Lifts

[win]

MM4Bush,

I will respond briefly, but if you want, I will sit with you and go over everything in greater detail. SBX was damaged by a storm and had to be fixed. Once fixed we need an annual rope inspection and then a State inspection That was the primary reason why is opened later than normal, but we also have to have enough ground cover to get evaluation machinery into Slidebrook. The bottom line is that there wasn't anything fundamentally mechanically problematical with its opening. This, however, is a very challenging lift to operate given its two mile length and the terrain it crosses. It is exposed to wind from every direction and is probably the most affected by weather. Also, I should point out that it there is an RPD tower fault which needs a manual fix it takes a long time to get into the affected tower - much longer than it would on a tower on Bravo and Gate House. Personally, I would not have put in SB and given up the ability to use the Slidebrook area more. But that is history.

North Ridge did have some early mechanical and electrical issues, but they were corrected.

Overall, I do not believe that we have had more mechanical or electrical issues that prior years, but as I said, if you are on the lift when they occur, it doesn't appear to be so.

Finally, I would add that very cold weather and winds do affect lift operation. Exposed wire can be ripped off for instance.

We hired a really good Lift Maintenance Manger from Keystone this past summer, and I have full confidence in his abilities.

Northridge is down today because we are doing some minor upgrades to the controls. We picked today because of the weather.

[MntMan4Bush]

Just because you live in your moms basement and drool over pictures of Sinead O'Connor while listening to the Tupoc doesn't mean we all do. Some of us are busy slacking off at work here. Now why don't you go make a quick run out to the 7-11 for some turkey jerky. Be back in 5.

[Hawk]

OK. So is this what you want.....

"Our lifts are really old and suck so get used to it. After all we need to spend all our money on the new construciton and Claybrook and not the aging infrastructure. You need to buck up little camper....."

Honestly, and I am not just trying to be positive toword the mountain, it wasn't all that bad this weekend. I got a call from my friends at another resort east of the happy valley and they had no major lifts running on Sunday. I am unlike most on this board and I do venture out and ski other hills to get some variety. It has been my experience that SB is averge when it comes to mechanical issues. It happens at every resort.

I also drive to North with my ski boots on....

[MntMan4Bush]

"Our lifts are really old and suck so get used to it. After all we need to spend all our money on the new construciton and Claybrook and not the aging infrastructure. You need to buck up little camper....." Laughing

Fair enough Hawk. I guess I'm not sure what I'm looking for and that pretty much sums it up. Well played. I guess with SB as my only skiing outlet I don't see what other mountains suffer as well. These were my observations only and now stated I'll sit back and hope for snow this weekend.

[Plowboy]

Why was the Sunny D closed yesterday Valley schools out at noon, nice day and kids looking to hit the Park.

[shadyjay]

Why was the Sunny D closed yesterday Valley schools out at noon, nice day and kids looking to hit the Park.

Think the park was closed yesterday for rebuilding. So that just leaves Sugar Run and Lower CJ.

Why would schools be out at noon on a Wednesday? Wx didn't look like a factor.

[Plowboy]

Why was the Sunny D closed yesterday Valley schools out at noon, nice day and kids looking to hit the Park.

Think the park was closed yesterday for rebuilding. So that just leaves Sugar Run and Lower CJ.

Why would schools be out at noon on a Wednesday? Wx didn't look like a factor.

Cool, they were concerned the lift was broken.

They have one early dismissal day a month. The next one is Mardh 25th.

[beelze]

A bit late to the thread but I've been on NL quite a few times the past month and had many stoppages that
were not wind related - after the last one I left the lift rather than try a few more runs and risk getting stuck for
more than 5 minutes at a pop. I've managed so far this season to catch NR on good days but I did get a later
start than usual. Someone else pointed out their perception, after being at SB a long time and elsewhere, that
SB tends to have more mechanical breakdowns and I think I'll second that. Perhaps some of the money being
spent on frills would be better off in the capital budget to replace aging parts/lifts?

How many times were the lifts down for mechanical reasons this season?

It does the resort no good to allow the lifts not to run. There is no profit in letting people go away saying things don't work well. You're statements say you don't believe the management doesn't realize this. Can you really believe this is true?

Lostone the problem with that statement is that management has never seemed interested in maximizing profit, or
even coming remotely close. If they were, they would lower weekday prices, certainly in the afternoon. The place,
especially Mt. Ellen, is a ghost town and Win is still paying people to run those lifts, empty, full or in between.

[win]

Have you seen the 2 for $50 fiftieth special? That's a low price!

Weekday is a challenge for the entire industry. For some strange reason people want to ski and ride on weekends and holidays.

[jwt]

Strange behavior? Maybe, ( I'm peerty sure you jest here!) and weekdays are a ghost town EVERYWHERE, except maybe those local to the large schools or cities ( Wachussett in central MA for instance), and while everyone wants to be where the powder and few people are during the week, there is just something about busy and crowds that people like.

