Northridge Express

[freeheel_skier]

The Northridge was down today. Anybody know if it will run tomorrow? I didn't think to ask when leaving the mtn today. :?

[summitchallenger]

The Northridge was down today. Anybody know if it will run tomorrow? I didn't think to ask when leaving the mtn today. :?

I thought it was wind, but I learned this morning that it was a "major" mechanical problem. Just read on the snow report that it was an electrical problem. It is scheduled to run tomorrow morning.

In case you haven't heard, the reason why that lift has so many problems is that it is the sacrificial lift of SB that absorbs all the bad karma from the other lifts.....

[freeheel_skier]

I thought it was wind, but I learned this morning that it was a "major" mechanical problem. Just read on the snow report that it was an electrical problem. It is scheduled to run tomorrow morning.

In case you haven't heard, the reason why that lift has so many problems is that it is the sacrificial lift of SB that absorbs all the bad karma from the other lifts.....

Thanks for the update. I will now check the sb online report....doh! :oops: As far as the "sacrificial lift" that makes much more sense. Thanks for clearing that up! :lol:

[shadyjay]

Seems like ever since they moved it to become the NRX, it has been cursed (from what I've read here). Bravo gets the curse every now and then, so its not just NRX.

[win]

Two unrelated electrical problems. It made need an exorcist!

Yesterday, we discovered an employee had erred in fixing a prior issue and disconnected a wire by mistake. Today, we are grounding out somewhere and trying to isolate the problem. Hopefully, this will be the end of the bad Karma.

[vonski]

Alright I think it might take some witch doctors or something on NRX.

However, I skied Friday and I can actually say I had a good day off GMX. I was freezing so took a chance with Which Way. The skiers left line along the woods was sweet, soft, crusty and firm. At times I was on a solid wash board. But it was awesome. NO one on the trail and I got warm. So I then tried Encore. It was the same, but troughs had filled in with snow. I got even warmer. The run out consisted of hitting sunny D area with snowmaking. sweet snow and great little whales to get some air off of. I also caught Bravo at 3:30 and I wish I had more legs left. It had filled in nicely by that time as well.

Saturday what a surprise. The upper mid mountain not as steep woods filled in nicely. Won't say exactly where as no one else was in those woods. Spent the day off the Summit Chair. got some extra sleep on the slow ride up, but the snow was great. Tried Which way and Encore and they had gotten windswept and encore beat up from skier traffic. Not as good as Friday actually.

So, I had two good Ellen days with out Northridge, did not think it was possible. But to my surprise I had a good two days.

But lets still get it fixed and uncursed. It still is the best lift on the whole mountain for the variety of terrain off of one lift.

[jwt]

Vonski posted: "It still is the best lift on the whole mountain for the variety of terrain off of one lift."

Never thought much about it ,but that is exactly right. Even beginners can access Rim Run, and the best challenging blue trail on ME - maybe all - is Elbow. Then the headwall of Bravo, Ext. and all of the lower blacks are accesible from NRX (tumbler/Hammer/Cliffs/Encore)

And the best woods are all accessible from NRX Elbow/Bravo/Ext and Way Back Woods - and a couple others I won't mention.

Quick, uncrowded, good verts. Wonder what the breakdown is on lift reliability is state-wide. It would have to be hours running without incident - not by date.

GH or SB can't be much better. Other areas got to have these problems - we just focus on our back yard. Still not easy to swallow when your friends come up and pay $74 ( or whatever it is now) and get stuck.

[boze]

The only upside of NRX not spinning Sat was that no one saw the insanely sweet conditions on Bravo during their ride up that chair.
It was pristine - at least until my son & I hit it twice for 1st (and 2nd) tracks. And that was at 930am/10am. Wow. While there was crust underneath, it was buried under 7-8" + windblown from Exterminator & others. Calf & even knee deep in many sections - - not the headwall, but even it had healthy cover over that crust. After taking 2 spins down Bravo we hit the woods. One lone set of tracks was all we saw. And saw no tracks in Wayback woods until we hit that as well (as these areas are on the trail map I've no issue 'sharing' this info!). That lasted until 11/1130am when some others came to take a peek. Must have been all our hooting and hollering. A surprise powder day is always a really good day. :D
Happy 2009.

Near top of Bravo 1/3/09 - notice the freshness underfoot!
http://www.postimage.org/aV1U7CWi.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1U7CWi)

http://www.postimage.org/aV1U92Jr.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aV1U92Jr)

http://www.postimage.org/Pq1O1zJ0.jpg (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq1O1zJ0)
[/img]

[freeheel_skier]

Ditto on Bravo and Exterminator. Kings to you boze for getting first tracks with your kids!

[boze]

Thx Freeheel. It's best to share, even on a powder day... :wink:

[freeheel_skier]

No friends on a powder day.....things change when kids are involved. I refer to my daughter as the "Human Rain Delay" :shock: , when its time to get out of the house!

[Tin Woodsman]

Down again today with mechanical problems.


Good times.

[vonski]

calling all witch dctors, excorsists, mechanics with knowledge! Sure am glad I could not make it up this weekend if it stays down. I know it is not the case but almost looking like cost saving measures at this point. :P :twisted: the best lift on the mountain needs to be fixed and running correctly. maybe they need to go back to not running it during the week so it can work on weekends at least.

