Page 19 of 22 FirstFirst ... 91718192021 ... LastLast
Results 271 to 285 of 329
  1. #271
    As of 10 am. the mobile app says no lift problems.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


  2. #272
    Also can the mountain add notifications to the mobile app.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  3. #273
    And Bravo is down again


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  4. #274

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    warren
    Posts
    1,217
    It is hard to reply to some of these comments, so I will just make a few comments of my own. First, I have to thank Dopplemayr. While I was disappointed they did not complete all their work perfectly the first time, they did respond well and flew a key technician out here so the lift was able to run the next morning. As I mentioned earlier we will have to shut down some midweek days to complete the rebuild and will schedule this for January. The mecjhanical issue with the Sunny D motor was not a serious as it could have been and Tom Kerr got it repaired and opened. No matter how new a lift or how well maintained like any mechanical or electrical devise problems will occur and that is why you have a strong lift maintenance team to get them identified and fixed rapidly.
    This afternoon a tachometer blew on Bravo. We carry those in stock and it is a quick and easy repair but the lift had to be cleared on the diesel engine which in 50% of less of the normal speed. When the Tach was replaced about 8 chairs had to be re-spaced. The crew did a good job of getting this down fast by running backwards and then forward. Then Bravo reopened. It was down approximately one hour. No one like this stuff but it happens to everyone.

    I am not going to debate with those that keep trashing our snowmaking. I just disagree. We started on Sunrise because it t was 25 up there and above freezing lower. As the temperatures dropped we came down Sleeper and also blew on Easy Rider and a couple of guns on Pushover. because that is on the same line and the snowmaking crew can monitor everything. It does not make sense to stop and start. We used all of our water on those trails thanks to the cold temperatures. I challenge anyone to say the skiing on those trails was anything but excellent. When Sunrise was done we moved over to Lower Snowball and Racer's Edge. After the fireworks we turned off Sleeper and went to Upper Snowball and Spring Fling. We were going to get on Stein's since it is the same water line but we had a break in the pipe which need to be welded. So we used our water capacity on Downspout Tonight we are going to Murphy's and Birdland and staying on Snowball, Racer's Edge and Spring Fling as much as possible. We will weld the pipe tonight so Stein's can be covered next. With l all trails now done with a depth to groom continuously once we can spot around when needed. Again, I would challenge anyone to say the snowmaking this past week has been anything but great.

    Someone made a comment about deferred maintenance. I inherited years of deferred maintenance and have been dealing with that each year to the point where our lifts, snowmaking system and buildings and roads are in good shape. And each year, our capital budget is now focused on upgrades and preventative maintenance.

    We use an outside APP that was not built specifically for us so they are only so many things we can change. We are going to look at alternatives for next year.

    By the way, we do have more trails open than any other VT mountain and maybe any NE mountain.

  5. #275
    I got a call from a buddy who was on the mountain this afternoon. This guy is usually disappointed by SB snowmaking, but was really impressed with the quality of the snow that was made -- much better than usual. He thinks the HKD towers may be producing significantly better stuff than the noisy short tripod guns that tend to blast out glop. Loved the fact that the mountain let Snowball bump up.

    Wish I were there, but alas too much flu in the house. FYI, its epidemic and the shot did no one in my family any good this year.

  6. #276
    I don't think any of us would be so critical of SB if we did not love it so much. We all know how special of a place it is/was/can be.

  7. #277

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Richmond, VT
    Posts
    47
    Don't believe for a minute that other resorts don't run into their share of problems, too. Besides, if everything were perfect all the time, we wouldn't appreciate those truly special days when everything clicks. Enjoy the best of what's currently available, and look forward to the best that's yet to come...in 2015 and beyond! Happy New Year, Sugarbush friends!

  8. #278
    Some of the complaints that goes on in this board are reasonable and I can understand,.... And I am sure the ownership is listening. BUT - I have never seem so many people bitch about fricken everything. It has made this forum a complete joke. The constant bitching from the same people over and over again - you guys must be pretty miserable.

  9. #279
    Quote Originally Posted by djd66 View Post
    Some of the complaints that goes on in this board are reasonable and I can understand,.... And I am sure the ownership is listening. BUT - I have never seem so many people bitch about fricken everything. It has made this forum a complete joke. The constant bitching from the same people over and over again - you guys must be pretty miserable.
    Agreed.

  10. #280
    Hawk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Just ahead of you in the woods....
    Posts
    1,823
    What complaints. Everything is great!
    Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
    Got two good eyes but we still don’t see!

