The "Sugarbush Thread"

[Tonyr]

Tony, there were legitimate wind holds on Saturday. They did not shut the lifts as a money saving measure,… it was purely a safety issue.

I get it, having HG down all morning paired with the Castlerock double not repaired and spinning during one of the busiest days of the year made it a frustrating morning for lots of skiers.

We still had a great time in the afternoon but I think the resort could have managed the issue better. No updates on the wind hold were made for almost 3 hours. They advertised the resort as being fully open on the website at the open when in reality it was only about half open up through noon. We almost left after lunch but ran into an employee on the way to the car that told us to give the lift one more shot.

In any event, the communication at the very least was not good. If I were a paying customer of the Claybrook this weekend, which had rates well over 1k per night, I'd be really pissed.

 

[tumbler]

Give it a rest already. The wind holds were all communicated in the snow report and weren't updated because it was...windy! Thinking they were keeping lifts closed on purpose is just silly along with citing on here what the locals say why it is closed. And so honorable of you to be concerned about the folks staying at Claybrook.

 

[djd66]

It was definitely communicated. I was planning on skiing North, but changed my mind when I saw GMX AND NRX closed for wind holds in the same report they said NL and HG are closed for wind holds. How else would you want this communicated?

 

[cdskier]

I don't get the argument at all that it wasn't communicated. It was very clearly communicated before opening bell in the snow report on the website. Like djd, I was thinking about going to ME but decided to stick to LP when I saw GMX, HG, and NL on wind hold. That was at 7:30AM before I left my condo. At that point they may not have even had a chance to check other upper mountain lifts (i.e. I'm not sure if NRX and Summit were listed on hold at that point, but I just assumed they would likely be once they had a chance to check them).

What kind of updates after they were put on hold do you want? "Howdy skiers. Just wanted to update you that the lifts that were on hold 15 minutes ago are in fact still on wind hold". They can't predict when the wind is going to let them open more lifts. Forecasting exact timing of winds isn't an exact science.

Nevermind the fact that they have tons of webcams to see what is running and isn't. I'm often looking at those as well just to double-check what is in the report.

 

[sgottmann]

Clearly there is lots of frustration with operations this year. Windholds always suck but are not the fault of the mountain - there is no logical reason to close them on MLK Saturday. The holds were posted and updated. NRX, Castle Rock and slidebrook lift issues at the end of January are major problems that have compounded the opening of the year debacle. When all lifts run, there are usually no problems but without them the experience suffers. As good as the skiing is, a big storm would do wonders. Think snow and stay thirsty.