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The "Sugarbush Thread"

ducky

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Nov 18, 2017
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Waitsfield, VT
New breakfast place Toast and Eggs opened today at the old Pizza in the Valley. You've all been asking for a breakfast place - here it is. Best of luck to the owners. I believe the hours are 7-2.

Hours supposedly 6-2, closed Tuesday.
 

ducky

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Nov 18, 2017
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302
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Waitsfield, VT
Nice dinner at Hyde Away last night. Solid food quality and service was attentive and professional with the owners and manager personally checking in with us. The young waiter was also quite competent. While the place was busy, we could still hear our conversation at our table off the bar area.

Good to hear Win's speech on Sat. Lots of new local things happening especially on the restaurant scene, a new Paradise market refresh, the Bundy Modern Gallery, Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce plans, and Lawson's Taproom all adding to the Valley business vibe.

It may be the hardest part for these efforts is the lack of employees available. For the moment, Vermont is an aging state.
 

Hawk

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Nov 22, 2016
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Mad River Valley / MA
I went to the meeting. It was pretty good. We got the usual facts and figures. Win talk about how surprised they were at the end of last year when the skiing numbers actual were up. If you remember they got crushed by rain and really bitter cold during MLK and things did not look good for the year. I think everybody did the wait and see and came late.

They talk about this years improvements which were mostly cosmetic. You know new carpet, new roof. They did rebuild the North Linx drive and electronics so that lift should be better this year. They also changed the shark pool to a salt water pool and added a outdoor hot tub. The other big change is that the entire base area is now smoke free. He said "no tobacco, no cannabis, no Vape". Doesn't affect me but I am sure some will bitch.

The last 45 minutes was a bunch of people from Sugarbush's past telling stories. I believe it was Sparky Potter, Chan Weller, John Egan and Jack Murphy’s Kids: Mike, Kelly & Casey. It was to kick off the celebration of the 60th year in operation. Win hosted and asked questions and stories followed. I liked the stories about the old Wunderbar down stairs and how they used to rage. I also like the story of how they landed a plane on snowball at the top of Spring Fling as a total gag. Wild. I enjoyed the nostalgia. Wish I was there then.
 

thetrailboss

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I see they're going the Bicknell's Thrush route.

I saw that too. :lol:

I somewhat understand the concern, but there are two points that make me go :???: First, the photo in the article makes it look like the new tower will not be much higher than those on the summit already. It probably is an optical illusion, but one tower as opposed to two or three sounds good to me. Second, as much as I love Sugarbush, it seems to be ironic that a resort is upset about mountain development. Sometimes you have to pick your battles wisely.
 

jaybird

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Sep 26, 2012
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cdskier

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Mar 26, 2015
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NJ
Lincoln Peak is an important relay for communications throughout the region.
If the artist rendering is accurate, consolidating everything to a single tower may be a better look.
It's not like there's no apparatus already up there.

Think Snowmaking !

I'd like to see a real rendering before coming to any conclusions. The one in that article is from a weird angle and shows only a flag representing the height of the tower, not what the actual tower would look like.
 

thetrailboss

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I'd like to see a real rendering before coming to any conclusions. The one in that article is from a weird angle and shows only a flag representing the height of the tower, not what the actual tower would look like.

Agreed. I don't think that the photo gives an accurate representation of what they are working with.
 

BenedictGomez

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Jan 26, 2011
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Wasatch Back
With all the ski area development that mythical bird has halted, it's some serious bad juju for Sugarbush to point to the Bicknells Thrush as a reason to halt development of the tower.

Yes. Bogus use of wildlife protections should be frowned upon, regardless of which side employs the tactic.

There are plenty of species that greatly benefit from the legitimate use of protection acts for species, but when employed wantonly, greedily, or politically, it actually harms the very species that desperately need the benefit of this regulation in a, The Boy Who Cried Wolf fashion.
 

ThinkSnow

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Oct 25, 2005
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Bad Liver Valley
With all the ski area development that mythical bird has halted, it's some serious bad juju for Sugarbush to point to the Bicknells Thrush as a reason to halt development of the tower.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using AlpineZone mobile app
Seriously? I disagree & say use it to your advantage- its far from a "bogus use of wildlife protections" (as any Bicknells Thrush google search will show you its range covers a good deal of VT). Use it, and if the tower still gets built anyway, then there's your justification for future ski area expansion (not that Sugarbush needs it).
 

tumbler

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The rendering is totally bogus and misleading. They are making it look like the 20-30' tower that is there now in foreground is the same height as the new 140' one. Thing was drawn by a 1st grader and should be on engineered stamped drawings.

As for the bird- agreed it feels like bad juju but it already has stopped and is stopping Bush from doing certain things so why not use it against someone else for something no one wants.

Does Mansfield have antenna towers on top? What do other ski areas have?

I think this will be fought by many towns and entities- it smacks in the face of protecting the ridgelines and environment. I remember being told stories from the Bush way oldtimers about people in Lincoln shooting out the windows of the gondola top terminal because they hated seeing the lights at night. That went all the way to the summit, the top of HG is lower.
 

tumbler

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The other big change is that the entire base area is now smoke free. He said "no tobacco, no cannabis, no Vape". Doesn't affect me but I am sure some will bitch.

Seriously? That sounds like a bit much without having a designated area to smoke. What are all the employees going to do since I would guess about 75% of them smoke cigs, not to mention other stuff. Doesn't affect me either but doesn't go with the laid back atmosphere they are trying to have.
 

cdskier

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Does Mansfield have antenna towers on top? What do other ski areas have?

Here's a few of the ones on the Nose. There are others as well in other spots on Mansfield. Note that they are set back and down a bit on the western side of the ridge it looks like which probably makes them not quite as visible from the eastern side of the ridge.
42912114_2752369678121768_3714114394175569920_o.jpg

But again, like you said, a real rendering is needed to see what the Lincoln Peak one would look like.
 
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