If anyone skied to Castlerock lift this weekend you probably now have many petex gouges. It was like skiing over the gravel they layed down in the parking lot. Ouch! Know Like Mad River (who's snow making is only below the frost line) I feel it would be a benifit to add 3-5 guns at the very bottom of Castlerock. 2 guns on the entry from Downspot to the lift and 2-3 guns on the bace area up to the first turn that you can see from the loading zone of Castlerock. THAT IS ALL. This is below the frost line and does not hold snow like the rest of the Castlerock area. Look how much the 1 gun on Brovo at North helps that trail. (the gun puts snow on the head wall only) Thanks MT for keeping Castlerock open this weekend. Other then getting there it skied very nicely.

Treeskier wrote:

If anyone skied to Castlerock lift this weekend you probably now have many petex gouges. It was like skiing over the gravel they layed down in the parking lot. Ouch! Know Like Mad River (who's snow making is only below the frost line) I feel it would be a benifit to add 3-5 guns at the very bottom of Castlerock. 2 guns on the entry from Downspot to the lift and 2-3 guns on the bace area up to the first turn that you can see from the loading zone of Castlerock. THAT IS ALL. This is below the frost line and does not hold snow like the rest of the Castlerock area. Look how much the 1 gun on Brovo at North helps that trail. (the gun puts snow on the head wall only) Thanks MT for keeping Castlerock open this weekend. Other then getting there it skied very nicely.

The entrance was brutal this weekend, as usual with marginal natural snow. Truth be told they could probably just drag a snow gun from Lower Downspout a couple dozen yards down the trail and then spread the pile around. You wouldn't need a dedicated hydrant. That bottom pitch off Liftline always gets toasted due to elevation, pitch and aspect. Not sure it would be worth the investment to fix given that the bottom of Troll Rd can get you there as well and is usually in decent shape.

ASC tried that. Ran the hoses as far as they could then built a large pile to cat around but Alen (MT manager at the time) found that it was to far to cat...or better put it ended up to thin for that large an area. My plan above is basically what he said would be needed. Food for thought.

I won't bXtch about the Gatehouse being down, but I will bXtch about the entrance to the Castlerock lift off lower deathspout. There should have been a sign. I would have walked all the way down, as it is I took my skis off halfway. The sun was directly behind the skier and the rocks were invisible. It wasn't like parking lot gravel, it was embedded rocks and there was no respite at the sides. I could hear the registers ringing at the tuning shops up and down the valley.

I heard a couple guys complaining about the entrance while in the Bravo liftline. At first I thought they were talking about the trails. Once I understood that they were talking about the entrance to the lift, I called the suggestion of a sign in to guest services.

I was on my way to Heaven's Gate, and made a few runs up there, but when I next passed the entrance, it had a rope 3/4 across with a sign on the end you had to get thru.

These are legitimate complaints and, should you run into a similar situation stop any ambassador or mountain guide (There are usually a few wandering around.) They have radios to contact Guest Services, who will pass the word on.

You can probably tell anyone who works for the mountain (patrol is good) but not all of them will have radios.

In my case, I wasn't working. I was out free skiing, but had a radio. When they were talking about it, I remembered hitting those very rocks the day before. What's more, I radioed up to my buddy who was heading my way and warned him about them. I had just passed it off as a warning of what I was heading to... And it was.

Great snow, tho... huh?

Um... seriously, complaining about rocks on Castlerock is like complaining about ice on the top of FIS.... Everyone knows Castlerock is loaded with rocks. If you were so worried about them that you'd take your skis off for the approach, you probably shouldn't be skiing the rock with them anyway.

Quote:

Um... seriously, complaining about rocks on Castlerock is like complaining about ice on the top of FIS

That was my original thought, but they were talking about the entrance from Downspout. I took it in stride, but some of the people complaining were not familiar with the area and got the rocks before the warning.

Volkl Skier wrote:

Um... seriously, complaining about rocks on Castlerock is like complaining about ice on the top of FIS.... Everyone knows Castlerock is loaded with rocks. If you were so worried about them that you'd take your skis off for the approach, you probably shouldn't be skiing the rock with them anyway.

Were you there? If you were, I doubt you would be so flippant.

It warranted a post by Treeskier because it was unique.

I've put in 40+ days a season for the last 4 years at Sugarbush. I have never seen it like that. I made the comment because it was anomalous.

The skiing on Castlerock itself was fine, excellent even. I thoroughly enjoyed liftline.