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Sugarloaf - 11/9/14

skiMEbike

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Jul 29, 2014
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Location
Maine
Date(s) Skied: Sunday 11/9/14

Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA

Conditions: 39 degrees 15-20 forecasted winds (however don't believe it really blew that hard). Mostly cloudy or barely sunny . Typical "spring conditions" with some natural obstacles & thin cover in only a few spots

Trip Report: Awesome to see the Loaf making a commitment for getting open this early in the season...Their typical opening date is generally the weekend before thanksgiving with 1 or 2 exceptions in the most recent 10 years. Superquad was your stairway to heaven with two routes down Tote Road & Kings Landing. It was ski on the lift all day (which for me started about 10:30). Kings Landing dumped you back onto lower tote road (below chicken pitch). Conditions on Kings was excellent (for any time of year)! It was wall to wall with skiing on both edges possible with no worries about any unwanted obstacles in your way. Nice soft bumps (not mashed potatoes) had formed on Kings by early afternoon. Both kings & upper tote were groomed providing for some choice lines. Skiers left on chicken pitch was buried making for a nice short bump line before the long flat "boring" run out to the superquad. Lower tote road was left ungroomed...As expected this section was a little more deteriorated with a couple water bar crossing & a couple sections of thin cover/slush but definitely skiable. Overall I give the Loaf an A for pushing to open "earlier" than usually as well as for the cover they laid down. Trail conditions exceeded my expectations for this time of the year.

One negative...Surprisingly not one restaurant/bar was open (at least in the base area)...For that matter you had to wait until 4:00 (Rack or Tufulios) to get served a beer...Seems like they missed out on an opportunity.

TOD: Kings Landing

Last pitch on Kings
IMG_0660.jpg
Looking up Kings
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Mid winter cover on Kings
IMG_0663.jpg
 

Edd

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 8, 2006
Messages
6,534
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Location
Newmarket, NH
Kings Landing is a ripping cruiser. I've had trouble finding it a couple of times because that trail sign is that unusual wooden one. Can't remember if there's a story behind that.
 

LoafSkier19

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Sep 30, 2011
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I also made it out for opening day. Skied from 8:45-1:30. I was very impressed by the conditions considering it was Nov. 9. Skier's right on King's Landing was amazing. Never had to wait more than 2-3 chairs all day on the Superquad. They were blowing snow on Hayburner and at the top of Skyline for most of the morning. Should be a good weekend coming up with the good snowmaking temps being forecasted.

As for the wooden trail sign on King's, it is a dedication to one of SL's former GM's, H. King Cummings.
 

BackLoafRiver

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Nov 19, 2008
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Augusta, Maine
I was there the same day. Your report was spot on. Skiers right on Kings was the place to be. Hayburner...not.

Ski on all day. Nice report!!!!
 
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