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Date(s) Skied: April 8-10, 2005, 17th Annual Budweiser Reggae Festival
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA, Carrabassett Valley, Maine
FRIDAY, 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM:
Conditions: Variable spring conditions - corn/loose granular, some hardpack higher elevations/steeper terrain, mashed potatoes on the lower mountain. Sunny, some clouds PM, warmed to the 40's, Light winds. No lift waits.
Trip Report: Joe and I left southern NH around 4:30 AM and reached the Access Road around 8 AM. We took our time getting ready in the base lodge and were ready to head out shortly after 9:15. When we first arrived, I saw this fellow whom we referred to as the Wolf Man and I asked him if I could take his picture. His only request was that I give out his Web site address - www.attilahelmets.com. Yes indeed, this was Reggae Fest weekend!
We boarded the Super quad to start our weekend and took a few runs off it to get warmed up. The snow was still a firm flash frozen spring mix, but it gradually softened up after each run. Because we skied so much throughout the weekend, I can't remember exactly when we skied each trail, but after a few runs off the quad, we headed over to check out the some of the trails off of spillway and the King Pine area. The snow was still a bit firm off the spillway chairs, but each run got better. Unfortunately on my way back to the King Pine chair, I got tangled up in the mashed potatoes and quickly face planted with my lips, nose and goggles taking the brunt off the impact which was at a pretty good clip. I released out of both skis and found them several yard up the trail with the tips pointing straight down into the snow. It would have been really nasty had the snow not been so soft. I still had my bell rung pretty good and decided to take 5 by the King Pine chair to collect my thoughts. I was pretty shaken up and skied rather timidly for the next few runs.
Widowmaker and Haul Back were softening up nicely. Ripsaw with its ungroomed and bumped terrain was a bit too firm when we skied it and the lower section was skiable but thinning quickly. It was soon time to try our favorite run - Misery Whip. We had scoped it out earlier, but as we got closer to 11 AM, we felt the warm spring sun would have softened it up enough. We weren't disappointed. The Whip was in fabulous shape. We would ski it a few more times this day.
Somewhere around 11:30 AM, after we unloaded from Spillway East, I noticed a fellow that looked like Bob R skiing to us. We recognized each other right away and after introducing him to Joe we were on our way. We very easily talked Bob R into trying the Whip and he seemed to enjoy it a lot. I think Joe's animal approach to the top of the Whip caught bob R off guard. :lol: I believe we also skied Haul Back which was in great shape. We then decided to head over to Bullwinkles to try and meet up with Charlie, ALLSKIING and AZ member Terry. We had a few beers while we waited and met up with Charlie and Jay, and Terry and wife, Tammy around 1:30 PM. Around 1:45, we were off to ski Lower Tote Road. We then hopped on the quad and skied a few trails off King Pine. Around 3:30 PM, Charlie, Jay, Joe and I said goodbye to the AZers to hit the Timberline quad to do a final top-to-bottom run off the summit. We road the Timberline chair up twice and hit Timberline (a great cruiser) and then header over to Gondi Line. Our last run was down the very steep Gondi Line covering all of da Loaf's 2,800'+ vertical.
We all met up with ALLSKIING and his friend, Terry as well as Bob R for a beer at the end of the day outside the Widow Maker lounge. We then headed back to the condo for a few (okay, maybe more than a few) beers as well as a great chicken dinner that Charlie whipped up. A great way to start an epic weekend!
Click HERE for Friday pics.
SATURDAY, 10:00 AM - 4:15 PM:
Conditions: Bluebird! A bit breezier than Friday. The snow stayed very firm most of the morning and was tricky to ski until the afternoon. It stayed a bit cooler than Friday all day. The early morning lift lines were long, but the skiing crowd thinned out as the day progressed.
