Saddleback 2-14-04

[uphillklimber]

What a nice day for skiing. Comfy temps, in the teens, and snow coming down. The left side of the mountain is open and we head over there. To get there, you first have to take the old double lift (insert: slow) . Then you take a t-bar to the top. I have to say the t bar operator was exceptionally good, kudos to him. At the top, the wind is blowing and the very tops of the trails are bare scrape and ice. The groomers have just completed grooming however and as soon as they opened, we could hear them calling us.

We skiied the first three trails to the left (right from the top), then headed over to muleskinner, a double black. We did not enjoy that trail. It is completely cover in areas with small fir trees. You must ski over them to get down. And it varies in width from 8 to 16 feet wide and is steep. I essentially brake all the way down, my wife walks down most of it. At the bottom is a nice trail thru the woods, reminisent of cross country ski days. A nice cruise after that ... way through the woods. I can't call it a trail. I did watch several go by us that actually skiied however. I'd have shaken their hands if they waited for me at the bottom. We went back to the first three trails for more fun, then skiied some of the main mountain before calling it a day.

Trail coverage was generally god, with some marked as bare coverage. Towards the end of the day, most trails were scraped, but it was a good day of skiing. It was the first time we actually skiied the left side of the mountain and enjoyed it.

I still have a pair of tickets for there, and it appears there is rain in the forecast for next weekend, so I'll go way up horth there again in hopes of avoiding the rain.

[Joshua B]

Saddleback! ...a place I'd like to try for my first time, along with Sugarloaf, this season. Was the summit t-bar a challenge in itself? Do you estimate that Saddleback has done a good job with snowmaking?

I was outside at 11 AM yesterday morning and heard birds singing that I hadn't heard in months. You chose an incredible day to ski. I only wish you had taken some pictures because Saddleback is one of those places I'm dying to ski. The feeling is similar to the way I felt about skiing Mad River Glen some day, before I actually have the privilege of skiing there.

[uphillklimber]

While we on top, we were lamenting that we had not brung the camera. Some real nice views there, and they'd been great for the picture area of this site...... Major bummer. A very pretty place.

T-bar to the summit. That was my preferred method to the top. Saddleback has slow lifts. While you can rest, you'll spend time not going down. With the t bar, you'll get to the top faster, and ski down quicker. The t bar is shorter than the lifts also. It serves primarily expert terrain, so you won't be clogged up there. All the lifts at Saddleback have a well earned reputation of short lines. Once yesterday we had 8 people in front of us. I was almost outraged-LOL. The t bar operator placed the t bar very well, and only a couple that apparently never used a t bar had trouble with it. It is a straight piece of wood, so you can slip out of it easily at the top. In Germany, the t bar is a bit of the shape of (, to hold you in better. At the top, it took a bit to get out of it. They groom the lift line pretty well, really wasn't a problem. BTW, this T bar starts at about the midpoint, you have to take a slow lift to the top and ski back down to it. Once there, stay there and play!

Snow making.... what can I say about it? The new ownerships is announcing in their pamphlets that they have added 8 new snow guns. To go with the 8 they previous owners already had, I guess. TIC. They have made snow there, but this is nothing like you would see at Sunday River or Attitash. This is a good sized mountain, with a small lodge, and we could always sit in the lodge. It truly is not crowded. Which means they do not have a lot of revenue to re-invest in the mountain. The trade off is really short lift lines, and I mean really short. The new owners have some nice plans for the mountain, a new hotel, some rooms with kitchens, a terrain park and halfpipe, practically with it's own lift. 7 new trails and replacing the short t bar in the beginner's area with a lift. I like it, but I hope it doesn't get too crowded, or that it takes some pressure off Sunday River and Sugarloaf. All in all, there is plenty of snow to ski on, some trails had thin coverage though.

Just a note about Sugarloaf. They are not doing so well in the snow coverage department this year. Mother Nature hasn't helped out a lot. Also ASC doesn't allocate the snowmaking funding up there that they allocate to the mountains closer to Boston. We've been there twice this year, and while we can't ski everything they had open in one day, we tried, and came home with a feeling of a decent day of skiing. It's just that alot of it isn't covered, and the snow fields... I doubt they'll open, they need natural snow there. Hopefully they do get some help from mother nature.

http://www.snocountry.com/snowclient...type=NA_Alpine

I may stand corrected according to this ski report in the above link. But when we went, they had some 80 trails scheduled to open. In the morning, only 40 were open. It was cold, windy and sparse coverage when they finally opened up the other 40 for an hour and a half, so they could claim 80 trails today...... After driving up 3+ hours, braving the weather, and knowing a 3+ hour ride home awaited us, I would liked to have known the mountain would not have 80 trails open all day..... Oh well, such is life.... We did still have a good day. And we do very much like Sugarloaf. Any given day, it has 1/3 the crowd Sunday River has, for comparable terrain. Good hotels and restaraunts in the area also.

[rosswilli]

We've gone there for years, and now have a 5 year old who is skiing. While we love the big resorts too, we need to go where we can afford to go. If we are on lower slopes with a child, I'm not going to pay $50-$60 to do it!!

Looks like a family day mid march when we are headed there. That's great!

Just a note too that the locals seem happy with Saddleback's "recovery" - it's nice to see the locals happy, the skiers happy, to see families skiing etc.

Life is good....

[uphillklimber]

Looks like we'll be going back this weekend, with camera. It really is and always has been a great mountain to enjoy the day at.