The "Sugarbush Thread"

[jaybird]

Thank you for totally submerging Sleeper.
Snow surface everywhere was Primo today.
That Ripcord issue does look challenging :-(
Your team Rocks !

 

[Julius]

Certainly a different day on the hill today vs yesterday. Riding VH lift was like taking a convertible through a long slow car wash with the top down but mtn seems to be putting up a good fight for now.

Any day on the hill is better than none.

 

[HowieT2]

Waitsfield webcam showing a pretty full mad river

 

[WinS]

Waitsfield webcam showing a pretty full mad river

The mountain has held up well so far, but morning will tell. The temps peak overnight and then start coming down so will will be back with snowmaking tomorrow afternoon or evening. High winds tonight and some more rain likely. And, yes, the Mad River is raging.

 

[AbominableSnowman]

Certainly a different day on the hill today vs yesterday. Riding VH lift was like taking a convertible through a long slow car wash with the top down but mtn seems to be putting up a good fight for now.

Any day on the hill is better than none.

Mt Ellen was in surprisingly good shape as well today. Snow was eminently edge-able, with decent coverage.

Captain Ahab's snowmaking crew had apparently been busy on Straight Shot earlier, as "Win's wet white whales" (copyright 2018, 2019) were wetter than usual, yet quite fun to ski. With any luck (and a bit of compassion on the part of Mother Nature), they will help to ensure coverage for the upcoming week in that area of the mountain.

Now, for two or three storms in a row that drop (at least) 4-5" of snow each....

 

[Los]

I found conditions pretty rough this morning... (no fault of sugarbush of course). But fortunately the rain has turned to snow, I think earlier than expected...

 

[WinS]

I found conditions pretty rough this morning... (no fault of sugarbush of course). But fortunately the rain has turned to snow, I think earlier than expected...

Conditions improved a lot as the day went on. My worst run was around 9:15 and things got better from there. About two inches of snow is mixing in very well, and tonight's grooming should have those trials skiing nicely tomorrows am

 

[benski]

Conditions improved a lot as the day went on. My worst run was around 9:15 and things got better from there. About two inches of snow is mixing in very well, and tonight's grooming should have those trials skiing nicely tomorrows am

I assumed 9:15 would be pretty close to iciest at conditions possible.

 

[cdskier]

I couldn't convince myself to leave my condo yesterday to ski in the rain after 14 other mid-week days this December which were generally speaking quite good (with a few really good ones). This ties last year's total for me at this same point (although last year all 14 days were at SB while this year it is 13 at SB and 1 at MRG). This morning I left to head back to NJ. It was switching over to snow right as I was leaving at 9:30.

Overall I'm quite happy with my season so far. I won't be back up until the weekend after New Year's and am looking forward to a snowy rest of the season!

 

[HowieT2]

I hate skiing in the r&#$*n. Depressing.

heading up tomorrow.

 

[tumbler]

I was out at 8:30 and it was a bit challenging but loosened with each run. The snow helped a lot and Steins was skiing great. Then later in the afternoon as it got colder everything started to freeze. A pretty good day all things considered. I hope for big grooming plan.

 

[WinS]

I was out at 8:30 and it was a bit challenging but loosened with each run. The snow helped a lot and Steins was skiing great. Then later in the afternoon as it got colder everything started to freeze. A pretty good day all things considered. I hope for big grooming plan.

Groomed a lot, but left a few trails to drain a bit more. Turned the guns on Upper Snowball and Spring Fling to dust them up so that is where to be first thing. Will turn off early in the day and move back to Hot Shot and North Lynx most likely. Staying on Rim Run at ME until that is finished.

 

[WWF-VT]

Mt Ellen skid better than expected today. Light snow most of the day and I hit a bunch of natural snow trails - Bravo, Exterminator, Encore and Tumbler that were a lot of fun without any moguls and good snow cover.

 

[benski]

Groomed a lot, but left a few trails to drain a bit more. Turned the guns on Upper Snowball and Spring Fling to dust them up so that is where to be first thing. Will turn off early in the day and move back to Hot Shot and North Lynx most likely. Staying on Rim Run at ME until that is finished.

Spring Fling? That was all death cookies. Worst groomer on Super Bravo and Heavens gate. Paradise and Spillsville were actually in good shape. It was snowing pretty this afternoon.

 

[WinS]

Spring Fling? That was all death cookies. Worst groomer on Super Bravo and Heavens gate. Paradise and Spillsville were actually in good shape. It was snowing pretty this afternoon.

Yes. We winched it last night so it should be a lot better this morning.

 

[HowieT2]

Good skiing the last 2 days. The ungroomed natural terrain was actually really good. 3-4” on paradise which we lapped multiple times. Domino was good. Off piste was not good. The dust on crust did nothing for me. Hiked over to castlerock yesterday and middle earth was well worth it.

fwiw-went to the pitcher inn/tracks which was on of my favorite places in the world. No complaints about the service or the food, but the menu, to me, was totally unenticing. Nothing I wanted to eat. So disappointing. Kind of how I felt about the common man. Won’t be going back there other than maybe for an after dinner drink.

 

[WinS]

Blowing snow on Birch and Sunrise and will hopefully open North Lynx on Friday once done there. Also turned the guns on Stein's last night. I just skied it around 11:30 under the towers on skier's left and it was terrific. Will stay there until we have to turn off last Thursday or Friday am. The next weather event is not great but much better than last Friday, and we might even get a net gain of snow this time. Ringers crossed. The top of ME is bare so we need to get snowmaking on Upper Rim run to open there. Finishing on Northstar and then getting onto Cruiser which was actually skiing nicely on skier left yesterday.

 

[tumbler]

I was wondering why Summit wasn’t running, I guess no snow up there. Kinda strange. Are people hiking to FIS and black diamond?

 

[WinS]

I was wondering why Summit wasn’t running, I guess no snow up there. Kinda strange. Are people hiking to FIS and black diamond?

It is wind scoured up there. Need to make snow or get some. Rocks showing on Rim Run. When we turn on we will likely go to Cruiser and get Upper Rim Run after that. FIS and Black Diamond are not very good now.

 

[tumbler]

It is wind scoured up there. Need to make snow or get some. Rocks showing on Rim Run. When we turn on we will likely go to Cruiser and get Upper Rim Run after that. FIS and Black Diamond are not very good now.

Did snowmaking not start at rim run and panarama and work down to elbow? And no snowmaking on FIS yet? Out of curiousity, how much does the park snowmaking take away from the rest of the hill? Would have thought RR and fis would be done by now.