The "Sugarbush Thread"

[SkierDude]

Maintenance holds happen everywhere. When you have tens of thousands of tiny (or big) moving parts, something is bound to break. It’s not just at Sugarbush. Sugarloaf, for example, has had a lot of issues this winter, and I couldn’t tell you what other resorts but I’m sure it’s the same for them as well. Just be thankful Valley House exists

 

[Slidebrook87]

Maintenance holds happen everywhere. When you have tens of thousands of tiny (or big) moving parts, something is bound to break. It’s not just at Sugarbush. Sugarloaf, for example, has had a lot of issues this winter, and I couldn’t tell you what other resorts but I’m sure it’s the same for them as well. Just be thankful Valley House exists

Yes. I’m heading to Sugarloaf in a week or so and have heard about the issues with the SuperQuad. Some mountains are worse than others and every mountain has their lemon lift. For Sugarbush it’s probably Bravo or North Ridge and for Sugarloaf it’s the SuperQuad. Barker at Sunday River is pretty bad and Little Whiteface is constantly down on mechanical hold. A lot of it depends on routine maintenance, which certain mountains are better at than others. Not going to name names.


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[djd66]

As someone that skis Sugarbush regularly, the lifts have been very reliable over the past few years. Hopefully I have not jinxed myself with this post,... I was evacuated from Heaven’s gate about 5 years ago,... not fun, but shit happens

 

[Slidebrook87]

It’s funny you say that, I was just watching a video on YouTube of that rope evac. Not a fun time. It happened to Lookout at Stowe last year and then again to Challenger at Mount Snow.


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[cdskier]

As someone that skis Sugarbush regularly, the lifts have been very reliable over the past few years. Hopefully I have not jinxed myself with this post,... I was evacuated from Heaven’s gate about 5 years ago,... not fun, but shit happens

Agreed. No idea what happened to bravo today but for the most part that thing is a work horse and other than wind holds I’ve rarely seen it down lately.

I also remember that day HG was evac’d. I missed being on it for that by a mere 10 minutes or so. They had a lot of issues with HG that year and spent a lot of money in the off season doing major work on quite a few lifts after that.


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[Greg]

Where is that? Spillsville?

Paradise.

 

[WinS]

I heard that GMX was running on diesel today. Can somebody verify this?


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GMX was lit by lightning this summer and it took out all the tower switches and did damage to some components in the drive. Poma no longer manufacturer some of the component so we had to have a card manufactured in Finland of all places. In is in transit somewhere and hopefully will be the final fix to get GMX running on electric again. Fortunately, we have two diesel motors so GMX can run at speed on the diesel backup. Not great to burn diesel and it costs a lot to do it, but it is running.

 

[Slidebrook87]

GMX was lit by lightning this summer and it took out all the tower switches and did damage to some components in the drive. Poma no longer manufacturer some of the component so we had to have a card manufactured in Finland of all places. In is in transit somewhere and hopefully will be the final fix to get GMX running on electric again. Fortunately, we have two diesel motors so GMX can run at speed on the diesel backup. Not great to burn diesel and it costs a lot to do it, but it is running.

Didn’t know about that. It’s a good thing that it was ordered with the 2 diesel backups, not all lifts can run full speed on backup power. I know Super Bravo and Gate House can’t. I remember during the 2017/18 season Ursa Express ran on diesel power for most of the season which destroyed capacity due to it only running at 700 ft/min. Even to this day, that lift has so many issues. It won’t be long before it’s scrap metal. Most recently the grips have been having force issues which is a potential safety threat.


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[WinS]

As someone that skis Sugarbush regularly, the lifts have been very reliable over the past few years. Hopefully I have not jinxed myself with this post,... I was evacuated from Heaven’s gate about 5 years ago,... not fun, but shit happens

Yes, they have. We keep detailed statistics and can see exactly how many hours lifts are scheduled to run and how many hours they are down for a mechanical or electrical reason. All 16 lifts have run well over 99% of the scheduled thousands of hours that they are scheduled to run Lift are complicated and sophisticated pieces of equipment and things happen. That is why we have experienced, professional and dedicated lift mechanics who work all summer on scheduled maintenance, get in pre-dawn to get all lifts going and then are here all day to respond to an problem. In our climate weather can affect lifts more than in other areas. . For instance, the other day we had a frozen contact on a Northridge Tower and it takes times to actual find which tower and which contact was affected.

