Compliments, constructive criticism, and thoughts....

[slatham]

Finally got to the 'Bush for skiing Wed-Fri and happy I did. Wed was at North after not opening on Tuesday due to winds and we found 8" powder on most of undgroomed terrain, but a good foot had blown into Exterminator and it was sweet :D The other days were primarily at South and though not the powder day that Wed was it was very good for Christmas week. The snowmaking crew had done a great job - esp on Birch, Sunrise, Rip Cord, Inverness. If not for the one gun at the intersection of upper and lower Snowball that must have run way too wet, they'd get a perfect score.

We did, however, have a bummer of time with the double wammy of Slide Brook and Castle Rock pub. Slide Brook went down Friday and stranded us at North - including a bunch of cold, tired, ski'd out kids. The bus back-up plan was simply lacking - they added a small bus to the normal shuttle, but given holiday crowds this was simply not adaquate. Luckily my wife could rescue us, but since the crew was so big this resulted in two trips. Yet it was faster than waiting in the shuttle line (I estimate that if we had waited for the shuttle our 2:00 planned departure would have been no earlier than the 4:15 shuttle). Win, I think you need to review the bus back-up plan.

This of course delayed our trip-ending apres ski celebration at Castle Rock Pub. We did make it, but past the 5pm shut down of the kitchen. Come again? On a holiday week, with a packed CRP, food stops at 5? I'm sure there's the argument of sending people to Timbers, which on a normal day (and certainly mid week) makes strong business sense. But on Christmas break? And yes, we tried Timbers, but as expected it was booked solid - even the bar. The lack of friendliness my wife experienced was not expected (and in SHARP contrast to literally EVERY other Sugarbush employee we ran into). We ended up having to drive down to the Hyde Away, which as it turns out was a great time.

But it was great to be back in the MRV and the 'Bush, and I hope this cold snowy pattern keeps up and I can get the family back up soon. The mountain looks great and (above notwithstanding) everything seems to be clicking.

THINK SNOW!

[summitchallenger]

SBX closed on Friday? We saw it spinning until at least 1:30pm or so. Did you miss the last chair at 3:15?

[Lostone]

SBX went down on a mechanical, about 2:00, on Friday. They added the big bus to the route,which the small bus had been handling fine, until then.

That put 3 buses on the route with 2 My Ellen / Lincoln Peak and the Valley Floor, which swings by Mt Ellen.

[Tin Woodsman]

This of course delayed our trip-ending apres ski celebration at Castle Rock Pub. We did make it, but past the 5pm shut down of the kitchen. Come again? On a holiday week, with a packed CRP, food stops at 5? I'm sure there's the argument of sending people to Timbers, which on a normal day (and certainly mid week) makes strong business sense. But on Christmas break? And yes, we tried Timbers, but as expected it was booked solid - even the bar. The lack of friendliness my wife experienced was not expected (and in SHARP contrast to literally EVERY other Sugarbush employee we ran into). We ended up having to drive down to the Hyde Away, which as it turns out was a great time.

Wait - do you purport to be a transportation logistics expert AND a food and beverage expert??! Come again??!! How dare you speak up and not tow the party line!

[HowieT2]

The trip home today was my slowest by far. we did get to ski today and enjoy a surprisingly uncrowded crp.

I won't complain about the windholds today are even the mechanical delay on GH this morning (I think I saw one of the regulars here #1 in the que). these things happen. My only issue is with the communication of the lift status. When I got up at 6:30 and the report was of 12", we decided to ski from the start. Based on the web site we determined that south was on windhold but mellon was going to open with NRX and Inverness. so we drove past LP and headed to Mellon only to get there and find out that everything was on windhold. so we went back to south and waited for gh. we did get a sweet run through slidebrook, although the company on the bus trip back was of questionable character.
:wink:


would it be that difficult/expensive to set up a system to text message lift status? twitter? anything?

[Strat]

would it be that difficult/expensive to set up a system to text message lift status? twitter? anything?
http://twitter.com/Sugarbush_VT

Although they need to update it a bit more frequently...

[boze]

...and the updating frequency is the bottom line - be it twitter or the web or even guest services. I was at the lower GH desk at 740a when the 2 folks working it + 1 other nearby had differing info on lift status & the plan. Turns out only one being in contact with 'dispatch' (mtn ops?) & had the latest correct info.
Certainly windholds are by their nature dynamic, and pose challenges on communication accuracy & timleness. While there's some logistics to hammer out to fine tune the flow of info across this partiicular chain of command, overall the effort to get into to the skiers was noticable including the Ambassadors & frequent PA announcements in the GH lodge. But for those in the lift line hoping to avoid the stampeded, we get very little...(so we just look for Egan and Atkinson; if they are in the same corral then we're pretty confident we're in a good spot). :wink:

[muddy_hollow]

.....(so we just look for Egan and Atkinson; if they are in the same corral then we're pretty confident we're in a good spot). :wink:

Rumor has it that there are Atkinson look-alikes roaming about. I hear the greatest level of Atkinsons are in the woods typically nesting in snow caves, but there may be plants in the corrals.