  11. #281
    Hawk's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Just ahead of you in the woods....
    Posts
    1,823
    Yes I will agree that some of the complaints are kind of odd. But some are valid.
    Snowmaking: The quality of the snow from the new tower guns is excellent. I was a total skeptic because of the prior use of those on the Mtn but I guess they didn't have them dialed in yet.
    The issues still seems to be with capacity. Water or air, not sure which is the bigger issue but it seems to now be both.(departure from my previous posts) Since the rain storm they have resurfaced 2 trails(Downspout & Spring Fling) and covered 5 trails (Lower Snowball, Racers, Birch, Sunrise & Sleeper) at Lincoln peak. I have been watching other resorts since the melt for comparison and it is so obvious that we are very week on the counts. Example: Sunday River: resurfaced 30 trails added 5 new. Killington resurfaced 35 trails. Okemo resurfaced 27 trails. Sugarloaf resurfaced 17 trials. Just something that needs to be work on I guess.
    Lifts: You can look at it as bad luck, jinxed, whatever. But to say that what has been happening is common at other places is just plain foolish. Yesterday they had issues with 3 lifts. That is not the norm anywhere. I actually feel bad because it seems that they made an effort to try and fix things but some problems still persist. I am going to hold off for a while longer with criticism to see if they shake out the bugs.
    Snowing this morning and headed out for a great day of skiing. This will be 11 days out of the last 14. What a rollercoaster of conditions. Kind of El Nino like I think.
    Trouble with you is the trouble with me,
    Got two good eyes but we still don’t see!

  12. #282
    Challenge accepted.

    Skied Monday through Wednesday as a reference point and sadly had to come home for New Years. Anyways I will start with a compliment. The snow on Sunrise was outstanding on Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday was even better than Monday, but both days were crazy good powder bumps. The best snow I've seen SB make in a long time. I was taking face shots run after run. The last stretch of guns on the run out however were pretty wet and would glaze my goggles just in time for the water bars. I don't mean to be a wise ass here, but do the snow makers know that guns at lower elevations on the same line might need different settings? I mean the snow on 9/10ths of the trail was fantastic and I have to be honest a few guns at the end of a line is no big deal so I can't complain. Just mentioning. You guys got Sunrise right for sure. I will further add that sleeper had some pretty sweet snow and most (not all) of the guns were running nicely and pushing out good quality snow. All in all that whole line top to bottom was great snow. Well done.

    Anyways sorry for the next parts. While the GH and NL snow lines made great snow it was sad to look up at the mountain and see that was the only snow blowing. I guess from Win's post that's all she's got. I have no idea what is needed to make snow on other parts of the mountain (like having the guns going on OG or Snowball, Steins or whatever at the same time), but please tell me it is somewhere on the drawing board to increase capacity for this. I don't need it next year or the year after, but tell me it's in the plans. 2019? 2025? It's on paper right? The rest of the mountain skied terribly those days. I basically skied on Sunrise for 2 days straight. Maybe hit 4 other trails those days, but otherwise lapped it. As fun as it was, by Wednesday I was all done with Sunrise. I came down Spring Fling on Monday and Tuesday to make it to a friends at Snowcreek at the end of the day and I was flung for sure. It was egregious and definitely in need of something. I felt like I was on the moon.

    I had heard good reports of FIS on Monday so started the day on Tuesday there. I'm not sure if they were lying. It was a one and done, back to Sunrise for the day. Wasn't so much skiing on FIS as trying to survive. Too bad the guns weren't on. In fact looking at the reports for North that day and Wednesday there was nothing really being blown on. No variety in terrain being coated that's for sure. And coming down on that 8 degree day I got my goggles and jacket glazed over with 2 wet guns at an intersection. I have no idea how you have wet guns in 8 degree weather. Well I mean I do, but it almost seems like you have to work pretty hard to accomplish. Bravo. I'd recommend just using a garden hose next time if that's what you're looking for. You can get one at Ace for a lot cheaper than those guns cost I'm sure.

    Wednesday I figured I'd follow the guns. I mean Sunrise had been so good I thought they have it down now. So on to Lower Snowball. It was insane. I mean the snow felt good skiing, but I was soaked at the end and had a hard time seeing the water bars. When I say soaked I mean soaked. By the time I got on the lift again I had a coating of clear ice all over me. It was comical because it was tough to move since my clothes were all stiff from the ice. I couldn't even lift my goggles up because they were frozen to my helmet. On the trail I saw a rainbow in the gun spray. Never seen that before and it was cool and all, but not sure if it's normal for a snow gun. Wanted to take a picture of it, but my iPhone got so wet I couldn't use the touch screen. Did some other runs on freshly groomed that were pretty decent, but went back to Snowball and tried skiing under the towers to avoid spray. It worked out OK. Again the snow skied very well, but I got coated. When I went in after to change my friend made me change in the stairwell because water and ice were pouring off me.

