The "Sugarbush Thread"

[WWF-VT]

LOL....there isn't going to be a huge line. The season is essentially done at this time. If there is a significant snow fall there will be more cars in the parking lot and people skinning Mt Ellen than you will see riding the Valley House chair at Lincoln Peak.

 

[Hawk]

Maybe, but I think what people are missing is that all the new IKON people are a different lot then our regular community from years past. It would not surprise me at all if there was a big line on Saturday noontime especially if the weather clears. We will see. I will be in that line at least for a while. So will all my friends. Mt Ellen will be where all the locals will be and the usual skinning suspects.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i am going to killington saturday, and sugarbush sunday, which is opposite my usual routine - i like a shorter drive home Sunday when possible. but killington will get more snow, have more lifts turning, is more likely to re-open closed terrain, and most people have spent their 5/7 ikon days already hopefully.

 

[cdskier]

With only VH, it wouldn't take much to generate a line (especially as we're still not fully loading chairs). I also wouldn't be surprised at all to see a decent line on Saturday. I'll be in it...

 

[flakeydog]

I am usually an optimist but this storm will likely not move the chains, even at 12+. Without a base and how warm its been last week, snow will best accumulate on existing snow. Ground will be covered but it will not last, but the mountain will be open for the next 1-2 weeks with Steins at least.

This is a flashback to the 2011-12 season. Sugarbush closes on April 8th after several days of temps in the 70s and even 80s late March. Then it gets cold and we ski a crusty Steins to wrap up a shortened season. Later that week, it snows, a lot, but it is not enough and Sugarbush remains closed. Not ready to hang em up yet, we trek to Killington to get out at least one more time. They got 20 inches but it went fast. It remained cold for a few days but we were there 4 days post-storm (as it warmed up) and anything not covered previously was pretty much gone already.

Here is the Mansfield snow stake from now vs 2012. It picked up 20 inches mid April (went from 27 up to 47) and then melted. We are only at 11 right now, ouch! Snow or rain, we need precipitation as it is super dry out there. Lake Champlain was very low last fall and is at least 2+ feet lower than it should be right now.

 

[cdskier]

I am usually an optimist but this storm will likely not move the chains, even at 12+. Without a base and how warm its been last week, snow will best accumulate on existing snow. Ground will be covered but it will not last, but the mountain will be open for the next 1-2 weeks with Steins at least.

I agree. I just hope other people don't see a storm coming and think we're going to magically have more of the mountain open. I don't see it happening either personally, but I'm worried others will expect that. I'm guessing my neighbor plans to come up as their condo is being cleaned right now. Last weekend they weren't up and I thought they were done for the season.

 

[ss20]

I agree. I just hope other people don't see a storm coming and think we're going to magically have more of the mountain open. I don't see it happening either personally, but I'm worried others will expect that. I'm guessing my neighbor plans to come up as their condo is being cleaned right now. Last weekend they weren't up and I thought they were done for the season.

Any chance they re-open Heaven's Gate? Should be a foot+ even at the base of that chair and I'm sure there's some snowmaking piles left up there.


As Kusty said Killington will most certainly re-open terrain. Lots of low-angle, grassy terrain above 3000' there.

 

[cdskier]

Any chance they re-open Heaven's Gate? Should be a foot+ even at the base of that chair and I'm sure there's some snowmaking piles left up there.

My gut feeling is no. You'd either need to reopen SB as well or have the Reverse Traverse/HG Traverse route open and skiable (heavy wet snow on a fairly flat traverse isn't exactly a great combination from the skier's perspective on traveling the traverse...). Someone asked the same question on SB's Instragram post last night but there hasn't been a response yet from SB. I'll keep an eye on that and see if they end up posting a response though.

 

[cdskier]

Yup...very true. I've been accessing the cams all winter to check on lines at different lifts (but have kept that quiet as I didn't want someone to actually turn them off).

