The "Sugarbush Thread"

[HowieT2]

At our orientation meeting last month they said that they spent a fair amount of time over the summer on the North Ridge electronics and also working on the balky base terminal chain drive
With any luck they may have excised some of the demons from that beast

how many times have we heard that?

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

HG vs NRX is a dead horse topic. Personally I would have preferred NRX first but from a resort marketing perspective I agree with doing HG first.

 

[Getskied]

couldnt disagree more. As much as I have pined for a new NRX for years, HG needed to be replaced, is a vital lift to access the upper mountain of the main part of the resort.

I wasn’t the one who stated a strong opinion so I’m not sure what you are disagreeing with. My point was that they know more and hopefully made an educated choice. I mostly ski at Ellen so don’t tend to notice reliability issues with HG as much but not doubting they are there.

Mildly related: for all its redundancies, NRX also offers the most vertical of any lift at SB and does so at high speed. It’s a bummer when it isn’t running with the only silver lining being it doesn’t add even more quad loads of skiers to the same dysfunction junction near its base on crowded weekends.

 

[Keelhauled]

I know it has been discussed before about how a groomer actually works & I think some said you can't really go deep with the auger, etc.

The tiller is just there to make pretty lines. The actual skiable surface comes from the blade, and if one doesn't use that there is no amount of tilling that can fix a trail. I agree with your Pennsylvania example. After a heavy thaw/freeze it should take at a minimum three passes to fix the surface. The first one I don't even have the tiller down, I just rip up the ice layer completely. The second, and third if need be, is to break up the big chunks with tracks and blade and rearrange my huge windrows back across the trail. The last one is the final till where I am just pushing enough snow to make it level again, and by then it has been broken up enough that it tills out clean.

Unfortunately this requires a deep base to do properly, because you're cutting off probably eight inches of surface at least and ice can easily grab the blade and force it even further down. On a frozen surface blading is really all or nothing, you can't just shave off part of the ice. It has a tendency to catch the blade, especially the wing, and dig a hole that the tiller is not carrying enough snow to fill in, so you have to go find more snow, except you don't really have easily accessible snow because it's frozen solid and you don't have the depth to go digging, and if you do it creates holes that are hard to fill in, etc. If you don't have the depth to be confident in plowing it heavily it's very hard to create a surface with enough loose snow for the tiller to work with.

Edit: I do not work at Sugarbush, so I have no idea exactly what they were dealing with; my comments are in general.

 

[urungus]

Whether warranted or not,… there will definitely be complaints! I’m not complaining,.. but here’s a few we may hear:
loading sucks
unloading area sucks
should have been higher
should have been lower
too many stop and starts
feel free to add to the list

Footrests too high/low

 

[SteezyRob]

im going ski-ski at s bushy pie on sat-day, is heavy G going to be ope-ope by then??

 

[ThatGuy]

im going ski-ski at s bushy pie on sat-day, is heavy G going to be ope-ope by then??

Do your best snowdance, twiddle your toes and kiss miss ellen under the mistletoe. If you’re lucky we can see some powdizzle on linky-P for some fresh skibidi rizz turns

 

[thetrailboss]

im going ski-ski at s bushy pie on sat-day, is heavy G going to be ope-ope by then??

You’re nominated for the snow reporter job.

 

[Lotso]

Do your best snowdance, twiddle your toes and kiss miss ellen under the mistletoe. If you’re lucky we can see some powdizzle on linky-P for some fresh skibidi rizz turns

That made me laugh...well done

 

[djd66]

The tiller is just there to make pretty lines. The actual skiable surface comes from the blade, and if one doesn't use that there is no amount of tilling that can fix a trail. I agree with your Pennsylvania example. After a heavy thaw/freeze it should take at a minimum three passes to fix the surface. The first one I don't even have the tiller down, I just rip up the ice layer completely. The second, and third if need be, is to break up the big chunks with tracks and blade and rearrange my huge windrows back across the trail. The last one is the final till where I am just pushing enough snow to make it level again, and by then it has been broken up enough that it tills out clean.

Unfortunately this requires a deep base to do properly, because you're cutting off probably eight inches of surface at least and ice can easily grab the blade and force it even further down. On a frozen surface blading is really all or nothing, you can't just shave off part of the ice. It has a tendency to catch the blade, especially the wing, and dig a hole that the tiller is not carrying enough snow to fill in, so you have to go find more snow, except you don't really have easily accessible snow because it's frozen solid and you don't have the depth to go digging, and if you do it creates holes that are hard to fill in, etc. If you don't have the depth to be confident in plowing it heavily it's very hard to create a surface with enough loose snow for the tiller to work with.