    So in short Sunrise on Monday and Tuesday had some of the best snow SB has ever made in my opinion. This is encouraging, but I don't know why you can't be more consistent. Someone on your team knows what they're doing. Get them training others. It is sad that SB takes the approach of getting a trail open and then doesn't bother resurfacing. Likely because it doesn't have the capacity, but still a bummer. I mean the other trails weren't very good and could have used a touch up for sure. Also please don't go bragging about trail count and how many were open. You had Steins open. That thing was an abomination Monday and Tuesday. Yeah. It's open. Here's an ice ax now rope in. I'll take the sharp end of the rope. Fun.

  13. #283

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    warren
    Posts
    1,217
    Here is the answer to capacity. The maximum water capacity that we have is just under 4,000 Gallons Per Minute (GPM) at Lincoln Peak. In the past we could rarely get to that level with the older technology until it got very cold. We have three electric compressors that can generate 18,000 cubic feet (CFM) of air per minute The very old guns would need between 400 and 500 CFM. HKDs are using about 30 CFM on average and snowlogics use about 5 CFM. Let's to the math. If the guns used 450 on average we could run 40 guns. If they put our 30 GPM that would mean 1,200 GPM was being used. Well below our capacity. That is why in the past we and other mountains brought in supplemental diesel generators in the early part of the season. If we use the HKD's we theoretically could have 600 guns running. But if they are putting out 30 GPM then we can run 125 or so and that's it until we run out of water. But in colder temperatures they can be set at different stages which can get up to 50 GPM so you max water around 76 guns. But, we are getting trails open a lot faster and able to move on. For example, when we first blew on Snowballl and Spring Fling, those trails were opened in 36 hours instead of 4-5 days in the past. While you may see us making snow on fewer trails than you might like, we are completing those trails faster and able to then move on to others.

    With respect to wetness, snowmaking does require constant supervision and small changes in temperatures and humidity can alter the quality. That is why we ski around and have guns adjusted if we see then getting too wet. You also have to realize with at times 100 guns running on multiple trails it can take time for our snowmakers to get to the area. Overall, while Bush is correct and I too spotted wet guns at times and called that in, I think the overall quality has been very good and the guys take real pride in doing the best job possible. it is a very tough job.

    I am not going to reply to every time a lift has a minor issue. Those things just happen everywhere. But since Hawk made a point a saying we had three lift issues yesterday, I will comment. The Welcome Mat was due to icing and opened 25 minutes late. The two surface lifts are very vulnerable to icing. Castlerock was delayed due a loose wire that would not allow the emergency brake to reset. You have to first find the loose wire before it can be fixed and that is not always a simple job. That is going to happen especially in the NE climate. A lift can run perfectly and overnight something like this can occur. CR opened at 10:21am.

    I appreciate your honest feedback and I hope all can appreciate that some of these issues are not quite as simple as they seem.
    Last edited by win; 01-02-2015 at 03:11 PM.

  14. #284
    I skied yesterday at north and the man made snow was overall really nice. Rim run was excellent quality and elbow was pretty decent. Couple of wet guns down by NRX but not bad. Only thing I didn't appreciate was the gun blowing at face height. I get that it was windy and they needed to be aimed lower but face height on the one path down wasn't fun.

    Glad to lap NRX for the day. Seemed to so fine even with all the wind. It was down for a minute when we came down once but it seemed normal. It did cause some concern and we debated getting on it but when we had to opportunity to jump on with a coach and the freestyle kids we did. Figured they'd get evacuated quickly if there was an issue. Ran fine however.

    If I had anything to complain about, and hey it's the internet so I have to complain about something, it would be the boasting of how many trails are open. They may be open but they are really not skiable. Can't imagine the liability of having some of the trails open that were. Lots of yahoos out for their first time of the year and looking to prove themselves. Luckily the only ambulance is saw for the day was heading towards MRG on my way home.

  15. #285
    4,000 gpm at Lincoln Peak is not too shabby and better than I thought.

    Regarding lift reliability, I'd suggest that minor lift issues (say less than one hour down time without stranding folks on the lift itself) should be categorized as mostly harmless if their frequency isn't excessive. Little things happen and it is a credit to mountain operations when they can get things running right in an hour or less.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  


Ski Gear | Snowboard Gear | Cycling Gear | Camping/Hiking Gear | Ski & Snowboard Racks | Gear Outlet | Men's Clothing | Women's Clothing | Kids' Clothing

Ski Vermont | Whiteface / Gore Message Boards