The "Sugarbush Thread"

[JimG.]

dont want one!

i really really like doing this alone. i catch up on my podcasts each week in the car, i listen to my music all weekend while skiing. i watch whatever movie i want to watch that my fiance doesnt care about at the hotel. i get to go to bed at 8:30 and wake up at 5:30, and not have to deal with anyone else's needs and wants. i dont have to wait for anyone. i dont have to consider anyone who cant ski at my level. i dont have to stop for lunch (eww). this is the thing in life i do for me and i do it without any compromise whatsoever.

and also the full solo developed over years. ski buddy #1 moved to denver to be a hospitalist. ski buddy #2 moved to albany, had kids, and decided to switch from skilled snowboarder to novice skier - we see each other on the mountain for 2 min and no longer travel together. ski buddy #3 moved to deep jersey suburbs and had TWO KIDS. he just doesnt ski anymore. ski buddy #4 lives in bozeman now. ski buddy #5 in seatle. great people to visit!

its all good. i really like the solitude of my skiing. i tend to see buddy 1 and buddy 4 on my western trips most years. ive skied crystal and stevens and alpental with #5. another best friend is a low intermediate but lives in denver and he joined me at a-basin and copperr last feb (could not wait to be rid of him honestly he held me back a lot)

a super casual snowboarder friend texted me like 2 weeks ago said 'when are you going skiing, i want to go with you'. i replied 'buddy i go every weekend. just show up at my apartment at 4:45 PM on a friday with your shit, and tell me in advance so i book 2 beds". he didnt reply

a female friend who moved back to nyc from california bought an ikon and has been trying to get me to plan with her and i demur. i am steering her to killington this weekend tho. she doesnt wanna hear it that it will be crowded "base pass is blacked out". i said ok dana, maybe try pico.

Interesting!

I am another committed solo skier for many of the same reasons as you. I'm guessing I'm probably twice your age and finding people my age to ski with at my pace is getting tough. Like you I don't like to have to deal with slowing down for others or dealing with alternative agendas. I also don't like skiing with folks (mostly way younger than me, such as yourself) who are just faster than me. Trying to keep up with others just wrecks the vibe for me.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i'm 39, so if you're skiing as you do at 78, god bless you lol

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

NRX being down today actually slightly surprises me given that it ran most of Sunday, which hugely surprised me. But then, maybe running for a full day is why it now needs a week (time will tell) of maintenance again

 

[SkiingInABlueDream]

I suspect I'm repeating something already said but I'm fully in the camp of just don't run castlerock, ever. I'm usually a quantity over quality person (within reason and yes that's not mistyped) but given the line that forms there when conditions are good, I don't think you lose much quantity with the chair not turning

 

[thetrailboss]

For those keeping track:

1. Castlerock - broken and uninspected
2. Slide Brook - broken and uninspected
3. North Ridge - broken (or at best unreliable not currently loading)
4. GMX - broken
5. Summit - closed
6. Valley House - closed

Wow, just wow.

 

[ducky]

As of 11:00 everything at Ellen seems to be running.

 

[thetrailboss]

As of 11:00 everything at Ellen seems to be running.

That's fine because nobody skis before 11am anyways, right?

 

[Steveskio]

Not much of a reason to ski ME today. LP skiing great!

 

[Hawk]

Im a social person. I need to ski with people. Especialluy in the woods. My wife skis with me most days and my friends are some of the best skiers on the hill. everyone has their thing and it's all good.

I hit a tree in the woods once. if not for my friends the outcome might have been different. That changed my perspective. That is why my posts of caution are out there.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

i have def had some moments. hard to ski what i like to ski the way i like to ski without ever getting into a little jam. a whistle is a religious part of my outfit - it hangs from my rearview mirror so i never forget to take it from the car. if i am really fucked i can make a bunch of noise. i also ski with my phone plugged in to a beefy portable charger. i know its not bulletproof but i always have a fully charged phone.

 

[Lotso]

ME was the bomb today...knee deep in places. Blower pow. More on the way!

 

[MadPadraic]

The investment in employee housing doesn't seem to be imminent either, although some of that rests on Warrens shitty zoning and the town's inability to embrace housing growth.

"Change and progress was hard for people" - story as old as time - still hold true today. Isn't the town and state currently slow walking the approval of the employee housing development plans while simultaneously blaming the regional housing crisis on the STRs?

