The "Sugarbush Thread"

[ss20]

Beautiful day out there today. Spent the day lapping Castlerock and Heaven's Gate. Opened with an inch or so for first tracks on Middle Earth. Everything in CR is well-covered save for the top 1/4 of Rumble and the nastier sections of liftline. The fresh snow quickly turned to sticky mashed potatoes everywhere but the top 1/4 of the mountain due to the sunshine and temps in the mid 30s. But the coating of snow was so light it didn't effect things much once it was skied in. My favorite run of the day was dropping into Paradise woods....quite a special place in there. I skied on to CR chair all day, no wait. Same at Heaven's Gate. Surprising given we're at peak season and everything is open. After noon the clouds rolled in and the snow un-stickified itself with the cooler temps...it never froze luckily, just dried out a bit so that was nice.

I do have a question from today...are those chutes that drop into Paradise cut? Or are/were they slide paths? I know they're not THAT steep but maybe 50 years ago before skiers were packing it down I could see some small slides forming up there if they are indeed natural openings.

It is plain rain now (and heavy too) at the base but MRG and SB webcams showing steady snow mid-mountain and up. Not sure what to expect tomorrow.

 

[cdskier]

It is plain rain now (and heavy too) at the base but MRG and SB webcams showing steady snow mid-mountain and up. Not sure what to expect tomorrow.

I didn't even hear/see it. Was it only for a short time? Just stepped out on my deck and it didn't seem to be doing much of anything now.

 

[WinS]

Beautiful day out there today. Spent the day lapping Castlerock and Heaven's Gate. Opened with an inch or so for first tracks on Middle Earth. Everything in CR is well-covered save for the top 1/4 of Rumble and the nastier sections of liftline. The fresh snow quickly turned to sticky mashed potatoes everywhere but the top 1/4 of the mountain due to the sunshine and temps in the mid 30s. But the coating of snow was so light it didn't effect things much once it was skied in. My favorite run of the day was dropping into Paradise woods....quite a special place in there. I skied on to CR chair all day, no wait. Same at Heaven's Gate. Surprising given we're at peak season and everything is open. After noon the clouds rolled in and the snow un-stickified itself with the cooler temps...it never froze luckily, just dried out a bit so that was nice.

I do have a question from today...are those chutes that drop into Paradise cut? Or are/were they slide paths? I know they're not THAT steep but maybe 50 years ago before skiers were packing it down I could see some small slides forming up there if they are indeed natural openings.

It is plain rain now (and heavy too) at the base but MRG and SB webcams showing steady snow mid-mountain and up. Not sure what to expect tomorrow.

No they were not cut unless someone did it unnoticed which I doubt. It you look at older photos it was actually more open in the early days of Sugarbush. But protecting this upper mountain habitat is important, so please be respectful or the USFS will shut it down.

 

[ss20]

I didn't even hear/see it. Was it only for a short time? Just stepped out on my deck and it didn't seem to be doing much of anything now.

Yes, about 20 minutes maybe.

 

[shipyardcreek]

No they were not cut unless someone did it unnoticed which I doubt. It you look at older photos it was actually more open in the early days of Sugarbush. But protecting this upper mountain habitat is important, so please be respectful or the USFS will shut it down.

There actually is a slide from 4 or 5 years ago called Paradise Lost by some people. It is a nice run that puts you on the bottom of The Bear/Supper Chute. Problem is a couple of trees fell over on the route to the slide, the last of which you had to either climb over or crawl under, a real pain in the ass. I haven't been over there this year so I don't know if anyone has dealt with the trees.

 

[Hawk]

To be clear the paradise slide was a mud/dirt slide and not a snow slide that cleared it. Much like the big slide below Cutts Peak above slide brook. I think Bear is the only route that has seen some minor maintenance. Blow downs and such. The rest is naturally occurring in my opinion.

 

[1dog]

There actually is a slide from 4 or 5 years ago called Paradise Lost by some people. It is a nice run that puts you on the bottom of The Bear/Supper Chute. Problem is a couple of trees fell over on the route to the slide, the last of which you had to either climb over or crawl under, a real pain in the ass. I haven't been over there this year so I don't know if anyone has dealt with the trees.

am I being selfish by regretting this whole string of ( relatively) unknown woods stashes. 25 years after I started exploring there are a lot more chowder runs than powder runs. Aaah, its NIMBY I guess. Pushes the rest of us to further out places unknown. . . .as a diversion though, check out this post from VT Digger on ' The Way We Were'.

Stratton town report cover draws attention for all the wrong reasons

‘I apologize to anyone who was offended or affected by it,’ the town clerk says. ‘It was definitely a stupid decision. I just didn’t think it through.’

vtdigger.org

 

[tumbler]

Yikes. That was a big mistake. I also think there are the folks that move up and do not want anything to change so they get on the town boards and vote no on almost all development to preserve the quaintness but are stifling the economic growth. Ex: Farmers that can't sell their land because they won't allow houses to built on them. The worst one that I can quickly recall was Green Mountain Coffee Roasters getting rejected to expand in Waitsfield and moving to Waterbury. All that tax money...missed

 

[Hawk]

