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View Full Version : Spring fling closed for race training on Saturday



djd66
01-08-2016, 09:15 PM
I just read this on the snow report,... WTF? Sorry, for anyone who reads my posts, I very rarely bitch - but seriously - this is complete BS. I get that the mountain has been having a tough year and we have all been skiing crap (not the mountains fault) But this is the first weekend you have the new chair open and the main trail you ski off of that chair is going to be closed for racers? So another Saturday with 100's of people on Downspout? To who ever made this decision - it is not in the best interest of the people who spend $1000's of dollars here every year. Yeah, I am really pissed.

Benski
01-08-2016, 09:37 PM
I just read this on the snow report,... WTF? Sorry, for anyone who reads my posts, I very rarely bitch - but seriously - this is complete BS. I get that the mountain has been having a tough year and we have all been skiing crap (not the mountains fault) But this is the first weekend you have the new chair open and the main trail you ski off of that chair is going to be closed for racers? So another Saturday with 100's of people on Downspout? To who ever made this decision - it is not in the best interest of the people who spend $1000's of dollars here every year. Yeah, I am really pissed.

Probably in there contract with gmvs. Lots of snow on lower snowball though it was a sheet of ice today after they stopped making snow on it. Lower Jester, Murphy's, Birdland and Organgrinder bellow heavens gate traverse have enough snow on it they will all defiantly be open so it won't be as bad as last week. I am not sure how much longer the natural snow trails can hold up.

Njski
01-08-2016, 09:44 PM
97 trails open, and you complain about one? Spring Fling is ok, but .......

Ever hear of Snowball, Racer's Edge, Murphys Glade, Moonshine? All intermediate trails off the VH Chair.

I really don't think there is much to bitch about. Most places are only @ 50% open. Lots of trails closed.

You should be thanking Win and the crew for doing an exemplary job in a very challenging season

djd66
01-08-2016, 10:00 PM
Probably in there contract with gmvs. Lots of snow on lower snowball though it was a sheet of ice today after they stopped making snow on it. Lower Jester, Murphy's, Birdland and Organgrinder bellow heavens gate traverse have enough snow on it they will all defiantly be open so it won't be as bad as last week. I am not sure how much longer the natural snow trails can hold up.

According to the website - it's not GMVS, .... It's CVU and Fairfield. Fairfield has a ski team? I get when they contract to have races on weekends,.. But this is not a race - it's race training. There are currently probably a dozen trails open with snowmaking. I drove up here tonight very excited to make a bunch of runs tomorrow on SF. I am sure if will have plenty of runs of that trail this season, but when there has been not much open all season and then it is closed on the first weekend it sucks. Tell them they can do race training on Sunday when it is raining and most of us do not want to ski.

djd66
01-08-2016, 10:07 PM
97 trails open, and you complain about one? Spring Fling is ok, but .......

Ever hear of Snowball, Racer's Edge, Murphys Glade, Moonshine? All intermediate trails off the VH Chair.

I really don't think there is much to bitch about. Most places are only @ 50% open. Lots of trails closed.

You should be thanking Win and the crew for doing an exemplary job in a very challenging season


Yep, I have heard of those trails. Murphy's is off of Bravo FYI,... i guess if they ran the race training in Moonshine or Racer's Edge I would have not complaints.

Benski
01-08-2016, 10:08 PM
According to the website - it's not GMVS, .... It's CVU and Fairfield. Fairfield has a ski team? I get when they contract to have races on weekends,.. But this is not a race - it's race training.

Either way Sugarbush probably signed away the rights to use the trail to CVU and Fairfield long before they knew about the problems you are complaining about. Now the are obligated to go threw with the contract even if they regret signing it.

djd66
01-08-2016, 10:17 PM
Either way Sugarbush probably signed away the rights to use the trail to CVU and Fairfield long before they knew about the problems you are complaining about. Now the are obligated to go threw with the contract even if they regret signing it.

No doubt there is some kind of contract that Sugarbush agreed to. Again - race training? How much money could they be getting? We are talking about 2 division 5 ski teams.