Trip Report: Charlie, Matt, Jay, Joe and I boarded the Snubber lift around 9 AM and then headed to the base to get lift tickets. Matt ducked into the ski shop to buy a helmet, so Joe, Jay and I boarded the Doublerunner lift while Charlie waited. Jay wanted to ride his alpine board on Boardwalk for a while so Joe and I hopped on Spillway East while we noticed Charlie and Matt board the shorter Spillway West. We yelled to each other to meet at King Pine, but unfortunately didn't see them for the rest of the day. Apparently they spent much of the day enjoying the woods off the Bucksaw chair.
Joe and I struggled on a few runs down Haul Back which was flash frozen corn, hardpack and loose granluar piles that had me twisted up on a few occasions. We saw Frank and John at the Super Quad and flagged them down. We took a run together over towards the Timberline lift and then skied Timberline together. Joe and I then decided to head over to Bullwinkles for lunch and after a burger and something that resembled a sausage grinder, we headed back out.
We took a few runs off the Super Quad including Skidder which still hadn't softened up and was a bit miserable to ski. We eventually made our way back to King Pine and again hooked up with Bob R. We also bumped into Jay as well. Soon ALLSKIING and Terry made the way over and we all enjoyed a few runs down Haul Back together. We all agreed we'd try to meet up at The Bag later that evening. Joe and I finished off the summit down Timberline and I believe Candy Side which was a fun run of bumps and mush.
After a dinner at the Double Diamond we all met up with ALLSKIING and Terry and Bob R at The Bag & Kettle for a few beers. Joe and I bailed at about 10 PM. Joe made the observation, Sunday AM, that if we stayed any longer at the bar we would have just been trading bar time for ski time the next morning. Matt hung out with the AZers for the rest of the night.
Click HERE for Saturday pics.
SUNDAY, 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM:
Conditions: More bluebird! Warmer with temps above freezing from the start.
Trip Report: Joe and I were happy in our decision to call it an early night. Got the car packed and said goodbye to Charlie and crew and headed up to the mountain. We scored a pair of lift tickets on the walk up for a bargain price of $59. Boarded the Super Quad and immediately found the trails to be in great shape. We ripped a few runs off the Quad and then a run down the Bucksaw trail and sampled some of the woods that Charlie and Matt must have skied the day before.
We then met up with ALLSKIING and Terry around 11 AM at the quad and I suggested we ride Timberline for them to experience the summit. We had skied the Timberline trail earlier in the day and I would almost call it packed powder. It was that good. Perhaps Packed LSGR is more accurate but it was still great to ski. It was a bit mushier by the tim we skied it with ALLSKIING and Terry, but still nice. We then rode the Timberline again with them and bid farewell to them at the summit. It was then time to ski off the summit on the White Nitro Extension snowfield. The trail was in incredible shape with ton of edgeable spring corn snow. The only icey hard pack anywhere on it was just before the Spillway X-cut where I almost bit it. It was a major rush and set the stage for what would be an incredible three more hours of skiing which included bumps on Lower Winter's Way, Hayburner and then a number of runs down the glades called Kick Back which on skier's right of Hayburner. We had a blast jumping in and out of the woods onto Hayburner along the trails right lip as well as hitting a few jumps. We were having so much fun we didn't want to leave and ended up skiing until 2:30 PM. We ended our time at da Loaf as well as our ski seasons on Misery Whip, the 7th time of the weekend. It was a great run and we then cruised Poleline back to the base. Had a great meal and a couple of beers at Geppeto's and got rolling about 4 PM. Got to Joe's at 7:30 and I made my way back to CT rolling in at 10:40 PM. Friday was an excellent day, but the skiing on Sunday was even better!
Click HERE for Sunday pics.
Summary:
The conditions for Reggae Fest were absolutely incredible. The mountain has a ton of snow and this was a great way to finish off the ski season. Like last year, it was more about the skiing for me and we skied as hard as we could most of the time. Despite Sugarloaf being so big, it's a really easy mountain to get around. It was great to meet Bob R and AZer Terry, as well as getting the chance to ski with ALLSKIING and his friend Terry. Jay was blast to hang out with and I was glad we were able to meeet up with Frank and John for a run. I wish I had the chance to see Matt ride though. A special thanks to Charlie again for organizing another great trip! So...this concludes my best year of skiing to date...
