Ski Saddleback 4-17-08 - hot - hot - hot

[loafer89]

Area skied: Ski Saddleback, Maine

Date skied: April 17th from 9:30am - 4:00pm

Surface conditions: machine groomed, loose granular, corn, wetpacked

Weather: sunny and very warm, 44F at 9:30am, 65F at 4:00pm

We started out our day leaving a sunny and warm Stratton and scoring a moose sighting along the way to Saddleback.

Our first run of the day was down Green Weaver to the Kennebago T-bar which we took up and skied Tightline which had nice groomed corn snow with a firm and slightly icy headwall. We followed this with a run down a silky smooth and groomed Supervisor and we repeated this once more.

Deep snow at the summit:



Tightline:





Tightline got two return visits with the snow getting softer later in the afternoon. We did Wardens Worry which had not been groomed and had no moguls. It had a mix of corn and manky wet packed snow making for difficult turns.

Wardens Worry:



We skied Governor and it was not very fun with rutted melting snow that was hard to turn in, but would probably have been better with more skier traffic to pack the snow down.

We did the long schlepp to Muleskinner twice and the first run was nice corn, but the second run had very wet sticky snow that was harder to turn in, but still fun.

Me cooking in the sun on Muleskinner:




By noon the temperature was reading 60F at the Rangeley Chair bottom terminal thermometer and the snow near the base was filled with melt water. We did Grey Ghost to Golden Smelt three times and the trail was full of moguls that where firm, but just the right softness and the trail of the day.

We skied Upper Jane Craig and Upper Professor which both had moguls and soft corn snow with very few thin areas or brush poking through even on the steepest sections. Both runs ended with runs up the Kennebago T-bar and my son rode the lift by himself on four of out ten rides up for the first time

Warren riding solo on the Kennebago T-bar:



Peachy's Peril had plenty of cover, but only had the melting remains on last winters moguls:







The rides up the T-bar took us down Hudson Highway which was groomed flat with no skiable snowbanks on the trail edges and Silver Doctor which had untouched groomed snow on the trail edges.

View from the summit of the frozen north country:

[salsgang]

Thanks for the report and pix. Amazing how much Peachy's Peril flattened out from the time I was there on the 12th. Still looks like lots of snow.

[loafer89]

I am getting depressed at the fact that I will not have the chance to get back to Saddleback before next winter.

From their website today:

BOO

Today is your last chance to ride the Kennebago T-Bar. Next season there will be a quad chairlift on the Kennebago line.

[loafer89]

Saddeback to Replace Summit T-Bar, Expand Ski Terrain

Wednesday, April 02 2008 @ 01:10 PM

Inserted by: Robin Sadler
Rangeley, ME - Owners of Northwestern Maine's Saddleback ski area are embarking upon the next phase of their ambitious development plan this summer, replacing the ski area's Kennebago T-bar to the mountain's summit with a new chairlift and expanding ski terrain and snowmaking.
The long-anticipated replacement of the Kennebago T-bar will take place this summer with the installation of a new four-passenger Doppelmayr CTEC Quad chairlift. The 2,705-foot lift will have a vertical rise of 1,000 feet and will provide access to 13 trails and glades: five rated double black, six black, one blue square and one green circle. The new lift will provide easier access to lower level skiers will be able to experience high elevation Maine skiing from the summit on the easier 4,400-foot America Trail.

Snowmaking will concurrently be added to the America, Governor and Dazzler ski trails.

A new trail will be added to the east of Saddleback's Warden's Worry trail, bringing the total top-to-bottom black diamond trails and glades in this high-elevation bowl to 11, making it what Saddleback officials claim will be the largest self-contained advanced skiing facility in the East.

Also being cleared at Saddleback this summer are the trails and lift line for the proposed Magalloway Quad Chairlift, which is expected to be built during the summer of 2009. This lift will provide ski-in/ski-out access to the Magalloway East private home site development, now available for sale. Half of these lots have already been sold.

[OldsnowboarderME]

Originally Posted by loafer89

I am getting depressed at the fact that I will not have the chance to get back to Saddleback before next winter.

From their website today:

BOO

Today is your last chance to ride the Kennebago T-Bar. Next season there will be a quad chairlift on the Kennebago line.

Happy I will be that it will be gone ...

[loafer89]

Originally Posted by OldsnowboarderME

Happy I will be that it will be gone ...

Sorry I can't agree, but I really hope that they never install snowmaking on Muleskinner, having it on Dazzler makes very little sense to me as it is very narrow and usually has tons of snow on it anyway.