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  1. #301
    gostan's Avatar
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    Feb 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by Hawk View Post
    Any word on when the broken pipe of Steins will be fixed? It's the only trial left.
    Actually if Steins was not the spring trail, it might be nice to ski that trail as a natural snow trail.
    Come on Hawk, if it is open it is skiable.��
    Stan

    "There's No Cure For Life"

  2. #302

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    The pipe was welded and we are ready to go. It was about a five minute weld but getting the equipment and welder down there safely was the challenge. Once we have everything covered once we do operate with a smaller crew, but we are prepared to keep making snow through mid-February if necessary. As you know our snowiest months are historically February and March. Many of the snowmakers help us in others positions when done with snowmaking.

    Yes, more guns could more staffing especially if we are running in several areas of the mountain. The job is tough, so not everyone can do it. We have been fortunate is having quite a few veterans returning these past few years. They are great and make a difference.

    Today, turned out to be better than we feared. It mostly snowed before opening but we did get some icing on some of the lifts which did cause some need to chip and re-space chairs on lifts like Gatehouse and replace two RPD's on Northridge, but as temperatures rise this will not be an issue later in the day. Tonight is another story. We will see rain later in the day and then it is getting cold. The wind is also going to be picking up and we might see 50-60 mph winds at the summits. I don't think tomorrow will be a great day, but the rest of the week is shaping up nicely. Cold and forecasted snow should get us in great shape for the latter part of the week. The skiing this morning was really nice, and I got in several fun early morning run off of Bravo and GH.

    South Villager, we have snowmaking on 70% of our terrain. That is less than many due to our terrain. We would not make snow on the Castlerock trails or others like Moonshine, Twist, Hammerhead, Tumbler for example. One area that we could put in a pipe, however, would be the jug handle on Upper Sleeper so intermediate skiers don't have to go down the head fall when their isn't enough natural snow to go around it.
    Last edited by win; 01-04-2015 at 10:51 AM.

  3. #303

    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Groton, MA and Warren, VT
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    124
    Of course Castlerock shall never have snowmaking. Adding sleeper road makes sense. However, wouldn't trails like Twist, Moonshine, Mall, Domino/Lower Domino, and Lower Birdland benefit? I believe so. I admit I'm probably an outlier on this one.

    The more important question (for me) is whether there will be an effort to improve the skier experience in regard to the icy conditions after 10AM on a typical Saturday/Sunday. Will major trails like Downspout, Snowball/Spring Fling, Ripcord, Birch Run, etc be maintained with snowmaking? Will they be ski-able for the average skier? Or will the veneer of corduroy give way to cat tracks and sheets of white hardpack after 4 runs? I challenge anyone to go out after lunch on a Saturday and try to carve high speed turns on any blue or black groomer at Lincoln peak. I dont ski Ellen enough to have a feel for it, however as an example I find the huge area above the NRX loading area is typically unskiable by midday.

    These examples are why I cannot convince many people to come back to Sugarbush. I know that us cool guys, us Egan wannabes, you elite skiers, all get the awesomeness of Castlerock and Slidebrook, but the reality is that many folks ski 5 or 6 days per year, and they will never do Paradise or Rumble. They need to be able to ski all day, not just 8am to 10am. They cannot do it at Sugarbush, but they can at nearly every other ski area.

    Done whining.

  4. #304

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    Nov 2010
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    Waitsfield, VT
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    124
    Great to hear snowmaking is going well at Lincoln Peak. Any word on snowmaking for Cliffs, Summit trails (FIS, Rim Run, Elbow, Looking Good) resurfacing, Exterminator (used to be), and face of Bravo (also used-to-be with hoses pulled from Elbow). I have skied there almost every day since Dec 19th and North needs some love; and/or the whales flattened. Also, Mt Ellen needs more beginner terrain with only North Star/Crackerjack as a greens available from the main chair network. How about snowmaking on Walt's for the beginner visitors? Seems the focus is on the park.

  5. #305
    I have to agree with ducky as Mt Ellen passholder. Skied there 3 days last week and felt lucky we all got out of there uninjured. Seemed like the guns were all at the NRX loading area all 3 days. Maybe that's just the way it needs to be done, I don't know...

  6. #306
    I don't understand why they make snow on crackerjack especially the upper part. The upper part should be also be half the width.

  7. #307
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    Nov 2005
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    Quote Originally Posted by win View Post
    South Villager, we have snowmaking on 70% of our terrain. That is less than many due to our terrain. We would not make snow on the Castlerock trails or others like Moonshine, Twist, Hammerhead, Tumbler for example. One area that we could put in a pipe, however, would be the jug handle on Upper Sleeper so intermediate skiers don't have to go down the head fall when their isn't enough natural snow to go around it.
    As long as you're talking about small coverage expansions, any thought to running spur from Lower Downspout down to CR lift and up over the bridge for a few dozen yards? It always seems that the CR pod could get another few weeks if that very bottom area didn't melt out so quickly, and the in-run from Downspout can be a base destroying experience for weeks at a time. Just a little love in these spots owuld be a welcomed exception to the "no snowmaking on Castlerock" maxim that I otherwise support wholeheartedly.