:beer:
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA, Carrabassett Valley, Maine
FRIDAY, 9:30 AM - 4:30 PM:
Conditions: Variable spring conditions - corn/loose granular, some hardpack higher elevations/steeper terrain, mashed potatoes on the lower mountain. Sunny, some clouds PM, warmed to the 40's, Light winds. No lift waits.
Trip Report: Joe and I left southern NH around 4:30 AM and reached the Access Road around 8 AM. We took our time getting ready in the base lodge and were ready to head out shortly after 9:15. When we first arrived, I saw this fellow whom we referred to as the Wolf Man and I asked him if I could take his picture. His only request was that I give out his Web site address - www.attilahelmets.com. Yes indeed, this was Reggae Fest weekend!
We boarded the Super quad to start our weekend and took a few runs off it to get warmed up. The snow was still a firm flash frozen spring mix, but it gradually softened up after each run. Because we skied so much throughout the weekend, I can't remember exactly when we skied each trail, but after a few runs off the quad, we headed over to check out the some of the trails off of spillway and the King Pine area. The snow was still a bit firm off the spillway chairs, but each run got better. Unfortunately on my way back to the King Pine chair, I got tangled up in the mashed potatoes and quickly face planted with my lips, nose and goggles taking the brunt off the impact which was at a pretty good clip. I released out of both skis and found them several yard up the trail with the tips pointing straight down into the snow. It would have been really nasty had the snow not been so soft. I still had my bell rung pretty good and decided to take 5 by the King Pine chair to collect my thoughts. I was pretty shaken up and skied rather timidly for the next few runs.
Widowmaker and Haul Back were softening up nicely. Ripsaw with its ungroomed and bumped terrain was a bit too firm when we skied it and the lower section was skiable but thinning quickly. It was soon time to try our favorite run - Misery Whip. We had scoped it out earlier, but as we got closer to 11 AM, we felt the warm spring sun would have softened it up enough. We weren't disappointed. The Whip was in fabulous shape. We would ski it a few more times this day.
Somewhere around 11:30 AM, after we unloaded from Spillway East, I noticed a fellow that looked like Bob R skiing to us. We recognized each other right away and after introducing him to Joe we were on our way. We very easily talked Bob R into trying the Whip and he seemed to enjoy it a lot. I think Joe's animal approach to the top of the Whip caught bob R off guard. :lol: I believe we also skied Haul Back which was in great shape. We then decided to head over to Bullwinkles to try and meet up with Charlie, ALLSKIING and AZ member Terry. We had a few beers while we waited and met up with Charlie and Jay, and Terry and wife, Tammy around 1:30 PM. Around 1:45, we were off to ski Lower Tote Road. We then hopped on the quad and skied a few trails off King Pine. Around 3:30 PM, Charlie, Jay, Joe and I said goodbye to the AZers to hit the Timberline quad to do a final top-to-bottom run off the summit. We road the Timberline chair up twice and hit Timberline (a great cruiser) and then header over to Gondi Line. Our last run was down the very steep Gondi Line covering all of da Loaf's 2,800'+ vertical.
We all met up with ALLSKIING and his friend, Terry as well as Bob R for a beer at the end of the day outside the Widow Maker lounge. We then headed back to the condo for a few (okay, maybe more than a few) beers as well as a great chicken dinner that Charlie whipped up. A great way to start an epic weekend!
Click HERE for Friday pics.
SATURDAY, 10:00 AM - 4:15 PM:
Conditions: Bluebird! A bit breezier than Friday. The snow stayed very firm most of the morning and was tricky to ski until the afternoon. It stayed a bit cooler than Friday all day. The early morning lift lines were long, but the skiing crowd thinned out as the day progressed.
Trip Report: Charlie, Matt, Jay, Joe and I boarded the Snubber lift around 9 AM and then headed to the base to get lift tickets. Matt ducked into the ski shop to buy a helmet, so Joe, Jay and I boarded the Doublerunner lift while Charlie waited. Jay wanted to ride his alpine board on Boardwalk for a while so Joe and I hopped on Spillway East while we noticed Charlie and Matt board the shorter Spillway West. We yelled to each other to meet at King Pine, but unfortunately didn't see them for the rest of the day. Apparently they spent much of the day enjoying the woods off the Bucksaw chair.