No 1dog, it is not selfish. For years the commonly know policy was to earn it yourself or have a friend show you. I always cringe when I see posts giving details. I personally will never give out details except to people I trust and know can ski. Powder skiing is a very finite thing and goes quicker than ever. I truly can not understand how people can be so inclusive that they have to give it out to everyone. I guess that is another reason why social media has ruined everything. It ruins the thing that you love to do. So Silly. Maybe people are just lazy now and don't want to earn it? For those of us that have been skiing Sugarbush for more that 15 or 20 years, it has totally changed. When I tell people that there might have been 20 people that skied slidebrook regularly when I first came here, I get total disbelief. The genie is out of the bottle now. But I will still never tell anybody anything. ;-)
Streetskier knows what I am talking about. He ran into me years ago and asked me how I found the place I was skiing. I said "follow your nose". He skied off without saying anything. LOL

 

[shipyardcreek]

No 1dog, it is not selfish. For years the commonly know policy was to earn it yourself or have a friend show you. I always cringe when I see posts giving details. I personally will never give out details except to people I trust and know can ski. Powder skiing is a very finite thing and goes quicker than ever. I truly can not understand how people can be so inclusive that they have to give it out to everyone. I guess that is another reason why social media has ruined everything. It ruins the thing that you love to do. So Silly. Maybe people are just lazy now and don't want to earn it? For those of us that have been skiing Sugarbush for more that 15 or 20 years, it has totally changed. When I tell people that there might have been 20 people that skied slidebrook regularly when I first came here, I get total disbelief. The genie is out of the bottle now. But I will still never tell anybody anything. ;-)
Streetskier knows what I am talking about. He ran into me years ago and asked me how I found the place I was skiing. I said "follow your nose". He skied off without saying anything. LOL

The slide area (Hawk is correct it was a summer time mud slide) I mentioned was on this message board right after it happened. Anyway, it is visible from the HG lift so it is hardly anyone's secret powder stash. I did not say how to get to it. The trees I mentioned were not cut down but fell over due to natural causes. To clear them out of the way you would need a large chain saw or a lot of chopping with a large axe.

 

[Hawk]

Shipyard I was not talking about your post. That is very much inbounds and well known. I was speaking more in general terms across all social media.

 

[shipyardcreek]

Shipyard I was not talking about your post. That is very much inbounds and well known. I was speaking more in general terms across all social media.

Sorry to misunderstand. While I know almost every inbounds run and most in Slide Brook, I cannot divulge any of the runs you are concerned about as I do not know the location of any BC runs except for Brandon Gap, which was written up in the NYT.

 

[flakeydog]

Stratton town report cover draws attention for all the wrong reasons

‘I apologize to anyone who was offended or affected by it,’ the town clerk says. ‘It was definitely a stupid decision. I just didn’t think it through.’

vtdigger.org

Oops- I guess they said the quite part out loud. Though as someone that is from "here", i would object to two points in this verse... First, people have a lot of reasons for coming here, not just because they did not like it back where they came from. There are a thousand other reasons why people end up here. Thats kind of what makes "here" special. I have had so many great conversations that started with "so how did you end up here in Vermont?" Second, the idea that we all just want things to stay the same and never change is off the mark. We are not as folksy and old-timey as the passage suggests. Those of us that live, work and raise families here want to see growth and prosperity, just in a controlled and sustainable fashion.

But this was supposed to be about skiing... there was a time when you could not ski in the woods, you could get your pass yanked (crazy, right? You had to go to Mad River for that). People skied the woods anyway and eventually it became embraced by the industry. A lot more terrain was in play but with that came many more of us in the woods. On top of that, interest level increased and exploration into every part of the mountain exploded. It is part of the evolution of skiing. As an extension of that, people are now seeking out destinations beyond ski mountains. Social media is a blessing and curse in this. The increased flow of information helps us find new opportunities and share those experiences but we all want to be the last one in before we lock the door. Oversharing can be the death of special places but we can also use social media to educate participants and preserve these areas. I agree we should not share our secret stashes on forums like these but I am never surprised if I see a set of tracks when I get there. Hopefully that person had the same thrill in discovering a "secret stash" as those that came before.

 

[flakeydog]

Found this out there in internet-land. Guess who in VT?
The Longest Lift-Serviced Vertical In Each State (True-Up Vertical) | Unofficial Networks

 

[KustyTheKlown]

without clicking first - i think mount ellen has the longest continuous vertical in Vermont. we are also in the sugarbush thread.

slidebrook is the longest chairlift in the world, I'm pretty sure?

 

[mikec142]

Found this out there in internet-land. Guess who in VT?
The Longest Lift-Serviced Vertical In Each State (True-Up Vertical) | Unofficial Networks

I thought Killington was over 3k? Or so it says on their website.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

I thought Killington was over 3k? Or so it says on their website.

killingtons 3k is marketing bullshit, and that site is tracking true vertical, like an actual top to bottom run. to get the 3k at killington you need to go from the top of killington peak to the bottom of the skyeship and its a weird run with a lot of connector nonsense happening. killington is truly a bunch of 1000-1500 foot pods.

 

[mikec142]

killingtons 3k is marketing bullshit, and that site is tracking true vertical, like an actual top to bottom run. to get the 3k at killington you need to go from the top of killington peak to the bottom of the skyeship and its a weird run with a lot of connector nonsense happening. killington is truly a bunch of 1000-1500 foot pods.

Interesting. Oddly enough, I've never skied K. Skied pretty much all of Southern VT and most of Northern VT, but of the bigger places have somehow missed K and Jay.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

Interesting. Oddly enough, I've never skied K. Skied pretty much all of Southern VT and most of Northern VT, but of the bigger places have somehow missed K and Jay.

yea, K is sort of comparable to Sunday River, but SR is even more pod-esque. super spread out/wide on the trail map. not so much size t2b.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

the sugarbush vert is also probably even bigger if you were to count slide brook runout as the low point