Coincidence that shortly after djd and myself posted about this that the LP webcam was taken offline entirely and that the Super Bravo cam was re-positioned to point/zoom in on Stein's it seems? (Not that that is a bad thing to get a good view of Stein's from a webcam).

 

[tumbler]

I think no chance they open other lifts besides VH. Lifties and other staff have been laid off.

 

[slatham]

I think no chance they open other lifts besides VH. Lifties and other staff have been laid off.

And perhaps they already started summer prep and literally can't run SB?

Also, if I were management I'd be quiet until the snow is on the ground. Assuming I had flexibility to do something other run VH and maybe open Twist/Moonshine/Mall.
Of course the delta between summit snow and base elevation snow is likely to be historic.

 

[HowieT2]

I think no chance they open other lifts besides VH. Lifties and other staff have been laid off.

agreed, unfortunately.

 

[mikec142]

How much snow needs to be on a trail to safely open it? I haven't seen them recently, but I would assume that Twist and Moonshine are totally bare. Could this storm conceivably drop enough to open them safely?

 

[dblskifanatic]

LOL....there isn't going to be a huge line. The season is essentially done at this time. If there is a significant snow fall there will be more cars in the parking lot and people skinning Mt Ellen than you will see riding the Valley House chair at Lincoln Peak.

When ever I skied Sugarbush late season, VH always hade a pretty decent line - not huge but there was a wait. I always made the mistake of going on Saturday too! It was really bad when there was a double there so it is much improved now.

 

[tumbler]

How much snow needs to be on a trail to safely open it? I haven't seen them recently, but I would assume that Twist and Moonshine are totally bare. Could this storm conceivably drop enough to open them safely?

More than what is forecasted but with the skeleton staff of patrollers they are not going to be dropping ropes. They are hanging on for marketing at this point with the crappy coverage, lots of money being lost this time of year.

 

[ss20]

How much snow needs to be on a trail to safely open it? I haven't seen them recently, but I would assume that Twist and Moonshine are totally bare. Could this storm conceivably drop enough to open them safely?

Probably not on terrain that is that low. As someone said this storm is going to be EXTREMELY elevation dependent. Case-in-point, temps are just above freezing at the top of Lincoln per the snow report and it should change to snow in the next couple hours, but it's still 44 degrees at the base and will be raining down their til nightfall.

The base of Lincoln is 1,600 feet. The base of K1 at Killington is 2,400. The top of Valley House is 3,000 feet while Killington had lots of terrain above that elevation still open (North Ridge, most of Canyon, tops of Snowdon and Superstar.

 

[Hawk]

Even if it snowed a foot down to the base, this snow is going to be heavy wet on top of warm ground. There is no way the will reopen anything. Once the sun comes out it will be gone in a day or two. There is more rain in the forecast for Sunday also. Go ski Steins and poach if you have to find out. I will bet this kind of snow will stop you in your tracks. I'm good with skiing steins and maybe spring fling.

 

[kingslug]

Skiing Friday is key as it will ..well either slowly accumulate or major dump..either way I think its way better to ski it as it comes rather than wait for the whole dump. Saturday will be tricky if its a mass of glop.

 

[cdskier]

Not that anyone should be surprised, but SB confirmed in the afternoon Snow Report that they will not open any additional lifts. They did leave open the possibility of opening additional terrain off VH though. I don't really see us getting enough snow at low elevations on bare, wet ground to make that happen, but you never know.

We're rolling on Valley House lift for the rest of the season, with mid-week openings at 10AM, weekends at 9AM and closes at 5PM every day. We may decide to open additional terrain, depending on snow accumulations, but it will all be accessed from Valley House.

 

[CastlerockMRV]

From the snow report:

Skinning is not currently permitted on Super Bravo and Heaven's Gate areas.

Odds this changes tomorrow? Better to ask for forgiveness than for permission? Skinning up VH Traverse > Jester for an OG lap or 2 could be nice. Coming down at an inch per hour now based on the mid mtn stake cam...