[boze]

No doubt about it, JA gets around...
Tracked him Sunday AM up the just-opened HG to NL and into SB w/ a Blazer group in tow where a bit later we observed him operating his famous camera making that a 'confirmed' siting (not to mention the chit-chat shared before proceeding through 'door #2') :wink:

[ScoobySnack]

Ok, the mountain was great as usual. Very nice job especially considering that the snow reports (looking at you, Josh Fox) did not come anywhere near fruition.

However -
The fiasco at the bottom of Mt. Ellen after the Slidebrook went down early really put a big damper on that day. Tried to get the bus at 3:00 and the line was ridiculously long (and that was after the shuttle just left). Tried again at 4:10. We did not reach the rest of our group at Timbers until 5:30. Three crying kids and two ticked-off wives did not make for a happy holiday. The entire line was really frustrated (and voicing it) with the lack of shuttles on a holiday weekend. It really appeared that operations people were just scrambling around rather than prepared for something like this.

[gone.skiing]

Those 3PM - 4PM buses on holiday weekend can be brutal and it seems to happen every year. The only solution I see is to not fight it and start drinking at Mt. Ellen, then you get on the bus after 4PM in much better mood. ;-)

We jumped on 4 something bus and were the last ones in line, so it worked out for us. The driver was also in communication with dispatch to figure out if more trips were needed. I would venture a guess that busses are allocated to routes so it is not easy to shuffles them around in real time, but there should be something in reserve for end of day on Fri/Sat/Sun on holiday weekends.

[Tin Woodsman]

Those 3PM - 4PM buses on holiday weekend can be brutal and it seems to happen every year. The only solution I see is to not fight it and start drinking at Mt. Ellen, then you get on the bus after 4PM in much better mood. ;-)

We jumped on 4 something bus and were the last ones in line, so it worked out for us. The driver was also in communication with dispatch to figure out if more trips were needed. I would venture a guess that busses are allocated to routes so it is not easy to shuffles them around in real time, but there should be something in reserve for end of day on Fri/Sat/Sun on holiday weekends.

That's always a tough issue - how to deal with large surges in the need for services, especially when exacerbated by the SBX breakdown. Coming mid-afternoon of the New Year break, it really couldn't be at a worse time. Lostone says they mobilized the big bus to deal with it. Not sure how practical it would be to have more buses or vans sitting in reserve - the MadBus does not serve SB only. I can certainly see why people would be frustrated, but that's really a tough spot for the mountain.

[slatham]

Hold on Tinwoodsman - I claim not only to be an expert on transportation logistics and food service, but also lift ops, snowmaking, grooming, ski school, woods pruning, grass growing, paint drying and all aspects of ski area management :wink:

Not sure about the company line, but I do tow the "blog line" - pointing out issues so that Win can at least think about ways to avoid them in the future. While I will be back, maybe some of the folks stuck at north or left hungry at CRP will not come back and that would be a shame.

The transportation situation on holiday week when SBX goes down is a tough one to solve, no doubt. It would be nice if they could simply put the parking lot shuttles into service but I was told those are not road worthy. Maybe one solution is to make them road worthy so they can be used in a pinch? Another would be to have a van or two as part of the vehicle fleet that could be put into service with the parking shuttle drivers switching over? Just thoughts.

As for the CRP food service past 5pm, I think Sugarbush is leaving money on the table and inconveniencing some guests. I am actually not an expert, but I can't imagine keeping the kitchen open for another hour or so is a huge deal.

Win?

For the record, I Love Sugarbush.

[HowieT2]

Hold on Tinwoodsman - I claim not only to be an expert on transportation logistics and food service, but also lift ops, snowmaking, grooming, ski school, woods pruning, grass growing, paint drying and all aspects of ski area management :wink:

Not sure about the company line, but I do tow the "blog line" - pointing out issues so that Win can at least think about ways to avoid them in the future. While I will be back, maybe some of the folks stuck at north or left hungry at CRP will not come back and that would be a shame.

The transportation situation on holiday week when SBX goes down is a tough one to solve, no doubt. It would be nice if they could simply put the parking lot shuttles into service but I was told those are not road worthy. Maybe one solution is to make them road worthy so they can be used in a pinch? Another would be to have a van or two as part of the vehicle fleet that could be put into service with the parking shuttle drivers switching over? Just thoughts.

