The "Sugarbush Thread"

[MidnightJester]

locals making accounts on this board simply to shit on sugarbush is like the amish coming out to vote for trump LOL

Amish lives matter. Take your hands off my reins and Leave the Raw milk in peace.

 

[thetrailboss]

Isn’t the canyon drive sketchy? What if you did 2 nights stay in park city the 2/3 nights say at the Marriot at the start of the Canyon? Doable? Stupid. If DV has good woods etc, maybe it would be worth it since my wife loves the good life like a Kardashian.

No sketchier honestly than App Gap, Middlebury Gap, or Brandon Gap. It is two-lane paved road with some turns. So long as you are driving a car with good snow tires and/or AWD/4WD you should be fine.

 

[Zand]

No sketchier honestly than App Gap, Middlebury Gap, or Brandon Gap. It is two-lane paved road with some turns. So long as you are driving a car with good snow tires and/or AWD/4WD you should be fine.

If you get a rental with shitty tires (which is common) and don't want to bother with chains, take the bus. BCC you can park right at the bottom at the big parking lot. LCC is tougher...I like to park at the station next to the Sandy Walgreens and pick it up there because they don't really stop near the mouth of the canyon. Bus is free with Ikon if you have that.

 

[Cheetah440]

If you get a rental with shitty tires (which is common) and don't want to bother with chains, take the bus. BCC you can park right at the bottom at the big parking lot. LCC is tougher...I like to park at the station next to the Sandy Walgreens and pick it up there because they don't really stop near the mouth of the canyon. Bus is free with Ikon if you have that.

Isn’t there a bus stop right at the Marriott at the start of the BCC? Was thinking maybe there a few nights and a few nights in PC and ski DV a couple days. Or just stay at Solitude and ski there 4 days. Daughter rips, wife, eh, not as much so thought maybe she like DV…

 

[ThatGuy]

Isn’t there a bus stop right at the Marriott at the start of the BCC? Was thinking maybe there a few nights and a few nights in PC and ski DV a couple days. Or just stay at Solitude and ski there 4 days. Daughter rips, wife, eh, not as much so thought maybe she like DV…

Id rather ski a couple days at DV and a couple at Solitude. Solitude can get pretty boring besides the Honeycomb area which is a pain to lap. But why not go to Alta/Bird if you have access to DV you have access there.

 

[Cheetah440]

Id rather ski a couple days at DV and a couple at Solitude. Solitude can get pretty boring besides the Honeycomb area which is a pain to lap. But why not go to Alta/Bird if you have access to DV you have access there.

Only reason is my wife is a blue groomer and wasn’t sure about Alta/Snowbird for her. And was orig thinking of staying slopeside at Solitude and just skiing there and Brighton.

 

[thetrailboss]

Only reason is my wife is a blue groomer and wasn’t sure about Alta/Snowbird for her. And was orig thinking of staying slopeside at Solitude and just skiing there and Brighton.

Alta is a better mountain for intermediates than Snowbird. The latter is steep.

 

[Lotso]

Wish the webcams could be fixed/realigned. No need to hide things at ME. It would be great to see snowmaking progress.

 

[SteezyRob]

Who are you referring to?

ive seen at least 2 "lurkers" come out to talk abt how bad this season's been

 

[MadPadraic]

Does the $5k/night crowd at the st Regis ski the woods? I means I honestly don’t know, never been. I’m sure it’s awesome, I’d love to ski it.

Yes, they do. Probably with a slightly higher likelihood than the Ecco-lodge crowd, but much less than ski bums.

Lots of vacationing families who spend money wouldn’t know what to do at Alta snowbird.

Wouldn't they take the lifts up and then go back down? Possibly with a hike?

Isn’t the canyon drive sketchy?

The most sketch part can be the line of traffic back down when your breaks overheat.

 

[skiur]

ive seen at least 2 "lurkers" come out to talk abt how bad this season's been

Well they aren't wrong.

 

[Hawk]

Ya and take your Utah talk to another thread. No one cares that you ski Utah.

 

[thetrailboss]

Only reason is my wife is a blue groomer and wasn’t sure about Alta/Snowbird for her. And was orig thinking of staying slopeside at Solitude and just skiing there and Brighton.

It all depends on what you like to ski, what kind of experience you want, and how much you have skied out west. If you want to have a ski-town vacation with some skiing but good restaurants, shops, and other things to do, then it is pretty hard to beat staying in Park City. If it is all about skiing and more skiing, and you want to crash at night and don't need a lot of other things to do, then staying in the Canyons is a good option. Staying in SLC of course gives you more of an urban/suburban option,

As to the Cottonwood areas, LCC is in a league of its own. The snow, terrain, views, and vibe are completely different. LCC feels like the Alps. Alta is old school and has great terrain variety. It is also generally less crowded. Lodging consists of all local inns that are pricey. Snowbird is mainly an expert area that has its own lodging and amenities. Intemediates will like Mineral Basin and Baldy Express. Gad Valley has a lot of good options. Access in LCC can be an issue as the avalanche danger is signficantly higher. It is the most avalanche prone canyon in North America. UDOT, USFS. and the ski areas do a good job mitigating it.

