The "Sugarbush Thread"

[ss20]

I'd think a better strategy would be to blow up high. With the natural snow and cold temps it wouldn't take many snowmaking hours to get upper mountain terrain open. Then once there's a few routes to spread people out go back and work down low. Kinda like how Killington will almost always (but not this year) get Upper Dipper, Downdraft Headwall, and Upper East Fall open in the North Ridge before moving on the GN down to the bottom of the K1.

 

[cdskier]

I'd think a better strategy would be to blow up high. With the natural snow and cold temps it wouldn't take many snowmaking hours to get upper mountain terrain open. Then once there's a few routes to spread people out go back and work down low. Kinda like how Killington will almost always (but not this year) get Upper Dipper, Downdraft Headwall, and Upper East Fall open in the North Ridge before moving on the GN down to the bottom of the K1.

Up high where? Ripcord? (Upper Jester and Organgrinder are both already open...) That doesn't gain you much...blowing on Gate House terrain gets you an entire extra lift to help spread people out and take some pressure off of Heaven's Gate. Another route off the summit would just drive more people to Heaven's Gate...which is not what you need if the goal is to spread people out.

With cold temps down low it makes complete sense to hit whatever you can closer to the bottom first. You can always go back up higher on the mountain to Ripcord (or even mid-mountain routes) when the base temps warm up a bit and limit your options at the base.

 

[ss20]

Up high where? Ripcord? (Upper Jester and Organgrinder are both already open...) That doesn't gain you much...blowing on Gate House terrain gets you an entire extra lift to help spread people out and take some pressure off of Heaven's Gate. Another route off the summit would just drive more people to Heaven's Gate...which is not what you need if the goal is to spread people out.

With cold temps down low it makes complete sense to hit whatever you can closer to the bottom first. You can always go back up higher on the mountain to Ripcord (or even mid-mountain routes) when the base temps warm up a bit and limit your options at the base.

Ah ok. I thought it was just U. Jester.

 

[tumbler]

Getting GH open will help getting beginners off SB but they need to get lower jester and lower downspout done. Having those open frees up Lower OG, Birdland and Murphys which really starts to spread the crowd out. But they will be on GH for the next week.

And like a broken record, the new app is terrible. So little info and too many clicks to get somewhere. Only shows the base temp. I just use the website.

 

[Hawk]

I was lookng at the app on Friday and saturday to see if they had snow totals and I could not find that. Also it looks like they rmoved the time lapse on the snow board so you can't tell how much fell over night or over the course of the day. I think that is a minus.

 

[cdskier]

And like a broken record, the new app is terrible. So little info and too many clicks to get somewhere. Only shows the base temp. I just use the website.

My dad installed the new app over Thanksgiving after he asked me why the old app wasn't working anymore and I told him he needed to install the new app. First thing he said was "wtf is this shit? This is terrible. Why did they change something that worked great? Why are all the trails in 1 big alphabetical list? This is useless..."

 

[tumbler]

We'll see how things progress as the season goes along but it feels more "corporatety" up there now. Not to be unexpected I guess with all the turnover.

 

[Smellytele]

Getting GH open will help getting beginners off SB but they need to get lower jester and lower downspout done. Having those open frees up Lower OG, Birdland and Murphys which really starts to spread the crowd out. But they will be on GH for the next week.

And like a broken record, the new app is terrible. So little info and too many clicks to get somewhere. Only shows the base temp. I just use the website.

As noted before all the temps are on there for peak, middle and base just need to click on the left where it says “Today (base)” and you can choose the other 2.

 

[cdskier]

As noted before all the temps are on there for peak, middle and base just need to click on the left where it says “Today (base)” and you can choose the other 2.

I'm not seeing any way to click/tap on the temp on the "Weather & Snow Conditions" section within the app... This is the info that is 1 click from the main page.

 

[Smellytele]

I'm not seeing any way to click/tap on the temp on the "Weather & Snow Conditions" section within the app... This is the info that is 1 click from the main page.

View attachment 52288

Right it is under Infó temps. As noted too many clicks though to get to them.

 

[cdskier]

Right it is under Infó temps. As noted too many clicks though to get to them.

Yea...the option you're talking about via the Info menu is really just displaying that page from their website within the app itself. At that point you may as well bypass the app and use the website. An app that acts as a browser to display an actual webpage is a waste of an app...

 

[Shredmonkey254]

Gosh, they opened Ripchord - no snowmaking thank goodness!
After 6 consecutive top to bottoms of pure bliss, took life in hands heading down Spring Fling - which was so bumpilicous on Sunday - straight to Castlerock Pub for a couple Fiddlehead Aethereum’s on tap. Life was really good yesterday!

 

[jaybird]

Ripcord top was snausages.
Mid was decent.
Spillsville Funtastik.
GMVS peeps radar violations ongoing.

 

[WinS]

Some perspective. The temps of the past few days were good for lower level snowmaking. It looks like temps will rise and snowmaking will stop tomorrow morning, but looking at things today I think that Pushover, Slowpoke, Easy Rider, First Time, Welcome Mat and Sugar Bear Road will be ready for the weekend. Having beginner and intermediate terrain available is a huge plus. In my opinion, the next priority is moving ground gear over to Lower Downspout, Lower Jester, Coffee Run tomorrow to turn on when temps fall late Thursday. A path down from Heaven’s Gate is a priority. If temps stay down focusing on mid-mountain makes the most sense next. Jester is an important trail to get open ASAP and needs land gear set up on it. The towers on Lower Organgrinder are very efficient and that trail can come in fast. No one focuses on ME yet. However, it looks like Inverness is close to being finished so snowmaking can move elsewhere to get terrain ready for opening in three weeks.

Ripcord was good for first run, but I would not ski it now. A lot poached on Saturday when Windhold came off.

Like all of you I am getting used to new APP so holding judgment, I do see all three level temps. I understand more web cams are coming which will be helpful.

 

[tumbler]

Looking at the cams there is a demo day today? A Wednesday in early December seems a bit random. Nothing about it in the events calendar and while I was in the calendar no mentions of apres music. I hope there will be music this year.

 

[ss20]

Looking at the cams there is a demo day today? A Wednesday in early December seems a bit random. Nothing about it in the events calendar and while I was in the calendar no mentions of apres music. I hope there will be music this year.

Could be ski shops/industry reps. They do a lot of private events with the manufacturers.

 

[Hawk]

I am sure it is something like that. There is no point in having a general demo day and not advertising.

 

[Smellytele]

Could be ski shops/industry reps. They do a lot of private events with the manufacturers.

It’s for employees only…

 

[Smellytele]

It’s for employees only…

Also HG went down and they are shuttling people to the bottom.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Indeed. Looks like they are having an impromptu lift ops staff meeting to figure it out. Also looks like they are about to go all in on Lower Downspout/Jester to the base.