The "Sugarbush Thread"

[HowieT2]

Hah! I completely forgot about that. Hilarious!

that's my wifey who did that.

fwiw-seems the lift issues from several years ago have resolved. curious as to what did the trick. or combination of things.

also, have never seen mt ellen so full as it was saturday. all lots full and cars parked on the side of the access road. still, no lift lines to speak of. heard lincoln peak was pretty good too. guessing a lot of people were spending time in the woods.

 

[cdskier]

that's my wifey who did that.

fwiw-seems the lift issues from several years ago have resolved. curious as to what did the trick. or combination of things.

also, have never seen mt ellen so full as it was saturday. all lots full and cars parked on the side of the access road. still, no lift lines to speak of. heard lincoln peak was pretty good too. guessing a lot of people were spending time in the woods.

Nice job by your wife Howie!

As for lift issues, yes, I'd say all the money they put into rebuilding/upgrading/replacing lifts sure has seemed to pay off (*knock on wood*).

I was at ME on Saturday and was actually surprised to see cars parked on the access road as I left. The mountain itself seemed pretty empty. I think I mentioned it in another thread, but at one point I thought NRX had gone on windhold as there was no one on it as I crossed under it. Got to the base of the NRX and it was loading, there was just no one around to load!

In contrast last weekend ME was packed on Saturday with actual lift lines (~5 minutes or so on average) yet when I left early afternoon the lots were just about almost full and no one was on the access road yet. My guess is more people were in the lodges/bars this Saturday due to the temps/wind.

 

[rocks860]

I’m seriously considering going up Saturday. Didn’t get to ski half the mountain when I was up in January due to conditions. Worth the 4 hour drive up?


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[KustyTheKlown]

weird question. yes, of course it is. they just a got a ton of snow and there will be no freeze thaw cycle or rain between now and then. there is even an outside chance for snow. this very well may be the last great weekend of the year, since temps will start getting >32 after march 25, and we run the risk for liquid precip. i'll be at killington and magic this weekend, sugarbush and pico the next, whiteface after that.

 

[cdskier]

I’m seriously considering going up Saturday. Didn’t get to ski half the mountain when I was up in January due to conditions. Worth the 4 hour drive up?

My vote is yes. Conditions are excellent right now and with continued cold weather in the forecast I don't see that changing substantially by the weekend. Pretty much anything you want to ski is in play right now.

 

[ThinkSnow]

My vote is yes. Conditions are excellent right now and with continued cold weather in the forecast I don't see that changing substantially by the weekend. Pretty much anything you want to ski is in play right now.

+1

 

[nhskier1969]

I really hate to continue this, but I want to make a couple of points:

1. If Win or SB management witnessed this (or were told about it) do you think they wouldn't address it?

2. Not to justify rude behavior, but people have bad days all the time. Maybe his wife divorced him that AM. Maybe his car broke down. Maybe someone ran over his foot. Maybe the driver of the car repeatedly ignored his instructions. Who knows. It's not justified, but it happens.

3. Do you think for a second that this is reflective of all SB employees? Do you think for a second that this type of behavior couldn't happen elsewhere in any other business or at any other ski resort?

4. The complaints on this thread about one off issues just show me that some people will focus on the negative no matter what. Saturday was the best skiing I've ever had at Sugarbush and rather than mention one thing about that, you focus on a parking lot attendant.

5. For every negative issue, there are dozens of positive ones. I mentioned three great ones up-thread. It's life. Stuff is going to happen. Both good and bad. If you focus on the bad stuff, life will be a bummer.


I've already commented about the wonderful skiing. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the nice conversation I had with Judy who I chatted with while waiting for the jitney. Both of my jitney drivers picked me up and dropped me off within yards of my car and said they were sorry for not being able to get me any closer (LOL). The liftie at Castlerock was from Holmdel, NJ (about 25 miles from me) and we had a pleasant conversation. My RFID card has been having some issues and before I drove up, I spoke with Pavel in the ticket office. He fixed the issue, stayed with me on the phone to make sure it worked, and emailed me later in the day to tell me another piece of info that I forgot to ask about. This doesn't even include the great conversations I had on the lift and in the liftlines. While I prefer to ski with friends and family, it doesn't always work like that so I love that I'm able to ski as a single every now and then and still enjoy the experience.

