The Unofficial Sugarloaf Chat

Glade Monkey wrote:

JAC487 wrote:Oh and did anyone else hear about the avalanches (yes plural) on Sunday? If so, it definitely wasn't via an official channel.

Just saw a report on channel 6 about one avalanche. They interviewed Roddy.

It was covered in several media outlets:
https://www.newscentermaine.com/video/weather/ski-conditions/avalanche-at-sugarloaf-buries-skier-up-to-his-neck/97-9749985c-b883-4fff-86d6-01c97e4abb6f

https://www.sunjournal.com/2024/03/25/portland-man-back-on-the-slopes-after-being-buried-in-sugarloaf-avalanche/

Glade Monkey wrote: Bucksaw Express will be closed this Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31 for a haul rope shortening.

Heard in the Sugarloaf Admin meeting room:

“Hey, great job on the BE chair launch!”
“Thanks, it’s going really well!”
“Say, aren’t you going to have to close it for a couple days to shorten the rope soon?”
“Yes, we have a plan for that.”
“Oh?”
[Busting with pride] “Yep. We are planning on closing it on March 30 and 31st.”
[checks calendar] “I see that is a prime spring skiing weekend! Crowds should be big!”
“Yep”
“Hmm! Well done!”

I actually do think the slide(s) on Nitro should have been addressed by Sugarloaf with an official press release back on Sunday afternoon that they were aware of the incident, ski patrol responded and there were no injuries. I saw on Sunday night a short clip of a slide from that day on youtube and the narrative and rumors and stories have only grown since. Maine news stories started covering it earlier today or yesterday, Monday. There's now a Boston Globe story running with no official input from the mountain because there's nothing on the Sugarloaf press release page.

In such a situation, if the one of the leaders of Ski Patrol is giving an interview to a news organization, it should be part of a coordinated press release.

Roddy is a sugarloaf offcial, right?

https://www.newscentermaine.com/article ... 87bec3a9f3

almost every new lift requires re-splicing. i think most of the specialty crews that do this are from Switzerland. i actually got to speak to a lift tech working with such a crew at jay peak many years ago when they replaced the tram cable. gotta do it sometime.

pretty good report from newscenter on the avy. i once saw a small skier triggered avy on last pitch of backside once. tiny one. maybe we could be critical of patrol not scouting avy danger before public was let on mtn. but then we would bitch at them for delayed opening or closed trails.

gotta say that while local ops & mgmt sometimes confound us; i am so, so happy with boyne as an owner. six shooter coming to loaf on the heels of bucksaw. SR getting the latest and greatest lift tech. new pump house, etc, etc. boyne has been a wonderful owner these past 5 years or so. i see the improvements. my first decade here comprised of lemon scented urinal cakes. we are almost keeping pace with saddleback (sorry couldn't resist)

Ya, I saw the closing in the report yesterday, I didn't want to start a thread on it even though I am disappointed, Saturday would've been my first ride on it.

Don't get me wrong, I am glad we have left the urinal cakes and new paint phase of capital upgrades behind. I just feel like marketing is lacking. Required maintenance is never going to be during a convenient time frame. I'm sure the lift department pushed for the resplice happening after Bucksaw closes for the season.

JAC487 wrote:And yet radio silence on the "mechanical issue" that plagued King Pine. Transparency isn't setting you up for bad PR but keeping the public uninformed is bad marketing. https://www.sugarloaf.com/lifts still brings you to a page that is no longer easy to find on the website. This except from the page has not aged well

Another important part of our work is a commitment to observe and listen, and to communicate transparently with our guests.

Oh and did anyone else hear about the avalanches (yes plural) on Sunday? If so, it definitely wasn't via an official channel.

I think the King Pine issue was a nothingburger and people here are overreacting for the sport of it.

Here's a first-hand account from one avalanche. Guy was buried up to his neck!
https://www.facebook.com/nsanborn/posts ... pwH6VnyPSl

POTM wrote:i am so, so happy with boyne as an owner. six shooter coming to loaf on the heels of bucksaw.

