Beech Lift? WHat Up?

[OldSchool]

lift 6 broke too? WTF

[deere25]

Completely agree with the above post. Simply because The management at Sugar won't kiss SKI SE where the others do results in biased reporting or the lack thereof in the case of Beech. No main lift to the top for weeks and no mention of it anywhere. People drive to the mountains and expect a good experience and the only mention of no main lift is a box checked as closed deep in the web page. No warning or anything for the masses that came to the area this weekend. Yeah, Sugar has its flaws, but give them credit where its due. They will provide as good as an on snow experience as possible. Its been horribly warm and wet for weeks now, of course theres gonna be some mud and thin areas on the mountain, but look at Sugars bottom cam at how much snow is still there. And judging by the fact even the overflow lot at Sugars entrance was full both days this weekend, it seems many figured out where the best experience was going to be at!

[L Bear]

^this is a hot take

I frequent both Beech and Sugar just for the different experiences. I support this mission of this site and don't like to play into the idea of favorites. However, something as critical as the Beech lift being down should have been front page material.

[L Bear]

^this is a hot take

I frequent both Beech and Sugar just for the different experiences. I support this mission of this site and don't like to play into the idea of favorites. However, something as critical as the Beech lift being down should have been front page material.

Kenny took care of business in today's First Trax.

[Wanakenatransplant]

As a season pass holder at Beech, I sent an email this morning to ask why all lifts to the top we're down. I got a quick response saying the quad is down for the foreseeable future and lift 6 was turned off because there wasn't enough snow to keep the upper mountain open. I am not exactly sure if I believe it as a few of the slopes didn't look too bad. I told them that if they can't get at least a few slopes on the upper mountain open then you might as well shut down for the season as skiing the bottom of the mountain is a waste of time. I am very curious to see what resorts will make snow when the cold returns. Historically, Beech and several others don't make snow after President's weekend, but this year needs to be an exception to make it till at least the 10th of March.

[theKENDOG]

As a season pass holder at Beech, I sent an email this morning to ask why all lifts to the top we're down. I got a quick response saying the quad is down for the foreseeable future and lift 6 was turned off because there wasn't enough snow to keep the upper mountain open. I am not exactly sure if I believe it as a few of the slopes didn't look too bad. I told them that if they can't get at least a few slopes on the upper mountain open then you might as well shut down for the season as skiing the bottom of the mountain is a waste of time. I am very curious to see what resorts will make snow when the cold returns. Historically, Beech and several others don't make snow after President's weekend, but this year needs to be an exception to make it till at least the 10th of March.

Look for Beech to be making an announcement today...Hint: Saturday is it.

Also, they are giving $50 credit towards next year's season pass if you are a pass holder this year. Still doesn't make up for the lack of the quad but at least it's something.

[Wanakenatransplant]

As a season pass holder at Beech, I sent an email this morning to ask why all lifts to the top we're down. I got a quick response saying the quad is down for the foreseeable future and lift 6 was turned off because there wasn't enough snow to keep the upper mountain open. I am not exactly sure if I believe it as a few of the slopes didn't look too bad. I told them that if they can't get at least a few slopes on the upper mountain open then you might as well shut down for the season as skiing the bottom of the mountain is a waste of time. I am very curious to see what resorts will make snow when the cold returns. Historically, Beech and several others don't make snow after President's weekend, but this year needs to be an exception to make it till at least the 10th of March.

Look for Beech to be making an announcement today...Hint: Saturday is it.

Also, they are giving $50 credit towards next year's season pass if you are a pass holder this year. Still doesn't make up for the lack of the quad but at least it's something.

Yeah I got that email about the $50. I wish I could have got up there and used the credit instead of on a season pass for next year. I am not sure I will bother with a season pass next year. I hate to be negative on them, but they have really been disappointing these past few years. I realize the weather sucked last year. But, there lack of being aggressive on snowmaking has resulted in trails opening very slowly this year and then you add the lift situation. As a business owner myself, saving money is important, but you also need to spend money to make money. I realize they are spending some money on improvements on the resort, but I question if it is in the right places. I am done griping, just very disappointed as I got busy this year and did not get in much early season skiing and was planning to get in more in February and March. The take away, find time to ski, other items can wait till spring!

[Kastle]

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[skipink]

I'm not sure what you are referring to as the lack of aggressive snowmaking. The weather and the water is always the limiting factor at any resort. Beech was able to get all slopes open at some point this season. White Lightning was opened this year, unlike last year. The opening of Oz unfortunately was near the time that the quad broke down. I was told that the quad lost the drive train and it would be approximately 12 weeks to have the part milled, well after the time the season would be over. Lift 6 has always been used as backup usually loading every other chair to decrease the strain but when the quad was out, they ran gambled and ran every chair, obviously it was unable to carry that load. However, on the day it stopped working, those skiing the upper mountain said there were very large gaps in the snowpack on Shawneehaw. Even if the more difficult runs were in better shape, the easiest way down must be available to those unable to who could not maneuver them.

[Wanakenatransplant]

I'm not sure what you are referring to as the lack of aggressive snowmaking. The weather and the water is always the limiting factor at any resort. Beech was able to get all slopes open at some point this season. White Lightning was opened this year, unlike last year. The opening of Oz unfortunately was near the time that the quad broke down. I was told that the quad lost the drive train and it would be approximately 12 weeks to have the part milled, well after the time the season would be over. Lift 6 has always been used as backup usually loading every other chair to decrease the strain but when the quad was out, they ran gambled and ran every chair, obviously it was unable to carry that load. However, on the day it stopped working, those skiing the upper mountain said there were very large gaps in the snowpack on Shawneehaw. Even if the more difficult runs were in better shape, the easiest way down must be available to those unable to who could not maneuver them.

By lack of aggressive snow making I mean that they don't make snow as often as they could,which results in slow openings of trails. They have more and better snow guns than Sugar, yet they cannot manage to put enough snow on the mountain to stay open. Sugar has more acreage to cover, has a lower top and bottom elevation and manages to keep more snow on the slopes this year and is still open. They had been aggressive and smart, they would have put their efforts into building a bigger base on the key slope such as Shawneehaw and they would at least still be open even if the quad is down. I would take one good slope right now from the top.