The "Sugarbush Thread"

[pinnoke]

Look who I found at Solitude today (while looking to say hello to Amber)!

 

[WinS]

Maybe Win is sticking to mid-week skiing now that he's retired! I did run into him on the hill last week one day (Tuesday maybe it was?) and we had a nice chat for a few minutes.

Did an early Xmas in CT with kids and grandchildren, so did not get back until late Sunday. So did some nice early Monday.

 

[bumpcrasher]

Beautiful snowmaking on Ripcord the past few days, yet any knowledge of what is going on at Mt Ellen?? Only 1 true run off GMX. Nothing open for the Summit Quad or NorthRidge, nor are they making any snow on the main mountain. Looks like none of the normal early season trails like Rim Run/Elbow will be open to at least spread out the masses.

 

[WinS]

View attachment 52451
Look who I found at Solitude today (while looking to say hello to Amber)!

Beautiful snowmaking on Ripcord the past few days, yet any knowledge of what is going on at Mt Ellen?? Only 1 true run off GMX. Nothing open for the Summit Quad or NorthRidge, nor are they making any snow on the main mountain. Looks like none of the normal early season trails like Rim Run/Elbow will be open to at least spread out the masses.

A lot of effort was placed on Inverness to get it ready for racing. It is 25 acres and takes nearly 10 million gallons of water. The next focus was getting Northstar, Mainstream and Straight Shot when the temps were good down low so there was a easy way to the gas from the top of GMX. They did have a break on Elbow which needed repair. As I understand it the focus is now on Crackerjack so there is a second route to the base and Inverness to get the park open. Not everyone will like that but it does get a lot of people over to Riemergasse. I think they plan to blow on Which Way too which comes in faster than Cruisier. After that I would guess the focus be be up top on Rim Run and Elbow. Not ideal but the temperatures have been challenging and the last rain and warm-up,caused the need to resurface a lot. I do see on the snow report that Inverness opens to the public at 11:30am today after GMVS is finished training.

Pinnoke, great you saw Gerry and hope to got to see Amber too.

 

[cdskier]

They need to do a slightly better job updating the snow report. The text part of the report says they've been making snow on 7 trails including Riemergasse, yet I can only find 2 trails with the snowmaking symbol next to them in the report (DS and Crackerjack).

 

[SkiTheEast]

They need to do a slightly better job updating the snow report. The text part of the report says they've been making snow on 7 trails including Riemergasse, yet I can only find 2 trails with the snowmaking symbol next to them in the report (DS and Crackerjack).

Was actually about say the same thing. Snow report needs a bit of work. The text itself is basically a copy/paste job everyday and doesn't have any real information.

And not to continue to crap on the app but I'm pretty much done with it for now. Just thinking about this from a visitors perspective, just clunky and confusing. Webcams are easier to access on the YouTube app and I've just bookmarked the conditions page on my phone. The open trails section on the app doesn't include icons to see where they are making snow / been groomed and still doesn't differentiate between Mt Ellen and Lincoln Peak. The lift section section doesn't include operating hours like the website does.

The forecast section is also worthless.

 

[cdskier]

Was actually about say the same thing. Snow report needs a bit of work. The text itself is basically a copy/paste job everyday and doesn't have any real information.

And not to continue to crap on the app but I'm pretty much done with it for now. Just thinking about this from a visitors perspective, just clunky and confusing. Webcams are easier to access on the YouTube app and I've just bookmarked the conditions page on my phone. The open trails section on the app doesn't include icons to see where they are making snow / been groomed and still doesn't differentiate between Mt Ellen and Lincoln Peak. The lift section section doesn't include operating hours like the website does.

The forecast section is also worthless.

I'd agree pretty much 100% with all of this. I'd also add that it is still incredibly annoying to have to click "Read more" to see the full text blurb on the website. There's more than enough room on the snow report webpage to have a text block dedicated to the blurb that doesn't requiring an extra click to see the whole thing. I just don't understand the obsession by whoever Alterra hired to design this template with requiring so many extra clicks to see info that could easily be on 1 page with no additional clicks. Just a poor design that makes little sense.

 

[WinS]

Was actually about say the same thing. Snow report needs a bit of work. The text itself is basically a copy/paste job everyday and doesn't have any real information.

And not to continue to crap on the app but I'm pretty much done with it for now. Just thinking about this from a visitors perspective, just clunky and confusing. Webcams are easier to access on the YouTube app and I've just bookmarked the conditions page on my phone. The open trails section on the app doesn't include icons to see where they are making snow / been groomed and still doesn't differentiate between Mt Ellen and Lincoln Peak. The lift section section doesn't include operating hours like the website does.

The forecast section is also worthless.

I brought the snowmaking reporting to their attention today. For the past few years Sugarbush used a third party app that was customized to some degree for Sugarbush, but it had limitations. Alterra decided to create their own App but to allow flexibility at the Rescort level. Unfortunately, as I understand it, there is not the flexibility one would want. It was rolled out just before the season began so not an opportunity to do many changes yet. That snow forecast is a case in point. I know they are trying to get some of this issues fixed but it is not in their control. I have been figuring out better ways to get the info I want but it is not as easy as it should be. For instance finding temperatures at the different levels requires going to the home page and then the info icon and then “snow report on the website”. Then hit down arrow on “Today” to get temps at base, mid, summit. Hopefully, the fixes can be made sooner rather than later.

