sunday river, me, 1-21-09

joegm

joegm

New member
the reports put the SR corridor getting most of the snow over the weekend....reports of mid 20's and no wind and no pay to ski with the boyne pass made the decision relatively easy....
the good: more variety for sure than loon....decent surfaces for the most part and no wind.. a competition mogul course on tempest and some decent bumps elsewhere....
the bad: they did not appear to get as much snow as was reported in my opinion.. either that or the MLK weekend crowd was nuts and it all got skied off... while the surface was decent, it was a lot more hardpacked that i thought it was going to be...probably the cold contibuted to the chalk....the reports of mid 20's was :bs: .... it was really really cold....no wind but it was just about too cold for me...i guess im getting old and i guess it's relative to your tolerance level , but for me 5 f is just about too cold .....the comp course off tempest was techincally closed :roll: :bs: :bs: :bs: :bs: :bs: but as you can probably guess, the boys and i opened it :-$ :D ... the best bump line on the whole hill actually turned out to be right stuff off of barker... white heat was iced up hardpack and typical eastern high wall crappy bumps... they advertised bumps on blue square 3d, but off course, they didn't spin the lift accessing it ](*,) ....a some what annoying trend of the day was them not spinning lifts that most convienently accessed good lines...another REALLY, annoying tid bit was them not opening up white cap lodge and not having any signage to indicate as such.... a solid 20 minute waste of time in the morning ... ridiculous but typical bs ski area management decision.....wizards gulch and t woodsman had good lines over at jordan but again, not spinning jordan quad really made it a pain in the ass....comp course on tempest was crap at the top, very good in the middle and non existent on the bottom....

SR is a good hill , but personally ,i don't like the flow of the place...it's a lot of traversing to get anywhere and to get to jordan from barker is a real pain... the more places i ski , the more i appreciate the genius of wildcat and stowe and mad river ( and burke too if they could ever update that fossil ) and the amazing way the lifts are set up there....i'd rather ski hills like that where one lift gets you 80% of what you need......the way they look like they are managing the place midweek with the lodge closure and lift closure is baloney, but i guess to be expected...sticking with loon for thurs
 
Some of this is just mountain topography. Admin and I were discussing this at Deer Valley. They have high speed lifts everywhere, but just due to layout there are several examples where there's just one overcrowded trail to get from one sector to another. I've never skied Sunday River, but by looking at a trail map I can see it has the same issues. By mentioning Stowe and Mad River as contrast I'm quite sure topography is the underlying problem. We had skied Snowbasin the day before Deer Valley and noticed a similar contrast. All 3 of the Park City areas have this problem to some degree.

I agree that not running lifts that make the skiing flow better is a management issue though.
 
Joe to ski 3d you need to use the Chondola during mid week or spruce and work your way down.

Next time I would suggest the spruce peak lift and take upper down draft past the np lodge and take 3d. I think you would have liked that run.

Shockwave off the white heat chair also would probably have met your needs.

Your comments about the layout are common. After a few trips it gets easier. Much easier when more lifts run on the weekend.
The lower left side or Vortex is usually bumped up. The snow volume had been open to discussion. I think the 8 inch total before MLK and 14 plus on Sat are correct. The issue is it was very fluffy great on a powder day, but not much of it stayed as base. Not much water content to build up the base. Non- groomers have been hard packed, Some ice, but mostly firm base.

Cold it was -16 went I went out Sat am. I know it gets colder, but I was cold 1st thing.
 
BobR":1vh1jn2i said:
Joe to ski 3d you need to use the Chondola during mid week or spruce and work your way down.

Next time I would suggest the spruce peak lift and take upper down draft past the np lodge and take 3d. I think you would have liked that run.

Shockwave off the white heat chair also would probably have met your needs.

Your comments about the layout are common. After a few trips it gets easier. Much easier when more lifts run on the weekend.
The lower left side or Vortex is usually bumped up. The snow volume had been open to discussion. I think the 8 inch total before MLK and 14 plus on Sat are correct. The issue is it was very fluffy great on a powder day, but not much of it stayed as base. Not much water content to build up the base. Non- groomers have been hard packed, Some ice, but mostly firm base.

Cold it was -16 went I went out Sat am. I know it gets colder, but I was cold 1st thing.
Click to expand...


bob, i'm sure you're right that the place skis better once you know it better, but i still think the flow of the place is off....i 'm impressed that crocker picked that up just by looking at the trail map

to access 3d from the chondy is really a pain ....to have to ski that run out at the bottom of 3d makes it not worth it to me... 3d is not THAT good...i have less of a problem with them not spinning that lift than i do with the completely unreasonable not opening white cap lodge ....the fact that the lodge is not open is inexcusable... i don't know what to call no signage on the access road or nothing on the web site indicating as such... if they don't want to open up the cafe in the lodge i have no problem with that... but to not open the doors to be able to sit down upstairs and change and eat your own brown bag is beyond belief...
normally my crew is happy with skiing 3 or 4 lines on a hill all day long , as long as the lines have what we are looking for...but not knowing what was on the hill, and frankly, talking to ski patrolers who just look at you with befuddlement when you ask them about specific lines and locations, we were running around more than usual,,,,but i know most people are not like that and like to ski the whole hill or as much of it as they reasonably can....the way the place seems laid out, to really explore the hill across as many peaks as possible, it just seems like there is way to much traversing involved, and they compound that more with closing off some of those lifts midweek.....by 11am at loon today, i felt like made more turns than i did all day at sunday river yesterda.. SR likes to call itself a legit bit time hill... how could they not be spinning both lifts over at jordan in the middle of winter?....
 
