The "Sugarbush Thread"

[cdskier]

The problem is some resorts are shifting plans to open terrain up high first meanwhile Sugarbush is taking the exact opposite approach. They went from opening the top first years ago to now trying to open the bottom first the past couple years. It just doesn't make sense when faced with warmer weather in November.

 

[Hawk]

Easy for us to say what is best when we are not paying for it. They make thier choices based on the budget they have and.....it is no longer just Win making the call. There are a lot of eyes on them.
Killington is up high right now and they have 3 trails. Friends of mine said the wait in line was large and only stayed for 2 hours. Other than people like me, who skis on 3 trails with huge crowds anyway. They also blew a transformer and everybody went home yesterday.
Sunday river also has 3 trails and they are also talkng about the shitty weather as the reason they can not expand.
All I am saying is that is not that easy for them to pivot when they are not set up to do that. The cost for them is not worth the efforts.

 

[Getskied]

I think it is a combination of fewer acres to blow open and using the only high speed lift that doesn't break all the time. This is just a pipe dream, but what I'd like to see is them making use of colder temps above mid mountain to blow open Sunrise or Birch. If they could open with one of those and the green thing, then the vast majority of riders would have something more tasty to enjoy.

Its an interesting idea. I’d only argue that North Lynx deserves a fresh coat of paint first. Much less linear distance to cover to get an upper mountain route open compared to HG and Summit. And downloading is (I think) feasible on GH if needed.

It doesn’t take a climatologist to conclude that November temps are heading in very much the wrong direction for lower elevation snowmaking. This would provide optionality.

On the flip side, it was super nice to have that pod open on natural snow for lift-accessed skinning early season last winter for training hot laps (yeah I realize I’m far out of the main stream target market).

 

[urungus]

Killington is up high right now and they have 3 trails.

Eight trails actually

Great Northern (Upper)
Rime
Reason
East Fall (Upper)
Double Dipper (Upper)
Downdraft (Upper)
Catwalk (Lower)
High Traverse

 

[tumbler]

Same story, different year. Slow and steady with the snowmaking and hope for a big storm or two. It is what is is. Thursday has some potential. The early/late season off Summit at Mt Ellen is long dead and not coming back. It is good to see them making snow up there now. It's too foggy to see if they are running upper OG and parts of Jester. Not sure how much lift construction equipment needs to get up there and down.

 

[Lotso]

Eight trails actually

Great Northern (Upper)
Rime
Reason
East Fall (Upper)
Double Dipper (Upper)
Downdraft (Upper)
Catwalk (Lower)
High Traverse

so 3 ways down.

 

[Hawk]

Eight trails actually

Great Northern (Upper)
Rime
Reason
East Fall (Upper)
Double Dipper (Upper)
Downdraft (Upper)
Catwalk (Lower)
High Traverse

LOL That is still really 3 ways back down to the lift im my opinion. It like at sunday river skiing Sunday Punch. If I ski upper middle lower Punch, it is still one way down.

 

[slatham]

Same story, different year. Slow and steady with the snowmaking and hope for a big storm or two. It is what is is. Thursday has some potential. The early/late season off Summit at Mt Ellen is long dead and not coming back. It is good to see them making snow up there now. It's too foggy to see if they are running upper OG and parts of Jester. Not sure how much lift construction equipment needs to get up there and down.

So can I assume no snowmaking on Gate House? I would not be surprised by this - temps too marginal. Just curious.

Wonder if with 2 years of Gate House fail, and a brand new Heavens gate lift, if they don't change their strategy next year?

 

[Hawk]

I would say that if HG was complete they would be making snow up there and that would be the call. It is what they have done in the past. They have even down loaded in the past. It's an odd year.

 

[djd66]

The funny thing is, the only place they are actually blowing snow on is at North:

I’m thinking maybe they want to get that open for World Cup skiers to train?

 

[cdskier]

So can I assume no snowmaking on Gate House? I would not be surprised by this - temps too marginal. Just curious.

Wonder if with 2 years of Gate House fail, and a brand new Heavens gate lift, if they don't change their strategy next year?

Nothing visible on the cams at the top of GH. I suspect even the top of GH is a bit too warm and you only have better temps higher up.

 

[urungus]

LOL That is still really 3 ways back down to the lift im my opinion. It like at sunday river skiing Sunday Punch. If I ski upper middle lower Punch, it is still one way down.

I count six ways down, five if you want to exclude Great Northern (#1) down from the gondola because it is not lappable, four if you also think High Traverse/Catwalk (#5) and High Traverse/Downdraft (#6) are too similar. Although bottom half of open terrain, below Great Northern, there are only 2 ways down. I heard they took the mountain bike berms out of Catwalk.

 

[mikec142]

They may not care about new places to go out to eat or shop at. To them the 25 minute drive to waterbury or a little further really isn't that big of a deal.

I LOL'ed at this. A 25 minute drive to the bustling metropolis of Waterbury, a slightly bigger one horse town.

It's always fun to mosey over to Pro Pig (which I love) and grab a burger, but skip the beer cuz I have to drive the 25 minutes back on snowy, winding roads.

FWIW, I understand your general point which is there are two sides to the issue. And that's fine. But let's be clear that one side is looking to improve things and the other is generally grumpy NIMBY's.

 

[Lotso]

The funny thing is, the only place they are actually blowing snow on is at North:

I’m thinking maybe they want to get that open for World Cup skiers to train?

No chance for WC skiers.

 

[Hawk]

OK since you took the time to illistrate I will give you the 6 trails. Me I'm ony skiing 2 3 and 4 so I count 3. But that is just me.

 

[tumbler]

Looks like upper OG is running so they are taking advantage of temps.

 

[Lotso]

Looks like upper OG is running so they are taking advantage of temps.

Guns on at Walt's and above at ME

 

[djd66]

I'm seeing a lot of snow making activity on the Southside via the Allyn's cam. Valley House Traverse and Grinder.

 

[Boxtop Willie]

How's the water availability for Lincoln Peak? The Mad river has been quite low and I would guess is below the threshold for filling the pond.

 

[djd66]

I am kind of curious what the plan is and why they would be blowing Upper OG when there are not even chairs on the new lift and they still have to go through the inspection process.