Joe and I struggled on a few runs down Haul Back which was flash frozen corn, hardpack and loose granluar piles that had me twisted up on a few occasions. We saw Frank and John at the Super Quad and flagged them down. We took a run together over towards the Timberline lift and then skied Timberline together. Joe and I then decided to head over to Bullwinkles for lunch and after a burger and something that resembled a sausage grinder, we headed back out.
We took a few runs off the Super Quad including Skidder which still hadn't softened up and was a bit miserable to ski. We eventually made our way back to King Pine and again hooked up with Bob R. We also bumped into Jay as well. Soon ALLSKIING and Terry made the way over and we all enjoyed a few runs down Haul Back together. We all agreed we'd try to meet up at The Bag later that evening. Joe and I finished off the summit down Timberline and I believe Candy Side which was a fun run of bumps and mush.
After a dinner at the Double Diamond we all met up with ALLSKIING and Terry and Bob R at The Bag & Kettle for a few beers. Joe and I bailed at about 10 PM. Joe made the observation, Sunday AM, that if we stayed any longer at the bar we would have just been trading bar time for ski time the next morning. Matt hung out with the AZers for the rest of the night.
Click HERE for Saturday pics.
SUNDAY, 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM:
Conditions: More bluebird! Warmer with temps above freezing from the start.
Trip Report: Joe and I were happy in our decision to call it an early night. Got the car packed and said goodbye to Charlie and crew and headed up to the mountain. We scored a pair of lift tickets on the walk up for a bargain price of $59. Boarded the Super Quad and immediately found the trails to be in great shape. We ripped a few runs off the Quad and then a run down the Bucksaw trail and sampled some of the woods that Charlie and Matt must have skied the day before.
We then met up with ALLSKIING and Terry around 11 AM at the quad and I suggested we ride Timberline for them to experience the summit. We had skied the Timberline trail earlier in the day and I would almost call it packed powder. It was that good. Perhaps Packed LSGR is more accurate but it was still great to ski. It was a bit mushier by the tim we skied it with ALLSKIING and Terry, but still nice. We then rode the Timberline again with them and bid farewell to them at the summit. It was then time to ski off the summit on the White Nitro Extension snowfield. The trail was in incredible shape with ton of edgeable spring corn snow. The only icey hard pack anywhere on it was just before the Spillway X-cut where I almost bit it. It was a major rush and set the stage for what would be an incredible three more hours of skiing which included bumps on Lower Winter's Way, Hayburner and then a number of runs down the glades called Kick Back which on skier's right of Hayburner. We had a blast jumping in and out of the woods onto Hayburner along the trails right lip as well as hitting a few jumps. We were having so much fun we didn't want to leave and ended up skiing until 2:30 PM. We ended our time at da Loaf as well as our ski seasons on Misery Whip, the 7th time of the weekend. It was a great run and we then cruised Poleline back to the base. Had a great meal and a couple of beers at Geppeto's and got rolling about 4 PM. Got to Joe's at 7:30 and I made my way back to CT rolling in at 10:40 PM. Friday was an excellent day, but the skiing on Sunday was even better!
Click HERE for Sunday pics.
Summary:
The conditions for Reggae Fest were absolutely incredible. The mountain has a ton of snow and this was a great way to finish off the ski season. Like last year, it was more about the skiing for me and we skied as hard as we could most of the time. Despite Sugarloaf being so big, it's a really easy mountain to get around. It was great to meet Bob R and AZer Terry, as well as getting the chance to ski with ALLSKIING and his friend Terry. Jay was blast to hang out with and I was glad we were able to meeet up with Frank and John for a run. I wish I had the chance to see Matt ride though. A special thanks to Charlie again for organizing another great trip! So...this concludes my best year of skiing to date...
:beer:
I will load some of my pics in the gallery in a few hrs.
