Capital Improvements Summer 2024

[Ski_The_East]

Id love to go back to the previous era niehues map with the necessary updates, with insets as needed for new timberline, etc
https://files.skimap.org/gn8uumhzo1ph8v ... nhgak4.jpg

[Glade Monkey]

Id love to go back to the previous era niehues map with the necessary updates, with insets as needed for new timberline, etc
https://files.skimap.org/gn8uumhzo1ph8v ... nhgak4.jpg

The link doesn't work for me, but hopefully you're looking at mid-late 90s when the map had a better perspective looking straight up Gondi instead of from further west. Then put BB on the back.
https://files.skimap.org/ipaqzk97ao4ruvd6nidmzrbreyia.jpg - web link
- image link

[skiloaf]

Fresh paint on the high speed quad terminals. Didn't realize this is going into SL 75. Feels like it was just SL 50. Is this what it feels like to be old? I hope they use this year as an opportunity to make a big announcement.

Overall I think the terrain park move to Whiffletree is theoretically great. In practice a number of solvable issues that I hope get addressed if they like how it works this year.

Snowmaking: WT snowmaking sucks. It's one air/water line for both cruiser and WT. Hydrants are pretty spaced out. They did add those old tower guns to cruiser a few years ago which will make piling snow easier. On WT and the park under WT that is going to be a headache as they need to drag the HKD sleds over and then try not to have the snow cover the lines. Dream world is they add newer tower guns on cruiser for snow, add a line up Jill Poke, and add another line up the west side of Whiffletree so they can make snow on both cruiser and whiffletree at the same time and don't need to drag the hoses across. They said in the comments they were going to try to push up Jill Poke this year. While they are adding snowmaking L buckboard would be nice for everyone who is on mountainside for early season.

Uphill capacity: Curious how much people think WME moved people off the WT line. The lift can run faster and sometimes it does on holiday weeks -- I've never seen it close to the design speed. The bigger issue is chair spacing and stops. I think they could first add a height adjustable conveyor load to reduce miss loads and then if they want once they replace SQ use some of those carriers to increase the number of chairs. No need for a new lift! But if they wanted to add another lift they could put a surface lift up the left side of the yard where tubing used to be. Heck that thing is probably in storage.

Terrain variety: One more trail would help with variety. I'm not sure if they ever finished putting the wires underground on pole line but I imagine you could widen that trail a bit more so it has some variety from springboard.

Overall experience: Lots happening on WM to be excited about with scenic lift rides, bike park, disk golf, and new park setup. A few things to make it even more fun would be: restaurant or food option for year round (scenic lift rides and winter). A european style umbrella bar like what they have at BigSky could be nice if they want to just do beverage no food. Heck might as well add a mountain coaster while they are at it. For the skybound park on the weekends or sunny days it would be fun to put some speakers on the lift towers so there was a bit more of a fun vibe while you watch people faceplant from the lift. I'm not sure what their vision is for jill poke given how steep that headwall is. Maybe you could guide people around that little turn on skiers right (this is old Lower Ramdown I think) and make it a bit of the european "fun trail". These often have tunnels, cartoon characters you can interact with (high five Amos), banked turns, and little rollers. Maybe there is a way to cut something further out so it's not so steep?

[gondicar]

Fresh paint on the high speed quad terminals. Didn't realize this is going into SL 75. Feels like it was just SL 50. Is this what it feels like to be old? I hope they use this year as an opportunity to make a big announcement.

The SL 50 season was 2000-01, so technically the SL 75 season should be 2025-26.

Still have a handful of these kicking around, are they collectors items yet?

[SpillwayEast]

With the new WME are will that change early season snowmaking plans or will they continue with timberline, tote and hayburner/kings landing? I would imagine the plan would be to open it by xmas at the least. Hope for lots of cold weather later this fall and into the winter.

[darkwizard]

I hope they stick with what has been working and do what more they can that makes sense. West mountain is pretty spread out and long haul to cover.

Sure as heck better keep Spillway in focus on or we are gonna have to talk about it here.

[cccski]

Looking at the Sugarloaf Improvements for 24/25 Press Release linked to above was instructive, but according to my observations and discussions with employees working on West Mountain, I believe there is more to add. I happened upon two people working on the valve box just above the top of the old West Mountain lift. They have been working on Sugarloaf snowmaking infrastructure for years. The valve box was being seriously upgraded to accommodate the new pipe which has been laid from the river, then buried under the West Mountain Trail to the new box. The new pipe is significantly larger diameter than the old pipe and won't leak. Once the water reaches the box, it can be routed either up the new Chipper pipes or up the old West Mountain pipes to reach the new pump house near Bullwinkle's. This will dramatically increase the amount of water available for distribution throughout the mountain snowmaking system.

As for trails, Cutter and Liftline look to have been cleaned up and hayed. I believe they will open with enough natural snow. Upper Beaver Tail still looks like an old skidder road and would only open with mucho snow. According to the snowmaking employees, snowmaking will eventually be added to Glancer, Cutter and Bucksaw above the parking lots, but they didn't get to it this year. They also talked about the Timberline Express with great excitement. I wonder when an official announcement will be made for that. According to them, Big Sky's Six Shooter will be placed in the current Timberline alignment, but extended downhill behind Bullwinkle's for several hundred yards with three new trails to access it. They didn't think it was going all the way to Chipper corner.

Anyway, I'm hoping snow at Homecoming is a good omen. I just bought my Wendy Webster Good Sugarloaf calendar so I can circle my ski days. Got 98 last year between Sugarloaf and Loon.

Here's to a great season for everyone on the Unofficial Sugarloaf Chat!

[Alpiner]

Sure as heck better keep Spillway in focus on or we are gonna have to talk about it here.

100%. Whether it makes more operational sense or not, having Spillway/Comp/Boardwalk/Whiffletree languishing in shame while other trails take priority is just bad optics and a downer. It's a constant reminder that it's not really winter yet, or that the season is off to a slow start.

That said, condo access trails are higher priority.

Thanks for the report, cccski