Me too. So much better than the ASC era, and the independent era. Meanwhile Saddlebackers call us "corporate" and "profit driven". Good. Clowns. Is Six Shooter really confirmed? When?

Ltaylor56 wrote:

Glade Monkey wrote: Bucksaw Express will be closed this Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31 for a haul rope shortening.

Heard in the Sugarloaf Admin meeting room:

“Hey, great job on the BE chair launch!”
“Thanks, it’s going really well!”
“Say, aren’t you going to have to close it for a couple days to shorten the rope soon?”
“Yes, we have a plan for that.”
“Oh?”
[Busting with pride] “Yep. We are planning on closing it on March 30 and 31st.”
[checks calendar] “I see that is a prime spring skiing weekend! Crowds should be big!”
“Yep”
“Hmm! Well done!”

"We tried to put it off another two weeks until Reggae, but Easter weekend was the only time Hans Splicer was available"

Alpiner wrote:

POTM wrote:i am so, so happy with boyne as an owner. six shooter coming to loaf on the heels of bucksaw.

Is Six Shooter really confirmed? When?

Boyne has been a good operator and now owner for their NE mountains!
Six Shooter is coming out this summer, but not showing on the 2025 new lifts listing (yet). Loon shows a new lift on there.
https://liftblog.com/2025-new-lifts/

Glade Monkey wrote:Six Shooter is coming out this summer

Source?

Alpiner wrote:

Glade Monkey wrote:Six Shooter is coming out this summer

Source?

I mean Big Sky are taking it out this summer. The replacement is an 8 pack but with heated seats, bubble & probably cupholders
https://bigskyresort.com/2025/future/north-side-lift

Glade Monkey wrote:To avoid any negativity - let me saw I like the new lift and the new trails. Bucksaw Express is smooth and fast. The new trails are wide and can make an intermediate feel like an expert... "Mom, look I'm a Whistle Punk!"
Glad they are taking good care of the new lift!

From the afternoon mtn rpt (I was checking trail count for the Weather Log)
BUCKSAW EXPRESS: Bucksaw Express will be closed this Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31 for a haul rope shortening. As happens with all new haul ropes, they stretch during the first season of operation. Depending upon how much they stretch, the ski lifts tension system can compensate for that amount. In the case of Bucksaw Express, the haul rope has stretched beyond what the tension system can make up. Therefore, the haul rope needs to be shortened. Due to the specific nature, availabilty and specialty of the trade, this is the only window for the shortening to occur. We look forward to reopening the lift Monday, April 1st, pending completion of the work.

Yet, it's safe to run on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ???

High Ball wrote:

Glade Monkey wrote:To avoid any negativity - let me saw I like the new lift and the new trails. Bucksaw Express is smooth and fast. The new trails are wide and can make an intermediate feel like an expert... "Mom, look I'm a Whistle Punk!"
Glad they are taking good care of the new lift!

From the afternoon mtn rpt (I was checking trail count for the Weather Log)
BUCKSAW EXPRESS: Bucksaw Express will be closed this Saturday, March 30 and Sunday, March 31 for a haul rope shortening. As happens with all new haul ropes, they stretch during the first season of operation. Depending upon how much they stretch, the ski lifts tension system can compensate for that amount. In the case of Bucksaw Express, the haul rope has stretched beyond what the tension system can make up. Therefore, the haul rope needs to be shortened. Due to the specific nature, availabilty and specialty of the trade, this is the only window for the shortening to occur. We look forward to reopening the lift Monday, April 1st, pending completion of the work.

Yet, it's safe to run on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday ???

I reread the announcement and caught this part—> “due to the specific nature, availability and specialty of the trade, this is the only window for the shortening to occur.” What this means is either other resorts that need this service are a far higher priority than Sugarloaf and so they get the weekday slots, or Sugarloaf forgot to reserve a weekday slot even though - as stated that in the announcement it “happens with all new haul ropes” - and the only ones left were weekend slots.

