The "Sugarbush Thread"

[cdskier]

Yeah, I hated that they only made snow on the Forty-Niner, Upper Pike, and the Golden Express areas, and even then they made snow to open these areas and then shut down. As I have said before in here, if Pico were anywhere else but where it is located (right beside Killington) it would have made it. Ironically, because it is beside Killington, it is still alive. Such an underutilized resource.

Like other parts of Killington, they have removed a lot of lifts and tried to streamline things a bit too much. Look at the trail map from like 1990. Birch Chair, Summit Poma, Outpost, Little Pico, Gnomes Knoll were all distinct pods that really made for some interesting options. A lot of these areas are now lift-less or not open very often.

Natural trails and glades are amazing at Pico. Little Pico has some legit expert terrain. Summit Glades is an all-time favorite of mine because there are just so many options and neat knolls, paths, and nooks and crannies. Upper KA and Sunset '71 are fun old New England trails.

Yeah, I miss the place. My 2000-2001 season there was epic because it was a good snow year. My last season there--2006-2007 was much less stellar conditions-wise.

Upper KA has snowmaking and was open (1 of 2 summit routes open along with Forty Niner). Upper Pike was not open. What was left on it was likely too thin to groom. That's a bit of a pet peeve of mine as I always feel like trails under a lift that have snowmaking capacity should have enough made on them to be open until the end of that lift being open.

And yes, love their glades and natural trails. I don't really see an issue with them removing the Birch chair or Summit Poma though. The summit quad adequately serves all that terrain and I don't see a need to separate the summit into any smaller pods.

They made snow on every single trail at Pico with snowmaking capabilities this year, including on Outpost which had been 20-ish years since they last used it. The only trail that they sometimes drag hoses to is Sunset 71 but they chose not to do that this year.

Sunset 71 was one I was wondering about...the map has the snow-making icon on that trail and I couldn't recall if it had pipes. It was pretty bare so I suspected they either didn't make snow there or made very little. Upper Giant Killer was the other major one I was wondering if they made snow on this year...looked pretty bare as well from a distance...

Unfortunate timing with the Outpost chair breaking the year they made snow on that area.

 

[Newpylong]

Yeah, Giant Killer Snowmaking has been non-operational since the Poma was removed, so that tells you how long ago.

Upper Pike is extremely challenging to get good coverage down with the width, wind and lift.