A lift evacuation is rare but it can happen to any lift. All patrols are professionally trained to get every down safely and as quickly as possible.

 

[Newpylong]

Didn’t know about that. It’s a good thing that it was ordered with the 2 diesel backups, not all lifts can run full speed on backup power. I know Super Bravo and Gate House can’t. I remember during the 2017/18 season Ursa Express ran on diesel power for most of the season which destroyed capacity due to it only running at 700 ft/min. Even to this day, that lift has so many issues. It won’t be long before it’s scrap metal. Most recently the grips have been having force issues which is a potential safety threat.


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Two operating forms of propulsion are needed to start the lift. Usually this is Electric (sized to operate at design speed) and a backup diesel APU (sized to only unload the lift slowly). However as Win said, detaches can be purchased with three motors - Electric, Diesel, and Diesel (APU). The primary diesel is usually sized to operate at 75-100% of design speed and can do for long periods of time. The second diesel is again only used to unload the lift.

 

[Orca]

Even to this day, [North Ridge Express] has so many issues. It won’t be long before it’s scrap metal. Most recently the grips have been having force issues which is a potential safety threat.

You are asserting that NRX has been having malfunctioning grip problems (at least to some degree) on the detachable chairs. Source?

 

[Slidebrook87]

I meant Ursa at Stratton. It was one of only a few lifts built with Garaventa’s AK-680 grips which were poorly manufactured. According to my friend who’s a ski patroller at Stratton, there is almost always a grip force error.


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[Slidebrook87]

I said “that lift” referring to Ursa which I made a comment about earlier in that post.

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[Orca]

I meant Ursa at Stratton. It was one of only a few lifts built with Garaventa’s AK-680 grips which were poorly manufactured. According to my friend who’s a ski patroller at Stratton, there is almost always a grip force error.

Thanks for the clarification. I reread your post and see that I had read it wrong.

 

[Slidebrook87]

Alterra has been doing great things for Stratton so far. Snow Bowl replacement, turning an underutilized and poorly maintained lift (Solstice) into a useful one for this season, and hopefully replacing Tamarack and South American with a High Speed Quad. A summit lodge is also planned. So far they have brought in far better maintenance that has rebuilt a lot of the controls on lifts. Looking forward to seeing some similar changes at Sugarbush. [emoji1360]


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[Newpylong]

What did they do specifically with Solstice? I've never seen it run. Sorry to hijack the Bush thread for a minute.

 

[Slidebrook87]

What did they do specifically with Solstice? I've never seen it run. Sorry to hijack the Bush thread for a minute.

For many years it didn’t run very often and was essentially useless unless Sunrise went down. This past offseason, the lift’s controls were overhauled in order to prepare it for the season. In order to provide a new use, Shortcut
Big Ben and Big Ben are now the mountain’s star terrain parks. This means that Solstice is now a park lift! It runs weekends so skiers can lap the park efficiently. I’m very pleased to see a simple, but very important upgrade made.


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[smac75]

Another sidetrack post: on Sunday we will be driving from Sugarbush to Lake Placid. Has anyone done that drive before? Wondering what to expect. Thx

 

[Orca]

Another sidetrack post: on Sunday we will be driving from Sugarbush to Lake Placid. Has anyone done that drive before? Wondering what to expect. Thx

I've done it, but a quite a few years back. The drive takes a while (nominally 2.5 hours), and the roads are all secondary. Not quite half way, you cross the southern end of the Lake Champlain and start crossing Adirondack Park. I found the park a little unsettling. It has some pretty bleak and, by all appearances, dying towns. It is strangely non-commercial in an unhealthy, despairing way. Like time forgot the place. Lake Placid is nice and quite vibrant. Whiteface is an awesome mountain -- I think you'll be surprised at its size. Western type vertical. Please report back on your impressions after your trip. I'd be interested to hear.

 

[Orca]

The Gate House quad could profitably be a six pack since lines there are a nightmare on most winter Saturdays. The existing quad could be repurposed elsewhere on the mountain.