Sharon
New member
As we crossed 89 on route 2 coming from Bolton heading south to Sugarbush there was a long line of cars waiting to get off the highway, most with ski racks, signalling to make the turn south. We joined in a parade of Subaru's and other skier eqipped vehicles making their way to Sugarbush for the 47th anniversary celebration and the $5.50 lift ticket. It was about 9am as we were guided into the auxillary lot. Being so far away meant that there was no going back to the car for forgotten gear, so I dressed for the high, cold, damp and windy mountains. It is always a tough call as to what to wear from the parking lot, so better over-dress than underdress. The other dilemna was...rock skis, phat skis, or new (to me) skis. A last minute decision was to bring the old X-Screams which are now my rock skis, which indeed was a good choice, as there was a significant amount of rock out there exposed or lurking on the trails.
We decided to start our day on the Super Bravo with a warm-up on Birdland (the bumped side) and cut over to Heaven's Gate. The snow was nice and soft.
Spillsville and Ripcord had only natural snow. Organgrinder had manmade snow, and it just didn't ski as well as the natural snow trails. The natural trails were very nice and soft, however, there was plenty of rock to dodge. This was the case just about everywhere we went.
We then headed to Castle Rock where there was a long lift line but definitely worth the wait. We skied Middle Earth first. The snow was very nice and the rock dodge kept it interesting. We did Castle Rock, Cottillion, Lift Line and Rumble. The latter 2 were the rockiest and it was nearly impossible to not scuff up the bases. We both managed to not do any major damage, though certainly there are plenty of new nicks, burrs and scratches that will need some TLC. My X-Screams will not take another grind. I certainly got my $s worth out of those skis. They served me well.
After skiing every run on Castle Rock we went in for lunch around 1:45. The lodge was packed yet people were starting to leave and we found a table.
We went back out at 3:00 for a couple more. We did Stein's and The Mall, both of which skied very nicely with natural snow, soft bumps and had better cover than anything on Castle Rock.
While there were a ton of people there and 30 minute waits at the very slow and spaced out Castle Rock double, the runs were long, challenging and satisfying, and there were not many people on the trails. There's something to be said about slow lifts.
The Super Bravo had a line, but it goes very fast and we never waited more than 5 minutes to get on that lift, however earlier that day we heard the lines were 10 minutes. Never a wait on Heaven's Gate lift.
We skied very challenging terrain all day long. It was very fun and satisfying. All in all it was a great day at The Bush.
We decided to start our day on the Super Bravo with a warm-up on Birdland (the bumped side) and cut over to Heaven's Gate. The snow was nice and soft.
Spillsville and Ripcord had only natural snow. Organgrinder had manmade snow, and it just didn't ski as well as the natural snow trails. The natural trails were very nice and soft, however, there was plenty of rock to dodge. This was the case just about everywhere we went.
We then headed to Castle Rock where there was a long lift line but definitely worth the wait. We skied Middle Earth first. The snow was very nice and the rock dodge kept it interesting. We did Castle Rock, Cottillion, Lift Line and Rumble. The latter 2 were the rockiest and it was nearly impossible to not scuff up the bases. We both managed to not do any major damage, though certainly there are plenty of new nicks, burrs and scratches that will need some TLC. My X-Screams will not take another grind. I certainly got my $s worth out of those skis. They served me well.
After skiing every run on Castle Rock we went in for lunch around 1:45. The lodge was packed yet people were starting to leave and we found a table.
We went back out at 3:00 for a couple more. We did Stein's and The Mall, both of which skied very nicely with natural snow, soft bumps and had better cover than anything on Castle Rock.
While there were a ton of people there and 30 minute waits at the very slow and spaced out Castle Rock double, the runs were long, challenging and satisfying, and there were not many people on the trails. There's something to be said about slow lifts.
The Super Bravo had a line, but it goes very fast and we never waited more than 5 minutes to get on that lift, however earlier that day we heard the lines were 10 minutes. Never a wait on Heaven's Gate lift.
We skied very challenging terrain all day long. It was very fun and satisfying. All in all it was a great day at The Bush.
