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ragged mountain - 1/24/05

crombie

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Jan 9, 2005
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(this post can also be found on another skiing website I use... sorry for those of you that read there too!)

My wife and I got the day off due to the snowstorm, and we live near the highway (which was quite good) and took off to Ragged for the day.

They got about 14" of snow, which looked about right, though some of it had settled etc.

For those of you that don't know, Ragged is a mid-sized mountain (50 trails) that seems to pride itself on being down to earth and not stuffy. They definitely are, it's a great place, we really enjoyed it.

It took a bit longer than expected to get there (2 hr from Boston), but we drove up and there was barely anyone in the parking lot. We got a great spot, 3 rows from the main building.

Took a nice run down Blueberry Patch and eventually wound up on Lower Ridge (not sure how, as the map doesn't show the connection), it was great conditions, nice and groomed. I noticed the glades were open, although it warned thin cover (more on that later).

We took another run down upper exhibition, and took the little half circle of ungroomed snow on the upper part of the trail. Lots of fun, the powder was great.

Took a break because my wife's nose looked a bit off color (and it was cold, below zero with windchills), and then took the tripple up for some runs down the Cardigan Turnpike. I also checked out the Devil's Den glades as we passed by it, a couple of runs later I did try it. Lots of snow, which was good, and a lot of it was untracked, although for good reason as they didn't have much underneath the new powder except for stumps, sticks, roots, rocks, etc.

But it was fun anyway and I made some new tracks.

The top of Flying Yankee was closed because it had no snow due to the wind blowing it around, but there was an entrance to it from Cardigan Turnpike, and it was totally ungroomed. Lots of fun, though icy, a bit rocky, and scary for my wife at first. The bottom 2/3 was great though, but they closed it later in the day for some reason.

We had lunch, then got back on the mountain and did the Glades trail (it's called Glades, we called it "glades Glades"). Good fun, although thin cover at first and a bit icy at the top. The bottom part was fun, but you had to keep an eye out for the rocks.

Did some more runs down Cardigan, some more Devil's Den, and visited other groomed sections as well (can't remember exactly where).

Took Headwall towards the end of the day. Big mistake. Icy on most of it, and powdery on the left side, but right next to a big dropoff. I bailed horribly on the ice and slid, no pain though. Nervously watched my wife come down it. I almost told her to take off her skis, but she did it and didn't fall like me.

Towards 3 we started getting tired, and we started falling for almost no reason. On our run down glades Glades, I hit an exposed stump that stuck 4" out of the snow, and totally bailed. Didn't see it. At that point, we said enough, and drove home.

All in all, lots of fun. Good conditions that deteriorated towards the end of the day, and we were tired, but a great day out.

We will definitely get back there when they get some more snow. Hopefully a lot more soon.
 
B

beswift

Guest
it was great conditions, nice and groomed. I noticed the glades were open, although it warned thin cover (more on that later).
It's been years since I skied there, and I know that the new lifts have changed their skiing a lot. How big are the glades area? You didn't elaborate on the glades area. I went to their website to check the trail map out and have it up. It looks to me like the triple was put in since I skied the area. How steep is headwall? How long would you say it was? When they put in that huge chair and bulldozed trails, I thought they had butchered the trail system. However, Spook's Gorge seems to have been opened up. It looks kind of interesting. Devil's Den also seems like it would ski well with good cover. I never tried their x-c terrain, but it looked too hilly. By the way, the real charm of Ragged would be that it takes a little more time to make the Parking Lot.
 

Talisman

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Nov 1, 2004
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Ragged has what I would call a large glade in the drainage between Spear Peak (triple chair) and Ragged (6 pack chair). There are several entrances from both peaks into what I consider one glade with multiple lines. I think it is the best skiing at Ragged. I think there are some other smaller glades.
 

crombie

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Jan 9, 2005
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South Weymouth, MA
Unfortunately when I was there most of the glades areas were closed, so I only really got to try out Devil's Den and the Glades trail.

They did have another one "open", but it was far from being skiable. Far...

Headwall was very short. Not very long at all.

The triple seems old, I'm guessing that it's always been there. But the detachable 6 was great and there were no lines ever when I went.
 
B

beswift

Guest
threecy said:
The triple is a recent install, originally located at King Ridge. It is a Hall triple with a modern Von Roll drive terminal.
All of it was telemark skiing, but I used to ride that chair at King Ridge. Did they replace it? Right now, I have a 97-98 trail map out. I guess it comes from the last time I was at Ragged. Comparing it to the one they post at the website, I see they present a lot more skiable terrain. There was a summit double at that time, Spear Mtn. had a triple and a lift on Northeast peak was a double.. Yes, that drainage area between Sweepstakes and Joe's Ravine has been opened up to gladed trail skiing since then. Twister,marked blue square and Wilson's, Big Rock and Cabin Fever marked as black diamonds bring my map up to date. I enjoyed teleskiing Sweepstake's a lot. Nothing else I found memorable.
 
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