I could mention several that I can't recall having any issues yet at all this year (outside of wind holds), but I'd rather not jinx it!
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The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
I could mention several that I can't recall having any issues yet at all this year (outside of wind holds), but I'd rather not jinx it!
Yeah. I hear you.
I just have read about Bravo, NRX, Inverness, and (maybe) Summit having issues.
+GMX today
"11:35 AM: **GMX is temporarily closed for maintenance. Inverness will be opening to the public ASAP, so sit tight my Mount Ellen stans!!** North Ridge and Summit are currently on wind hold**
Oops...GMX was going to be one of the ones I would have mentioned. I guess just me thinking about it was enough to jinx it!
Summit for sure is on that list. There were several days it was "delayed" all or most of the day (and it wasn't wind as they categorize wind holds as "wind holds"). I know Summit is slow and doesn't serve a ton of terrain beyond what you can get to with NRX, but it is still sometimes nice as I like the peace and tranquility you often find riding that lift.
Yikes. That sucks. A lot of the lifts at Sugarbush are of a similar age. Inverness, Summit, and NRX are all the same age as they were added the same summer. The same can be said for Bravo and Gatehouse.
Lot of other variables though. Inverness and Summit are fixed grip so should last longer than a detach. And Inverness likely has less hours than Summit as it often runs minimal hours mid-week. NRX is a franken-lift and was moved...so that thing is just a completely separate beast at this point. Really disappointed that replacement has been pushed back it seems...
Bravo and Gatehouse would also have substantially different hours on them since Bravo is the summer/fall lift as well.
kingslug
Well-known member
Any one...ski today???
I think at this point the state should just shut down Mt Ellen to send a message to Alterra they can't run a mountain like this.
Today they finally got to the point where none of the lifts going up the mountain worked. This isn't just an unlucky day either. Ever since they took over, the lift situation got worse and worse. It's obvious they fail to perform the necessary maintenance. I don't know how they fake it through inspections, but in the last few years, NRX was never ready for season start, continues to have serious problems throughout the winter, and the other lifts are regularly down as well. Inverness hasn't been running for weeks. Last weekend Summit was down while NRX couldn't make it to the top without stopping once or twice in each run, and I had at least three 5-10 min stops throughout the day.
One has to wonder what's going on. Are the lifts actually safe to operate? The operators at NRX have to constantly keep their thumb on the stop button. I doubt that's how the safety mechanisms are supposed to work. What else are they neglecting during maintenance?
No one provides any information either. When I got up today and realized none of the lifts were running (despite the app showing GMX and Summit open) I went to the ticket booth to find out how long it's going to take to get things going. They had no idea, but they knew for sure I'm not allowed to go to Lincoln with my local pass. Went to the info desk then, where once again they had no clue what's going on with the lifts, but after several attempts finally they agreed to give me a day pass to Lincoln. However, they strongly emphasized this is only a one time exemption and I should be very grateful. I didn't say anything, it's not their fault, but for f sake - is it my fault that none of the lifts there work properly? What am I supposed to do next time? Walk up with skis on my back?
Even if they install a new lift for NRX - what's the point if you can't get there? I appreciate all the investments in snow making, but shouldn't they first spend on making sure you can actually get up there? The continuous lies on their website and snow reports and zero transparency on what's going on just pisses me off even more.
Anyway Stein was skiing great today and after a few runs I calmed down. After all it was a beautiful day.
I don't quite agree with the statement that it is "obvious they fail to perform the necessary maintenance". NRX didn't start on time the past 2 seasons as both years in the off-season it was struck by lightning in the summer and required repairs. That's not "failing to perform necessary maintenance". There's also zero chance they would run the lifts if they felt there were any safety issues. The main issue at NRX this year lately seems to be the chairs having issues catching the chain drive in the lower terminal once they detach from the main line. Not ideal, but also not something I'm worrying about as I ride the lift. My understanding is that particular system is pretty rare these days.
Other than today, has GMX had any other significant downtime this year? I haven't noticed it when I've looked at the reports or been at the mountain. Today's downtime looks like about 1.5 hrs looking back at the webcam history.
I do agree that there's a big lack of transparency now. But we were spoiled with Win coming on here and posting inside info and plenty of details during his ownership. Current management should learn a bit about effective and open communication from Win.
I did. Had a great two days at LP. The intention for today was to go to ME to lap some of the great groomers but I saw on the app that NRX was closed and I called on the drive in to confirm. Super glad I went to LP now that I know that GMX and Summit had issues.
Saturday was great, but so, so cold. I'm usually able to handle it, but on Saturday I went inside for 10-15 minutes after every 2-3 runs. I don't know why, but my goggles kept fogging from the top down and it was so cold that the condensation froze which necessitated a break. I went up Castlerock once (the wind was blowing straight down the lift line) and skied CR which I found less than enjoyable. Too hard and icy. I do have to acknowledge picking my way down the icy chute that leads to the CR lift and on the last bump, I somehow slipped and wiped out right next to the lift line. I then had trouble getting up cuz my skis were stuck in a weird position. If I could have put on Frodo's ring and disappeared, I would have done it in a heartbeat as I was mortified. Runs of the day for me were Birch and Sunrise first thing in the AM. Murphy's has become a go to for me...not sure what's going on but the top two thirds has been consistently excellent this year.
