Plan of attack for Sugarbush

N

NeedhamSkier

New member
More of the same this morning at Sugarbush - sunny weather, no wind, perfect temps and high-speed fun on the groomers, which are still in pretty good shape. Now the clouds are building, so hoping snow arrives as forecast.

Looking for any ideas from those who know Sugarbush as to the best plan for tomorrow morning to try and get at least a couple of untracked runs in (recognizing I won't be the only one with this highly original plan...) The family are taking a day off tomorrow, so I'll be skiing alone, which is good in terms of getting out for first chair, but means the woods are probably not a good idea.

We're staying at Lincoln Peak, so my plan is to be in line for the Bravo when it opens at 8. Any thoughts on what time I should be there to have a reasonable chance of being near the front of the line? How does 7.59 sound? And then any ideas of trails that sometimes get overlooked, once the obvious lines have been hit? I'm thinking maybe going way along the Valley House Traverse might make sense? And then what - Heavens Gate House or Castlerock? (which is mighty bumped up right now), so I'm leaning towards Heavens Gate when it opens.

Appreciate any ideas/secrets that experienced Sugarbush visitors care to share. This is rare possibility for Eastern powder for me, so hoping to profit if I can.

Thanks.
 
Relax...all the local hounds will be at MRG! :wink:

NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BURLINGTON VT
1030 AM EST WED FEB 18 2009

.THE HIGHER SUMMITS FORECAST FOR VERMONT AND NORTHERN NEW YORK...

.REST OF TODAY...SUMMITS BECOMING OBSCURED IN CLOUDS...WITH SNOW
DEVELOPING BY LATE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE MID 20S. SOUTH WINDS 25
TO 40 MPH...INCREASING TO 35 TO 50 MPH IN THE AFTERNOON. WIND CHILL
VALUES IN THE SINGLE DIGITS ABOVE ZERO.
.TONIGHT...SUMMITS OBSCURED IN CLOUDS. SNOW. LOWS IN THE LOWER 20S.
SOUTH WINDS 40 TO 55 MPH.
.THURSDAY...SUMMITS OBSCURED IN CLOUDS. SNOW IN THE MORNING...THEN
SNOW SHOWERS LIKELY IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE UPPER 20S.
WEST WINDS 25 TO 40 MPH. WIND CHILL VALUES IN THE LOWER TEENS.


Sounds windy. At the risk of stating the obvious, I'd use my first run to try to figure out what aspects and areas of the mountain are least wind-affected and then look to ski those areas first. I'd also probably gravitate toward the trees, and the gladed and narrower runs.

I haven't skied SB on a powder day in a long time, so I am not qualified to answer your specific questions about how competitive it will be, etc. When I have been lucky enough to get a powder day when I'm in the MR Valley in recent years, I have not been able to resist the temptation to go to MRG.
 
If the lifts are running, I would try to find my way over to Castlerock right away. It is fairly protected and there are plenty of tight narrow trails and tree shots.

You may be limited by the lift closures though, so just take what you can get.
 
I would also agree with Castlerock , was thinking of MRG but noticed they are charging weekend rates and don't know what the lineup time would be for the single . Hopefully , will be down in that area first week of March if the weather plays out.
 
Thanks for the thoughts. I must admit hadn't factored the wind into things - but it's about 9pm here and in the valley it doesn't seem to be blowing too hard so far. But it's also not snowing too hard either - maybe a couple inches on the ground so far, so this may not be too much to get excited about anyway.

The only problem with Castlerock is that it has some major bumps on all the trails already, and it's going to take more snow than we will get tonight to cover those up. So that just leaves the woods over there, which I'm not too confident exploring on my own. We'll see how things look in the morning.

On the MRG front, we met up with some friends tonight who have a house near there and were trying to convince us to hit it tomorrow. In the end, I think we'll stay at Sugarbush tomorrow, as I'm not psyched about a 20-minute drive on snowy roads, when there is good snow right on my doorstep here. And I share the concern about the line at the single chair. But maybe Friday - it's something I've got to try sometime.
 
So we ended up with somewhere around 5-7" overnight, I would guess. The mountain claimed 8", but that seems generous. Not super-light, but very skiable.

Managed to score some fresh tracks with this plan, if it's useful to any other non-locals like me. Arrived at around 7.40, which was good enough for second chair once they opened up at 8. Apparently, today was a little quieter than expected, according to a couple of locals, but it would seem that 7.30 - 7.45 is a good range for first few chairs. Did 3 runs on Bravo, scoring untracked each time, first down Murphy's, then Spring Fling, where you had to choose your line, and finally Eden which was pretty much untouched still.

Then headed over to Gatehouse about 8.50 and the line was forming, but not too bad, and I would guess that I ended up on about the 20th chair. Top of Ripcord was blown off, but that was the only evidence of the wind I saw. The rest of the run was good, and very few people seemed to go that way. Second run of Gatehouse I hit the woods, just where Spillsville and Ripcord join, which were untracked still. Wish I was a better woods skier, but managed to squeak some nice turns in between the trees.

Finished with a couple more on Bravo and going back to Eden again, where there were still a few shots to be had before finishing up around 10.30 to relieve my wife back at the condo. Good day, and I definitely feel I got the best of the day. 12 noon now and still snowing lightly. Next few days look very promising.
 
Family commitments. We had planned this day as a day off in the middle of our stay, so kids are out of ski school for the day (and our oldest has a broken leg, so is unable to ski at all, to further complicate things) So the wife and I both skied this morning to take advantage of the powder, and now we're off to Ben and Jerry's for a non-snow family activity. Woo hoo!
 
"You forgot Poland!!" :lol:

I mean, don't forget to hit Sugarbush North (do they still call it that? Maybe they just say Mt Ellen), excellent way to avoid the crowds on weekends, and I will bet Northbush will do well with tomorrow's upslope event (better than Southbush). Plus, the terrain there is underrated, IMO.
 
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