Welcome to the 2014/2015 Season

**win** · 12-29-2014, 01:33 PM

Further Update. It is still experiencing reset issues. Now we think it is in our brand new drive that Dopplemayr installed this summer. Needless to say, this is very frustrating and I am not at all pleased with Dopplemayr right now. They did put one of their top guys on a plane from Salt Lake. The lift is running but if it stopped again and we could not get a reset we would have to evacuate it on the diesel which takes a lot of time on this lift because of its length. Rather than put our guests at risk of that today, we are running it continuously and continuing the diagnosis and hopefully have it all figured out by tomorrow.

We do have three choices for our new Valley House lift, so how this turns out may influence my decision on the new lift.

On top of that Sunny-D had to been shut down tomorrow. We seem to have a problem in the gear box, So it is being opened up. Hoping it is just the bearing which is an easy fix. This is a real inconvenience to those using the park and also to those looking for good beginner terrain off of Sunny-D.

I really do apologize to all for these inconveniences. Hopefully, we get everything out of the way now.

**Dblshot** · 12-29-2014, 02:19 PM

Win- the honest updates are much appreciated. Hope you get the issues resolved quickly.

**Orca** · 12-29-2014, 04:05 PM

Thank you, Win. This problem is harder on you and Sugarbush Ops than anyone else.

**ducky** · 12-29-2014, 04:36 PM

Excellent updates, Win. Appreciate the honesty even if not such good news for now.

**win** · 12-29-2014, 04:48 PM

Thanks. My team is really bummed. They pride themselves on giving everyone a great experience.

Doppllemary tells us they are confident they know what the issue is and their guy will be here first thing in the morning to fix it. So we are expecting to have NRX running in the AM even though it may be delayed. Hopefully, I did not jinx things with this post.

Sunny-D will not run tomorrow and until we get the gear box open we will not know what the extent of the damage is. Tom Kerr who does repair work all over the world and is intimately familiar with Sunny-D was on the scene today and will let us know tomorrow what the fix is.

**arc1** · 12-29-2014, 10:26 PM

**gostan** · 12-30-2014, 06:48 AM

Originally Posted by arc1

Who cares if the lifts don't work when the snowmaking is so utterly pathetic?
Compared to any any other comparable mountain its a sad joke . Most are at about 50% snowmaking.
I've bought passes for my family for 20 years. I'm done.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Freedom of speech....Freedom of choice........Ski ya somewhere else. 😢

**The Poacher** · 12-30-2014, 07:07 AM

I love Sugarbush so much, but the constant lift problems have become the expectation. And yes, the snowmaking right now is weak. By the way, I work on motors, and to find irregular voltage at this stage is flat out amateur hour.

**Njski** · 12-30-2014, 08:01 AM

Slow steady growth is the way to go, and win is to be commended for a smart business sense. However, one must remember that like a house, this whole thing is built on a foundation (skiing infrastructure), and that foundation is cracking.
I used to check the ski report to see how many trails will be open. Now I have to make sure important lifts are not down. Getting a reputation is easy, losing it is much harder.

**HowieT2** · 12-30-2014, 08:37 AM

I don't know motors, but it seems to me that after making a concerted effort to refurbish the lifts and those very same lifts having problems, the conclusion is unavoidable that the people running the lifts don't know what they're doing. Maybe I'm wrong, but my impression is that the lift issues became acute last season following the departure of the experienced lift mechanics. All lifts have issues from time to time. That's why every mountain employs lift mechanics. It used to be when an issue arose, it would be addressed and the lift would be running in short order. Now, it seems every time there's a glitch, a motor gets blown out or a gear needs to be replaced and its a major issue. I hate to be dissing on the current crew of mechanics. I'm sure they are nice hard working people. And I may be totally wrong. But that's what it looks like to me.

**gostan** · 12-30-2014, 09:13 AM

I long ago accepted the snowmaking @ Sugarbush. My biggest concern is being stuck for a couple of hours on a lift that malfunctions, when the back-up also fails.

**Dblshot** · 12-30-2014, 09:20 AM

It starts at the top though. Budget cuts, deferred maintenance and lack of accountability has led SB to now be known as having unreliable lifts and I cannot argue that point with anyone that asks me. I also am constantly checking the snow report for lift status so I can plan my day or scanning the mountain to see if one is not spinning so I don't get stuck somewhere where I don't want to ski. Win's openness on the issues is refreshing instead if hiding behind technical terms but open up the pockets and start poaching other mountain's good lift mechanics. I also worry that the tipping point has almost been reached where the only way to make the unreliable tag go away is replacing more of the existing lifts beyond the VH (which is one of the more reliable ones....)

My issue is now the snowmaking plan. Why run on Sunrise and Sleeper for 48+ hours in single digits instead of resurfacing all over the mountain on the trails that need it badly? 24 hours on those two trails is plenty for this week. Snowball/Fling could use 8-12 hours of love, OG and Ripcord, Murphy's/Birdland. LOG. The trails that everyone are skiing need some nice dry snow. You can go back and pound Sunrise and Sleeper after the vacation week. There is no natural snow in the forecast so give your largest crowd of the season what they want and need. With all the towers they should be able to do switchovers quickly. The temps are great to be doing this now and would be welcomed.

**The Poacher** · 12-30-2014, 09:32 AM

The 13 people in my house today all left for stowe, even though they all have tickets for the bush today. The reason is simple, the snowmaking plan seems way off base. Dblshot nailed it. Not resurfacing the best/most used trails first is utterly senseless.

**WWF-VT** · 12-30-2014, 10:08 AM

Originally Posted by The Poacher

The 13 people in my house today all left for stowe, even though they all have tickets for the bush today. The reason is simple, the snowmaking plan seems way off base. Dblshot nailed it. Not resurfacing the best/most used trails first is utterly senseless.

At 9AM the Forerunner Quad was on delayed opening for maintenance....