Saddleback 2/12/05

[loafer89]

I chose to ski at Saddleback on saturday to experience the changes made at the ski area since my last visit there a year ago, as well as to escape from the crowds of skiers decending on Sugarloaf following the 24" dump the previous day.

Saddleback seemed to have recieved less snow than Sugarloaf and the cover was thin on many of the expert runs. Wardens Worry off of the Kennebago T-bar was unedgable sheet ice for the first 300' vertical of the trails, this was followed by windslab powder that was like skiing in glue.

Upper and Lower Green Weaver had really nice packed powder groomed snow as did Upper and Lower Grey Ghost. Upper Professor was really thin but the bottom part had a good 15-20" cut up powder on it. Upper Peachy's Perill was perilious for anyone who skied down it with lots of ice and windslab.

The best run of the day was Golden Smelt with deep powder snow and some bumps. The begginer area is really nice and my son had a good time there. The chairs on the new South Branch Quad are spaced far apart and allow plenty of time for a new skier/boarder to get on the lift.

The base lodge is still under construction and there is just a plywood floor down right now with the carpet and padding rolled up near the rear of the lodge. Permanent lighting was just installed last week and ductwork and wiring are still exposed, still the new lodge is much bigger and nicer than the old one even at this stage of construction.

Liftlines were never longer than 3-5 minutes for the Rangeley chair and non-existent for the summit T-bar. It was a cold and somewhat windy day and it snowed about 1" while we were there, so I did not take any pictures