Edit: I do not work at Sugarbush, so I have no idea exactly what they were dealing with; my comments are in general.

Wow,… I actually learned something from all the time I spend on this site! Thank you for the insight!

 

[Quietman]

Wow,… I actually learned something from all the time I spend on this site! Thank you for the insight!

Yes, it's amazing when posters actually provide useful information instead of the endless stream of Katz memes!

 

[ducky]

Yes, it's amazing when posters actually provide useful information instead of the endless stream of Katz memes!

I get it if this was Stowe but seems a leap to understand here. Even if Stowe, theu guy retired 3-4 years ago.

 

[Cheetah440]

Good morning riders and skiers! The kitties have crushed the whales... Look forward to a fresh groom on the dynamic duo, of Snowball and Spring Fling. Nothin' quite like rippin' fresh cord to start the day! Come on out and relish in it! *

So I hit SB/SF first run. Like everyone else, was one and done. Big death cookies and knee (and teeth) jarring lumpy crunch the whole way down. Just no way to relax skiing that stuff. Back to GH for 6 more runs. Some expected cookies due to the warm groom but much better than the Bravo side. It will get better with more grooming and fresh snow.

* I noticed that earlier this morning, deeper in the report, the reporter referred to Mt Ellen as Miss Ellen. This has been edited to read Mt Ellen, so I guess someone higher up thought it offensive or they had second thoughts after posting "Miss".

Do we know Ellen’s preferred pronouns?

 

[pinnoke]

Do we know Ellen’s preferred pronouns?

maybe we should just call her ellen; based on this morning's report, capitalization is just a random nuisance:
Look forward to a fresh groom on downspout, lower downspout, to Gondolier! Or sink your edges into the dynamic duo, of Snowball and Spring Fling or some classical corduroy down pushover. The forecast calls for mostly cloudy skies, AM Snow showers, and a breeze out of the Northwest

 

[SteezyRob]

oh my gosh that is so much worse than AI LOL

 

[KustyTheKlown]

the snow report is really such an easy writing assignment. the syntax, capitalization, and cringe tone is real rough

 

[Blurski]

The tiller is just there to make pretty lines. The actual skiable surface comes from the blade, and if one doesn't use that there is no amount of tilling that can fix a trail. I agree with your Pennsylvania example. After a heavy thaw/freeze it should take at a minimum three passes to fix the surface. The first one I don't even have the tiller down, I just rip up the ice layer completely. The second, and third if need be, is to break up the big chunks with tracks and blade and rearrange my huge windrows back across the trail. The last one is the final till where I am just pushing enough snow to make it level again, and by then it has been broken up enough that it tills out clean.

Unfortunately this requires a deep base to do properly, because you're cutting off probably eight inches of surface at least and ice can easily grab the blade and force it even further down. On a frozen surface blading is really all or nothing, you can't just shave off part of the ice. It has a tendency to catch the blade, especially the wing, and dig a hole that the tiller is not carrying enough snow to fill in, so you have to go find more snow, except you don't really have easily accessible snow because it's frozen solid and you don't have the depth to go digging, and if you do it creates holes that are hard to fill in, etc. If you don't have the depth to be confident in plowing it heavily it's very hard to create a surface with enough loose snow for the tiller to work with.

Edit: I do not work at Sugarbush, so I have no idea exactly what they were dealing with; my comments are in general.

Very informative, thank you.

 

[cdskier]

Very informative, thank you.

Wow,… I actually learned something from all the time I spend on this site! Thank you for the insight!

There's a book written by Patrick Torsell (worked at Sugarbush years ago and was/is a member of this forum (BushMogulMaster IIRC)) that goes into a lot of detail on both grooming and snow-making. Quite an interesting and informative read.

https://www.amazon.com/Snow-Guns-Before-Sunrise-Operations/dp/1981700773/

 

[cdskier]

In other news...nice day out there today. Amazing what just a few inches of snow along with colder temps can do. Snowball/Spring Fling were nicely groomed this morning. Lots of ropes dropped on natural trails. I chose Domino as my first natural run of the season. Very nice, although I'm sure it will be beat up pretty good within another couple hours or so.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i cant get up north until sunday this weekend, but i'm off work as of tomorrow evening til jan 2. very pleasantly surprised to see very cheap hotel options in waitsfield/warren for sunday to tuesday. i guess pre christmas those are just regular weekdays.

i have to come back south for xmas eve/day, and then will go back north for 26-31. sugarloaf and SR

i keep looking at flights but the whole flight + car + lodging situation this time of year at last minute is steep