Mt. Snow's New Lifts

DrJeff

And also remember with the new Sundance Lift, if you have folks lapping Ridge, Hop, South Bowl (slated to go under the guns weather permitting much earlier than usual this year) and if there's natural snow, Shootout, then those folks can ride the new Sundance lift and get to those trails without ever having to go on Long John up high. True, they will have to cross Long John down where Cooper's Junction heads down to the Sundance lodge, but Long John is much wider down there.

Once folks who like to lap the South Bowl, Hop, Ridge and natural snow permitting Shootout and Uncles, get that you can access them all from the new lift, without ever having to go back to the main base area, my hunch is that the volume of folks will spread out off of the main base area lifts and improve things on the main face. It's still going to be busy, but you are likely to see the crowds spreading out a bit more

Beast Patroller

DrJeff;c-58217 wroteAnd also remember with the new Sundance Lift, if you have folks lapping Ridge, Hop, South Bowl (slated to go under the guns weather permitting much earlier than usual this year) and if there's natural snow, Shootout, then those folks can ride the new Sundance lift and get to those trails without ever having to go on Long John up high. True, they will have to cross Long John down where Cooper's Junction heads down to the Sundance lodge, but Long John is much wider down there.

Once folks who like to lap the South Bowl, Hop, Ridge and natural snow permitting Shootout and Uncles, get that you can access them all from the new lift, without ever having to go back to the main base area, my hunch is that the volume of folks will spread out off of the main base area lifts and improve things on the main face. It's still going to be busy, but you are likely to see the crowds spreading out a bit more

I sure hope that's the case, but I'm not so concerned about L.J. above the Sundance lift it's down along the cliffs to the bottom. Unfortunately, Long John is used to get over to Carinthia along with other areas of the mountain. Add the fact that it is the only "novice" trail off the summit with no other options for beginners off the summit this extra traffic off the new lift will only make for more problems. The other issue is Long John feeds skiers & riders off the summit to Carinthia and the base, so it isn't only the section between the new lift to Carinthia but the entire trail below the lift. I guess time will tell.

jgreco

Rode the Sundance Express yesterday (hopped in the line as the first few chairs were loading). I've been optimistic that the unload area wouldn't cause problems, but even with low skier numbers yesterday (most Sundance chairs were full but Bluebird was ski-on at the time), the unload area was pretty chaotic. Not looking forward to seeing it on a holiday. Maybe people will move out of the area more quickly in the future, but yiiiiiikes.

The route to Hop was fully blocked with bodies, so I just rolled out to LJ to get to Ridge.

I forsee some significant fencing on LJ to provide a protected staging area for people unloading.

Unrelated: If anyone has connections in Ski School, can you just mention that their program instructors could use a refresher about grouping on the side of the trail and not blocking whole trails?

DrJeff

jgreco;c-58392 wroteRode the Sundance Express yesterday (hopped in the line as the first few chairs were loading). I've been optimistic that the unload area wouldn't cause problems, but even with low skier numbers yesterday (most Sundance chairs were full but Bluebird was ski-on at the time), the unload area was pretty chaotic. Not looking forward to seeing it on a holiday. Maybe people will move out of the area more quickly in the future, but yiiiiiikes.

The route to Hop was fully blocked with bodies, so I just rolled out to LJ to get to Ridge.

I forsee some significant fencing on LJ to provide a protected staging area for people unloading.

Unrelated: If anyone has connections in Ski School, can you just mention that their program instructors could use a refresher about grouping on the side of the trail and not blocking whole trails?

Rode up the Bluebird on Saturday AM with a patroller, and they said that the unloading area of the new Sundance lift, especially once Sunbrook opens and they open shooting star which will connect Sundance with Sunbrook will be in play, that there have been plenty of discussions about how the mountain ambassadors will be actively stationed in that area to help manage safe traffic flow.

As for the volume of instructors/kids on the hill this past weekend, it was the 1st weekend where all of the seasonal kids programs were in session, as well as the athletes from Mount Snow Academy (that is a different program from the Mount Snow Alpine Race team) and relatively speaking there was still a limited number of acres available.

Should be a non issue by next weekend as a significant number of trails and acres should be opening this week

jgreco

DrJeff;c-58396 wrote
Should be a non issue by next weekend as a significant number of trails and acres should be opening this week

My gripe goes back through the seasons, 100% open included. Obviously, extra apparent this weekend.

DrJeff;c-58396 wrote Rode up the Bluebird on Saturday AM with a patroller, and they said that the unloading area of the new Sundance lift, especially once Sunbrook opens and they open shooting star which will connect Sundance with Sunbrook will be in play, that there have been plenty of discussions about how the mountain ambassadors will be actively stationed in that area to help manage safe traffic flow.

Good to know. That access to Sunbrook will be great.

newpylong

The moral of the story is, unless they entirely blast the hell out of that shoulder (good luck in VT), what you see is what you get. It will need to be mitigated as best as possible because it's not going to be solved.

TomWhite

Sundance:

DrJeff

Monday the 26th, 9AM, the new Sunbrook Quad opens!

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