The "Sugarbush Thread"

[thetrailboss]

Here we go again. At Mt. Ellen, the GMX has been down all day, as well as the North Ridge Express. Summit Chair is open, but I don't know how you get to it.
Just read about the new Gadd Brook development being announced today. Kudos on your priorities!

Who needs lifts when you can have an awesome new house?

 

[WWF-VT]

FWIW - it's a rainy day here at Sugarbush and Mt Ellen was a ghost town. Only place with activity was a few skiers/riders in the terrain park. Why do people feel compelled to bitch about lift operations unless it effects them because they are here ? I didn't get details on why the GMX was down but it was running at 4 PM

 

[thetrailboss]

FWIW - it's a rainy day here at Sugarbush and Mt Ellen was a ghost town. Only place with activity was a few skiers/riders in the terrain park. Why do people feel compelled to bitch about lift operations unless it effects them because they are here ? I didn't get details on why the GMX was down but it was running at 4 PM

Lifts are kind of important....



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[rtjcbrown]

FWIW - it's a rainy day here at Sugarbush and Mt Ellen was a ghost town. Only place with activity was a few skiers/riders in the terrain park. Why do people feel compelled to bitch about lift operations unless it effects them because they are here ? I didn't get details on why the GMX was down but it was running at 4 PM

Bitching because I plan on going there

 

[MadMadWorld]

FWIW - it's a rainy day here at Sugarbush and Mt Ellen was a ghost town. Only place with activity was a few skiers/riders in the terrain park. Why do people feel compelled to bitch about lift operations unless it effects them because they are here ? I didn't get details on why the GMX was down but it was running at 4 PM

Homer

 

[thetrailboss]

And I am hoping to visit Mt Ellen in February.

 

[steamboat1]

And I am hoping to visit Mt Ellen in February.

Don't go there, the lifts don't work & lower FIS will be closed anyway.

 

[WWF-VT]

They were load testing the North Ridge chair this afternoon....inspection is pending.

 

[thetrailboss]

Don't go there, the lifts don't work & lower FIS will be closed anyway.

Good one!


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[tumbler]

From Win regarding Northridge Chair. Just cannot seem to catch a break. The park rats must be really bummed about Sunny D.

Further Update. It is still experiencing reset issues. Now we think it is in our brand new drive that Dopplemayr installed this summer. Needless to say, this is very frustrating and I am not at all pleased with Dopplemayr right now. They did put one of their top guys on a plane from Salt Lake. The lift is running but if it stopped again and we could not get a reset we would have to evacuate it on the diesel which takes a lot of time on this lift because of its length. Rather than put our guests at risk of that today, we are running it continuously and continuing the diagnosis and hopefully have it all figured out by tomorrow.

We do have three choices for our new Valley House lift, so how this turns out may influence my decision on the new lift.

On top of that Sunny-D had to been shut down tomorrow. We seem to have a problem in the gear box, So it is being opened up. Hoping it is just the bearing which is an easy fix. This is a real inconvenience to those using the park and also to those looking for good beginner terrain off of Sunny-D.

I really do apologize to all for these inconveniences. Hopefully, we get everything out of the way now.

 

[thetrailboss]

From Win regarding Northridge Chair. Just cannot seem to catch a break. The park rats must be really bummed about Sunny D.

Further Update. It is still experiencing reset issues. Now we think it is in our brand new drive that Dopplemayr installed this summer. Needless to say, this is very frustrating and I am not at all pleased with Dopplemayr right now. They did put one of their top guys on a plane from Salt Lake. The lift is running but if it stopped again and we could not get a reset we would have to evacuate it on the diesel which takes a lot of time on this lift because of its length. Rather than put our guests at risk of that today, we are running it continuously and continuing the diagnosis and hopefully have it all figured out by tomorrow.

We do have three choices for our new Valley House lift, so how this turns out may influence my decision on the new lift.

On top of that Sunny-D had to been shut down tomorrow. We seem to have a problem in the gear box, So it is being opened up. Hoping it is just the bearing which is an easy fix. This is a real inconvenience to those using the park and also to those looking for good beginner terrain off of Sunny-D.

