Even though this week was not designated a Holiday Week, we have decided to open Bravo at 8am through Sunday the 6th. All other scheduled lifts will open at 9am. The lifts not running Wednesday through Friday are Inverness, Valley and Tommy's. All others are scheduled to turn! Given the cold temperatures that are expected to come in tomorrow afternoon, we might close Slidebrook early, and it is unlikely to run on Thursday when base temperatures will likely not get above 5 degrees. As most of you know, for safety reasons we will not run Slidebrook if it is below 5 degrees F in case there ever had to be a lift evacuation.

The snow is soft and deep and the best skiing and riding is definitely early in the day tomorrow. Then bundle up Wednesday afternoon and Thursday before the temperatures turn up on Friday for what looks like a really nice weekend. Snowmaking at LP will move to Stein's after tomorrow when the temps are low and the Low Energy nozzles will produce some fabulous man made snow!

Hookey is the name of the game tomorrow!

Thanks for the update. What a day today was!

As a season pass holder I would have expected better communication on lift status, especially if you were planning to open early on a non-holiday, non weekend day. My father, also a season pass holder for the past ten years, stayed for an extra day, missed a day of work, so that he could get a morning of fresh tracks at his mountain. But when he gets to the lift at 8:45am, expecting to be in line for the fresh, he is disappointed to see that the lift has been spinning for the last 45 minutes. You know, he was bummed out. (yah ok, castlerock was sick all day...) But to see a passionate Sugarbush season pass holder/ home owner bummed out... not cool. We called the 6300 number on the 1st to ask for the opening time for the 2nd. They said the holiday is over... 9am opening. Alpine Options said 9am too. How about consistency? Better communication...especially to those that return year after year and invest in your mountain. Fresh pow is what we all live for. We get the weather forecast no problem. A predictable lift opening would only be fair. Thanks.

bullwheel12 wrote:

As a season pass holder I would have expected better communication on lift status, especially if you were planning to open early on a non-holiday, non weekend day. My father, also a season pass holder for the past ten years, stayed for an extra day, missed a day of work, so that he could get a morning of fresh tracks at his mountain. But when he gets to the lift at 8:45am, expecting to be in line for the fresh, he is disappointed to see that the lift has been spinning for the last 45 minutes. You know, he was bummed out. (yah ok, castlerock was sick all day...) But to see a passionate Sugarbush season pass holder/ home owner bummed out... not cool. We called the 6300 number on the 1st to ask for the opening time for the 2nd. They said the holiday is over... 9am opening. Alpine Options said 9am too. How about consistency? Better communication...especially to those that return year after year and invest in your mountain. Fresh pow is what we all live for. We get the weather forecast no problem. A predictable lift opening would only be fair. Thanks.

Just a heads up for the future.... because the Bush has lift opps folks who exceed expectaions every day they almost always start spinning the early bird lifts(Bravo, GMX) before the scheduled opening(whether it's 8AM or 9AM) so if anyone's day is ruined by not getting first tracks than planning to be there 30 min early is highly reccomended.

For example, the GMX at Mellon was scheduled to start spinning at 9AM this morning but they had the lift spinning at 8:30. They have been doing this since the summer. IMHO this is a very good thing and most guests appreciate the extra effort by lift opps to accomplish this.

Bullwheel, as members of this message board we are given tremendous amount of information and feedback from the owners of this mountain. This is unprecedented in the industry. From the timing of Wins post I would say it was a last minute decision. A gift from one avid skier to others. Now I see Treeskier and 100 or so other yahoos made it there on time to get the freshies and that is outstanding. I knew about it because I pay attention to this board. Unfortunately I have taken way to many days already because of this season’s epicness and did not make it. I personally would like this quiet early opening thing to continue. I guess the lesson is to pay attention, watch the board and reap the rewards!
Also SRO is right. They do open early quite often.

I was surprised by the early opening , but I knew about it at 7 a.m. when I called the snow phone!! 583-SNOW (7669). I always call the snow phone first. ; } I don't know why the people you called didn't have the info , so I would suggest the snow phone. They tell you how much is up top , at the base and where the snowmaking is happening and windholds. And it can be entertaining , too.

Sorry.

I could have told people, but didn't know they didn't know.

As for all the freshies, they were more like leftovers, from the day before.

More was forecast, for overnight. But I think the snow ended right after I left the mountain, Tuesday. That was the day to ski out!

I was out early, for the freshies, but they weren't out early for me. Still, there was no shortage of great skiing all day yesterday.

I even left more up there for others, as I left around 2:30 to dig poor Vera out. Had two neighbors stop. One said it looked like a while since I'd dug her out. (I drove her Friday.) and the other stopped after I'd gotten her out and said "Hey there was a car under there!"

We've been getting some snow!

Hawk wrote:

From the timing of Wins post I would say it was a last minute decision.

It was actually known by staff over a week ago so the person who answered 6300 should have know that and there is no getting around it...they gave you the wrong info . As skiladi posted, calling the snow phone is the best way to get the correct info and they usually have that day's info by 6:30AM.

I am going to correct one thing. We will not load the lifts a minute before the scheduled time for the general public. GMVS is permitted to go up early on certain days to train early. I will take a special first track group up occassionally as will the Blazers coaches on a couple of occasions. However, when we announce a schedule we try to open on time and will not open earlier. The 8am schedule was known to all. Sorry if someone communicated in error!

bullwheel12 wrote:

Alpine Options said 9am too.

Why don't you try Shaws in Waitsfield next time... They usually have most current information on lift openings.

We were getting "first" tracks in the thigh deep at 10 am on Wednesday, 1/2.
I guess you just have to know where to look.

life goes on