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The "Sugarbush Thread"

Hawk

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The snowmaking trails are more challenging without the deep snow on them due to water bars. Natural snow trails lack this problem and can safely open once the ground is mostly covered in snow.

What Ben? All trails have water bars and have the exact same issue when trying to open. If you were here yesterday you would have seen this in action on Moonshine, Lexi's and lower snowball.
 

WinS

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Hawk is correct. Almost all trails have water bars, and that is one of the important considerations in determining whether or not to open trails. They are there to prevent erosion so each trail has its own configuration and some are deeper than others.
 

WinS

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Disappointing to not have Super Bravo and Heaven's Gate options this weekend

Well, it is November 18th and if we had not had temperatures rise Friday night we might have been able to get Downspout completed to open, but we have our focus now on Upper Jester and Downpout so we should have them open midweek. We made the choice to focus early on Upper Snowball, Spring Fling and Valley Traverse first as we did last year when we had the temperatures down low, and I think that made for a quality opening weekend along with the natural trails that were skiiable.
 

WinS

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Would think they would be ready to go by now with temps in the teens since they moved off Snowball, Fling.

That is not correct. Friday night the temperature at mid we above 32 and around 35 at the base. They did come down last night and have stayed in the 20's mid-mountain so the snowmaking is coming in well now. Also the humidity was high but has come down now.
 

benski

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Binghamton NY
How does the rest of the mountain look. With Stains and the mall open all natural, most of the lower mountain trails closed now must have enough snow to open once downspout is open.
 

WinS

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How does the rest of the mountain look. With Stains and the mall open all natural, most of the lower mountain trails closed now must have enough snow to open once downspout is open.

Patrol has not checked them out yet, but it is likely that many could open but they will all need more snow to last. There is some snow in the forecast. Today and tomorrow snowmaking temps are marginal from mid-mountain down but starting Tuesday night we get some really cold air lasting through Thanksgiving. We are most likely coming off of Upper Jester today and staying on Upper Organgrinder and setting up the lower mountain to take advantage of the cold weather coming in tomorrow night. Downspout is getting close but it did warm up again overnight, so it may have to stay on more time to complete and make is deep enough to groom out.
 

tumbler

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So where to next? Murphy's, Birdland, Lower Grinder? Has Lower DS and Lower Jester from HG been blown yet? Also stay up high and get Ripcord? Hoping for more terrain by Turkey day. Thanks as always for the updates Win.
 

WinS

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So where to next? Murphy's, Birdland, Lower Grinder? Has Lower DS and Lower Jester from HG been blown yet? Also stay up high and get Ripcord? Hoping for more terrain by Turkey day. Thanks as always for the updates Win.

We came off Upper Jester and Downspout today and lit up all of Organgrinder. We have moved the land guns down to Lower Downspout, Lower Jester and Gondolier to take advantage of cold temps. Hope to have them Open by Friday or Saturday. After this we will move where temps allow - either going mid-mountain or up to Ripcord. Looks like another warm-up over the weekend. Bravo and HG should spin Wednesday and one can get to the bottom via valley Traverse to Snowball until the trails down from Bottom of HG are in.
 

Los

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Cannot wait for tomorrow - 31 trails - most natural. Woo hoo!
 

WinS

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Cannot wait for tomorrow - 31 trails - most natural. Woo hoo!

I hope you got here. It is awesome out there. Over 4" on new snow so far today. The groomer's did an outstanding job on Snowball and Spring Fling and did a first groom on Downspout and Jester. But the natural trails are where you wanted to be. It looks like the squalls will continue off and on this afternoon setting up a really nice few days. It is getting very cold tonight and through tomorrow, but it is worth putting on those extra layers. It could be windy too tomorrow so hopefully we will not have any windhold, but that is a possibility so check in the morning. We have moved snowmaking down to Lower Downspout, Lower Jester and Gondolier but the way to the bottom is still via Snowball and Spring Fling. When we turn the guns off we will have a second way down to the base area. As far as Castlerock there in no exit because of all the hoses and guns across Gondolier, but after they are off we may have hiking over there on Saturday. Patrol will be assessing the trails tomorrow to see if that is possible. Happy Thanksgiving and please give thanks for Mother Nature for a fabulous start to the season.

Check out this Unofficial Network post today: https://unofficialnetworks.com/2018/11/20/the-10-deepest-snowpack-in-north-america-right-now/
 

cdskier

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As far as Castlerock there in no exit because of all the hoses and guns across Gondolier, but after they are off we may have hiking over there on Saturday. Patrol will be assessing the trails tomorrow to see if that is possible.

IF (and obviously still a big IF since patrol hasn't checked it out yet) Castlerock did open this weekend for hike access, would that be any sort of record for earliest opening? I thought it was pretty crazy when it opened in early December a couple times recently. To think there's even a chance it could be open in November is pretty unbelievable.
 

WinS

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IF (and obviously still a big IF since patrol hasn't checked it out yet) Castlerock did open this weekend for hike access, would that be any sort of record for earliest opening? I thought it was pretty crazy when it opened in early December a couple times recently. To think there's even a chance it could be open in November is pretty unbelievable.

I believe there was a big dump in late November 1997 when everything opened ——- And then everything closed for awhile. Some other may remember that During the ASC era.
 

SkiingInABlueDream

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the woods of greater-Waltham
I believe there was a big dump in late November 1997 when everything opened ——- And then everything closed for awhile. Some other may remember that During the ASC era.

Something similar happened in Nov 99. Not saying it wasn't 97 also, but I specifically remember in 99 a Tuesday/Wednesday storm dumped about 3 ft up there. I was watching it from work that Wednesday and decided I *had* to get there for Thursday. Castlerock was entirely open ungroomed and deep. It got warm by midday especially at the base but that morning was pretty special. I also remember ppl were grumbling at the ticket window because the ticket price jumped overnight from like $39 to $59 or something in that range. A week or so later I was exchanging stoke with a sugarbush rep at the ski expo in Boston. Good times!
Back in April (of this year) when that storm hit and you reopened castlerock I was thinking back to that 99 day. It was on that order of rareness, for me at least. [emoji961]
 

WinS

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Something similar happened in Nov 99. Not saying it wasn't 97 also, but I specifically remember in 99 a Tuesday/Wednesday storm dumped about 3 ft up there. I was watching it from work that Wednesday and decided I *had* to get there for Thursday. Castlerock was entirely open ungroomed and deep. It got warm by midday especially at the base but that morning was pretty special. I also remember ppl were grumbling at the ticket window because the ticket price jumped overnight from like $39 to $59 or something in that range. A week or so later I was exchanging stoke with a sugarbush rep at the ski expo in Boston. Good times!
Back in April (of this year) when that storm hit and you reopened castlerock I was thinking back to that 99 day. It was on that order of rareness, for me at least. [emoji961]

According to John Hammond, our VP of Mountain Operations, we had 57" in last November of 1997.
 

WinS

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Tomorrow we will allowing hiking over to Castlerock from 10am to 3pm. Patrol is stationed at the top. Those first tracks should be sweet.

It looks like a much warmer but cloudy day tomorrow. The skiing and riding should be fabulous again. All the snow guns will be coming off so one can get to the bottom via Downspout, Jester and Gondolier too but they will not be groomed until Saturday night to let the moisture drain. Unfortunately, we are in for some rain and freezing rain Saturday evening into Sunday but if we get a snow that some are now forecasting that could make for a terrific base underneath some fresh snow.
 
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