Sunapee 4/19

[deadheadskier]

Date(s) Skied: Saturday 4/19/08

Resort or Ski Area: Mount Sunapee

Conditions: 65 degrees, blue skies corn and slush

Trip Report:

Thanks to the generosity of powbmps in offering a voucher to me, I had a nice day at Sunapee today. It had been over 20 years since I last skied there, probably 1983 or 1984. Given that time lapse and the fact only skied there a couple times as a kid, it was essentially like skiing somewhere new for the first time. It was very apparent from the start the effect the Muellers have had on the place. It's essentially a mini Okemo. The lodge was new, clean and well thought out and the service great. Sunapee is a nice family mountain with decent vert. People were quite festive and they had a 'beach' type area similar to A-basin with regulars set up with chairs, grills and coolers enjoying the nice weather at the foot of the slopes.What particularly impressed me was the fact that they had the Sunbowl area open with so few customers around. Having three lifts spinning this late in the season for such a small place shows are real commitment from the management to the season pass holders. Most places of that size wouldn't do this.

FINALLY, today would be the day that I got to ski nice soft spring corn, especially bumps. I got on the North Peak triple at 9:30 as I wanted an up close look at the seeded bump run Flying Goose. It looked pretty darn good, but still not fully softened, so I decided to take a warm up run down to the Sunbowl area and check out the bumps on Liftline. The sunbowl was already baked and quite slushy in areas, but the bumps on Liftline were GREAT - perfect size, spacing, obviously seeded, but exactly what I had been yearning for. After a few laps on this I headed down a pretty decent groomer to the main base. Then up North Peak for some runs on Goose. There was blue paint near the bottom of the run, so apparently a recent competition had occured. The trail skied as such as well. The troughs were quite deep in the majority of the lines making them not ski as good as I'd like. When bumps get like this, they become overly 'jarring' and it's hard to really zip on down. Almost like a luge track between the bumps that makes the turns wider than I usually like and by jarring when you hit a bump to turn, my skis get far more laterally than I like, slowing you down. The skiers left side still had some great lines that weren't so worked. While on Goose, I saw one older woman in this pink tank top (milf) who freaking RIPPED and was teachin I assume her daughter how to bump. The girl was maybe 9 and was very focused on what her mother was saying, keeping her hands out in front and close together except for pole plants and keeping her upper body quiet. If she follows her mothers training, I bet I see her on TV someday.

After a quick bite, I decided to head back to the Liftline bumps. These had gotten even better. Though the trail is pretty flat for a bump run, it was still hella fun. I stayed here for most of the rest of the day absolutely loving it. Last two runs were a cruiser back to the base and then one more shot down Goose. By this point even the left lines were getting pretty worked as were my legs, so I called it quits at 2:15.

Overall a GREAT day. I highly recommend Sunapee as a spring bumper destination.

THANKS AGAIN POWBMPS. I hope I can repay the favor sometime in the future.


Oh yeah, I'm WAY happy with the Bandit BX purchase. They are FANTASTIC in bumps, yet still wide enough to push spring corn around. If I was just cruising for the day, the B2's would've gotten the call, but as the bumps were great, the BX was the right ski. I couldn't be happier with that $170 purhcase.


Oh yeah, to make the day even SWEETER, on my way home I completed my offer negotiations on a condo and got an acceptance a couple percent less than what I had hoped for. Looks like in June, I will be moving in to my first owned property. I got a very good deal and will be psyched to say goodbye to renting.

Now off to dinner with some old friends from Stowe who suprised me last night saying they were coming to down and then off to see the Greyboy All Stars.

Can you really get a better day? NOPE

[powbmps]

I probably passed you coming into the parking lot. I got there just after 2:00. I would agree with you bump assessment. The troughs were nasty on Flying Goose!

The fact that they had the Sun Bowl open was especially impressive given the fact that the lift was broken down last weekend. They put the effort into repairing it even though they are closing 4/20.

[Angus]

Skied there Saturday as well. There is still plenty of snow on the trails but melting fast. We started the season there in early December at Sunapee and will end it there as well - at least the lift-serviced portion. Without any freeze the snow was slushy but fun. There were three us skiing and one of us was a bit uncooperative which made skiing the Lift Line and Flying Goose repeatedly a bit problematic. Started off the day at 9:30 and Son of Angus finished up with two runs on flying goose at about 3:50. The troughs were bad & I was panicking trying to control my speed and get a good rhythm on the steeper stuff. My son and I observed that any exposure facing the north still had plenty of natural snow.

It was nice to have my 6 year daughter join our Patriot's Day tradition!

[powbmps]

Not much snow left now. Can't tell from the crappy pic, but there are a couple of bumps still up there.

[jack97]

Originally Posted by powbmps

Not much snow left now. Can't tell from the crappy pic, but there are a couple of bumps still up there.

Did you ski them?

[powbmps]

No. I was thinking about walking up there later this week to check it out. Just have to see how the weather pans out.