+1 I agree 100%. Plus it was a fantastic weekend. Best Ive see Sugarbush ski. The access road shuttle drivers are great, in particular Gilbert. The guy is extremely friendly, always asking how your day was, where'd you ski etc. I've never had issues with any of the employees at Sugarbush.

 

[rocks860]

Yeah I don’t need much convincing, just wanted to make sure there wasn’t something I wasn’t aware of.


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[cdskier]

+1 I agree 100%. Plus it was a fantastic weekend. Best Ive see Sugarbush ski.

I think I still have to rate the 2007 St Patty's day weekend as my personal all-time best/favorite. Back then I only planned one trip a year to Sugarbush and that weekend happened to be the one I planned. That Saturday and Sunday were the first time I ever skied Castlerock and also probably the first time I skied 12+ inches of fresh powder so that probably makes it pretty memorable in general.

Now if I had been at Sugarbush this past Wednesday/Thursday during/right after the storm, I might have a different perspective. :smile:

 

[rocks860]

I was there last year the week of st pattys day and that was by far the best conditions I’ve ever skied at sugarbush, and it was practically empty midweek


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[nhskier1969]

I think I still have to rate the 2007 St Patty's day weekend as my personal all-time best/favorite. Back then I only planned one trip a year to Sugarbush and that weekend happened to be the one I planned. That Saturday and Sunday were the first time I ever skied Castlerock and also probably the first time I skied 12+ inches of fresh powder so that probably makes it pretty memorable in general.

Now if I had been at Sugarbush this past Wednesday/Thursday during/right after the storm, I might have a different perspective. :smile:

This was my fresh track, skiing off the long trail on Friday. I don't now how it gets better than this.

 

[JimG.]

I've seen parking attendants yell at customers all over the country. its a frustrating job and people repeatedly try to ignore you and park where they want. its one area where I somewhat expect staff to be a bit loud, direct, and gruff if they need to be

witnessed a bizarre parking incident at stowe Saturday. parking attendant asked guy in car next to me to pull up. but there were people walking in front of his car, and the car in front of him was a pickup truck with a big liftgate that could have conceivably fallen on this guys hood if opened carelessly. he had also already turned the car off and stepped out when the attendant asked if he'd move forward. he declined, and said "it's ok, I'm good", and the attendant thought very little of it and moved on without any argument. however, the guy parked in front of me was not having it. to the guy next to me he says "what makes you special? she kindly asked you to pull forward. other guy "I'm good, I didn't want to get too close to the liftgate, and there's plenty of room behind me." etc etc. this escalates to them calling each other "fucking assholes". they simmer down, and my friends and I are walking away towards the lodge, when one of them makes another snide comment, resulting in the guy parked next to me charging over to the guy parked in front of me, chest fully puffed out and ready to fight. we kept walking to the lodge, but it was bizarre.

both cars had Vermont plates. pretty aggro behaviour at 7:15 AM before an epic stowe day.

Sounds like Hunter.

 

[STREETSKIER]

Skiing on Monday was as good as it gets minus the deep, cobalt blue skies soft sunny groomers major grip !!today should be a repeat!!uncrowded slopes no kids pure bliss day 3882

 

[Orca]

I really hate to continue this, but I want to make a couple of points:

1. If Win or SB management witnessed this (or were told about it) do you think they wouldn't address it?

2. Not to justify rude behavior, but people have bad days all the time. Maybe his wife divorced him that AM. Maybe his car broke down. Maybe someone ran over his foot. Maybe the driver of the car repeatedly ignored his instructions. Who knows. It's not justified, but it happens.

3. Do you think for a second that this is reflective of all SB employees? Do you think for a second that this type of behavior couldn't happen elsewhere in any other business or at any other ski resort?

4. The complaints on this thread about one off issues just show me that some people will focus on the negative no matter what. Saturday was the best skiing I've ever had at Sugarbush and rather than mention one thing about that, you focus on a parking lot attendant.

5. For every negative issue, there are dozens of positive ones. I mentioned three great ones up-thread. It's life. Stuff is going to happen. Both good and bad. If you focus on the bad stuff, life will be a bummer.


