Smellytele
Well-known member
Even if you have to walk up hill to get to it!
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The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
If you only go there once or twice a year and you are lucky or if you're the kind of skier that does one run, takes a selfie and heads for the bar, maybe. Or if you ski with rose-colored ski goggles
...If you are at least a mid-level skier who goes there regularly, your skiing will be affected most of the time. Any time NRX is out or struggling, which happens all the time, your skiing is seriously impacted. Summit doesn't have the speed and capacity to make up for it. Any time GMX is out or struggling, the whole mountain suffers, because Inverness doesn't have the capacity and speed to deal with a weekend crowd. Plus, if NRX also struggles, you can't access anything else, because you can't make it to Summit. Then, when Inverness also goes out, everything stops. Having only Inverness closed is manageable, but still pisses me, because I love those trails and glades over there.
Anyway, no point throwing insults at each other and calling the other clueless. You're happy, you stay. I'm leaving at the end of the season taking my family, and judging from the mood on the lift, a lot of people are thinking the same. It's also going to get worse before it hopefully improves. They're not going to invest in NRX since it's going to be replaced, so it will get progressively worse for the next 2-3 (?) seasons. For the other lifts, they don't even have a plan. It's a shame, it's a special mountain but the experience is ruined by incompetence/lack of funding and most annoyingly, lack of transparency.
Zand
Well-known member
Wow... Mt Snow has one hell of an international worker presence these days
Imho its all about the NRX. Yes the GMX and summit have their issues but all lifts at all mountains have issues from time to time. They are complex machines operating in a harsh environment. But the NRX was never right from the time they moved it. Over the years, they've done overhauls and all kinds of work to get it to run reliably, but it just doesnt. Even on its best days, the way the chairs come around to load is funky. And while far away management may reasonably view it as a redundant lift at a sparsely used part of the resort, the fact of matter is that it is essential to actually skiing the mountain. When NRX is consistently unreliable, the usual and occassional outages at GMX and Summit are amplified. Would I like summit to run faster, sure but a reliable NRX would answer most of the issues with the lifts at mt ellen.
I get your frustration which is totally reasonable and as indicated in my post above agree that the NRX needs to be replaced ex post haste. Where I disagree with you is in blaming incompetence/lack of funding for the problem. The NRX was a frankenstein lift when it was installed. It's never been "right". They have spent money repeatedly in trying to get it operating reliably. Iirc, win and company did at least 2 major overhauls of the lift.If you only go there once or twice a year and you are lucky or if you're the kind of skier that does one run, takes a selfie and heads for the bar, maybe. Or if you ski with rose-colored ski goggles
If you are at least a mid-level skier who goes there regularly, your skiing will be affected most of the time. Any time NRX is out or struggling, which happens all the time, your skiing is seriously impacted. Summit doesn't have the speed and capacity to make up for it. Any time GMX is out or struggling, the whole mountain suffers, because Inverness doesn't have the capacity and speed to deal with a weekend crowd. Plus, if NRX also struggles, you can't access anything else, because you can't make it to Summit. Then, when Inverness also goes out, everything stops. Having only Inverness closed is manageable, but still pisses me, because I love those trails and glades over there.
Anyway, no point throwing insults at each other and calling the other clueless. You're happy, you stay. I'm leaving at the end of the season taking my family, and judging from the mood on the lift, a lot of people are thinking the same. It's also going to get worse before it hopefully improves. They're not going to invest in NRX since it's going to be replaced, so it will get progressively worse for the next 2-3 (?) seasons. For the other lifts, they don't even have a plan. It's a shame, it's a special mountain but the experience is ruined by incompetence/lack of funding and most annoyingly, lack of transparency.
and I can understand why the current ownership appears to be in no rush to spend 8m or whatever for a new HSQ, when on paper the NRX "should" be ok as a redundant lift. replacing heavens gate is a greater priority.
SkiingInABlueDream
Active member
It amazes me that they've never been able to get NRX to run reliably. I understand that detachable lifts are extremely complex machines, but they also aren't a cutting-edge technology. I can accept that statement was less true when NRX was originally installed (in current form not as the original GMX), but I think they should've been able to figure it out by now. Unless, there's something so fundamentally and unfixably wrong with that lift. And if that's true then the lift mechs either do or do not know what said root problem is. When they eventually dismantle that lift it'd be fun to be there at the moment when someone says, hey look THIS was the problem the whole time and holds up something like a tiny wrong-value capacitor buried deep in there which thank goodness never failed or the whole thing would've exploded
oldfartrider
Active member
Easy solution just go to Stowe. Their oldest detach is newer than SB newest detach
"That's an EPIC idea. I've got my skis and am ready to go!"
ducky
Active member
Rob Katz, their former CEO! Met him on a streetcar in New Orleans and he explained why they bought Stowe alone and not the real estate.
