Ragged (via MRG) 3/13/10

[polski]

After my usual excruciatingly thorough research I finally made a destination decision last night and it was MRG. Yeah it would be a zoo with the Telemark Festival but I figured that would be fun to see and I was keen on the idea of spring skiing with 100% of MRG open. And while I'd been seriously thinking of Black (NH) because the forecasts yesterday afternoon indicated more sun today over that way, by late last night there didn't seem to be much difference, and a check this morning indicated that remained the case.

So my 9-year-old and I arrived at MRG at around 9:30 a.m. I was worried the parking lot could fill to capacity with the Tele Fest, and grew a bit concerned to see numerous cars with ski racks/boxes heading down Route 17 away from MRG. But when we got to the lot it was maybe 3/4 full.

That's when we noticed the Sunnyside double wasn't spinning. Nor, as we looked closely, was the Single. Nor was anyone skiing down the slopes.

We got the intel from someone returning to the lot: Wind hold, no idea if that would change. (Knowing what I knew of the approaching low, I doubted it.) Only the Practice Slope chair was spinning.

We went to the Basebox anyway and had a great breakfast, then got back in the car and started southbound. Under the theory "When life gives you lemons, buy great beer" I stopped at the Warren Store and stocked up on the two available varieties of Lawson's Finest Liquids, which are available in bottle nowhere else on the planet. That accomplished, no matter what might happen this day would not be a total loss.

We made our way back over Roxbury Gap (Drive It If You Can) and onto 89. I had three vouchers in my wallet for Ragged Mountain in NH and their phone number was on them so I called and got good news: No wind hold and no chatter on the radios about wind potentially being a problem.

We were skiing by a little before 1 p.m. and got a solid three hours in. Quite an impressively salvaged afternoon if I may say so myself. (I do see MRG wound up spinning Sunnyside and Birdland around noon but surfaces on most the mountain were reported to be surprisingly firm - as they were at neighboring Sugarbush, per the TR here.)

At Ragged it was overcast and in the low 40s with only occasionally gusty wind. Higher up the surface was loud but eminently carvable (I don't think temps fell below freezing there the last two nights). From about the mid-mountain to the base the surface was primo corn. And uncrowded - ski on the whole time.

My 9-year-old skied the Ravine for the first time (it was a little softer than when I was here with his brother a week ago). Karen's Dream remained quite the challenging approach - the main drop into Rags to Riches (to skier's left of Karen's) was better, quite good actually except for a couple downed trees. Farther down as the surface softened the glades were skiing beautifully, with plenty of nice bumps. Outside the woods, Birches and especially Sweepstakes also skied great, with the latter's long double fall line and moderate-sized hero bumps.

We also did one run up the Spear triple but by then the drops from that side into the Ravine were roped off (earlier, a ski patroller we chatted with in the Ravine told us those entrances were marginal at best), Cardigan was wind-blown/scoured and Devil's Den also was closed - only woods shot there was Treehugger, which was fun but short. Thereafter we stuck to Rags to Riches, Sweepstakes and Birches. Last two runs were RtoR and we didn't see another soul (pretty cool hearing woodpeckers while we were skiing though).

En route home my son and I stuffed our faces at the Smoke Shack in Boscawen, the best bbq I've had since Bob's near Sunday River. Hit our first precip of the day south of Concord in 93 and it quickly got pretty nasty.

Interesting day ...

[angry swede]

A similar MRG tale with even less results.

After I delayed departure from Boston I made it to the lot at MRG myself at 9:30 am I was rather confused at the scene. I though perhaps I had thought my calendar was off and they had already switched to daylight savings hours. The wind hold explaining this and the cars leaving the mountain, which I also noticed. But alas i just drove 3 hours on 1.5 hrs to be denied my first MRG experience. I literally could not ski MRG. so after using the facilities and discovering that most of nearby ski areas were experiencing the same troubles I headed south thinking I would ski the afternoon at magic or mt. snow. After getting back on the road I realized I was way to exhausted from the lack of sleep to ski and headed as quickly as I could to my buddies house in Western, MA.

My most fruitless and frustrating quest for turns yet. Who likes to wake up and drive 3 hours away to use the bathroom, apparently ->this guy<-

[hammer]

I was at Ragged yesterday as well...thought the groomers held up quite well, only a little sticky right at the base area. Wanted to try the trees and the blacks on skiers left of the lift, but the conditions were a bit too firm for my liking earlier on and my legs were shot by the afternoon.

Did head down Raggae Glades a few times which was nice and soft. I really liked this trail...nice mellow pitch and bumps, good for me to work on. Only wish there were more like it.

Groomer ROTD was Lower Ridge...nice corn snow and no one else around.