The "Sugarbush Thread"

[Tonyr]

So… is it possible to have to much snow? Had multiple woods failures today, humping thru thigh deep, untracked. Runs we have done many times over the years, FAIL. Is it we are out of practice, too many trees down or was just too much snow? Is that even f’ing possible? Do the woods really change that much from year to year? You guys stop pruning!? God. Beers never tasted so good this afternoon, thanks Kingslug!

Too much snow can definitely make the trees more challenging especially if the run isn't super steep and the snow is heavy. You end up humping through alot of stuff on the untouched snow when your momentum stops. Looks like a great day was had though yesterday!

 

[Hawk]

It's an experience thing and you learn the snow type and quality as you go. The snow we recieved Friday was pretty heavy underneith and about 18 to 20 " deep. Fat skis, tip rocker and speed are your 3 friends that keep you up and going. If you are heavier, it is certainly a disadvantage because you sink sooner when your speed decreases and once that happens, the snow on your legs slows you even more. At north yesterday I sank and got stuck a bunch usually at the bottom of steeper pitches. I knew better but got lured in. The tip is to find steeper terrain and make less short truns. You will plane out higher in the snow. Pow loves speed! The other thing you can do is follow another track and go in and out as you slow down.
So no there is no such thing to have too much snow. Well unless it shuts down the ski area but that usually only happens out West.
Now back out for phase 2. Afternoon skin.

 

[Hawk]

There seems to be much less pruning than there used to be, both by the mountain and privately. Exterminator woods were very much overgrown yesterday. Exterminator was always tight, but with the minimal snowpack & lack of pruning, has become treacherous. I don’t ski Walt’s much, but it had no obvious exit.

Private pruning? In the national forest? I don't think so. All pruning is done by the mountain and pre approved by the us Forest service. In my opinion it is mostly an issue with the thin snow pack. Most years by now we have 3 or 4 feet in the woods or on the trials. That is the difference.

 

[WinS]

It's an experience thing and you learn the snow type and quality as you go. The snow we recieved Friday was pretty heavy underneith and about 18 to 20 " deep. Fat skis, tip rocker and speed are your 3 friends that keep you up and going. If you are heavier, it is certainly a disadvantage because you sink sooner when your speed decreases and once that happens, the snow on your legs slows you even more. At north yesterday I sank and got stuck a bunch usually at the bottom of steeper pitches. I knew better but got lured in. The tip is to find steeper terrain and make less short truns. You will plane out higher in the snow. Pow loves speed! The other thing you can do is follow another track and go in and out as you slow down.
So no there is no such thing to have too much snow. Well unless it shuts down the ski area but that usually only happens out West.
Now back out for phase 2. Afternoon skin.

Hawk is absolutely correct. The marked wooded areas at Lincoln Peak were approved by the USFS as part of Sugarbush’s forest management plan with them. They do not take kindly at all to any unauthorized cutting and hold Sugarbush accountable. They are supportive of the current open wood policy but could shut that down and allow only trail skiing if they felt Sugarbush was not following their directions on cutting. A few year ago someone did some serious cutting off of North Lynx and they were furious.

 

[jaybird]

Hawk is absolutely correct. The marked wooded areas at Lincoln Peak were approved by the USFS as part of Sugarbush’s forest management plan with them. They do not take kindly at all to any unauthorized cutting and hold Sugarbush accountable. They are supportive of the current open wood policy but could shut that down and allow only trail skiing if they felt Sugarbush was not following their directions on cutting. A few year ago someone did some serious cutting off of North Lynx and they were furious.

Yeah .. that lean-to was ridiculous

 

[Kingslug20]

Think ill head to sb tomorrow for a change..

 

[Smellytele]

Why wasn’t summit quad at Ellen running today?

 

[Lotso]

Any chance this weekend set a record for skier visits on a non-holiday WE? Crazy crowds but glad they could spread out.

 

[Smellytele]

Any chance this weekend set a record for skier visits on a non-holiday WE? Crazy crowds but glad they could spread out.

Skied mt Ellen in the morning and crowds were not bad at all. Went over to Lincoln in the after noon and had no lines except bravo and last run up gate house around 3. Even CR had no line. Parking at Lincoln on the other hand.

 

[cdskier]

Skied mt Ellen in the morning and crowds were not bad at all. Went over to Lincoln in the after noon and had no lines except bravo and last run up gate house around 3. Even CR had no lune. Parking at Lincoln on the other hand.

I skied LP from 8-1 today. Longest line I waited in was 5 minutes at SB once (and most of that was due to it stopping for a couple minutes). I did stay away from GH and CR though, so perhaps there were some longer lines there. I was expecting much worse with the number of cars I saw already in the lot a few minutes before 8 when I got there.

 

[WinS]

Why wasn’t summit quad at Ellen running today?

When the lift was being checked this morning, two sheaves were in need of replacing. . They were replaced and the lift opened.

 

[WinS]

Any chance this weekend set a record for skier visits on a non-holiday WE? Crazy crowds but glad they could spread out.

Close. But we had a slightly larger day a few years ago over MLK. I suspect it was largest non-holiday though.

 

[Lotso]

Close. But we had a slightly larger day a few years ago over MLK. I suspect it was largest non-holiday though.

Thanks. Yeah, I am counting Fri-Sun, no holiday. Parking to the road and beyond on ME access rd is my barometer. Nutty but nutty is good for business. Nice that the jitney came down the road.

 

[cdskier]

The gunpowder on Stein's today was excellent btw...

 

[teleo]

Top of snowball too. Glad to see some depth being added for april and may.

 

[Hawk]

The gunpowder on Stein's today was excellent btw...

I will totally agree. Did you ski the center of the trail over the huge whales? They were super steep on the back side and the snow sluff would cascade down in front of you like in you see in those videos from AK. Well kind of. LOL I will admit the qualiy was fine on Steins.

 

[Hawk]

When North Links started up around 2 on Saturday it was like a frenzy. People pouring into slide brook. I have to say it kills me to see groups of people snowplowing on that terrain and asking how to get back to the resort. It happened to me on more that one occasion.

 

[ericfromMA/NH/VT]

Hey all, quick question re: the new app.

I can log into my sugarbush acct online at the SB website no issues.

I try to log into the new app with the same user name/PW as my Sugarbush acct and i get a a message that says "not authorized".

any advice on what to do to get into the app? I'm coming up with the kids wed/Thursday and want to know lift status, trail status, what's groomed etc. They had that on the old app I assume they have it on this one.

Thanks!

 

[pinion]

When North Links started up around 2 on Saturday it was like a frenzy. People pouring into slide brook. I have to say it kills me to see groups of people snowplowing on that terrain and asking how to get back to the resort. It happened to me on more that one occasion.

This sort of thing "feels" more common in the past 5 years, seemingly correlated with the uptick in skier visits across all mountains. Watching people boot out of Elevator Shaft at Wildcat, snowplow down Centennial Trees at Deer Valley, and ragdoll slide through Ripcord at Snow. Would not surprise me if something like Slide Brook is getting the same treatment. Do they still market SB as "official sidecountry" like they used to? Haven't been to Bush in 12 years sadly.

*edit: reading Sugarbush's blog and it seems like they are on top of their communication/explanation strategy more-so than other NE mountains. I gotta get up there, if not this year, then definitely next year.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

gapers sliding down ripcord at mount snow is a tale as old as time and a short marked black trail with a short but steep headwall is not remotely in the same conversation as thousands of acres of unpatrolled tree skiing.