billski
Active member
aside from Magic, which other resort lifts can normally keep spinning on a windy day?
-
Welcome to AlpineZone, the largest online community of skiers and snowboarders in the Northeast!
You may have to REGISTER before you can post. Registering is FREE, gets rid of the majority of advertisements, and lets you participate in giveaways and other AlpineZone events!
windholds in VT - who keeps running?
- Thread starter billski
- Start date
riverc0il
New member
Burke!!! Love the poma! It is a rare day the Quad goes down though.
I've ridden the double and triple on Mansfield in some pretty intense winds.
billski
Active member
anyone know about Pico?
I'd imagine their High Speed Quads would have some issues. The Outpost double and its great terrain can probably spin though.
from personal experience I do not go to Pico if there is threats of high winds..they only have ONE chair to the summit. If they shut that down due to wind holds (which they have done, several times) you are stuck skiing the off the golden express...and if it isn't a weekend, the outpost chair probably isn't spinning. I was impressed by how many chairs K was running on Friday considering the incredible wind gusts.
billski
Active member
so what are the no/low chance of windhold best bets for vermont? any older, slower fixed grip lift?
the winds don't even look that bad for pico:
Monday: Snow showers likely. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Wind chill values as low as -11. Breezy, with a west wind between 20 and 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
I start to get worried when it is above 30 mph. To answer your question though, yes, in my opinion/experience, the old fixed grip lifts are the most dependable in high wind situations. Also the first ones people want replaced with high speeds
angry.
Monday: Snow showers likely. Cloudy and cold, with a high near 9. Wind chill values as low as -11. Breezy, with a west wind between 20 and 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New snow accumulation of 2 to 4 inches possible.
I start to get worried when it is above 30 mph. To answer your question though, yes, in my opinion/experience, the old fixed grip lifts are the most dependable in high wind situations. Also the first ones people want replaced with high speeds
angry.
billski
Active member
I know, I've been seeing a lot of that. That's why I got started on this thread, I think I'm gonna pick based on winds. Rather have a slow lift than no lift.
How about MRG and Bush's lifts in the wind. How do they hold up? I'm thinking that maybe SBN with it's slower lifts would be good. Hell, with 2' of pow, I'll ski anywhere that has steep enough trails. I'll even ski the groomers
Hell, with 2' of pow, I'll ski anywhere that has steep enough trails. I'll even ski the groomers
Unless the groomers have been stripped of all the powder (by the wind) like this past Friday....
billski
Active member
Well, what I was trying to say was that I normally seek out the pow in the woods and only go to designated trails if necessary (or if there is sufficient pow on them for sustained lines.)
madskier6
Member
Sugarbush is notorious for lots of windholds, including Mt. Ellen. Not sure exactly why but I'm guessing the lifts are higher up & thus not sheltered from the winds as well as say the Red Chair at Magic or MRG's Single.
I'm not trying to badmouth SB as it's one of my favorite mountains but I've been frustrated a couple of times there during excellent powder conditions. Couldn't get to the goods due to windholds.
riverc0il
New member
Dude, just go to Magic or Burke!
billski
Active member
not till the due diligence is done on the other areas! I'll be deciding within 60 minutes...
riverc0il
New member
Understandable as neither is usually a top snow receiver on most storms.
billski
Active member
thanks. decided on MRG.
Unfortunetly on a windy day, Mt Ellen at Sugarbush will be completely closed, and some lifts at Lincoln Peak/SB will also go down. Heaven's Gate is a fixed grip triple which is quite exposed and gets the wind shaft. Castlerock, the experts-only area is a new double which ** usually ** spins as it is well protected. But even the base area Village double gets windhold quite often - they clear cut a swath to the right of the chair where the "lodge" was supposed to go back in the early 2000s and as a result, the wind comes gushing through there.
Keep in mind that any time a lift goes on wind hold, it is for safety reasons, and the lift is monitored in the event the winds die down. We do not put lifts on windhold on purpose or to inconvenience the riders/skiers, though sometimes on powder days, it would seem that way ;-)
Elsewhere, all the times I used to go to Okemo, I only saw a windhold one day, and they ran the two triples to get to the top. K-mart had a windhold one day and it affected Seg 2 of the Skyeship. Then there's Jay Peak..... where 90% of its lifts are quite exposed and go on windhold quite often.
Keep in mind that any time a lift goes on wind hold, it is for safety reasons, and the lift is monitored in the event the winds die down. We do not put lifts on windhold on purpose or to inconvenience the riders/skiers, though sometimes on powder days, it would seem that way ;-)
Elsewhere, all the times I used to go to Okemo, I only saw a windhold one day, and they ran the two triples to get to the top. K-mart had a windhold one day and it affected Seg 2 of the Skyeship. Then there's Jay Peak..... where 90% of its lifts are quite exposed and go on windhold quite often.
ski_resort_observer
Active member
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2004
- Messages
- 3,423
- Points
- 38
- Location
- Waitsfield,Vt
- Website
- www.firstlightphotographics.com
Mellon rarely "completely closes" on windy days. At the Bush and other resorts it does depend on where the wind is coming from. While some of the lifts at Mellon generally go on windhold more often than LP, about 10 days ago most of the lifts at LP went on windhold but Mellon had top to bottom all day.
I don't remember many days, just one comes to mind and it was an early closing about 3PM, this past winter so far, that Mellon had all the lifts on windhold and was "compeletly closed".Mellon also had an early closing awhile back due to a regional power outage. If the GMX goes down for an extended period of time, Inverness is usually fired up so some of the terrain remains open and more times than not GMX comes back online.
The past 9 day holiday period as been awesome at the Bush in that there were very few windholds, SBX ran all week and the 40"+ of new pow pow since Wednesday.
On March 1 IIRC last year, ME was completely closed due to wind... after a storm the night before. We turned around, went to LP and found wind there too but enough open to get you up the hill.
So I probably should've said that lift ops will be restricted at ME on a windy day, and on the occasional super windy day, most lifts will be closed. Just trying to give our friend an FYI and to know what to expect, plus anyone else who may be curious.
SRO - forgot about them firing up Inverness. If that is open, you can get to some terrain, but the whole upper 2/3 of the main mtn would still be closed if North Ridge is on windhold or other delay. There is always "Sunny D" for terrain park nuts.
So I probably should've said that lift ops will be restricted at ME on a windy day, and on the occasional super windy day, most lifts will be closed. Just trying to give our friend an FYI and to know what to expect, plus anyone else who may be curious.
SRO - forgot about them firing up Inverness. If that is open, you can get to some terrain, but the whole upper 2/3 of the main mtn would still be closed if North Ridge is on windhold or other delay. There is always "Sunny D" for terrain park nuts.
Similar threads
