dlague
Active member
Saddleback, Rangeley, ME
We headed up Saddleback on Friday early evening to be up there for first tracks the next day. It was quite a drive - that was ok but the frost heaves made it interesting. We went up the 93 and crossed over through Gorham Notch. When we arrived, it was COLD. The temp with wind chill was around -15. Excited for the next day to ski with members of Ride and Ski, we got our gear lined up and ready to go.
Saturday morning - wake up at 7:30, eat breakfast and check the thermometer and see a reading of -5 and we knew that layers will be key. We set out at 8:30, and we were very excited about this trip since this was another mountain that we never skied before. From our condo, we jumped right out on some of their learner terrain just below the base lodge after going across some very frozen snow. Right away we knew the woods were out of question – except for our son who was determined to give it a go. However, the groomers did a great job of taking rained on and refrozen surface and creating very carveable corduroy.
So… we head down to the South Branch Quad and get on the chair and it was painfully slow. However this was the beginner area so that is understandable (we would never ski that part of the mountain in any case). From the top of the Quad, we ski a very short distance to the Rangeley Double (was reminding me of Smuggs in VT), excited to get going. Got on the chair and … oh no – it was slow too! Did I mention that it was -5? This is the mountains longest chair and it is long and slow. By the time we got to the top of that chair we were fighting the cold (hands and feet – too much idle time) and still eager to make some turns. Our group opted to start off getting warmed up with a good run down Blue Devil before going to the Summit. The mountain skied big! The conditions were fantastic and we were pumped since we thought that the mountain would be icy due to rain earlier in the week. Well, we were back on that double chair and crawling along eager to make our next turns. From there we decided to go to the summit, therefore skied down Green Weaver a very fun trail but got crowed on the turn before the Kennebago Quad to the summit. That chair had decent speed and is not very long so it was a relief. This chair offers up some very good terrain all mostly advanced – expert skiing/snowboarding. Due to the rain not much of this was open which was a bummer, but was expected. Our son poached a few glades in there just because. We decided to take America which is a relatively easy with a few tricky spots. This is a beautiful trail with great vistas. We then took Red Devil back to the double to get back to the quad to the summit. We took that path twice and then opted ski from the Kennebago Quad most of the time– my recommendation. This did limit the trails to 4 or 5 due to the closure of most of the best trails. We did take several runs off the Rangeley Double and skied all of the terrain on skiers left of Saddleback.
We broke the day up into three sessions. After four runs, we needed to unthaw – I think because we sat on the chairs too long. The second session was most productive with the temps climbing to 11 and a bluebird sky, we were happy! Skiing mostly off Kennebago Quad and a few runs off Rangeley Double. The third session was later afternoon, and the weather changed again with colder temps returning and snowing like crazy!
After 4-5 runs we called it a day and got ready for some Swig N' Smelt Pub après ski with Ride and Ski. The Ride and Ski events are always fun and engaging. The base lodge is impressive. It was very clean and very nice (obviously relatively new). The food was pretty good and priced like a normal pub outside of a ski area.
The next day, we decided to participate in the Ski with Management which is a session of 4 runs off the Rangeley Double that goes from 7:30 – 9 and is open to everyone interested. The group ended up being about 20 or so and oddly enough all skiers. This was super fun, cold but super fun! Each run was like a bonsai race but on perfectly groomed corduroy back to the bottom of the chair. It was cold because the chair was long and the wind chill going down made the extremities cold too! My favorite trail during this session was Grey Ghost (one of their race trails). It was fast, wide and very well groomed – oh and did I say it was a blast and fast! After three runs we headed in – packed it up and headed out. We drove to southern NH (230 miles later) and skied for another 2 hours over at Crotched Mountain to try the Rocket (new high speed quad). That day we skied two mountains, in two states, 230 miles apart (another first).
Overall, we love the trail system there, many turns, narrower trails (a few wider trails too) and a great vibe. Unfortunately, much of the expert terrain Kennebago Steeps and Casablanca Glades were closed (darn rain), which I hope to try next year. The advanced and expert skiers have the best chair! The only down side is the speed of the Rangeley Double. My wish would be to see that replaced with a faster chair. At a minimum, a mid station to bail part way up on those cold days.
