Sugarbush Conditions

are you sticking around for a second day?

Man that place is awesome.  Thanks for the photos!

Were the woods in play?

 

Marcski wrote

Were the woods in play?

I was going to ask the same thing. We are thinking of hitting MRG during the kids winter break. The kids have passes there we have yet to use - and we have 4 days. Thinking of maybe hitting a day at Sugarbush as the only time we have ever skied there has been in the spring - usually passing it up to ski MRG.

I am guessing any info from yesterday will be null and void next Wednesday.

Pouring rain yesterday followed by 1" overnight. Decided to drive from NJ to Sugarbush for the POW!  Frozen over with freshies in the troughs.  A few hours of skiing for free (thanks warren miller) and off to whiteface for tmrw!

Seriously though not too bad considering...and it was free....

Sugarbush Snowmaking Slated to Begin Thursday
 
Warren, VT (November 2, 2016) – Sugarbush Resort plans begin snowmaking for the 2016-17 winter season at the end of this week. The mountain operations team will make the decision to begin on Thursday night or Friday morning, depending on temperatures. Which trails will be opening will depend on weather leading into Opening Day on Saturday, November 19th.

In addition to its snowmaking plan, Sugarbush has installed a snow stake webcam near the summit of Lincoln Peak to measure snowfall throughout the season. The resort has already seen 20” of natural snow since October.

Saw on Facebook last night that they will be 100% open at both Lincoln Peak and Mt Ellen on Friday.

I've been watching their snow totals and making myself believe that it was all up high, marketing spin, etc. but the fact that they will be at 100% is pretty damn impressive (even if you still have to hike to Castlerock). If there is any doubt about how much more snow they get than our beloved NY mountains this is proof (at least in this case).

Here's to hoping they join the maxpass next year.

Danzilla wrote

Saw on Facebook last night that they will be 100% open at both Lincoln Peak and Mt Ellen on Friday.

I've been watching their snow totals and making myself believe that it was all up high, marketing spin, etc. but the fact that they will be at 100% is pretty damn impressive (even if you still have to hike to Castlerock). If there is any doubt about how much more snow they get than our beloved NY mountains this is proof (at least in this case).

Here's to hoping they join the maxpass next year.

My 2c

The skiing is good in VT right now. It is nice and soft. Look at the pics of everything from the Bush to Jay and it's clear they get far more snow than WF, etc. MRG opens the single this weekend. Back to the Bush, I'd expect the natural snow trails to be a bit thin after watching the Bush play this 100% open game for a few years now. I took an a rope dropping run on Domino last year and it wasn't pretty. But obviously the marketing hype works, still I do worry that at some point someone is going to hit a water bar hard and it won't be pretty. Most likely someone skiing above their head, a little out of control, and they miss a turn and then they end up with a compound fracture and a very long day getting down from something like Castlerock without the lift spinning / close patrol.

Oh, they won't be on the maxpass either.

ml242 wrote

Oh, they won't be on the maxpass either.

A man can hope can't he? They do the four packs at a pretty discounted price. You don't think they'd jump on the bandwagon with all the close competition on the pass? (Okemo, Stratton, Killington, Pico, Loon)?

Totally agree that they are pushing it a bit on all natural trails. I'm sure there will be some extra signage on those trails. The fact that they have enough to open speaks volumes IMO.

We seriously considered making bush our home mountain this year. The big difference in cost is daycare for our 1.5 year old. Gore is $699 for the season (great deal) vs. bush which is $1100 for 12 day passes. We would easily get 30 days in so that would be over 3 grand vs. 699. The cost was a big barrier. Plus we have a great community of people that we ski with at gore. It gives me hunger pangs though when I see their snow reports.

Danzilla wrote

It gives me hunger pangs though when I see their snow reports.

I too watch the VT snow reports, Facebook posts, etc. even though I don't ski much in VT.  My "home" mtn is Whiteface and secondary Gore.

It is painfull to watch VT get significantly more snow than NY, when it's not that far away (especially when you're at WF and can see all these places across the lake.)  I'm still so confused as to why the Greens get so much more snow.  I know there's a lot of factors....but damn if the ADKs could only get that 300"...what a combo that would be.

If you are on TGR forums, there's a guy VT-Freeheel who lives near the Bush....he pretty regularly posts his "base of the bush" snow report and comments on the marketing dept.'s posted snow totals on the site.  I will say they don't usually match up.

I have this feeling that many of these privately owned mountains in VT tend to exaggerate their totals for media hype, while the places many of us are skiing at (NYS owned) are not as concerned with the accuracy of the website/snow totals/measuring devices/where on the mtn they take a guess etc. Bush has a webcam of a snow"board" that gets cleared off every day...seems to be on the ground meaning all that wind blown gets measured....