The vibe on weekends is something most of us enjoy, as long as we aren't standing in lines too long or sking like a pinball to miss crowds on the slopes.
Most of my friends either can't or don't WANT to do too many midweeks because of work and once again, missing that vibe.
If you like the city for entertainment, imagine going in to NYC on a Wed night and no one was around? Or worse, a Sat night and there's 20 other people at the club that holds 600. People like people. Even though we hate them sometimes.
The fire pit is raging, the pub is bustling, and if you want silence on Sat - head to SB or your favorite un-named woods stash.
You won't find a busload at the Jerusalem Store anytime during the week. . . . or lucky us - NORTH!

It's the 50 year old Sugarbush Vibe, and it's a pretty good one. We can complain all we want about crowds until we go to Mt Snow on any given w/e.
Most of us know we got something here very few others have. Many of us ( pass or not) understand this when we venture out to ski other mountains. Even the PEOPLE are different at other places - you know you're not home, good as it may be.

[shadyjay]

Castlerock and North Lynx were down for maintenance for a portion of the day... CR reopening around lunchtime (1:15) and NL opened at around 3:15. It was a challenge for us lift ops today as our ramps and decks were sheets of ice. I had a team of 3 assisting me with my ramp, and the wind didn't help matters as it swept the fresh covering, revealing some ugliness by day's end. Its going to be taken care of tonight and I'll fix it up nice tomorrow..... I hope! HG was on windhold and was officially closed for the day around 1. No way around the wind unfortunetely. It was quite gusty at top of GH - and apparently was last night, with a 61mph wind gust recorded.

One more final thought... when exiting from a detach, as comfortable as the seat may be... standing up at the first set of cones will give you better chances of not ending up in the pit. I had dozens and dozens of "late risers" who stood up as the chair was starting to turn in the terminal. If you stand up too late, the chair will catch you and you won't have enough time to get out of the way before you're sent for a ride down. Standing up at the first set of cones and unloading there will give you more time than at the last minute. I know you all know how to get on/off lifts but much of the $14 crowd today it seemed needed a lesson. Just my $.02.

Have a great weekend and hope to see some (most?) of you out on the slopes!

(giddy-up 409 - my 409th post.... wow!)

[win]

Yogi Berra said it best. "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded." I guess he didn't like the vibe.

I grew up watching Yogi's Yankees. I think this was the line-up.

!B - Moose Skowron
2nd - Bobby Richardson
SS - Tony Kubeck
3rd - Clete Boyer
RF- Roger Maris
CF - Mickey Mantle
LF - Help me out here
P- Whitey Ford
C- Yogi Berra

I have now dated myself, so maybe no one on this blog will be able to identify with this!

[HowieT2]

Yogi Berra said it best. "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded." I guess he didn't like the vibe.

I grew up watching Yogi's Yankees. I think this was the line-up.

!B - Moose Skowron
2nd - Bobby Richardson
SS - Tony Kubeck
3rd - Clete Boyer
RF- Roger Maris
CF - Mickey Mantle
LF - Help me out here
P- Whitey Ford
C- Yogi Berra

I have now dated myself, so maybe no one on this blog will be able to identify with this!

Before my time, but didn't Berra move to left with Elston Howard catching??

[Strat]

Yogi Berra said it best. "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded." I guess he didn't like the vibe.

I grew up watching Yogi's Yankees. I think this was the line-up.

!B - Moose Skowron
2nd - Bobby Richardson
SS - Tony Kubeck
3rd - Clete Boyer
RF- Roger Maris
CF - Mickey Mantle
LF - Help me out here
P- Whitey Ford
C- Yogi Berra

I have now dated myself, so maybe no one on this blog will be able to identify with this!

Might this be of use, Win?

[Lostone]

Strat, that lineup has Yogi in the outfield.

In looking thru a bunch of years, I find most of those people in a few years, but not that lineup.

Names I find for LF would be Tom Tresh and Hector Lopez. Even then, I never paid much attention to the professional sports, although I was playing something all the time. I found my lists off this site, although it is poorly organized, such that I seemed to have to go back to my search bar and switch the year.


But back in the OT,

Lostone the problem with that statement is that management has never seemed interested in maximizing profit, or
even coming remotely close. If they were, they would lower weekday prices, certainly in the afternoon. The place,
especially Mt. Ellen, is a ghost town and Win is still paying people to run those lifts, empty, full or in between.

As the reason most people ski weekends is that job thing, are you sure lowering the price would make more money? Would enough people come at the lower price to make up for the loss of the higher cost tickets? And how would that affect the number of people coming to Lincoln Peak?

Would the lower cost bring in enough people to pay for the cannibalization of people that would already be paying?

And if they got in a consulting firm to do a study, how many extra tickets would they have to sell to pay for the consultants?


In fact, most ski areas are very light in traffic on weekdays. That has to do with that aforementioned job thing.