Sugarbush, VT 11/18/99

[randy w]

<I>(Note from the Administrator: This report was originally posted on 11/19/99. Due to our move to new servers, the date and time attributed to this post is incorrect.)</I> <BR> <BR>The Castlerock chairlift at Sugarbush South ran yesterday for the first time this season. For anyone not familiar with Castlerock,it is a double chair which serves expert-only natural snow terrain. It is often compared to Mad River Glen, but this does not do justice to the easier terrain at MRG. <BR> <BR> <BR>I should get the negative part of the day out of the way first: I loaded the SugarBravo chair to get up to the upper mountain and found a rope pulled across the access trail to the Castlerock chair, I skied down to the bottom and ask the S-Bravo lift operator when will C-R open and I get a "gee it's their first day today, maybe by noon." I only had until a late lunch to ski and was not happy to hear this. I went to the ticket booth to ask about this and they said "gee, I didn't know that it isn't running." I then went to the "Mountain Concierge" both and the woman there gave me a line about it being the first day for C-R. I pointed to today's trail/lift report which had no mention of a late opening for C-R. She called the lift operations supervisor, who said that the lift op. who said "noon" was wrong and that it would be open "soon" - they were still clearing snow away from the lift. <BR> <BR>Sugarbush gets *Poor* marks today for public information. In my early season and VT days experiences at Killington, I have found that K is very good about posting at ticket booths and elsewhere info about any delayed lift openings. Maybe ASC can move some of this proactivity up to the 'Bush. <BR> <BR> <BR>Castlerock opened about 10:15 or so. Before then I "killed some time" - Paradise once and Spillsville twice off the Heaven's Gate chair. Spillsville seemed less beat up than Paradise. Great natural snow bumps. <BR> <BR>What can I say about the Rock ? 2 feet + of natural snow. It was not super fluff - you had to get the speed up and let 'em run. *Everything* was open - this means all of Lift Line and Rumble too. <BR> <BR>There was a brief (1/2 hour) downtime for the chair while the lift mechanic worked on the E-Brake, but it was otherwise fine. <BR> <BR>There was no lift line and the chairs were usually only about 1/2 full. <BR> <BR>I'm sorry I haven't been too descriptive about the skiing. It was Castlerock on a powder day - in mid-November. The knee high drifts really slowed you down. I had a few single heel releases, but I managed to get away without any double heel releases. I saw one guy searching for a missing ski on upper Lift Line. <BR> <BR>This kind of skiing is real work. Life is good.