I am not sure what you mean about not spinning at Jordan.

Maybe they had wind or a lift issue, you have me there.

The informations about what is open and what is going on is a valid concern. The lodge being closed.... I was not aware of, but earlier in the year the web site was posting open lodges and closed lodges, but I have not seen that lately. I want the North peak lift to run daily. Well it adds easy adccess to my condo as well.
I like the terrain early and late in the day. 3d is great on a powder day with the bumps building up on skiers left. Skiing peak to peak is the key. I start at Np and take a run or two then I hit aurora, ski vortex and blackhole and then move to Jordan. I ski there till folks arrive and i work back toward Spruce. I ski there for a bit and then I ski Locke. I don't go to Barker often. I get enough of that early and late season. I don't go to the white cap side very much. White heat to me is just kind of a popularity thing IMO. I like Obsession and sensation and shockwave depending on the snow. Next time you are up. I'll show you a few secrets in person. It does ski allot easier if you know the way around.

I skied Loon for 9 years 40 plus days a year and I think Sr is easier to navigate than loon. Its about the vibe. I got out 50 to 60 days when I based out of campton. i ski in the mid 70's and probably will make 80 days at Sunday river alone this year. Why casue I can. :idea: I could have doen that when i was in campton. I guess to each ........


Mid week the Np quad to the Gondi and back up gives nice vertical. I loved Loon.

I up rooted to Sunday River and don[t regret it one bit. My ride went form 1.5 hours to just over 3 each way. As mostly a weekend who does take allot of wnter vacation time. :) When the weekend comes you can easily ski on ski off many lifts at SR and get the big mountain value in money and just fun.

I hope you try it again and get a better experieince.
 
Joe I passed your concerns on to a few at the River. They usually have a sign that says services out of Baker and South ridge only. Its possible it was not up. Your points were understood. I agree about the Np chair not running. Don't think that is going to change though.
 
BobR":1urqnx1k said:
Joe I passed your concerns on to a few at the River. They usually have a sign that says services out of Baker and South ridge only. Its possible it was not up. Your points were understood. I agree about the Np chair not running. Don't think that is going to change though.
Click to expand...

bobby, u r very kind to pass those along....

re: jordan- they were spinning only the oz fixed #15 .. they were not spinning the jordan hsq #14.... just could not understand how they could not be spinning the jordan and no one could give us even a " it's broken " or something like that... to access wizards and blind ambition we had to hike up kansas... that's a real pain in the ass...


they also closed tempest lift #9 between 11 and 2 for what we got someone to call " lift maintainence".. this made accessing the comp course on tempest a 2 lift ride if you didn't take the cut off over to the WHQ....that WHQ is painfulll when it's cold out.... and after skiing the comp course , it's good to collect yourself and ski some nice medium pitch flats , which is exactly what the rest of tempest is ....but to do that meant, like i said, riding 2 lifts and a 25 minute ride back to the comp course....i don't think performing "scheduled" lift maintainence between 11 and 2 , unless it's an emergency, is reasonable..... i don't think they would do that on a sat or sun or holiday


i think we just probably got unlucky as far as lifts and access and i know those things happen... it was just a whole convergence of little things that added up to a major annoyance...i've always tried to not criticize ski areas for things they cannot control, no matter how aggravating.... things that they can control though, i have no patience for.... for them to not spin the np lift- i can see them being able to argue and justify that.. for them to not stick a key in the door and open up the white cap , just for brown bagging and changing, i think that is crap....this may all seem like nit picking and whining to some.. i don't think it is when you are focused and take the sport seriously and are trying to maximize your time on the hill as much as you can... i think when i am retired and can ski 5 days a week for a couple of hours a day as opposed to 2 days in an all out blitz, stuff like this won't bother me as much.....

that's alright though, we live to ski another day
 
Little white cap has been under serious maint for a few weeks. I am not sure what the problem was.

The tempest lift just seems to stop and is slow. Nice lift for a beverage.

The Jordan quad has been having constant power issues and it comes and goes. They are working on it. Same issue came up this weekend. Boyne is trying to fix and replace as much as they can. Mistakes and lack of preventative maint that has been ignored due to money in the past are catching up on the place.. Some things just are not getting taken car of fast enough, but A plus for the effort. The re-building continues. I'm pretty sure you will see a sign out next time you drive up though. Your point was well taken.
 
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