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The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
Is that your post/thread on the STE Facebook group by any chance on this topic?
benski
Active member
what is this group?
We make snow where the best temperatures are. Historically, one needs to work from top to bottom but if we have the chance as in this year, we will take advantage of temps to make snow lower on the mountain first. Before last Friday natural snow was covering the upper mountain. Yes, making snow on both Inverness and The Terrain Park uses a lot of gallons. I think this is the first time we have had a full park on opening day with 52 feautures.
No, I have no idea what that is and I’m not on Facebook
Must have been the Russians
Personally- I could care less about parks or features. Call me an old fart, but I just don’t get the idea of scraping my skis against some metal pipe. I would much prefer that they open up all the skiable terrain before pumping 1000’s of gallons of water to build all the ramps and what not.
You may not but we have a lot of younger guests who are also important for our success who do. We stopped building a pipe years ago which required a lot more snowmaking.
STE is a "Ski The East" group on Facebook. Someone literally asked almost the exact same question you did on there nearly the same time you posted here with that question about snowmaking on the upper mountain at ME.
I'm not old and I don't understand the desire to ski features in a terrain park either. I'd also rather see at least the main skiable terrain covered first, although I do also understand why Sugarbush chooses to create a park since there are people that are into that sort of thing that you can't just ignore.
I was referring to the those rail thingies,... not a half pipe. Just my opinion
Understood.
Hawk
Well-known member
considering all the terrain that is open, I hardly think rim run, FIS and Black Diamond are a huge issue not being open. Even if they were, how do you think they would ski today or all next week for that matter. I am all for the parks and the parks crew. So many kids love the park and if the kids want to ski then the parents get to ski. Every major resort has a park and the data suggests it is a good investment.
Still it seems odd not having the mountain open top-to-bottom. I get that the summit is quite exposed, but I would’ve figured that they would’ve had that more than well covered for the season already.
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benski
Active member
And it should hold snow well. It used to be the spring skiing venue.
I think you hit on an important point. While Rim Run itself is not a big deal from a "how much do you really ski it" perspective, it is a big deal from a "perception" perspective. SB regulars can easily say "well you're not missing much" especially if FIS and Black Diamond wouldn't be in good shape anyway as Hawk pointed out, but to a more casual "outsider" what they will say is "gee, why isn't SB top to bottom at ME when pretty much everyone else is already." There were already people throwing out rumors that SB has budget issues and that's the reason they haven't blown snow at the top yet. I fully get the "we blew down low while we had temps instead of starting at the top" strategy, but that's hard to convey to the general public that doesn't read forums like this and only looks at a trail report and sees an unopened summit.
I don't particular agree with this. That summit is pretty exposed and natural unpacked/unskied snow can easily be scoured by wind. Hell just look at the difference at Lincoln Peak many times at the true summit and how wind-scoured and bare it can be up there meanwhile there's plenty of snow just 50 or so feet below the summit at LP at the top of HG.
slatham
Well-known member
Call me old fashion (and ignorant of current SB economics) but the priority used to be Rim, Elbow, FIS and Looking Good, before other lower mountain terrain, especially Reimergasse. If I was a Mt Ellen skier pass holder I’d be upset that the vast majority of deep base snowmaking terrain was either often off limits (Inverness for GMVS) or not a “ski trail” (Reimergasse), and none rated Black. It’s a bit much for me, even though I am a huge fan of Win, to see the summit of Mt Ellen go from an early/late season meca to not even being open, in a year with lots of snow and cold spells, by the new Year. I guess Mt Ellen is racers and park rats first, at the expense of old fashion down the fall line skiers?
WWF-VT
Well-known member
Anyone else commenting in this thread actually ski Mt Ellen ? The best open terrain at Sugarbush has been on natural snow trails at Mt Ellen including Exterminator, Bravo, Cliffs, Hammerhead, Encore and Tumbler. No one is bitching that we aren't skiing the summit chair.
benski
Active member
True. Summit is not the best. I ski half the time I go to Mt Ellen. North ridge and Inverness alone is easily an excellent ski area.
I agree the park is needed. People seek this out when they decide where to ski. But... the summit is needed also. Highest legit lift serviced skiing in the state, best view around. People like to say they skied from "the top". They want their money's worth. Those of us in the know realize that 90% of the terrain is accessible from north ridge (and that is really the lift to ski on) but the optics are not good if we are not top-to-bottom. Just my 2 cents.
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