[freeheel_skier]

Just got back in from a nice but cold morning @ ME. Was going to ski from the summit to bravo and then down to northridge when we saw a lift ops snow machine on the ramp.....and people were still on the lift :shock: Not good. I talked with a couple of people who were stuck on the lift for 35min :!: YIKES :!:

From what I saw lift ops had to push the chairs around the bullwheel by hand because they were getting stuck. Now this is my observation. I still don't know what exactly happened.

Snowmaking on summit and FIS. Lets move some of that magic over to Cliffs.

[Go Figure]

maybe they need to go back to not running it during the week so it can work on weekends at least.
How about shutting it down on the weekend when the stress of a heavy load causes it to fail. As a 1991 HSQ it is near the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. On another note, get the SBX going asap. With the stairs at South, waits for bus and general dislike of buses in general I ski one area or the other. Passes were sold for 2 interconnected [not bus linked] mountains, get with it.

[vonski]

being a weekend warrior, if NRX is down for the season or down every weekend I certainly would not be happy with my Ellen only pass this year! that would make o sense at all. like I said before, NRX accesses the best variety of terrain from one lift on the mountain, not to mention the vertical obtained and length of the runs. They are perfect. One is just getting tired when they reach the bottom of NRX. I personally like the length of the runs obviously. I always felt when I have skied STowe in the past that the runs are just a bit too long. Just my $.02.though.

[Tin Woodsman]

maybe they need to go back to not running it during the week so it can work on weekends at least.
How about shutting it down on the weekend when the stress of a heavy load causes it to fail. As a 1991 HSQ it is near the end of its service life and needs to be replaced. On another note, get the SBX going asap. With the stairs at South, waits for bus and general dislike of buses in general I ski one area or the other. Passes were sold for 2 interconnected [not bus linked] mountains, get with it.
Wait - SBX isn't running today either? That's weak sauce. Certainly enough snow at the bottom.

Must have been the "cold" weather.

Cue barkbiter informing us what wusses we are for needing the SBX when he just walks back and forth via the lift line.

[vonski]

sugarbush website says delayed opening tomorrow,with sooner than later opening hopeful.

[HowieT2]

sugarbush website says delayed opening tomorrow,with sooner than later opening hopeful.

That blows. The best part of the mtn is accessed off the nrx. You can't do laps going all the way down to the gmx. I hope the snow tomorrow makes up for any delayed opening.

I skied south today. Beautiful bluebird day. I think we've had more of these already this season then all of last year. Did OG and jester with the wife in the morning and they were both good. Then into paradise woods (sans wife obviously) for a couple of runs before lunch. It is still thin in there, but nor bare enough to keep me from going back for a couple of laps after lunch. Then I hit middle earth and swore I would take it easy on groomers for the rest of the day until I came upon moonshine. I couldn't resist, it was fun. Doing the snow dance although not expecting much.

[klop]

I was stuck on the northridge for 25 minutes today right at the wind tunnel at the bottom of Bravo. A patroller we rode up with later told us that the chain drive that brings the chairs around after they detach at the top was broken. Lift mechanics were moving them around by hand. Apparently they were within minutes of a rope evac until they figured out a way to move the chairs by hand. We did get a free hot choco out of the deal - thanks.

[Plowboy]

Nice :!: :!: "A HOT CHOCO" :lol: :lol: Was it Hersey's OR Ghirardelli :?:

[Lostone]

I really don't think there is enough snow under the SBX.
Then into paradise woods (sans wife obviously) for a couple of runs before lunch. It is still thin in there, but nor bare enough to keep me from going back for a couple of laps after lunch.

That is at the top of the mountain. The bottom of Slidebrook is 1200' If you saw Lower Domino, you'd understand what I'm saying.

[madhavok]

After finding crowded conditions at South today, especially with Spring Fling and half of snowball closed for racing (gay), I would have used SBX to head over to north.

[summitchallenger]

Heard this morning that North Ridge was down again. Got to the mountain and first ride on GMX was with a patroller who told me that the cadence chain broke on the summit terminal, and the decision was made to try to jimmy-rig the lift so that they could unload it versus evac. It took four guys to push a chair around each of the chain links, while another guy had to override the safety brakes. 45 minutes or so later it was unloaded. This lift has had so many problems I have heard...including the fact that the software was somehow deleted a few years back and Poma had to manually retype it (they found a printout).

With that in mind, I propose a sacrifice and exorcism ceremony next weekend. There will be a burning of a mock Les Otten scarecrow, much like Guy Fawks day in the UK, and the priest/minister figure will bless the lift.

[win]

I am late getting to this post. Sorry! My poor new Lift Maintenace manager, Scott, was so excited to come to Sugarbush from Keystone. He didn't realize that we needed an exorcist for Northridge. Several totally unrelated issues have been driving him crazy, but fortunately he is a real pro, and I have been impressed with his problem solving ability.

After correcting the electrical problems, Saturday's problem was a good old fashioned mechanical problem. A link on the chain that pulls the chairs through the upper terminal broke and pulled a piece of hard plastic that the chairs glide on through the drive. Our team had to physically help pull the chairs through the terminal to get the 30 people off the lift. This is not a part that is in stock, so Scott was able to find some plastic and manufacture a replacement and install it by noon the next day. It was a pain for all to lose the lift for that long, but I was pleased to see how our team could jump in and solve a problem without waiting for days for a new part to arrive.

I rode Northridge on Monday and performed an exorcism. Hopefully that was what was needed.

[vonski]

Thank you Win. Explain to Steve that this is the best lift on the mountain. Keep it a priority.

[vonski]

edit oops, Scott! not Steve.