Stratton Mountain Resort on Wednesday, February 14, 2018

		Stratton Mountain Resort Wednesday, February 14, 2018
		Submitted on February 14, 2018 by rocket21 (1408)
	Session	Full Day
	Ticket Type	M.A.X. Pass
	Lift Lines	0 minutes
	Trail Conditions	85% open; Loose Granular, Spring Snow
	Glades	Did not venture in, but still a foot or snow of snowpack.
	Moguls	None open, but some on natural trails and a closed course set near American Express.
	Terrain Park(s)	Multiple
	Run of the Day	Lift Line
	Food and Beverage	Sun Bowl Lodge was closed early, to the surprise and frustration of guests who also discovered there was no easy way back out with the six pack down.
	Comments	Odd day. Stratton has worked on a reputation of providing premium services (at a premium price), but it seems like deferred maintenance is accumulating. Despite the Sunrise Express being listed as open on the snow report, the lift was closed for repairs. One employee said something broke, while another said it was maintenance in preparation for the holiday week. Needless to say, crews were still working on it at closing and it didn't look ready. As a result, the slow Solstice Quad was running out of the Sun Bowl, and it's looking tired with growing rust. In addition, one sheave train was rigged to the tower with a chain (part of which was dangling in the wind); never seen this before on an operating lift. As a result of that lift closure, the main Sun Bowl trails were virtually unskiable, as it took a long, slow lift ride, then a connecting ski over to the Ursa to the summit to then drop down. This was especially unfortunate, as that pod's weather conditions were much better than elsewhere on the mountain (freezing fog on the upper mountain, stiff winds on the upper Snow Bowl). The Shooting Star six pack was operating for a time, but was shut down early, perhaps because virtually no one was riding it. Due to winds, the gondola was closed for the majority of the day. The American Express had a weird queue set up, so coupled with the other closures, it was backing up (but no line management). Conditions were decent, but one had to use caution as there were lots of random patches of blue ice and boilerplate. The upper mountain was generally loose granular, while the lower elevations were spring snow. Later in the day, the winds were blowing off some of the granular, resulting in more boilerplate. Pretty much all of the natural snow trails were closed, as the snow was firm and there were some random bare spots. A decent day of skiing, but not the product I was expecting from Stratton.
	URL	https://www.instagram.com/p/BfMjOftHik8
	Report Rating	2