I really do apologize to all for these inconveniences. Hopefully, we get everything out of the way now.

Hate to say it, but "told you so!"


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[Plowboy]

Update:
Thanks. My team is really bummed. They pride themselves on giving everyone a great experience.

Doppllemary tells us they are confident they know what the issue is and their guy will be here first thing in the morning to fix it. So we are expecting to have NRX running in the AM even though it may be delayed. Hopefully, I did not jinx things with this post.

Sunny-D will not run tomorrow and until we get the gear box open we will not know what the extent of the damage is. Tom Kerr who does repair work all over the world and is intimately familiar with Sunny-D was on the scene today and will let us know tomorrow what the fix is.

 

[thetrailboss]

Update:
Thanks. My team is really bummed. They pride themselves on giving everyone a great experience.

Doppllemary tells us they are confident they know what the issue is and their guy will be here first thing in the morning to fix it. So we are expecting to have NRX running in the AM even though it may be delayed. Hopefully, I did not jinx things with this post.

Sunny-D will not run tomorrow and until we get the gear box open we will not know what the extent of the damage is. Tom Kerr who does repair work all over the world and is intimately familiar with Sunny-D was on the scene today and will let us know tomorrow what the fix is.

The funny thing is that a few pages back I suggested that Sunny D needed to be replaced and folks laughed at me. Guess I was right again....

 

[MadMadWorld]

Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist but it seems like a coincidence that lifts have been broken and now all of a sudden the trail count is way up.....trail preservation?

 

[goldsbar]

Why do people feel compelled to bitch about lift operations unless it effects them because they are here ?

Easy answer for me. I'd been going to Sugarbush once/year for a long weekend over the past several years. Paid for full price tickets and full day lessons for the kids. In other words, the customer they make money off of. Almost every time there was some lift issue. Broken lifts. Wind holds when there was barely any wind. You name it.

Love the mountain. Last year I went to K instead. Why? Got tired of the lifts and so couldn't justify the extra hour drive. I'll be back - eventually - because the skiing is far superior with Castlerock, etc.

 

[steamboat1]

The funny thing is that a few pages back I suggested that Sunny D needed to be replaced and folks laughed at me. Guess I was right again....

Still laughing

 

[gostan]

Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist but it seems like a coincidence that lifts have been broken and now all of a sudden the trail count is way up.....trail preservation?

Many of us have determined that some of these so-called open trails will not feel the bottoms of our skis if we desire that the skis will survive.

Good to see that they will finally be blowing snow on Steins.

 

[Newpylong]

Wow. All I can say is those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. That is a huge mistake.

As many longtime Sugarbush skiers and riders know, the NRX was the original GMX installed during a massiverive upgrade of North in 1991 or so. It is a Poma lift with Poma's proprietary engineering and design. In 1995 when LBO moved the lift, he used Doppelmayr and NOT Poma to do the work. In simple terms, they had no idea WTF they were doing because it was a Poma lift. When the work was done they came into the mountain ops office with a box of parts that they "didn't know" where they went on the lift. From 1995-2002 it ran terribly.

In 2002 Win paid Poma to fix the lift and do it right. They did it at the same time that Poma installed the GMX. It ran considerably better from then on with some hiccups every now and then. Admittedly the old cadence chain system is now quite obsolete.

So hiring Doppelmayr to come back and "update it" seems like a huge mistake. No doubt they offered to do it for less money, but considering the importance of that lift and its history it should have been Poma to do that work.

That's just MHO.

I rode the North Ridge Express 6 days every week from 1995-1999 and was only stuck on it once. For the most part, it was fine.

 

[rocks860]

Many of us have determined that some of these so-called open trails will not feel the bottoms of our skis if we desire that the skis will survive. [emoji12]

Good to see that they will finally be blowing snow on Steins.

Steins looked god awful on Saturday but people were still skiing it

 

[rocks860]

Been snowing all day here, didn't ski today but I'll definitely be out there tomorrow!