Crosstown Rivals(Sugar/Beech) Semi 3/6 and 3/7

[swamphox]

I took my auction trip that I won this weekend and had an AWESOME time. The whole "having stuff already paid for" thing really helped.



3/6 Since we were in town, and we were staying on the slopes of the hill and it was 530pm and we had our rental equipment and because my wife suggested we go (which is rare) we did sugar at night. She stuck to the bunny slopes but enjoys them there and I went to the harder stuff. The most fun was to be had on northridge and switchback. Conditions were forgiveably slushy across the entire mtn. Fun to ski on. No ice to be found which is good.



this place had potential but needs to work out some kinks, aside from the obvious one which has been discussed lately heres what i've noticed. There is a BIG difference between "most difficult easy slope-lowerflying mile" and "intermediate slope that you have to take to get to practically all other intermediates-UFM" and this doesnt allow people to gradually work their way up. Consider cats layout from the top where the difference between the easy stuff and the upper and lower snowbird trails isnt all that much, and the difference between the snowbirds and lower omigosh isnt too much easier, gradually progressing into rock island run, gradually progressing into to alley cat, gradually ramping up to upper omigosh. The thing is, its not like you have to take one run to get to everything else.



Another thing I noticed is that the lift/actual skiing time isnt so great. for the amount of time one spends on a lift, one comes to expect theyll be on the mountain for a good while, however the mountain seems to disappear quickly, and before you know it youre back at the bottom.



That being said...I LOVE skiing the terrain there but have come to understand its not the greatest place to learn on. Also, their hard stuff isn't illuminated so youre stuck to intermediates all night.





3/7

Beech. I was greeted by Rhyno who was very friendly and it was great meeting him. The mountain wasnt to crowded and by 1030 am I was skiing in a football Jersey and basketball shorts. For those of you who saw a red UGA jersey with number 3 on it and found yourself thinking "DJ shockley really let himself go"...that was me. The weather was warm and the trails started off well covered and gradually disappeared as the day went with upper southern star and the upper part of robbins run seeming to sustain most of the damage. Theyd added some terrain park features to the freestyle terrain and I tried some of the jumps out. I ate it hard once, but it was so warm that the soft landing in slush felt pleasant, not unlike a belly flop.



All the trails were still very skiable by the evening despite some thinning spots.



The staff was very pleasant, at one point someone offered me sun screen if I needed it. I mustve been tanning well



The most fun to be had was on white lightning. it was never crowded and conditions allowed for one push their personal limits without a fear of landing on their face at some point during the descent. This day was the most fun I'd had skiing, partly due to being able to ski in shorts, and partly able to the terrain and conditions being to my liking.

[Sere81]

Sugar should get a high speed quad.

[want2go2dasno]

after going to snowshoe and seeing huge crowds on widowmaker .... the high speed quad dumps too many people there. sugar should not put in a quad. if you must have quantity over quality then, by all means, go to beech.

[almost good]

@want2go2dasno 173904 wrote:after going to snowshoe and seeing huge crowds on widowmaker .... the high speed quad dumps too many people there. sugar should not put in a quad. if you must have quantity over quality then, by all means, go to beech.



I've never seen this happen on widowmaker. But I'm usually there on weekdays.

[skipink]

want2go2dasno;173904 wrote:
after going to snowshoe and seeing huge crowds on widowmaker .... the high speed quad dumps too many people there. sugar should not put in a quad. if you must have quantity over quality then, by all means, go to beech.

I agree that Sugar cannot handle numbers with a high speed quad due to the fact that their runs are so much narrower and while Beech does sometimes get crowded on Upper Shawneehaw, rarely have the other slopes from the top been overcrowded even on weekends.

[StealthBoarder]

skipink;173907 wrote:
Beech does sometimes get crowded on Upper Shawneehaw, rarely have the other slopes from the top been overcrowded even on weekends.



Thats probably because alot of people can't handle anything steeper than Upper Shawneehaw. Some of them can barely even get down that.

[skipink]

StealthBoarder;173908 wrote:
Thats probably because alot of people can't handle anything steeper than Upper Shawneehaw. Some of them can barely even get down that.



I think Robbins is easier that Upper Shaw

[almost good]

@skipink 173917 wrote:I think Robbins is easier that Upper Shaw



I do too. And less crowded. Depen**** on conditions, Robins is usually my favorite run at Beech.

[almost good]

@almost good 173918 wrote:I do too. And less crowded. Depen**** on conditions, Robins is usually my favorite run at Beech.



This is hilarious to mee that depen d i n g got edited.

[swamphox]

@StealthBoarder 173908 wrote:Thats probably because alot of people can't handle anything steeper than Upper Shawneehaw. Some of them can barely even get down that.



My Mrs. comes to mind....



Robbins seems more forgiving anyway and I wonder why more people dont take it instead