Today was cold as well, but the sun made a world of difference. Only one break to deal with the same goggle issue (only happened once today). Went up HG once to get the picture of the amazing ridge line looking north. The lift ride was awful. So cold. Then when I hiked up to get the picture I could only have my glove off for about 10 seconds. Took Jester down and thought it was great. Nice, packed powder and great views. Again had great runs on Birch, Sunrise, and Murphy's. But I think my favorite today was Morning Star. It was the only natural snow trail I went on today. I left the mountain around 1pm as I had to drive back to NJ, but I was bummed as today was really great.
Bummed to miss skiing Mount Ellen, but Lincoln Peak more than made up for it.
Two things to add. Although I didn't ski it, there were a ton of folks skiing the whales on Steins today. Also, when I skied by Organgrinder on the way down Jester I couldn't help but laugh. I very much appreciate Sugarbush's relaxed attitude towards opening trails, but the top of OG was ridiculous.
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Yikes. Something seems really wrong.
Yeah, cadence chain systems are pretty obsolete. Almost all detach lifts have wheel drives in the terminals (the wheels with tires moving chairs). NRX has the older chain and hook system that theoretically grabs chairs as the hangers enter the terminals and pulls them along.
That's too bad. It also seems that snow reporting is an afterthought from what folks are saying here.
In terms of lift replacements, any word as to who is going to do the work? Hopefully Doppelmayr for you all. I say that even though I like Poma. The last few years I've seen Poma have tons of issues with installs. Out here Alta's new six-pack did not open until almost 8-weeks after it was supposed to open. That really hurt ski school revenue and made the holidays a mess. Closer to Sugarbush, we saw how long it took Attitash to open their new HSQ and that was only after Vail had to fly its own staff out there to complete the job. Could you imagine not having Heaven's Gate available at Christmas? Or not even for MLK Day as was the case at Alta? I think a few folks would be livid.
On the other hand, Doppelmayr did some pretty huge new installs this past summer at Boyne's areas (Sunday River, Loon, Brighton, and Big Sky) and all were done largely on time and without issues. It may be worth the few extra $$$ to get the lift installed and running on time. And Sugarbush does have a fair number of Doppelmayr lifts at LP.
I recall watching Poma install the new GMX in 2002 (!). It was quite a process and when that lift opened, on-time for early season skiing, it was quite impressive. I also watched Poma install the HSQs at Burke (2005, 2011) and they were pretty much on-time.
On the other hand, Doppelmayr did some pretty huge new installs this past summer at Boyne's areas (Sunday River, Loon, Brighton, and Big Sky) and all were done largely on time and without issues. It may be worth the few extra $$$ to get the lift installed and running on time. And Sugarbush does have a fair number of Doppelmayr lifts at LP.
I recall watching Poma install the new GMX in 2002 (!). It was quite a process and when that lift opened, on-time for early season skiing, it was quite impressive. I also watched Poma install the HSQs at Burke (2005, 2011) and they were pretty much on-time.
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NRX: they had the same chair feeding issue for many years. Not lightning related. However, that's obviously not the only problem as they can still run the lift with that although one person has to stand there all the time and push the chairs forward when necessary. Who knows what else is going on. They'd never tell.
GMX: so far this season it was running, but last year they had continuous problems all through the season. No lightning strike, no chair feeding issue, but probably a bunch of other stuff. They'd never tell. Actually they almost had the same situation last year as today. It was one of the busiest day with fresh powder (I believe sometime in February) they were able to somehow fire up Inverness and GMX and alternate between the two, but both were struggling and NRX was down as well.
Liftblog said Dopp for HG's replacement, but I don't know where that information came from so don't know if it is accurate or not. I'm hoping Dopp as well as they seem to have been doing an impressive job lately with their installs.
Yes...the chair feeding issue at NRX isn't lightning related. But the fact that it didn't open initially when ME did WAS lightning repair related (the mountain confirmed that in one of their mountain ops blog posts several weeks ago).
Unless GMX has more issues this season, I think you're blowing today's 1.5 hour downtime out of proportion a bit. Things happen with complex machinery even with perfect maintenance. One isolated issue does not mean that there are large scale issues suddenly with GMX. There were some issues last year, but I seem to recall that only being sporadically for a few weeks and then things were better the rest of the season. Unless you know what was wrong both last year and today, saying one has anything to do with the other is just baseless speculation.
Peter's sources are pretty accurate. I see that he has NRX as a 2025 Doppelmayr job. Both are good news for Sugarbush.
Hah...you saved me the effort of looking if NRX was on his 2025 list. I was thinking about looking that up the other night, but never got around to it.
I was about to ask you and I looked it up. Interestingly, it's the only east coast project listed.
Anyone complaining that there were no lifts running at ME for 90 minutes in the middle of the day today clearly isn’t giving Sunny Q the respect it deserves! I was only hoping that Tommy’s Toy might join in for additional variety but clearly the snowmaking on skiers left (I think it’s left but technically I’ve skied in both directions on that section) was taking priority.
Is the TT replacement mired in a permitting quagmire too?
Is the TT replacement mired in a permitting quagmire too?
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