The road to redemption starts in 2025.
So far, that road has led us to greener (see translation: whiter) pastures. In fact we’ve received snow every single day this year, totaling 30″ since January 1st. If you skied before New Year’s, you’ll know that this new snow has been transformative, reviving our trail count and significantly improving conditions.
But it hasn’t been without a touch of bizarre. The last three days have seen extreme cold and heavy winds, shutting down a significant portion of lift operations during that time and transporting snow all around the mountain with deep pockets some places and wind scouring in others. Mt. Ellen suffered the worst of the weather as northwest winds play havoc with the way that mountain is positioned. Today saw both mountains reopen all of its scheduled lifts after some brief icing delays. Now we’re onwards to the weekend. Here’s where things stand.
Lifts
Since the last blog there’s been some great progress on lifts. After its initial opening in December subsequently followed by a closure due to lack of snow, North Lynx reopened to the public earlier this week thanks to all the new snow and the hard work of our snowmaking team. Sunny Q passed its load test and inspection yesterday and will be open for the weekend (alongside a full Riemergasse terrin park, more on that later).
The team has now been focused on resolving a spacing issue on North Ridge. Due to the high winds the last several days, they didn’t have a chance to spin the lift at all to run it through tests. The winds were so strong they actually blew out terminal windows in multiple lifts including North Ridge, where they then had to shovel out the terminal before they could get to work. But with the winds somewhat calmer today they’ve been back at work, and we’re hopeful the lift will be back up and running soon.
Castlerock is next on the list. We’re excited to be welcoming in some additional staff from Alterra early next week. This is the third time that they’ve sent resources here to help our lift maintenance team. One of their focuses will be getting Castlerock up and running, potentially by the incoming holiday. In addition, Paul DeAngeles from Alterra will be sticking around to help the team out while our Lift Maintenance Manager Spencer enjoys his upcoming paternity leave.
Slide Brook is then the last lift that needs to be inspected. The team spent over a month on it this summer, and we look forward to getting that running for everyone as soon as possible. And an important reminder, we can’t run that lift until there is sufficient snowpack all through the work roads and under the lift or when it’s below 10 degrees.
Snowmaking
Snowmaking has been all systems go over the last month, pretty much making snow in perpetuity aside from a couple very brief warmups. The whales on Sleeper got pushed out last night and the trail has had more snowmaking on it then it has in years. Right now the team is focused on finishing up Coffee Run today with guns also blazing on Hot Shot. The plan is then to shift to Stein’s for the weekend.
At Mt. Ellen, the crews have shifted to Inverness but look to move onto Sugar Run at some point this weekend. Temps continue to look pretty good over the next several days, though it does get warmer in the base starting Sunday. Should make for pleasant skiing but might potentially pause snowmaking depending on where the weather lands.
Other Notes
In the other most exciting mountain news, the Sugarbush Parks Team is stoked to welcome a full top to bottom Riemergasse in to the fold. After partially opening last week, the park now has over 50 features for your shredding enjoyment. Sugarbear Forest also has several beginner features over here at Lincoln Peak, and as I mentioned above snowmaking is set to begin on the medium park off of Sugar Run.
On the events side there are some great events happening over the weekend highlighted by Late Night Music with Harsh Armadillo tomorrow night. Plus, don’t forget January is NSAA Safety Month.
Looking ahead to MLK we’ve got another full schedule of events including some new ones focused on honoring MLK and celebrating the BIPOC community. In particular, we’ve partnered with the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) and local artist Harlan Mack to expand our programming a bit. Take a look at Corinne’s blog for the full breakdown on the new initiatives and MLK programming. Are you an Ikon Base pass holder who can’t ski next weekend? You’ll DEFINITELY want to check it out.
It’s been a transformative week and a half here at Sugarbush, and there’s still a ton of season left to go. Don’t forget to keep tracking your vertical for our Descent To Rise Above Challenge. We’re already over 80 million feet and are feeling confident you can all help us get over 100 million by the end of the weekend. And bonus note, we’ll be giving prizes to participants starting next weekend too.
See you on the mountain.