I'm not deep in the weeds on this, but were Warren's requests really so unreasonable? Obviously we want the resort to have more employee housing, but the environmental impact needs to be mitigated.

There was no chance that it was even getting loaded with skiers before 9:30 at the earliest if it wasn't running by 8 AM.

The above post was about GMX. I'm just going to muse as someone who likes to get in a few runs before work some days: I'd rather see Gatehouse as the 8am lift than GMX. I'd even rather see it over Bravo. My reasoning here is that the laps are shorter so I can better maximize my time before having to head home for work, and Gatehouse is the most reliable lift. Also, y'all are gonna poopoo the terrain, but both Sleeper and Waterfall are legit fun runs.

Again, IKON pass sales have been flat if not down.....

Yes, but prices are up quite a bit, so it is reasonable to expect revenue is as well.

If your staffing is limited, cleaning up glades is likely a lot lower on the priority list than other resort maintenance items.

Wouldn't it be different staff? You wouldn't put a lift mechanic on tree cleanup duty. For winter only jobs, perhaps the prospect of having work in the summer would make them full time positions and hence more attractive.

Hard to imagine that ~$10M for a lift at a hill they open for 3 months would pencil out.

Buttermilk has roughly the same operating season as Mellon. More generally, there are lots of high speed lifts all over the place that only run from Christmas to late March as ski areas curtail operations.

I would just take one boot off and drive over. Did it a few times for different reasons. Wife and kids would keep everything on.

No issues with the clutch? I tried driving in one snowboarding boot once, but my left foot kept hitting the break instead of the clutch.

I have friends who bought in Stowe 20 yrs ago. They don’t even ski weekends anymore. I get ya, it’s always a fine line.

Any chance this is because they weren't retired (or partially retired) 20 years ago, but they now have the luxury of being able to ski weekdays?

Could you imagine what SB would be like if he had built one of his infamous Grand Summit Hotels? And I remember the ASC "Base Village." That was interesting.

I've stayed at a Grand Summit (Jordan at Sunday River). It was nice. However, they were going for that MT Washington Hotel lobby environment, and it didn't hit critical mass.

STR obviously a huge factor, but NH next door doesn't have quite the same issue, so it's clear that VT has to look in the mirror here. It has tied its identity to limiting development and now with a step change in the underlying market conditions - STR taking up all of the inventory - local and state regs are not designed to cope. They are slowly killing the golden goose of tourism and it will be a rock fight to change given the politics around it.

You are saying that VT is so popular as a tourist destination that nobody goes there? (j/k)

 

[Smellytele]

i have def had some moments. hard to ski what i like to ski the way i like to ski without ever getting into a little jam. a whistle is a religious part of my outfit - it hangs from my rearview mirror so i never forget to take it from the car. if i am really fucked i can make a bunch of noise. i also ski with my phone plugged in to a beefy portable charger. i know its not bulletproof but i always have a fully charged phone.

Hard to blow a whistle or make a phone call if you hit a tree and get knocked out…

 

[KustyTheKlown]

so it goes

 

[Lotso]

I'm not deep in the weeds on this, but were Warren's requests really so unreasonable? Obviously we want the resort to have more employee housing, but the environmental impact needs to be mitigated.


The above post was about GMX. I'm just going to muse as someone who likes to get in a few runs before work some days: I'd rather see Gatehouse as the 8am lift than GMX. I'd even rather see it over Bravo. My reasoning here is that the laps are shorter so I can better maximize my time before having to head home for work, and Gatehouse is the most reliable lift. Also, y'all are gonna poopoo the terrain, but both Sleeper and Waterfall are legit fun runs.


Yes, but prices are up quite a bit, so it is reasonable to expect revenue is as well.


Wouldn't it be different staff? You wouldn't put a lift mechanic on tree cleanup duty. For winter only jobs, perhaps the prospect of having work in the summer would make them full time positions and hence more attractive.

Buttermilk has roughly the same operating season as Mellon. More generally, there are lots of high speed lifts all over the place that only run from Christmas to late March as ski areas curtail operations.

No issues with the clutch? I tried driving in one snowboarding boot once, but my left foot kept hitting the break instead of the clutch.

Any chance this is because they weren't retired (or partially retired) 20 years ago, but they now have the luxury of being able to ski weekdays?

I've stayed at a Grand Summit (Jordan at Sunday River). It was nice. However, they were going for that MT Washington Hotel lobby environment, and it didn't hit critical mass.