I've already commented about the wonderful skiing. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the nice conversation I had with Judy who I chatted with while waiting for the jitney. Both of my jitney drivers picked me up and dropped me off within yards of my car and said they were sorry for not being able to get me any closer (LOL). The liftie at Castlerock was from Holmdel, NJ (about 25 miles from me) and we had a pleasant conversation. My RFID card has been having some issues and before I drove up, I spoke with Pavel in the ticket office. He fixed the issue, stayed with me on the phone to make sure it worked, and emailed me later in the day to tell me another piece of info that I forgot to ask about. This doesn't even include the great conversations I had on the lift and in the liftlines. While I prefer to ski with friends and family, it doesn't always work like that so I love that I'm able to ski as a single every now and then and still enjoy the experience.

Pointing out that there exist instances of SB employees interacting poorly with customers in no way implies that such instances are the norm. Indeed, most interactions are pleasant and helpful.

Your assertion that I was focused on this incident and didn't quickly look past it is presumptuous and, frankly, ridiculous. Several folks on this forum could benefit from reading words for what they actually say, rather than reading into words things (e.g. ascribing motives, extensions, and states of mind) that are not said.

 

[AbominableSnowman]

So, apart from the entitled elite not having their auditory senses soothed by chamber music, their tactile senses soothed by a shower of rose petals, and their olfactory senses soothed by wafting fruit-scented unicorn farts as they alighted from their carriages in the lower parking lots, were there any actual skiing- and snowboarding-related issues or events from Sugarbush to report this weekend?

Word among a crowd skiing at Stowe was that the winds were quite gusty at Mt Ellen, and that there is some lift there that has had an inordinate amount of problems (North Road/Ridge Express?). Did all the lifts run well? Were the lines reasonable?

Though it has been great at Stowe, some of us were thinking of heading over to Mt Ellen to ski this weekend, for a change of pace. The images that someone posted from there last Sunday looked great - hopefully it still has good coverage....

 

[rocks860]

Question for you guys. Does anyone know how you reload the rfid card if you’re buying a ticket online in advance? Do you have to do it through the sugarbush website? I got a card back in January, just wasn’t sure if I could buy an advance ticket on liftopia or something like that


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[cdskier]

So, apart from the entitled elite not having their auditory senses soothed by chamber music, their tactile senses soothed by a shower of rose petals, and their olfactory senses soothed by wafting fruit-scented unicorn farts as they alighted from their carriages in the lower parking lots, were there any actual skiing- and snowboarding-related issues or events from Sugarbush to report this weekend?

Word among a crowd skiing at Stowe was that the winds were quite gusty at Mt Ellen, and that there is some lift there that has had an inordinate amount of problems (North Road/Ridge Express?). Did all the lifts run well? Were the lines reasonable?

Though it has been great at Stowe, some of us were thinking of heading over to Mt Ellen to ski this weekend, for a change of pace. The images that someone posted from there last Sunday looked great - hopefully it still has good coverage....

I was at Mt Ellen on Saturday. Lifts ran just fine. North Ridge Express didn't stop once while I was on it (which was a decent part of the morning). Summit ran fine until it went on wind hold later in the morning (and it was quite windy at the time it went on hold). After summit went on hold I noticed a lift ops guy on a snowmobile sitting halfway up the Cliffs trail watching the GMX lift (presumably keeping an eye on how the wind was impacting that one). It never went on hold though. Lift lines were virtually non-existent even though the parking lot was full. North Ridge was practically ski on. GMX had maybe a 2 or 3 minute line at one point when I was down there.

Coverage was excellent. Some of the best coverage I've seen in a while. The one exception was there was somehow still an exposed/open water bar on the Lower FIS runout. Not a big deal...just surprised me a bit with all the snow we had.

 

[cdskier]

A few pics from Mt Ellen on Saturday:





And for fun, one from Lincoln Peak on Sunday:

 

[ThinkSnow]

I was at Mt Ellen on Saturday. Lifts ran just fine. North Ridge Express didn't stop once while I was on it (which was a decent part of the morning)..........Lift lines were virtually non-existent even though the parking lot was full. North Ridge was practically ski on.

I was also there on Saturday & completely agree. I didn't see when summit went on wind hold, but considering the gusting going on-- not surprising.

 

[HowieT2]

I was also there on Saturday & completely agree. I didn't see when summit went on wind hold, but considering the gusting going on-- not surprising.

also skied there saturday. Summit was running in the morning allowing me to do 4 laps on black diamond and upper fis. best conditions I have ever encountered on black diamond. The north ridge was ski on the whole day. lapped exterminator woods. excellent day all around.