Saddleback 12/29/2007

Area skied: Ski Saddleback, Maine.

Date skied: December 29th, 2007 from 8:10am - 3:00pm

Surface conditions: Powder 6-8" new with areas of 1-2' in the glades.

Weather: heavy snow and some sleet until 3:00pm, now fog and 27F

Warren and I spent the night in Farmington and made the 40 mile drive up to Saddleback in heavy snow, but with no difficulty due to well plowed roads. We arrived to a fairly deserted resort with about 25 cars in the parking lot. Due to high wind only the Cupsuptic T-bar was running and our first run was down virgin powder on Grey Ghost/Golden smelt. The snow is not feather light by any stretch, but fun non the less.

We skied Blue Devil next and then made our way across to the now running Kenebago T-bar and made straight for Intimidator Glade which had nice powder lines with only a hint of ice underneath. We did this run twice and it was fun, but riding the T-bar with Warren is harsh on my legs as I try to compensate for the height difference between us on a steep T-bar line. We skied Dark Wizard which had nice powder, but very tight trees to Supervisor, which was not so great with wind blown snow and some rocks, stumps and buried small tree tops to ski over.

Intimidator Glade:



Dark Wizard Glade:



Supervisor:






Crowds started to build around 10:30am and we finally took a break for breakfast and a much needed break after skiing fairly hard for over two hours, and Warren was hungry. We took some more runs off the Rangeley chair and had fun on each run.

The run of the day was Peachy's Peril with nice soft mini powder bumps and packed powder nearly everywhere else along the length of the run. Professor was nice with deep powder to cover up the steep ledge near the bottom of the black section.

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhgaaaaaaaaaayiiiiiiiiiiiiii! you're killin' me!!! :angry:
Enjoy it while we suffer. I'm getting my boat out.....

I updated my post with a report and some pics as we have WiFi in the lodge

Love it Loafer89! Thanks for the report. You skiing Saddleback tomorrow too?

Yes, Warren and I got a two day ticket, so we will be skiing tomorrow from 8:00am - 1:00pm. We are staying in Rangeley tonight so we have easy acess to the mountain.

Warren will be posting tomorrow's conditions report as well as doing the picture taking. This should be interesting.

Looking forward to Warren's report!

Which hotel / motel did you stay for Farmington and Rangeley? We are thinking of overnighting during February break and was wondering your recommendation if you wanted to share...

We stayed at the Town And Lake Motel in Rangeley. It's an okay place and we paid $116 tax included for a room with a kitchen.

We stayed there before last April and paid $50 a night for the same room, but it was the end of the season.

It's not a quiet place due to lot's of snowmobile activity on Rangeley Lake.

In Farmington we stayed at the Farmington Motel for $64.70 tax included and it was a decent place with a friendly owner/operator.

loafer89 said:

We stayed at the Town And Lake Motel in Rangeley. It's an okay place and we paid $116 tax included for a room with a kitchen.

We stayed there before last April and paid $50 a night for the same room, but it was the end of the season.

It's not a quiet place due to lot's of snowmobile activity on Rangeley Lake.

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I stayed there on a snowmobile trip 3 years ago... for me it was pretty quiet besides 2 idiots who decided to do like 10 laps around the motel at 5 in the morning. We also had a room with a kitchen... i think it was 2nd in from the right as you look at it from the lot.

Zand said:

I stayed there on a snowmobile trip 3 years ago... for me it was pretty quiet besides 2 idiots who decided to do like 10 laps around the motel at 5 in the morning. We also had a room with a kitchen... i think it was 2nd in from the right as you look at it from the lot.

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We had similar idiots doing laps in the parking lot in front of our room from 8pm until nearly 10pm.

This was the view from the back porch of our room:

loafer89 said:

We had similar idiots doing laps in the parking lot in front of our room from 8pm until nearly 10pm.

Click to expand...

You highlight a central economic winter-season driver for this region, snowmobile tourism. Skiing hasn't really been embraced in the region simply because skiers don't come, snowmobilers do. And they bring their money. Simple as that.

I would much prefer the sound of new-fallen snow to the grinding sound of snow-machines. Aside from the distance, this noise is one of the things that keeps me away from the region. While I respect our freedom to pursue different leisure activities, it's kind of a culture clash (i.e., while there are snow machine activities all over New England, you don't see many near any of the other ski resorts.)

I have the same issue in the summer with ATVs. When in the Connecticut lakes region of NH, I had to carefully select my lodging to avoid the areas used by ATVs, lest I have a similar issue.

Given the choice, I would pay more for a quiet night's rest after a hard powder day, than to save $10 a live by the "railroad tracks." I don't feel the need for isolationism (snowmobilers at large are a great bunch of folks), but there are jerks participating in all pursuits (including skiing and boarding). The sound of these machines can be heard for miles and are inescapable, while you can usually get some distance from jerks on planks rather quickly.

It was kinda strange last night on the way home from East Dover VT to pass by a group of snowmobilers getting ready to tear around on a frozen lake in the dark. I'll take my evenings with a lot of dark, a large helping of peace and quiet.

There is a new motel just as heading out of town towards the access rd. I think to avoid the biliers you probably have to stay in a condo at the base of the resort.

billski said:

You highlight a central economic winter-season driver for this region, snowmobile tourism. Skiing hasn't really been embraced in the region simply because skiers don't come, snowmobilers do. And they bring their money. Simple as that.

I would much prefer the sound of new-fallen snow to the grinding sound of snow-machines. Aside from the distance, this noise is one of the things that keeps me away from the region. While I respect our freedom to pursue different leisure activities, it's kind of a culture clash (i.e., while there are snow machine activities all over New England, you don't see many near any of the other ski resorts.)

I have the same issue in the summer with ATVs. When in the Connecticut lakes region of NH, I had to carefully select my lodging to avoid the areas used by ATVs, lest I have a similar issue.

Given the choice, I would pay more for a quiet night's rest after a hard powder day, than to save $10 a live by the "railroad tracks." I don't feel the need for isolationism (snowmobilers at large are a great bunch of folks), but there are jerks participating in all pursuits (including skiing and boarding). The sound of these machines can be heard for miles and are inescapable, while you can usually get some distance from jerks on planks rather quickly.

It was kinda strange last night on the way home from East Dover VT to pass by a group of snowmobilers getting ready to tear around on a frozen lake in the dark. I'll take my evenings with a lot of dark, a large helping of peace and quiet.

Click to expand...

I really do not mind, I am part of the group when we rent a snowmobile during our mid-winter visits to Sugarloaf. Actually it was very quiet past 10pm, I was just a bit anoyed with the group of kids doing circles in front of the hotel endlessly.

Except for a condo at Saddleback, which is $$$$$, you cannot escape the snowmobiling.