The "Sugarbush Thread"

[Castlerockrisk]

I hiked up to the observation platform yesterday afternoon. They were working on Bravo- running the line and checking chairs.

Guns have been pulled out on upper jester with hoses and connections. Based on some ice rivers around some guns they may have charged and checked the lines.

No reason to start blowing- too warm and ground on upper mountain is still very wet and soft. We need a few nights in twenties. Raining pretty could now.

 

[slatham]

Sugarbush with a new mantra: slow-making.

Passing on a 24+ hour window?

 

[cdskier]

Very strange...just 4PM yesterday on social media Sugarbush posted that "Snowmaking begins tonight". Not sure why that doesn't look like it happened. When I looked at the cams around midnight, I did see a vehicle driving around moving stuff. Seems odd for someone to have been working that late if they weren't planning to actually go last night.

 

[tumbler]

I'm a bit surprised too, the warm up doesn't look that bad and not very long. Something also could have broken... I still think they are waiting for better temps down low to go with GH and SB/SF but with opening day 10 days away they need to start taking advantage of where the temps are.

 

[ColdRain&Snow]

is it possible they’re trying to avoid laying down full season boilerplate?

 

[Getskied]

is it possible they’re trying to avoid laying down full season boilerplate?

I don’t believe this would ever influence decision-making. It is a bit of a head scratcher for sure, wet bulb temps look to be around 23-24 at base level. Even Bolton Valley is going at it more aggressively today.

One way or another there will be mediocre skiing off of Gatehouse by 11/18. With any luck there will be the beginner trail feeding into the mini terrain park just to keep the fear factor high and make everyone question their life choices.

 

[slatham]

Didn’t realize they commented yesterday that they would go. That increases the odds that something went wrong.

 

[Keelhauled]

This doesn't sound very Epic.

Oh wait, wrong soulless conglomerate, sorry.

 

[cdskier]

I'm strongly leaning towards "something went wrong". With projected opening day 10 days away, there's no other good reason to not take advantage of any cold temps. While you'll lose snow-making temps at least during the day during some of the upcoming week at base elevations, there's no large scale warm-up that would have significantly hurt any snow that was put down (especially if it was left piled up and not groomed out yet). One of the advantages they touted of the GH side upgrades including the Klik hydrants was faster startup and shutdown times to take advantage of smaller windows. (And at this point...you make snow up high if that's your only option for now).

 

[tumbler]

We got spoiled with Win's transparency on here.

 

[cdskier]

We got spoiled with Win's transparency on here.

So true...I hate being in the dark and stuck to just guessing what is going on...

FWIW...Stratton has guns blazing visible on their cams...

 

[Getskied]

Looks like guns are on near the top of GH now based on the golf course camera view.

 

[Hawk]

Here is the close up view from the Allyns cam. I don't see anything unless they are working on portions of Jester. The Allyns cam shows that there is nothing going on at the bottom near the Allyns lodge.

 

[Getskied]

This is what I was referring to:

 

[cdskier]

I think this is what getskied is referring to on the Golf Course cam...hard to tell from a single frame, but if you watch the video it does appear guns were being fired up on upper pushover I think?

 

[slatham]

Even Bromley is making snow, and you can see it on a cam……

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Fear not - someone will come charging in to defend even this lowest of bars being unreached this year.

Happens every year.

 

[Hawk]

I wouldn't bother to defend them. This is who they are so why get too upset. I expect it. The only consulation is that my season pass gives me multiple options to ski other places so I don't have to pay to ski elsewhere. That's not a bad option considering that the openings in the past have been late with somewhat hard conditons.

 

[Newpylong]

They are absolutely making snow on Upper and Lower Pushover and it looks like Slowpoke as well.

 

[thetrailboss]

I wouldn't bother to defend them. This is who they are so why get too upset. I expect it. The only consulation is that my season pass gives me multiple options to ski other places so I don't have to pay to ski elsewhere. That's not a bad option considering that the openings in the past have been late with somewhat hard conditons.

This.

That said, it still sucks if you own property at Sugarbush, have paid a premium to be at Sugarbush, and yet have to drive somewhere else to ski/ride. The closest option on IKON is of course Killington.