Sugarbush Wind Holds

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JC

JC

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Just got back from skiing Sugarbush this weekend with my wife and kids. We really liked the resort and terrain, but were quite frustrated by the frequent wind holds on the lifts.

On Saturday all of Mt. Ellen was closed and on the other side the only lifts operating for most of the day were Gate House and Bravo. Castle Rock opened part way through the day. On Sunday, the weather was nicer...sunny with moderate winds and the occasional strong gust. We decided to give Mt. Ellen a try, given the improved weather. All of the lifts were running except the North Ridge chair in the morning, but after lunch they shut down all of the lifts on Mt. Ellen again and we had to go back over to the other side to eke out a few more runs before driving back to NJ. Shutting down all of the lifts, even the lower ones at Mt. Ellen seemed a little excessive to me.

Sugarbush insisted that they are merely abiding by Vermont state laws and must close the lifts once winds exceed a certain amount. I've been skiing for 35 years and on many days that were windier than Sunday at Sugarbush and never experienced the degree of wind holds that we did last weekend (recent experiences on the Green Mountain Freezer, Summit quad at Whiteface and the Mineral Basin Express at Snowbird come to mind).

I'd like to find out the real scoop. Is Sugarbush that more exposed than the other areas, more risk-averse or have the rules become more restrictive in recent years for all resorts? Did any other Vermont resorts place the majority of their lifts on wind hold on both Saturday and Sunday?
 
i have definitely heard of lots of wind holds at sugarbush and experienced two lifts on wind hold one out of the three times i was there. seems like they have a higher incidence rate than most resorts. but this weekend was EXTREMEMLY windy, so it seems justified without knowing the exact wind speeds. i know there were wind holds at stowe and jay over the weekend.
 
I heard there were no windholds just down the road at MRG.

At Gore, they thought they only had a 30 min wind hold on the gondola saturday morning. All lifts ran after that and through the weekend. Whiteface was not so lucky.
 
I heard they lost a chair or two the weekend before... seriously! They had to recheck everything before rerunning and so they probably didn't want to push their luck!
 
Sharon":3quub3y7 said:
I heard there were no windholds just down the road at MRG.
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From what I've seen and heard, the mighty single is more shelter from the high winds that other lifts including the Sunnyside double. However Mark Rewson is probably the person around here that would know the best.
 
Yeah I also heard that MRG was running all chairs. On the other hand, I also heard the crowds were pretty bad and that there were long waits for the lifts. Makes sense given the new snow and the poor conditions previously. The crowds at MRG on Saturday was the reason we elected to ski a second day at Sugarbush on Sunday (wrong choice). We'll head back up again and try out MRG, but probably do it on a weekday.

I did hear rumors about chairs being blown off a lift at Sugarbush, but wasn't sure if it was true. If true, that would explain the caution.
 
JC":3hlqu0g1 said:
I also heard the crowds were pretty bad and that there were long waits for the lifts. Makes sense given the new snow and the poor conditions previously. The crowds at MRG on Saturday was the reason we elected to ski a second day at Sugarbush on Sunday (wrong choice).
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I don't mind the crowds so much because the powder doesn't get skied out so fast at MRG.
 
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