I hope everyone had a great holiday and New Year’s, whether here at Sugarbush or elsewhere. Since the last State of the Mountain blog when we were working through a nice thaw/freeze, we’ve seen conditions rebound to be excellent for about a week and a half, another thaw/freeze event complete with quite a bit of freezing rain and rain, and another rebound that has left us with 8″ in the last three days and over 100 trails open.
That quick recovery, while certainly somewhat attributed to the natural snowfall, should also be credited to our operations team. Groomers have been busy resurfacing snowmaking trails every night since the flash freeze, and those trails are back in great shape. The natural terrain, which patrol wisely closed through the freezing rain and rain to help preserve it, has mostly been reopened. While still a little variable and recommended for advanced skiers and riders, it’s great to see that terrain bounce back so quickly. With potential snow showers on the horizon over the next several days, that terrain should only get better.
There have been plenty of other exciting developments around the hill in the last weeks, plus a bonus few happening right now. On the lifts side, Village Quad opened earlier this week and Sunny Q is scheduled to spin tomorrow. Alongside Sunny Q spinning comes the opening of the upper portions of both Riemergasse and Sugar Run, park features included. On the snowmaking front, the team is already through their first session of Stein’s (winched out last night!), and they’ll continue building depths on it into tonight. There’s plenty of whale watching to be had on Ripcord, and as those piles drain we’ll be smoothing them out in the coming days. At Mt. Ellen snowmaking is shifting over to Cruiser and Crackerjack.
With so much terrain reopening, we’ve also opened all of our Uphill Travel Routes back up. As always, abide by our policy and help spread the word to your friends and neighbors.
Finally, I’ll remind everyone that January is NSAA Safety Month, and we have tons of fun programming around it. Blizzard Bingo, sled rides, lift evacuation demos, and more are ready to provide fun and some education around safety. Take a look at our events calendar for a full lineup.
That’s it for now. Enjoy the conditions out there, and we’ll be back for another update ahead of MLK Weekend. Happy New Year!
See you on the mountain.