of a risk to have more pods that are dependent on natural snowfall. Personally I'd be ok with more all-natural terrain, but think they'd be better off spending money on upgrading existing core infrastructure for now at least (even simple things like more pipe replacements at LP to beef up the snowmaking system there would be much higher on my priority list).

 

[tumbler]

Cut a trail from the bottom of OG to Ripcord to take pressure off Downspout. Don't cut the trail through the Domino woods.

 

[nhskier1969]

I really wouldn't want anymore trails, but would like more glades. This would be wishful thinking but I would love to see them glade out slide brook, very similar to what Sugarloaf did with Brackett Basin. Then reconfigure the Slide brook express with a pick up point at the bottom where is reaches the basin. You could go off the back of North Lynx or Mount ellen and ski close to 2100 vertical. You could then take the slide brook chair back to either Ellen or Lincoln Peak. Glading slide brook would give Sugarbush over 2500++ acres of skiable terrain.

 

[Jully]

I really wouldn't want anymore trails, but would like more glades. This would be wishful thinking but I would love to see them glade out slide brook, very similar to what Sugarloaf did with Brackett Basin. Then reconfigure the Slide brook express with a pick up point at the bottom where is reaches the basin. You could go off the back of North Lynx or Mount ellen and ski close to 2100 vertical. You could then take the slide brook chair back to either Ellen or Lincoln Peak. Glading slide brook would give Sugarbush over 2500++ acres of skiable terrain.

They've had all sorts of plans for slidebrook, but its a black bear habitat and protected and can't have anything done to it the last I heard.

 

[tumbler]

They've had all sorts of plans for slidebrook, but its a black bear habitat and protected and can't have anything done to it the last I heard.

Correct, nothing more happening in Slidebrook. It was enough permitting just to get the lift in.

 

[cdskier]

They've had all sorts of plans for slidebrook, but its a black bear habitat and protected and can't have anything done to it the last I heard.

Correct from my understanding as well. They are not even allowed to run the Slide Brook chair during the non-winter-season except for maintenance work. If any development was going to happen in Slidebrook, it would have had to been done years ago before it was designated a protected bear habitat.