Thanks for a great trip Ride and Ski!
We headed up Saddleback on Friday early evening to be up there for first tracks the next day. It was quite a drive - that was ok but the frost heaves made it interesting. We went up the 93 and crossed over through Gorham Notch. When we arrived, it was COLD. The temp with wind chill was around -15. Excited for the next day to ski with members of Ride and Ski, we got our gear lined up and ready to go.
Saturday morning - wake up at 7:30, eat breakfast and check the thermometer and see a reading of -5 and we knew that layers will be key. We set out at 8:30, and we were very excited about this trip since this was another mountain that we never skied before. From our condo, we jumped right out on some of their learner terrain just below the base lodge after going across some very frozen snow. Right away we knew the woods were out of question – except for our son who was determined to give it a go. However, the groomers did a great job of taking rained on and refrozen surface and creating very carveable corduroy.
So… we head down to the South Branch Quad and get on the chair and it was painfully slow. However this was the beginner area so that is understandable (we would never ski that part of the mountain in any case). From the top of the Quad, we ski a very short distance to the Rangeley Double (was reminding me of Smuggs in VT), excited to get going. Got on the chair and … oh no – it was slow too! Did I mention that it was -5? This is the mountains longest chair and it is long and slow. By the time we got to the top of that chair we were fighting the cold (hands and feet – too much idle time) and still eager to make some turns. Our group opted to start off getting warmed up with a good run down Blue Devil before going to the Summit. The mountain skied big! The conditions were fantastic and we were pumped since we thought that the mountain would be icy due to rain earlier in the week. Well, we were back on that double chair and crawling along eager to make our next turns. From there we decided to go to the summit, therefore skied down Green Weaver a very fun trail but got crowed on the turn before the Kennebago Quad to the summit. That chair had decent speed and is not very long so it was a relief. This chair offers up some very good terrain all mostly advanced – expert skiing/snowboarding. Due to the rain not much of this was open which was a bummer, but was expected. Our son poached a few glades in there just because. We decided to take America which is a relatively easy with a few tricky spots. This is a beautiful trail with great vistas. We then took Red Devil back to the double to get back to the quad to the summit. We took that path twice and then opted ski from the Kennebago Quad most of the time– my recommendation. This did limit the trails to 4 or 5 due to the closure of most of the best trails. We did take several runs off the Rangeley Double and skied all of the terrain on skiers left of Saddleback.
We broke the day up into three sessions. After four runs, we needed to unthaw – I think because we sat on the chairs too long. The second session was most productive with the temps climbing to 11 and a bluebird sky, we were happy! Skiing mostly off Kennebago Quad and a few runs off Rangeley Double. The third session was later afternoon, and the weather changed again with colder temps returning and snowing like crazy!
After 4-5 runs we called it a day and got ready for some Swig N' Smelt Pub après ski with Ride and Ski. The Ride and Ski events are always fun and engaging. The base lodge is impressive. It was very clean and very nice (obviously relatively new). The food was pretty good and priced like a normal pub outside of a ski area.
The next day, we decided to participate in the Ski with Management which is a session of 4 runs off the Rangeley Double that goes from 7:30 – 9 and is open to everyone interested. The group ended up being about 20 or so and oddly enough all skiers. This was super fun, cold but super fun! Each run was like a bonsai race but on perfectly groomed corduroy back to the bottom of the chair. It was cold because the chair was long and the wind chill going down made the extremities cold too! My favorite trail during this session was Grey Ghost (one of their race trails). It was fast, wide and very well groomed – oh and did I say it was a blast and fast! After three runs we headed in – packed it up and headed out. We drove to southern NH (230 miles later) and skied for another 2 hours over at Crotched Mountain to try the Rocket (new high speed quad). That day we skied two mountains, in two states, 230 miles apart (another first).
Overall, we love the trail system there, many turns, narrower trails (a few wider trails too) and a great vibe. Unfortunately, much of the expert terrain Kennebago Steeps and Casablanca Glades were closed (darn rain), which I hope to try next year. The advanced and expert skiers have the best chair! The only down side is the speed of the Rangeley Double. My wish would be to see that replaced with a faster chair. At a minimum, a mid station to bail part way up on those cold days.
Thanks for a great trip Ride and Ski!
