A Great Mountain

[Chewbarka]

I love Sugarbush but as a passholder I am really frustrated. Among other problems that exist at the mtn, Quad Packs are ruining the Sugarbush experience. I know they are wildly popular and good for the bottom line (60,000 x $200 = 12 million dollars at the start of the season) but they do nothing for us loyal pass holders.
Lift lines are out of control, there is no room in the lodge for all these people and the trails are getting worn out early each day. This was not the case prior to Quad Pass sales. What i want to know is when will this money be invested into the mtn? I buy two all mtn 7 passes every year in the spring at the lowest rate i can get and help the mtn by giving them money 6 months before they are used. Thats a $20,000.00 investment i have made into the mountain and i get crap conditions now by people who spend $200. Please tell me there is a plan that will improve my experience. Replacing Valley House is a start but we need much more . A lot more, what is the plan for the next 5 years? Is there one? A great mountain should not have to give away the skiing experience..

[angler]

+1, would love to hear what the 5 year plan is. One could argue that air for snow making might be more important then a new lift, but the reality is this mountain needs a lot of work. So what is the plan, as season pass owners for 10 plus years as well, we do deserve that don't we????

[ahm]

The Five Year Plan: Ski it like it is.............

[angler]

The Five Year Plan: Ski it like it is.............

Agreed, that is why we will leave. Look at Stowes report this morning. Making snow for the spring time, what a novel concept!

[Go Figure]

The lift that was robbed a North was the summit chair. Northridge was broken and being worked on at the time. You would have thought someone would have used a caliper to check the bearing before ripping a lift apart. Northridge is so decrepit I won't get on it unless the temp is above 20`and the winds are light.
Also the snow report states "Slide Brook Express will not be running, due to conditions in the Basin." but you may have noticed lift mech. snowmobiles at the return terminal. In talking to said lift mechs it was revealed that SBE has not even been inspected this year.

I'll third the Qpac sentiment, giving the mountain away fro $53 has turned Saturday into a sh**show and the mountain is still a ghost town Mon-Friday. I can only handle skiing till 9 or 10 before going home instead of watching the Clay Brook Elitists get two runs while I slog through the maze with the 2nd class citizens. Everyone I have shared a chair with this year[on Sat.] has complained about how long the lines are, poor quality of snowmaking and the lack of good access to the summit.

Don't get me started on how sh**ty the icemaking is at the mountain, did anyone see the new tree destruction on Sleeper? Ice coated trees eveywhere some coated to 60' and toppled over needing to be chainsawed and pitched off the trail.

[beelze]

Don't get me started on how sh**ty the icemaking is at the mountain, did anyone see the new tree destruction on Sleeper? Ice coated trees eveywhere some coated to 60' and toppled over needing to be chainsawed and pitched off the trail.

Last week waterfall/hotshot were left for four days while the snow piles "dried out" To further enhance the skier experience this week snow was blown during regular hours around the Mushroom area and base of Steins. The mountain is closed 15 hours a day. Use some freakin common sense and dont subject your customers to a goggle icing as they approach the lift line. The gun on Steins was blowing more into the chair and woods than the ground. Ripcord was also a scoured mess with mini- whales all the way down. And Mt Ellen? well 'its the more natural experience".. yeah ok.

How much of that is $$$ and how much is just illadvised or dumb I don't know but I do know it has been common place the past few years. Heck they are back to blowing on snowboall and spring fling again today - surely there are some other places which could use it not to mention do it at night?

[ahm]

Maybe it is time for the 2nd Co-op in the Valley.............or just contracting the infrastructure out to the skiers..................

[Plowboy]

Not sure I believe they sold 60k Qpac's.. Um that would be 240k skier days....What's their average per year 350k?

One fact I do know, having a relative that was a night snowmaker at ME, all snowmakers at ME were laid off last tues.

Shitty year = shitty talk = shit show

Let It Snow

[slaw]

What % of Quad packs were purchased by pass holders? Also, I wonder what the redemption of Quad numbers look like vs. last year?

It would be easy for example to find out what the percentages were on this past Saturday with Pass Holders, Quads, and Dailys..... Guess I would like the data before pack up my Condo...

[shadyjay]

Icemaking? I think that's a little harsh...

I know what you're talking about on Sleeper. Sleeper is a difficult trail to make snow on, with the trees in the trail and how narrow it gets in some spots. Running towers sometimes, the wind can change and blow back on themselves, thus coating the trees on skier's left. The weather in New England can change in 5 minutes... that includes the wind direction. It's not physically possible to be monitoring a trail that has snowmaking running every 5 minutes. We do our gun run, adjust the guns accordingly given the present conditions, then move on. By the time we get back to that trail for the next run (whether it be 30 minutes, an hour, etc), the wind could totally change. On trails like Hot Shot, Birdland, and Lwr Downspout, we have to really monitor snowmaking due to lifts, powerlines, etc. A wind change there could be devastating.

[angler]

Icemaking? I think that's a little harsh...

I know what you're talking about on Sleeper. Sleeper is a difficult trail to make snow on, with the trees in the trail and how narrow it gets in some spots. Running towers sometimes, the wind can change and blow back on themselves, thus coating the trees on skier's left. The weather in New England can change in 5 minutes... that includes the wind direction. It's not physically possible to be monitoring a trail that has snowmaking running every 5 minutes. We do our gun run, adjust the guns accordingly given the present conditions, then move on. By the time we get back to that trail for the next run (whether it be 30 minutes, an hour, etc), the wind could totally change. On trails like Hot Shot, Birdland, and Lwr Downspout, we have to really monitor snowmaking due to lifts, powerlines, etc. A wind change there could be devastating.

Its not, really. No offense to your efforts but the snow making is bad its more ice then snow. Sorry,

[Chewbarka]

My gripe is not with the snow making (which I think has been improved this year!) but with the lifts and the overcrowding. I was stuck on the Summit chair twice yesterday for about 10 minutes each time at -18 degrees. Fortunately I was dressed for it. Unfortunately, the best snow I had seen this year were on Black Diamond, Upper FIS and Exterminator and could not access it consistently. Northridge was showing on delay, but I saw them bringing parts to it and knew it would not run all day. I was correct. Doing laps on GMX is a waste of time after the first hour. After second stoppage on Summit, I left for the day around 2:30, frustrated and unsatisfied due to lift issues, again. It wasn't really windy out either. Saturday at LP was a CF. Granted, it was windy and to be expected, but it just seems endless this year. Why do our lifts keep breaking down? The only ski area that I am familiar with having lift issues like this is Magic. At least they have an excuse!

[WWF-VT]

Where did you get the 60,000 number for Quad Packs ? I had heard that there was about $1 million worth of Quad Packs sold about the same value of For20s passes. I avoid Lincoln Peak on Saturdays especially when the Castlerock, North Lynx and Slidebrook chairs aren't running to help disperse the crowds. The Northridge chair running is critical at Mt Ellen. It's a real PITA to have to take the GMX and Summit chairs to ski Bravo and Exterminator. It's funny that people will bitch about the crowds at Lincoln Peak but won't take a quick drive or the Mad Bus to ski at Mt Ellen.

[Benski]

I think if the lines at mount Ellen and Lincoln peek were equal then there would not be much of a problem. Also without the woods and limited bump runs people have to take more quick runs causing them to get in line more frequently.

[angler]

What everyone seems to be missing is the elephant in the room. The issue is the mountain has been neglected for a long time. The snow making needs an overhaul, they need to rent compressors again, the lift system needs to be drastically overhauled, and they need to stop selling quad passes as they do not have the infrastructure on the mountain and in the lodge to handle it. So really its not a great mountain today as we speak!