BCC is a different animal. It is more laid back. SR-190 rarely closes. Unfortunately, with Alterra buying Solitude and making it the only unlimited IKON option, the traffic and parking at Solitude have gotten bad. Lodging and dining options in BCC are limited. I'd call it rustic. I consider Brighton to be a better ski area than Solitude. Brighton sits higher and gets more snow, almost as much as Alta. Brighton has night riding--now close to 300 acres of it--and that opens up a lot of options for when you ski. Brighton also has more low angle terrain for beginners and intermediates and great trees. The layout is better and all areas are served by high speed lifts. Finally, the vibe is really good and the employees and crowd are friendly. It is a locals place and is quite underrated IMHO. Solitude used to be the quiet locals place. Honestly, it is in a spot that is not great for skiing and has an odd layout. This is because the guy who founded it shoehorned it onto the mining claim/land he obtained rather than in an ideal spot for skiing. Solitude has a village (built by Interwest in the early 2000's) so that is a plus. The lifts have been revamped over the years. It has a good variety of a little bit of everything, with more expert options than Brighton spread out here and there. But lapping the ideal spots (Honeycomb) is a pain that requires at least three lift rides and the traverse out sucks IMHO. This is because it is essentially two ski areas--one encircling a smaller one. It sits lower than Brighton--not much, but it is noticeable in terms of snowfall. And, as I have said, it has become much more crowded and parking is now a pain.

To bring it back to Sugarbush, Solitude's GM is originally from Sugarbush and I imagine that if anything changes at Sugarbush that she might go back there.

Feel free to PM me for more intel. Thanks.

 

[tumbler]

Snowball-Fling are looking good getting blasted. I hope they are able to open it this weekend. With the good temps it would be nice to get lower snowball-racers edge done too for another route but I'm sure they want to go elsewhere to be ready for HG opening. I'm sure they counting every gallon of water. Happy sliding this weekend!

 

[KustyTheKlown]

^good post

staying in SLC can be downright depressing. sure your mileage can vary based on quality of lodging, but ski bumming out of a midvale motel 6 and taking the bus has yielded some of my cheapest trips with great skiing, but SLC 'suburbs' and city outside of a small downtown core is imo pretty damn ugly and sad.

staying in park city has a much nicer feel for place.

the only time i stayed in the canyon (at snowbird lodging) was with 5 friends. we had a blast. if i were alone, i'd prefer to be in SLC or PC for lodging. oh and lodged with friends in a sick airbnb in BCC once

brighton is def gooder than solitude for all the reasons you say

 

[Hawk]

Bravo is spinning and ski Patol was going up. Looks like they had stick and stuff so they look to be working twords openeing. That's positive. The real sign of expansion will be when we see guns on the upper mountian. That will mean that they are working to open HG.

 

[Cheetah440]

It all depends on what you like to ski, what kind of experience you want, and how much you have skied out west. If you want to have a ski-town vacation with some skiing but good restaurants, shops, and other things to do, then it is pretty hard to beat staying in Park City. If it is all about skiing and more skiing, and you want to crash at night and don't need a lot of other things to do, then staying in the Canyons is a good option. Staying in SLC of course gives you more of an urban/suburban option,

As to the Cottonwood areas, LCC is in a league of its own. The snow, terrain, views, and vibe are completely different. LCC feels like the Alps. Alta is old school and has great terrain variety. It is also generally less crowded. Lodging consists of all local inns that are pricey. Snowbird is mainly an expert area that has its own lodging and amenities. Intemediates will like Mineral Basin and Baldy Express. Gad Valley has a lot of good options. Access in LCC can be an issue as the avalanche danger is signficantly higher. It is the most avalanche prone canyon in North America. UDOT, USFS. and the ski areas do a good job mitigating it.

BCC is a different animal. It is more laid back. SR-190 rarely closes. Unfortunately, with Alterra buying Solitude and making it the only unlimited IKON option, the traffic and parking at Solitude have gotten bad. Lodging and dining options in BCC are limited. I'd call it rustic. I consider Brighton to be a better ski area than Solitude. Brighton sits higher and gets more snow, almost as much as Alta. Brighton has night riding--now close to 300 acres of it--and that opens up a lot of options for when you ski. Brighton also has more low angle terrain for beginners and intermediates and great trees. The layout is better and all areas are served by high speed lifts. Finally, the vibe is really good and the employees and crowd are friendly. It is a locals place and is quite underrated IMHO. Solitude used to be the quiet locals place. Honestly, it is in a spot that is not great for skiing and has an odd layout. This is because the guy who founded it shoehorned it onto the mining claim/land he obtained rather than in an ideal spot for skiing. Solitude has a village (built by Interwest in the early 2000's) so that is a plus. The lifts have been revamped over the years. It has a good variety of a little bit of everything, with more expert options than Brighton spread out here and there. But lapping the ideal spots (Honeycomb) is a pain that requires at least three lift rides and the traverse out sucks IMHO. This is because it is essentially two ski areas--one encircling a smaller one. It sits lower than Brighton--not much, but it is noticeable in terms of snowfall. And, as I have said, it has become much more crowded and parking is now a pain.

To bring it back to Sugarbush, Solitude's GM is originally from Sugarbush and I imagine that if anything changes at Sugarbush that she might go back there.

Feel free to PM me for more intel. Thanks.

Thanks for the write up, great feedback. Sounds like for a quick hit 3 days hard to go wrong really. Just hard to beat the convenience of a direct flight from Boston and under an hour from airport versus many CO options.

 

[thetrailboss]

Thanks for the write up, great feedback. Sounds like for a quick hit 3 days hard to go wrong really. Just hard to beat the convenience of a direct flight from Boston and under an hour from airport versus many CO options.

Have you been to Utah before? It is damn convenient.

 

[Cheetah440]

Have you been to Utah before? It is damn convenient.

No never been, this will be our first year.

 

[thetrailboss]

No never been, this will be our first year.

It's way easier than Colorado. You will be shocked. People come to SLC and realize that it is what they thought visiting Denver would be. The mountains are right here just outside the city.