Like forgetting to schedule your colonoscopy and all they have left are 4:00 pm slots…

Glade Monkey wrote:

Alpiner wrote:

POTM wrote:i am so, so happy with boyne as an owner. six shooter coming to loaf on the heels of bucksaw.

Is Six Shooter really confirmed? When?

Boyne has been a good operator and now owner for their NE mountains!
Six Shooter is coming out this summer, but not showing on the 2025 new lifts listing (yet). Loon shows a new lift on there.
https://liftblog.com/2025-new-lifts/

That Loon lift isn't being bought by Loon/Boyne however. Rivers Edge is buying it and Loon will operate it just like they do with the Riverside Double that tops out at the South Peak Tent Lodge. There has been talk of allowing the public to ride it, but its point is to serve the Rivers Edge owners and guests first and foremost. Loon does not want skiers/riders parking at the Mill and shopping centers and overwhelming downtown parking. Sounds like just 2 pulses of 3 8pax cabins to start, with two more pulses to be added later.

Ltaylor56 wrote:I reread the announcement and caught this part—> “due to the specific nature, availability and specialty of the trade, this is the only window for the shortening to occur.” What this means is either other resorts that need this service are a far higher priority than Sugarloaf and so they get the weekday slots, or Sugarloaf forgot to reserve a weekday slot even though - as stated that in the announcement it “happens with all new haul ropes” - and the only ones left were weekend slots.

Like forgetting to schedule your colonoscopy and all they have left are 4:00 pm slots…

Haha, I like that analogy. I thought you were pretty young though... I hope you don't have to get this procedure done yet.
SL must have thought they could get away with shortening it after the season ended and it got looser quicker than they expected?

Per the announcement: haul ropes always stretch but sometimes not enough to need shortening. They were hoping it wouldn't need shortening, so did not automatically schedule it.

And there are 50MPH winds in the forecast Saturday.

Can a haul rope be shortened without taking the chairs off? Just curious about the engineering process.

SpillwayEast wrote:Can a haul rope be shortened without taking the chairs off? Just curious about the engineering process.

Maybe they could remove just the chairs around the splice? But the chairs weigh quite a bit each, so removing the chairs makes the size of the equipment needed to hold the rope in place while it is cut and being spliced back together. Probably provides a higher safety factor too. Also, given the cost of the chairs and likely the long lead time to acquire replacements in case something happened and more of the lift de-roped than wanted, it's probably cheaper to take them all off.

Why would you choose to splice and tighten the haul rope with the chairs on? Isn’t that just making it harder on yourself? Like scheduling your colonoscopy at 4pm?

So the haul rope is so slack they can't wait another month for the season to end but it is safe to run today? There has to be a window from May to October to get it spliced?

They don't need to take all the chairs off just a bunch in the area where the cable is off the sheave trains

A video from splicing The Superquad years ago [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MflfQjXuHY/youtube]

heavysquad4 wrote:So the haul rope is so slack they can't wait another month for the season to end but it is safe to run today? There has to be a window from May to October to get it spliced?

It is safe to run probably til the end of the season. The problem is there are so few rope splicer techs around, if not scheeduled well in advance, you slot there where and when they are available. There are several lift projects already underway that are not ski operations and likely already have the splice techs scheduled up starting soon. Not to mention, it will be good to spin that lift post shortening and put some work on the rope before mothballing it for the off season.

It is risen!

“GOOD NEWS! They got the haul rope shortened on Bucksaw Express, which means it is now planned to reopen today.”

I finally got to ride on it yesterday, it felt weird to be disoriented at sugarloaf. I haven't felt that way here in 30 years! There were already people tailgating trailside in Lot F, that going to be an awesome scene. It is pretty flat getting back to the lift from there.