Shredmonkey254
Active member
A wonderful day, waxing now for COLD.
get it while ya can
get it while ya can
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The "Sugarbush Thread"
- Thread starter thetrailboss
- Start date
Slidebrook87
Active member
Snow conditions were good today, but the wind, extreme cold, lack of slide Brook and a bunch of other little stuff like icy goggles and skiing into a water bar and having to scrape the ice off the bottom of my skis kinda made it only a decent day for me. I had some good runs at Ellen, but Lincoln got crowded early and was extremely windy and cold by the time I got back. In line for HG the wind came whipping down downspout and knocked over all the gates in the corral. Even knocked over a couple little kids behind me. Around 3:15 ish all the lifts except Valley House and Village at Lincoln and Inverness and Sunshine at Ellen were on wind hold. Apparently tomorrow is gonna be bad with wind, but who knows.
I was waiting for the bus to mt ellen on German flats around 11 when someone had major ice to scrape off the bottom of his skis. Was that you?
Slidebrook87
Active member
Nope. I was on Lower FIS. They groomed the runout last night which helped a lot with filling in the water bars.
Slidebrook87
Active member
Good morning today. Started at Ellen because of all the lifts at Lincoln being on wind hold. Skiing was decent over there but the corduroy was very firm. After I got back to Lincoln I did two runs on Castlerock, both of which were amazing.
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oh, yah...did lower fis Saturday and really enjoyed the mandatory air over the first water bar.
STREETSKIER
Active member
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Hawk
Well-known member
This was posted elsewhere but I thought it appropriate to share it here. Dean has been an inspiration to me in so many ways. I miss seeing him around the place. Some of you know him from his teachings with the Bush Pilots or from just skiing around. I have had the pleasure of both skiing and mountain biking with him. He was the one that stoked me and my wife up for go to Cham multiple time. Anyway enjoy....
the blackcrows, episode 14 - Tony & Deano, ski bums forever
the blackcrows, episode 14 - Tony & Deano, ski bums forever
On my drive over from Burlington I saw that the lower lifts at LP were on hold. I figured by the time I got there everything would be spinning. On the drive up the access road I noticed an unusual amount of cars heading down so I knew that the lifts weren't spinning still. Pulled into a mostly empty lot at 8:45. Figured I'd eat my breakfast sandwich and wait til 9am. Pulled the ripcord and headed over to Mount Ellen and hopped on GMX. Quick warm up on Joe's Cruiser (firm cord) and then over to Inverness. I had such a blast the day before skiing Eden, I figured I'd check out Brambles woods and Semi-Tough woods. By the time I got back down I noticed the line at Inverness was longer than before and realized that GMX was on hold. Got on line at Inverness and checked the app. Of course Bravo was open...debated hopping in the car and driving over in my ski boots. But said screw it. Tooled around in Semi-Tough woods for the rest of the morning. Really spectacular in there. Eden but steeper in certain areas. And felt longer. Never got back to LP. but c'est la vie. Had a great, but cold day.
As an FYI, yesterday, Castlerock Run was some of the most enjoyable east coast skiing I've ever experienced. Oddly, to me, and this is all subjective, Middle Earth was not nearly as enjoyable.
There is more than meets the eye at Ellen.....
Nice!
I must have just missed the update on things going on hold at LP in the morning before I left my condo and drove down to the parking lot. I ended up sitting outside of the GH lodge in the little courtyard area by Bravo for about an hour. SB came off hold right around 9. Did a couple runs off SB and then went up HG. I was having a terrible time with my glasses and goggles fogging/freezing up on Sunday morning so only actually skied 90 minutes or so before I called it a day. I would have loved to go up CR as there was no one there at first when the holds were lifted, but bumps when you can't see well are a bit problematic.
I skied ME on Saturday. I was a bit surprised at a few of the natural trails how they seemed to have less cover than the ones at LP (Hammerhead, Bravo). Not sure if it was the wind or just that they normally need more snow than some of the trails at LP to cover up all the rocks. ME seemed empty on Saturday. Other than a couple minute wait at GMX, all the other lifts were ski on (before the wind holds started). I thought about skiing Lower FIS, but was concerned the waterbars at the bottom could be "fun" so opted to skip them. Based on others reports here, I'm happy with my decision there (although I'm sure Lower FIS itself before the runout was probably fantastic).
WWF-VT
Well-known member
I skied Mt Ellen on Saturday and Sunday and it was very quiet both days. On Saturday, Graduation was pretty much untracked powder and it was different skiing Riemergasse without any park features. Exterminator/Lower Exterminator were a lot of fun.. I got out late in the morning on Sunday when the Sunny Q and Inverness were the only lift options. Inverness is one of my favorite pods to ski at Mt Ellen - Brambles, Semi-Tough and the woods were all great. Walt's had been recently groomed and the water bars filled in. FWIW - the new GMVS t-bar moves fasted than the Inverness lift.
cdskier - no matter how much snow we get there are almost always exposed rocks on the steep pitches of Bravo and Hammerhead.
cdskier - no matter how much snow we get there are almost always exposed rocks on the steep pitches of Bravo and Hammerhead.
The new T-bar can run around 650 feet per minute and I think the ride time is 5.5 minutes versus nearly 12 minutes for the Inverness quad. It will likely run most of the time around 550 per minute I believe so the ride time is a bit longer but still a lot faster than the Quad. This is a big improvement for GMVS and these surface lifts are not vulnerable to the wind as was demonstrated last weekend.
Based on cdskier's report I must have left the LP parking lot a minute or two before Bravo started spinning. Part of me is bummed because I had such a good time at LP on Saturday, but I really enjoyed ME and as I've said before, I ski a lot more at LP than ME so it was good to have some different experiences.
Walts was phenomenal on Saturday. Really amazing how different natural groomed snow skies vs man-made groomed snow. I noticed the same thing about how fast the new GMVS t-bar was moving when I rode the Inverness lift on Saturday.
And it wasn't just the steep pitches of Bravo and Hammerhead that had a decent amount of rocks poking through. I expect rocks on the top part of Hammerhead and the main headwall of Bravo all the time. I wasn't quite as used to seeing them elsewhere on those trails while I feel like at LP I was barely seeing/finding any. Those were just 2 examples...others seemed to have thinner cover than I expected as well. Could just be the timing and which trails I was hitting when... I guess it just surprised me considering the natural trails I skied at LP on Friday afternoon vs ME on Saturday morning.
Slidebrook87
Active member
If only the public could ride it... it would be great to get to do some laps over there without waiting 12 minutes while you see racer kids flying right by underneath you. Also, what’s the deal with the Inverness/Sunshine schedule. On the lift report it says that Sunshine is now closed midweek while Inverness runs midweek (reverse of years prior) but this week it seems as though Sunshine is running in place of Inverness. Was this a temporary thing before Sugar Run and soon Reimergasse were set up?
I noticed after we got that first slug of wet snow that the very highest of elevations actually got dry snow and consequently lacked the base. Black Diamond in particular was a bit sketchy because a lot of rocks were poking through the lighter snow while down below the snow we got was firmly pasted down. I found similar on the very top of Bravo but it got better even down on the headwall. We are still a bit light on the natural snow though, still a lot of waterbars out there showing more than we would like. Not a big issue but usually they are somewhat covered by now.
Powder Whore
Member
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I skied Ellen today. Its definitely out there if your willing to go find it. Many of the stashes held up through the wknd. I'm assuming bc of weather & wind holds. I guess the sacrificial lamb for the weekend was Inverness, Its beat to heck over there.
Also the guns were BLAZING on Reimergasse. It's really impressive to see the amount of "firepower" when ops cranks it up.
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