 

[thetrailboss]

I brought the snowmaking reporting to their attention today. For the past few years Sugarbush used a third party app that was customized to some degree for Sugarbush, but it had limitations. Alterra decided to create their own App but to allow flexibility at the Rescort level. Unfortunately, as I understand it, there is not the flexibility one would want. It was rolled out just before the season began so not an opportunity to do many changes yet. That snow forecast is a case in point. I know they are trying to get some of this issues fixed but it is not in their control. I have been figuring out better ways to get the info I want but it is not as easy as it should be. For instance finding temperatures at the different levels requires going to the home page and then the info icon and then “snow report on the website”. Then hit down arrow on “Today” to get temps at base, mid, summit. Hopefully, the fixes can be made sooner rather than later.

So I think the one thing that I have seen consistently about Vail and Alterra is the complaint that snow reporting is not done well. If you look in the “Vail sucks” thread you’ll see people consistently saying that there is not enough information. I understand that the companies want to streamline things but that is one area that is important to the more serious skiers and riders.

It has been 10 years for me, but one of the things that Sugarbush used to do very well under your ownership was snow reporting.

 

[tumbler]

Trying to figure out where they moved the snowmaking to from Ripcord. Looks like DS is still on. Hopefully they are not wasting the good temps. And I'm sorry but making snow on Crackerjack is a joke, the trail is flat from slidebrook to the top of Sunny Q. The park has it's own lift. Sad that Northstar>Mainstream>SS (with a park) is the only thing open there.

 

[The Poacher]

I am also curious about the snowmaking. They are not mentioning it on the trail report, I don't see it on any Webcam and I don't see any signs of it from the gf course view. And yes, the snowmaking they've done on north makes no sense to me.

 

[Hawk]

1st post from the poacher. Welcome. With a name like that I am not showing you anything. LOL JK

 

[The Poacher]

Hahaha, I've actually been on here for years and skimrv prior to that. Normally I just pop in and read. Haven't posted in long time, not sure why it said new. My family will be up next week for roughly our 30th Xmas week in the valley. Can't wait! Say hi if you see us

 

[cdskier]

I am also curious about the snowmaking. They are not mentioning it on the trail report, I don't see it on any Webcam and I don't see any signs of it from the gf course view. And yes, the snowmaking they've done on north makes no sense to me.

The only thing I would say in their defense is that the temps at lower elevations in particular seem a bit marginal at the moment (if the website readings are accurate). They're starting to drop a bit now, but earlier when I looked it was 28 at the mid and around 30-32 at the base. Not exactly good for snow-making on most of the trails left at LP...

 

[The Poacher]

The only thing I would say in their defense is that the temps at lower elevations in particular seem a bit marginal at the moment (if the website readings are accurate). They're starting to drop a bit now, but earlier when I looked it was 28 at the mid and around 30-32 at the base. Not exactly good for snow-making on most of the trails left at LP...

Good point. I do see guns on now.

 

[WinS]

The only thing I would say in their defense is that the temps at lower elevations in particular seem a bit marginal at the moment (if the website readings are accurate). They're starting to drop a bit now, but earlier when I looked it was 28 at the mid and around 30-32 at the base. Not exactly good for snow-making on most of the trails left at LP...

I was out today. Very marginal temperatures so not great production until later this evening. They were half-curtailed yesterday which cut into production. Guns still on DS. Still quite gravelly on lower portion so need to keep going. Guns running on middle jester and upper part of Lower Organgrinder. Organgrinder and SB Spring Fling were nicely groomed when I was on first thing.

 

[jaybird]

Ripcord tower line was sweet today, eh?
Paradise extension .. not so much.

Curious, has that rock pile on lower Steins been there all along? Dont recall it being as pronounced .. but such little snow does bring certain 'features' into sharper focus ..

 

[dustyroads]

I brought the snowmaking reporting to their attention today. For the past few years Sugarbush used a third party app that was customized to some degree for Sugarbush, but it had limitations. Alterra decided to create their own App but to allow flexibility at the Rescort level. Unfortunately, as I understand it, there is not the flexibility one would want. It was rolled out just before the season began so not an opportunity to do many changes yet. That snow forecast is a case in point. I know they are trying to get some of this issues fixed but it is not in their control. I have been figuring out better ways to get the info I want but it is not as easy as it should be. For instance finding temperatures at the different levels requires going to the home page and then the info icon and then “snow report on the website”. Then hit down arrow on “Today” to get temps at base, mid, summit. Hopefully, the fixes can be made sooner rather than later.

Plus, I noticed the app won't download to a slightly older iPad.

 

[Hawk]

Always been there. I hit it last year early when Steins was just natural snow before they blew it and blew out an edge on my old skis. I was also checking that out last weekend and commented about that.

 

[pinnoke]

So I think the one thing that I have seen consistently about Vail and Alterra is the complaint that snow reporting is not done well. If you look in the “Vail sucks” thread you’ll see people consistently saying that there is not enough information. I understand that the companies want to streamline things but that is one area that is important to the more serious skiers and riders.

It has been 10 years for me, but one of the things that Sugarbush used to do very well under your ownership was snow reporting.

And, if you'd like TMI, then I could be coaxed out of Sugarbush snow reporting retirement! What a wonderful 4 seasons I enjoyed in that chair and on my skis (minus the ACL year), when a snow reporter was given the freedom to give a first-hand report. Win only had to call me a FEW times (to tell me there was more new snow than I might have recorded)!