Dblshot
01-08-2016, 10:25 PM
Yeah I agree it sucks and kinda peeved too. 97 trails is misleading as the natural trails are very thin. I don't recall them doing this before at South. Maybe at North on Elbow closing part of the trail. Does all of Fling need to be closed?

cdskier
01-08-2016, 10:33 PM
I saw that and agree with djd. First weekend you can ski off the new lift and the signature trail is closed. It definitely annoyed me as well as a pass holder. I too was looking forward to runs on the new chair and spring fling. As for the comment that we shouldn't complain since there are 97 trails open...well that has nothing to do with this. All week on Facebook and in the reports they have been hyping how awesome spring fling was with all the snowmaking and the new lift. Why bother if no one will be able to ski it tomorrow? We will see tomorrow but I honestly don't have a lot of confidence that the natural snow trails (especially at lower elevations on the valley house side) will hold up too long.

WWF-VT
01-08-2016, 11:59 PM
What a bunch of whiners - it's Spring Fling that you won't be skiing on tomorrow. I'll be at Mt Ellen while you'll be waiting in lines at Lincoln Peak.

djd66
01-09-2016, 08:34 AM
Little update. Apparently this was some misinformation on the Sugarbush website. Spring Fling is not closed as stated. There is some race training taking up part of the train (skiers right). All is good, sorry for my whining last night. Someone may want to correct what is on the website tho

winjr
01-09-2016, 04:24 PM
It was not "Closed" just noted that they were gates on skier's right down where the race course used to be. I don't know if any of you skied Spring Fling but it was sweet all day.

Just so no one bitches tomorrow. We are closing most of the natural trails tomorrow because of a forecast of .8-1.3 inches of rain and very high winds. This is being done to preserve as much as we can. It will be turning cold tomorrow night so Monday will be fairly bulletproof until we can get some groomers going early in the AM after it sets up. The forecast for next week looks a lot better with snowmaking temps and some snow throughout the week. The piles we left on Birdland, Murphy's, Lower Grinder, Lower Snowball and Racer's Edge will groom out nicely about the rain. Snowmaking priority will be on the Gatehouse side to have that is good shape for MLK.

And, we are closing Spring Fling for an FIS race on Monday and Tuesday for GMVS. We don't close that trail on weekends for racing.

cdskier
01-09-2016, 04:52 PM
It was not "Closed" just noted that they were gates on skier's right down where the race course used to be. I don't know if any of you skied Spring Fling but it was sweet all day.

It was great today. I skied it several times. As for being "closed", whoever is doing the snow report needs to be careful about making sure info is accurate. Last night it definitely said spring fling would be closed for race training. By this morning the report was updated to say only a portion of it would be closed. If it said that from the beginning, no one would have said anything.

Benski
01-09-2016, 05:08 PM
Also the snow report had inverness and brambles open despite them being closed for racing.

WWF-VT
01-09-2016, 06:12 PM
Also the snow report had inverness and brambles open despite them being closed for racing.

I skied Brambles today and I am am not a racer.

djd66
01-09-2016, 07:15 PM
It was great today. I skied it several times. As for being "closed", whoever is doing the snow report needs to be careful about making sure info is accurate. Last night it definitely said spring fling would be closed for race training. By this morning the report was updated to say only a portion of it would be closed. If it said that from the beginning, no one would have said anything.

CD - thanks for confirming I was not crazy last night when I read that spring fling was scheduled to be closed for the day. Not sure who did the report yesterday, maybe it's the same guy that reports 1" of snow when we actually have 6" of snow. Maybe he had a few too many at happy hour or maybe he was stoned - but that is what it said. If you are going to have a website and report on things - they should be accurate - as others have said. Ok, that's it on this topic for me. The skiing was sweet today!

ducky
01-10-2016, 08:04 AM
I just read this on the snow report,... WTF? Sorry, for anyone who reads my posts, I very rarely bitch - but seriously - this is complete BS. I get that the mountain has been having a tough year and we have all been skiing crap (not the mountains fault) But this is the first weekend you have the new chair open and the main trail you ski off of that chair is going to be closed for racers? So another Saturday with 100's of people on Downspout? To who ever made this decision - it is not in the best interest of the people who spend $1000's of dollars here every year. Yeah, I am really pissed.