Jay, on the other hand, seems to consistently get slammed and I doubt there's much bullshit going on there with snow totals.

Just my observations.

I don't follow TGR but its pretty obvious there is a big difference between summit totals and base totals. Sugarbush does report summit, mid and base totals for past 24, 48 and 72 hours. They use the summit totals for season total which is a little misleading. If you reported the summit totals for this season (or even daily) at gore the numbers would be significantly higher. This past weekend you could see how much more snow there is up high, but the trails to get there need to be open first. I don't think the VT resorts get double the snow like the total to total comparisons would suggest, but they definitely get more upslope since the mountains are more organized and they get some coastal love that we seem to miss out on.

Gore is one or two decent sized events (6 inches+) from green lighting a bunch of upper mountain terrain (IMO). Hopefully that comes tonight and Friday/Saturday.

I agree that if WF/Gore had a more rigid snow tracking method, they'd prob show higher overall.  If they reported at, or near, the summit, and were consistent about it, I think they'd show much better.

I'd be curious to know who/how/where snow reporting is done, at say WF, if it's just a word of mouth guesstimate from a groomer the night before who maybe just eyeballed it from the cab of the machine, or if patrol/lift ops calls it in when they get up to the highest point operating on a given day.  Would be a shame if they reported at the base, especially when Whiteface I think is around 1200 ft in the parking lot.  Tends to be more snow in LP when heading out of town to the mountain in the morning(~1800ft.)

You guys are saying "if only gore measured here it would look closer" etc. In Vermont signature expert terrain on natural snow trails has been open for a week. In ny it hasn't happened yet. I love gore. Gore always exceeds my expectations for snow quality. But if proof is in the pudding it is inarguable that ny gets the same snow or it is even close (to northern vt).

Yeh, I'm not trying to say it's the same or super close - just that I think it's closer than the daily snow reports seem to make it out to be.  And then if VT exaggerates a little, it opens up the gap that much more.

I rode the Bush for the first time on Friday.  What a great mountain!  Doesn't surprise me that they're going to be 100% open, we skied Paradise woods and bombed around in some 'tweener woods.  The early drop-in's in Paradise was starting to get a bit beat up but that was on Friday morning on no base.  Now that woods get skied in it shouldn't be a problem.

Can't wait to get back, loved everything abou tit.  (Sugartits)

Ski at your own risk!

I would never make such a silly assertion. Its clear it wouldn't be close but it would be closer. For instance the Sugarbush email this morning has the summit at 122 inches and the base at 43. That is a YOUGHEE difference. By Harv's tracking sheet, Gore has 25.5 of natural this year at the base. That difference base to base is big but not as big as 122 vs. 25.5. Just curious what the delta would be summit to summit. I wouldn't doubt that it would follow the same ratio.

Another thing I find refreshing is their transparency. If you ever check skimrv, there are several mountain employees and Win himself sometimes that give updates on operational decisions, strategy, etc. Its not out on facebook but its there for the hardcore and I think it speaks volumes to how the bush is run.

I dunno, people always hate on snow reporting. Snow sure is elevation dependent. Been at that mountain plenty of times with an inch on the bottom and a foot on top - especially early season. I have six days of touring in this season, and it's the same thing. I don't ski all the way down to the bottom because it's a thin paste of snow over dirt and rocks, but they've already rolled groomers out on all the midstation up. It's feet of snow, all natural beautiful powder. Enough to support a groomer, and it will be open this weekend at Sutton. Fall weather is elevation dependent for temperature in the marginal events and then makes double the impact on the upslope.

Still, 122" sounds pretty crazy, maybe they measured in centimeters a couple times. For the bush,just check what mansfield got and multiply by .7-.8. YMMV.


BTW I think this active and warmer storm tracks the past few years have been very good for the Saint Lawrence valley. It would not surprise me at all if MSA bumps up their average to 200+ in the near future when they get around to bothering to fix it.

Does direction of the storm patterns have much of an impact on snowfall on eastern mountains?

These storms so far this year have been coming from your west I think so if so I was thinking that you might have rapid orographic lifting up over the spine of the Greens from the west squeezing the moisture out over the summits and leaving less on the eastern sides. I have no idea what I'm talking about really but I thought that might make some sense of the extreme difference in base to summit totals.

raisingarizona wrote

Does direction of the storm patterns have much of an impact on snowfall on eastern mountains?

These storms so far this year have been coming from your west I think so if so I was thinking that you might have rapid orographic lifting up over the spine of the Greens from the west squeezing the moisture out over the summits and leaving less on the eastern sides. I have no idea what I'm talking about really but I thought that might make some sense of the extreme difference in base to summit totals.

Yeah, that's a bit of an oversimplification but the flow has been money.