Spring fling closed for race training on Saturday

**djd66** · 01-08-2016, 09:15 PM

I just read this on the snow report,... WTF? Sorry, for anyone who reads my posts, I very rarely bitch - but seriously - this is complete BS. I get that the mountain has been having a tough year and we have all been skiing crap (not the mountains fault) But this is the first weekend you have the new chair open and the main trail you ski off of that chair is going to be closed for racers? So another Saturday with 100's of people on Downspout? To who ever made this decision - it is not in the best interest of the people who spend $1000's of dollars here every year. Yeah, I am really pissed.

**Benski** · 01-08-2016, 09:37 PM

Originally Posted by djd66

I just read this on the snow report,... WTF? Sorry, for anyone who reads my posts, I very rarely bitch - but seriously - this is complete BS. I get that the mountain has been having a tough year and we have all been skiing crap (not the mountains fault) But this is the first weekend you have the new chair open and the main trail you ski off of that chair is going to be closed for racers? So another Saturday with 100's of people on Downspout? To who ever made this decision - it is not in the best interest of the people who spend $1000's of dollars here every year. Yeah, I am really pissed.

Probably in there contract with gmvs. Lots of snow on lower snowball though it was a sheet of ice today after they stopped making snow on it. Lower Jester, Murphy's, Birdland and Organgrinder bellow heavens gate traverse have enough snow on it they will all defiantly be open so it won't be as bad as last week. I am not sure how much longer the natural snow trails can hold up.

**Njski** · 01-08-2016, 09:44 PM

97 trails open, and you complain about one? Spring Fling is ok, but .......

Ever hear of Snowball, Racer's Edge, Murphys Glade, Moonshine? All intermediate trails off the VH Chair.

I really don't think there is much to bitch about. Most places are only @ 50% open. Lots of trails closed.

You should be thanking Win and the crew for doing an exemplary job in a very challenging season

**djd66** · 01-08-2016, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Benski

Probably in there contract with gmvs. Lots of snow on lower snowball though it was a sheet of ice today after they stopped making snow on it. Lower Jester, Murphy's, Birdland and Organgrinder bellow heavens gate traverse have enough snow on it they will all defiantly be open so it won't be as bad as last week. I am not sure how much longer the natural snow trails can hold up.

According to the website - it's not GMVS, .... It's CVU and Fairfield. Fairfield has a ski team? I get when they contract to have races on weekends,.. But this is not a race - it's race training. There are currently probably a dozen trails open with snowmaking. I drove up here tonight very excited to make a bunch of runs tomorrow on SF. I am sure if will have plenty of runs of that trail this season, but when there has been not much open all season and then it is closed on the first weekend it sucks. Tell them they can do race training on Sunday when it is raining and most of us do not want to ski.

**djd66** · 01-08-2016, 10:07 PM

Originally Posted by Njski

97 trails open, and you complain about one? Spring Fling is ok, but .......

Ever hear of Snowball, Racer's Edge, Murphys Glade, Moonshine? All intermediate trails off the VH Chair.

I really don't think there is much to bitch about. Most places are only @ 50% open. Lots of trails closed.

You should be thanking Win and the crew for doing an exemplary job in a very challenging season

Yep, I have heard of those trails. Murphy's is off of Bravo FYI,... i guess if they ran the race training in Moonshine or Racer's Edge I would have not complaints.

**Benski** · 01-08-2016, 10:08 PM

Originally Posted by djd66

According to the website - it's not GMVS, .... It's CVU and Fairfield. Fairfield has a ski team? I get when they contract to have races on weekends,.. But this is not a race - it's race training.

Either way Sugarbush probably signed away the rights to use the trail to CVU and Fairfield long before they knew about the problems you are complaining about. Now the are obligated to go threw with the contract even if they regret signing it.

**djd66** · 01-08-2016, 10:17 PM

Originally Posted by Benski

Either way Sugarbush probably signed away the rights to use the trail to CVU and Fairfield long before they knew about the problems you are complaining about. Now the are obligated to go threw with the contract even if they regret signing it.

No doubt there is some kind of contract that Sugarbush agreed to. Again - race training? How much money could they be getting? We are talking about 2 division 5 ski teams.

**Dblshot** · 01-08-2016, 10:25 PM

Yeah I agree it sucks and kinda peeved too. 97 trails is misleading as the natural trails are very thin. I don't recall them doing this before at South. Maybe at North on Elbow closing part of the trail. Does all of Fling need to be closed?

**cdskier** · 01-08-2016, 10:33 PM

I saw that and agree with djd. First weekend you can ski off the new lift and the signature trail is closed. It definitely annoyed me as well as a pass holder. I too was looking forward to runs on the new chair and spring fling. As for the comment that we shouldn't complain since there are 97 trails open...well that has nothing to do with this. All week on Facebook and in the reports they have been hyping how awesome spring fling was with all the snowmaking and the new lift. Why bother if no one will be able to ski it tomorrow? We will see tomorrow but I honestly don't have a lot of confidence that the natural snow trails (especially at lower elevations on the valley house side) will hold up too long.

**WWF-VT** · 01-08-2016, 11:59 PM

What a bunch of whiners - it's Spring Fling that you won't be skiing on tomorrow. I'll be at Mt Ellen while you'll be waiting in lines at Lincoln Peak.

**djd66** · 01-09-2016, 08:34 AM

Little update. Apparently this was some misinformation on the Sugarbush website. Spring Fling is not closed as stated. There is some race training taking up part of the train (skiers right). All is good, sorry for my whining last night. Someone may want to correct what is on the website tho

**winjr** · 01-09-2016, 04:24 PM

It was not "Closed" just noted that they were gates on skier's right down where the race course used to be. I don't know if any of you skied Spring Fling but it was sweet all day.

Just so no one bitches tomorrow. We are closing most of the natural trails tomorrow because of a forecast of .8-1.3 inches of rain and very high winds. This is being done to preserve as much as we can. It will be turning cold tomorrow night so Monday will be fairly bulletproof until we can get some groomers going early in the AM after it sets up. The forecast for next week looks a lot better with snowmaking temps and some snow throughout the week. The piles we left on Birdland, Murphy's, Lower Grinder, Lower Snowball and Racer's Edge will groom out nicely about the rain. Snowmaking priority will be on the Gatehouse side to have that is good shape for MLK.

And, we are closing Spring Fling for an FIS race on Monday and Tuesday for GMVS. We don't close that trail on weekends for racing.

**cdskier** · 01-09-2016, 04:52 PM

Originally Posted by winjr

It was not "Closed" just noted that they were gates on skier's right down where the race course used to be. I don't know if any of you skied Spring Fling but it was sweet all day.

It was great today. I skied it several times. As for being "closed", whoever is doing the snow report needs to be careful about making sure info is accurate. Last night it definitely said spring fling would be closed for race training. By this morning the report was updated to say only a portion of it would be closed. If it said that from the beginning, no one would have said anything.