Been skiing MRG every Tuesday faking tele turns while my wife takes a women's clinic. Conditions today were amazing; groomers were groomed (perfectly) and list were running, staffed by full-time returning pros. If you are a SB employee, you can ski free there M-F. A totally different, must-ski, vibe. The whole experience slows you down and being on your own on the ride up suits me just fine. It is quiet and serene today, though probably not on the weekends.
Been skiing MRG every Tuesday faking tele turns while my wife takes a women's clinic. Conditions today were amazing; groomers were groomed (perfectly) and list were running, staffed by full-time returning pros. If you are a SB employee, you can ski free there M-F. A totally different, must-ski, vibe. The whole experience slows you down and being on your own on the ride up suits me just fine. It is quiet and serene today, though probably not on the weekends.
As to Sugarbush's lifts: I hope that they DO upgrade Heaven's Gate and NRX as promised because yesterday Alterra just announced their massive lift expansion at Deer Valley with lots of high speed lifts that are not at all needed. Said expansion plan was not one that we skiers asked for. I think that they need to share the love with SB. Replace Bravo, Heaven's Gate, and NRX at least. I bet that Doppelmayr will give them a good deal.
Cheetah440
Active member
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2013
- Messages
- 136
- Points
- 28
Heaven's gate is up there with the worst lifts around. Everything about it is horrible. It's really bad. Bravo is long in the tooth for sure. North is a disaster. Building that stupid slide brook albatross was such a horrible idea all around. The cost, the everything. Sounded good on paper.
"Hey man, I take offense to that. I've NEVER had any bad ideas!"
Hawk
Well-known member
VTSB, I have to say that your positive outlook is nice to see. But your choice of adjectives is over the top. I have skied 6 days over the last 14, in and out of the woods and I would not say Amazing. I think you bar is pretty low. It has been pretty good especially right after the 10". Untracked areas were good but you had to be carefull especially on the steeper stuff and near the bottom. Amaizing to me was a bunch of years ago with a 4 foot base and 3 days of fluffy upslope. That is Amazing.
Hawk
Well-known member
I think all this negative publicity is great. Maybe the numbers will go down. This is great considering the lifts have not been a problem for me all year. I must have good Karma. LOL
Cheetah440
Active member
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- Feb 13, 2013
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yeah, not sure what he's talking about. Skied 3 days this weekend and it was anything but "Amazing". Castlerock is a sheet of ice, pick the trail. there was WAY more snow in early Dec. Every single bump run is icy death bumps, which personally I enjoy as a challenge, but it's SHEET ice out there. Groomers are nice. Groomers. Yippee. If I wanted nice groomers I'd ski Okemo.
That 10" was blower 50:1 fluff that was skied of in hours. Woods are no different, fluff on sheet ice. They need a big synoptic event badly. 2-3ft of snow in the mid to upper 20's, not this 2f 4" upslope blower that has .000001" of content to it. The damage from the Dec torch storm is still there.
They need more snow, a lot more snow. The social media garbage being pushed about conditions is laughable. It's not that good out there at all.
Yeah, I mean it’s average mid to late January scrape out there. Could be worse and could be much better. At least it’s felt like winter for a change. The backcountry is really coming in at elevation and minus certain aspects but folks on this thread will absolutely not want to hear about all the lift maintenance issues that seem to recur there.
Cheetah440
Active member
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2013
- Messages
- 136
- Points
- 28
no question, it's classic January. I guess I'm lucky, haven;t been struck by a lift issue in my 7 days so far. Guess I'm doomed now. And this is our first real year all in on the Bush, so I don't have the history many do. But after 2 days last year and 7 this, I have had enough of Heavens gate I can tell you that. Hells gate is more like it.
kingslug
Well-known member
Smellytele
Well-known member
Well wearing that one piece fart bag was a bad idea."Hey man, I take offense to that. I've NEVER had any bad ideas!"
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