As for the CRP food service past 5pm, I think Sugarbush is leaving money on the table and inconveniencing some guests. I am actually not an expert, but I can't imagine keeping the kitchen open for another hour or so is a huge deal.

Win?

FWIU there is a legal or insurance restriction from operating the sugar shuttle outside the parking lots.

As for the CRP, I agree it should be open longer. and please have it open for the superbowl!!!!!!!!!!!

For the record, I Love Sugarbush.

[MntMan4Bush]

I for one am never hungry after catching a last chair, debooting, settling down and grabbing a drink. I mean to be honest the more food in my stomach the less there is to absorb alcohol making me need less drinks to accomplish the same goal. Money saved = money earned Keep the kitchen closed. No one likes to eat after a hard day of skiing. It just adds unnecessary pounds back that were just burned.

[gone.skiing]

+1 for keeping the kitchen in the pub open a while longer and maybe 1 cash register in the cafeteria with some left over food. Would be nice to feed something to the kids and grab a quick coffee at 4:30. Those left over slices really hit the spot...

[Tin Woodsman]

Hold on Tinwoodsman - I claim not only to be an expert on transportation logistics and food service, but also lift ops, snowmaking, grooming, ski school, woods pruning, grass growing, paint drying and all aspects of ski area management :wink:

Not sure about the company line, but I do tow the "blog line" - pointing out issues so that Win can at least think about ways to avoid them in the future. While I will be back, maybe some of the folks stuck at north or left hungry at CRP will not come back and that would be a shame.

The transportation situation on holiday week when SBX goes down is a tough one to solve, no doubt. It would be nice if they could simply put the parking lot shuttles into service but I was told those are not road worthy. Maybe one solution is to make them road worthy so they can be used in a pinch? Another would be to have a van or two as part of the vehicle fleet that could be put into service with the parking shuttle drivers switching over? Just thoughts.

As for the CRP food service past 5pm, I think Sugarbush is leaving money on the table and inconveniencing some guests. I am actually not an expert, but I can't imagine keeping the kitchen open for another hour or so is a huge deal.

Win?

For the record, I Love Sugarbush.

I think my sarcasm didn't make it through well. I was joking and pretty much agree with you, especially w/r/t the 5:00 cut off on food in the CR Pub. Keep talking about this stuff! While the Kool-aiders would prefer you suppress it and simply say how everything is fine, it's important to observe, document and make your feelings known on these sorts of customer service issues.

[007]

.02 for apres' at CRP:

~Please reinstitute the offering of the Nachos at CR Pub (missed by many of us).
~We also need some Sweet Potato Pub Fries coated with sea salt hand picked by mermaids.
~Larger share portions for 6 or more might be more economical.
~A dedicated BSO (Beer Service Only) line ( I know......, this has been posted 1,000 times already...).
~Shawn's iPod volume is good and the music better, but the live band plays way too loud for that room; unless it's The Who or Radiohead please lower the volume on the bands kind sir. Take a tip from the live acoustic show at Mt Ellen last Friday afternoon which was really good.

Peace

[djd66]

Just came back from an 11 day trip up at the Bush, My family and I had a great time and lots of good memories. At 4:30 today I really felt like having a switchback! - (wish they would bottle that stuff as it has become my fav.)

I would like to see the hours extended at the Castlerock Pub also - just during the peak periods - like holiday weeks. Friday night, we all went out for happy hour, at 6:00 the guys left all of our wives in Timbers to enjoy the rest of their night out (we had ours the night before), they basically had to leave the table they had in Timbers b/c it was reserved for dinner (seems reasonable to me) They closed out the tab and went across the way to CRP, no food was being served and then they got kicked out at 7:00 cause it was closing time. Why would they close the bar so early and not serve food when there are so many people around? They ended up walking to the village to visit with Julia at Miguel's. (she make the best Margarita in the valley) It all worked out for them, but they also could not understand why the bar would close so early? Is there some kind of licensing issue??? Other than that, no big issues with the way things went this week! (and it's not that big of a deal, just something to consider)

On another note,... Kudos to the snowmaking team - they did a great job of getting the mountain in great shape.

Unfortunatly the wife will not let me drag the family up next weekend, save some powder and a few Switchbacks for me in 2 weeks.

[Hardbooter]

~Shawn's iPod volume is good and the music better, but the live band plays way too loud for that room; unless it's The Who or Radiohead please lower the volume on the bands kind sir. Take a tip from the live acoustic show at Mt Ellen last Friday afternoon which was really good.


I agree. I can never go int the CRP when a band is playing. It's ridiculously loud (and I'm a musician.) Of course, now that we have a keg of switchback at the house I may not need to go to the CRP, or leave the house at all.