I read the report at 6:30 yesterday and it said there was race training. It did not say the trail was closed. I read it carefully to be sure as I had heard the race had been cancelled. Btw, CVU and Fairfied are Vermont High School teams, nothing to do with GMVS. Ski racing is a very important high school sport in the State of Vermont for obvious reasons. Kids go to school M-F and many resorts offer their hills for racing on the weekend, including Sugarbush. The CVU Carnival has been on Spring Fling on a Saturday in early January for years and had been cancelled yesterday. So far this year, there have been no VT HS races completed. Our local team, Harwood Union, was scheduled to race in that carnival. Most of the 40 Harwood Union team racers and their families are Sugarbush patrons and pass holders, along with several employee's families. Fwiw, the 10 teams entered, along with coaches and parents, bring hundreds of regional skiers to the mountain, from Burlington area, Burke, Stowe, Middlebury, etc, and it is a great way for a resort to showcase their facility to an important market of Vermont skiers, along with being a wonderful community service for teenage kids. Kids who ski race in high school become life-long athletes and develop a love of skiing and the outdoors.

Dblshot
01-10-2016, 10:39 AM
The snow report Friday night stated fling would be closed for the day. The 6:30 am one had it corrected. The thread started Friday night. It was open and skied nicely. No harm, no foul.

Hawk
01-11-2016, 08:00 AM
Personally I have many friends that race. Ski racing in the MRV is quite the institution and has a huge history. Some great skiers have pass through here over the years. I for one have no issue with racing trail closures. These kids put a lot of effort into their craft and without the support of the various mountains, they would have nowhere to go. This year especially there are so many mountains that do not have their race slopes fully up and running that sharing the limited resource is happing all over the place. At SR last week there were teams from several VT colleges skiing because there was no snow at where they were supposed to be training. SR hosted them instead. I am sure they were really grateful. I doubt there was a financial consideration that forced SB to allow the racing. I bet they just did it because it was the right thing to do, they already committed to that weekend and there was plenty of trails to ski anyway.

tedwillie
01-11-2016, 04:53 PM
Personally I have many friends that race. Ski racing in the MRV is quite the institution and has a huge history. Some great skiers have pass through here over the years. I for one have no issue with racing trail closures. These kids put a lot of effort into their craft and without the support of the various mountains, they would have nowhere to go. This year especially there are so many mountains that do not have their race slopes fully up and running that sharing the limited resource is happing all over the place. At SR last week there were teams from several VT colleges skiing because there was no snow at where they were supposed to be training. SR hosted them instead. I am sure they were really grateful. I doubt there was a financial consideration that forced SB to allow the racing. I bet they just did it because it was the right thing to do, they already committed to that weekend and there was plenty of trails to ski anyway.

There was almost certainly a financial consideration. Even small high school programs have a budget for hill time. You rent hill space from the resort. It may not be much, but there was money involved in that.

Hawk
01-11-2016, 05:08 PM
Maybe you are right. I just have not heard about it. I'll have to ask what it would cost. It cant be that much. Either way I stand by my words. I have no issues. let them ski.

djd66
01-11-2016, 07:54 PM
Maybe you are right. I just have not heard about it. I'll have to ask what it would cost. It cant be that much. Either way I stand by my words. I have no issues. let them ski.

I have not issues with it either - I don't think anyone has any issues with racers using any hill to practice. The issue of this whole post was the whole trail being shut down on the first weekend. Bottom line, the point is moot. As stated in my previous post - the mountain had an inaccurate report and the trail was not closed,... End of story.

tedwillie
01-11-2016, 08:38 PM
Maybe you are right. I just have not heard about it. I'll have to ask what it would cost. It cant be that much. Either way I stand by my words. I have no issues. let them ski.

It may have changed but I was in the industry about 15 years back and there was always a hill use fee...even for the smallest racing programs. Renting the hill is like renting anything...price varies by time used, day of week, significance of trail (i.e. How important that trail is to the ski area), etc. Renting hill space on a Saturday was much more expensive than a Monday, for obvious reasons.

I never have an issue with it...just another way for the mountain to make some money. They pay for it just like everyone else.