You are saying that VT is so popular as a tourist destination that nobody goes there? (j/k)

I still have not seen evidence that Warren was against the project.

Anyone have any references to this? Otherwise we are just painting Warren residents as NIBYs without proof, which would not be fair.

 

[MadPadraic]

Question and point is do most of those lifts have RE development in and around them? Jordan is right there

seems to me in order to spend the money to replace the nrx some kind of expansion is going to have to come with it.

From what I can tell, that ski areas can only be profitable from real estate is a myth that Les sold to us. If you go back an read ASC's last annual reports as a public company, what was killing them was very high interest rates. They publicly blamed operating expenses and the industry model, but it was borrowing above 20% that did them in. If you read Vail's more recent 10-Ks, they do in fact make their money off of the mountain product.

Some people on this forum know the actual numbers, and I accept that operating Sugarbush is different from operating, say, Breckenridge, but that notion that the entire business is driven by condo sales alone is inaccurate as far as I can tell. I'd also offer up WaWa and Wildcat as operations that don't really have real estate but appear to be profitable on their own terms.

To save my sanity, I am going to refrain from commenting on Vermont politics.

Signed,

Vermont Refugee
In Asylum in Utah Since 2011

Much appreciated . Enjoy your 3% beer and smelly lake.

- HG ramp is absoulutely fine. If you can't handle that you shouldn't be up there.

Same on the ramp, no issues at all and I can’t really understand complaints.

@shredmonkey covered this pretty well, but when you offload on a board, you are starting at an angle that isn't straight down. With steep dismounts you are picking up speed with only one foot attached, so little bumps and double fall lines will move you quite a lot. Basically having all the weight on one foot and having it move away from you in a fall can result in very bad knee damage.

Yes, we can turn with only one foot, and yes we can balance but the ramp isn't just dangerous from a likely fall perspective, but also from a consequence perspective. I haven't been up since last Tuesday, but I'm glad about the reports that they've widened it and reduced the angle.

Also, that lift serves the SB's marquee blue trail, so it does need to accommodate everyone from advanced beginner on up.

I'm in the single line for the Six at Stowe. Dude ahead of me goes out with a group of 5 to fill the next to load stalls. They slide up to the chair and he stays planted in the stall. The group of 5 I'm following with, slides up to him to fill the now empty stalls and behind me is another group of 6. I'm left as a boxed out single taking up the Six, with people jeering ... didn't care!

I saw a pass get pulled for that behavior once at Grandvalira. Basically getting to the gates was a free for all and anything was tolerated, but anyone not advancing once they were past the gates was warned or had their pass pulled. That was only at one lift though.

I suspect I'm repeating something already said but I'm fully in the camp of just don't run castlerock, ever.

That's not the worst idea ever.

 

[crank]

I won't ski trees alone.

My whistle is attached to my shell's zipper and is always close to my mouth that way.

I like skiing with others and don't mind waiting a bit of having them wait a bit. A bit of both happens these days as I am now 68 and definitely skiing a little less chargy.

My wife is almost as avid a skier as I am and either I have slowed down or she has gotten better because I used to have to wait for her a lot more...she's worth waiting for.

I like the Castlerock chair.

 

[Mak]

Im a social person. I need to ski with people. Especialluy in the woods. My wife skis with me most days and my friends are some of the best skiers on the hill. everyone has their thing and it's all good.

I hit a tree in the woods once. if not for my friends the outcome might have been different. That changed my perspective. That is why my posts of caution are out there.

I feel you. I got whipped in the face by a branch that I won't soon forget. Not that they're in NE, but I also fell into a tree well at Mammoth, and it took me two hours to dig myself out. Luckily it was clear enough that I could breathe. Scared the absolute hell out of me.

 

[ducky]

Almost always ski woods alone, Silde Brook included, and find the trails more dangerous. Great if my wife can join me, like today at Mt Ellen. That said, woods today were mixed and definitely need more coverage. We saw lots of (new) knock-downs. Trails were excellent and did Exterm, Encore, Elbow, Hammerhead, Looking Good and few of the usual haunts off trail. No lift issues at all.
I get a new shoulder in three weeks and a new hip in April. This will be a short season. The shoulder injury goes back to a dislocation on Exterm in 2010, now bone-on-bone and painful.

 

[KustyTheKlown]

ouch good luck. at least the early season has been much gooder than typical