  8. #308
    I have no idea where Overshot is, but I get the feeling it's like upper panorama. Anyways it's cool you're checking out other guns too. Just putting it out there, but didn't Stowe buy a ton of fan guns? I've seen those in action at Killington and they put out crazy stupid amounts of snow and are really quiet. I know you have to wire up electrical to them, but I'd be happy to run out a spool of Romex for ya over the summer. We'll just cover it with pine needles so no one skis over it. It's simple I'm sure........... Anyways just wishful thinking seeing those things work. I know we have the one gun we roll out for show, but a few trails with them hooked up and on towers would be a winter wonderland in no time.

    As for pipe increase I understand it's not a quick summer hit to get the mountain redone. Just glad it is on the radar. As and when you start putting dates (as in the year) parts will be done it would be great for an update. I'm sure we'd all be interested in that.

  9. #309
    Win wrote: "The pipe was welded and we are ready to go. It was about a five minute weld but getting the equipment and welder down there safely was the challenge."

    Stowe's welders ski all terrain!

  10. #310
    Quote Originally Posted by MntMan4Bush View Post
    I have no idea where Overshot is, but I get the feeling it's like upper panorama.
    Overshot is the connector from the Pushover/Slowpoke 3-way to Hot Shot at the bottom of Waterfall. Years ago, it used to just be considered part of Sleeper Road. There is no pipeline on Overshot so to make snow we stretch the hoses from Hot Shot. Same thing is done for Second Thoughts, at the top of the headwall.

    We've also been known, over the years, to stretch some guns from Spring Fling to Lower Moonshine, Downspout down the Castlerock chute, and Elbow over to the Bravo headwall (with a LOT of lengths of hose). In the past, snowmaking symbols were shown on trails like Hammerhead and Brambles, with the guns stretched from Cliffs and Inverness, respectively.

  11. #311
    "Second Thoughts"? Now I know you're just making up trail names. Yeah. I was skiing Monkey Paw last weekend. It was a bit thin, but sweet lines on the left where the guns were........

  12. #312
    gostan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    West Of Boston
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    Apparently Sugarbush Is Not Alone

    Stan

    "There's No Cure For Life"

  13. #313
    Nice snow on Steins today !

  14. #314

    Join Date
    Mar 2006
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    warren
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    Some thoughts.

    Yes, Stein's is really nice. I was away doing some book interviews in NYC the past two days, but skied this morning. The mountain crew has done a nice job getting the mountain back in shape and each night of grooming will keep improving things. We are fully curtailed by GMP starting at 5pm tonight so we are shutting down. We will lay off restarting tonight because of the brutal cold and wind but will restart in the am. At LP on lower Hot Shot and dusting up Easy Rider, Pushover and Slowpoke. Will likely go over to Lower Organgrinder next. At ME we will be finishing Cliffs and Sugar Run and finishing Which way and then dusting up other trails. We'll see which to do first. It does look like a bit of natural snow before the weekend so that will groom in nicely and make for softer snow.

    Probably will not put snowmaking on Twist or Moonshine. Moonshine is really too narrow and the steepness of the headwall on Twist would mean grooming it frequnetly. Lower Twist and Moonshine would not be condusive to snowmaking. The issue at ME is that we have a grandfathered snowmaking permit and can do no expansion of snowmaking there. what we have is what we got!

    I agree that conditions at ME in the Times Square Area (where all the trails converge above North Ridge) were not great. However, we have now made a lot of snow there and will some additional grooming night it should be good.

    Tomorrow will be a day to stay inside. Summit temperatures in the Am will be -40 to -57 wind chill. At those remperatures one gets frostbite within 5 minutes. For the safety of all, we will not be running the upper mountain lifts tomorrow. Friday will be better but still cold and then things moderate some for the weekend, so i am expecting good skiing and riding on Saturday and Sunday.

  15. #315
    Quote Originally Posted by win View Post
    Some thoughts.

    Yes, Stein's is really nice. I was away doing some book interviews in NYC the past two days, but skied this morning. The mountain crew has done a nice job getting the mountain back in shape and each night of grooming will keep improving things. We are fully curtailed by GMP starting at 5pm tonight so we are shutting down. We will lay off restarting tonight because of the brutal cold and wind but will restart in the am. At LP on lower Hot Shot and dusting up Easy Rider, Pushover and Slowpoke. Will likely go over to Lower Organgrinder next. At ME we will be finishing Cliffs and Sugar Run and finishing Which way and then dusting up other trails. We'll see which to do first. It does look like a bit of natural snow before the weekend so that will groom in nicely and make for softer snow.

    Probably will not put snowmaking on Twist or Moonshine. Moonshine is really too narrow and the steepness of the headwall on Twist would mean grooming it frequnetly. Lower Twist and Moonshine would not be condusive to snowmaking. The issue at ME is that we have a grandfathered snowmaking permit and can do no expansion of snowmaking there. what we have is what we got!

    I agree that conditions at ME in the Times Square Area (where all the trails converge above North Ridge) were not great. However, we have now made a lot of snow there and will some additional grooming night it should be good.

    Tomorrow will be a day to stay inside. Summit temperatures in the Am will be -40 to -57 wind chill. At those remperatures one gets frostbite within 5 minutes. For the safety of all, we will not be running the upper mountain lifts tomorrow. Friday will be better but still cold and then things moderate some for the weekend, so i am expecting good skiing and riding on Saturday and Sunday.
    I remember when I was young skiing at Stowe in temperatures like this. I was the only idiot so I did laps on the gondola. While my car started afterwards, the speedometer actually froze.

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