Saddleback 1-24-09

[loafer89]

Area skied: Saddleback Maine

Date skied: January 24th, 2009 from 10:30am - 2:30pm

Surface conditions: Packed powder, hardpacked, powder (mainly in the glades)

Weather: Cloudy with flurries before noon, then sunny. 5F (base) at 10:30am, -1F (base) at 2:30pm. Gusy winds to 10-15mph at the base, 20-30mph at the summit.

We decided to ski at Saddleback today after watching many lifts close down early in the morning at Sugarloaf. Saddleback had all lifts running for the whole day.

We started out sking down Green Weaver which had somw soft powdery edges to Nightmare Glade which was good packed powder for the most part with a bit of ice in spots.

A ride up the Kennebago Quad (booo, hiss, we miss the T-bar) took us to Ice Station Zebra. We took the loooooooonnnnnng treck to Muleskinner traversing over some deep drifts of snow.

Muleskinner was a big dissapointment with alot of windslab, ice and thin cover and I was happy to reach Nymph and ski back to the quad.

Another ride up the quad took us down Tri-Color where I think my brain started to freeze with the brutally cold windchill, down a horribly slick Grey Ghost and into Golden Smelt.

Golden Smelt was a welcome refugee from the wind and the slick groomers. There was some nice powdery moguls, but suprisingly alot of ice in spots.

ROTD was by far, Peachy's Peril with tons of packed powder and some small moguls. Thrombosis Glade skied beautifully with stashes of powder to be found.

Professor was fun with very little ice and lots of sofe edgable snow, though the wind blowing up the run made things a bit uncomfortable.

Parmachenne Belle was goood with powder bumps and icy troughs and we cut to Golden Smelt half way down.

Warren conked out on me by this point, so we packed it up and drove back to Sugarloaf.

 

[deadheadskier]

How does the new trail under the summit quad look?

 

[loafer89]

How does the new trail under the summit quad look?

The two new trails are loaded with brush and stumps and will require several more feet of snow to be skiable.

 

[salsgang]

How does the new trail under the summit quad look?

I had a similar day a couple of weeks ago. The trees and the narrow trails were the place to be. I personally liked the quad. ;-)

The trial directly under the chair actually looks pretty good although I didn't get a chance to ski it. Hopefully next time.

 

[loafer89]

Artula (the trail under the quad) looked icy and windblown for the first 1,000' or so and then it had full cover to the bottom of the quad.

At first I thought we where talking about Frostbite and /Black Beauty which are not skiable at present.

 

[salsgang]

ROTD was by far, Peachy's Peril with tons of packed powder and some small moguls. Thrombosis Glade skied beautifully with stashes of powder to be found.

Peachy's Peril seems to be always good after a snow. Its a pretty wide trail for Saddleback standards... but since the fall line is cut towards the east it must stay out of the NW wind for the most part and holds the snow.

 

[tipsdown]

How does the new trail under the summit quad look?

Personally, the new trail under the quad is great. The bottom half of the trail holds the snow very well. The top half holds reasonably well. When I skiid it on Sunday, most of the trail had lots of soft bumps with occasional ice patches where snow had blown off. Overall, it's one of my favorite trails on the mountain. It's got a good pitch and is straight down the fall line.

 

[tipsdown]

Artula (the trail under the quad) looked icy and windblown for the first 1,000' or so and then it had full cover to the bottom of the quad.

At first I thought we where talking about Frostbite and /Black Beauty which are not skiable at present.

Frost Bite and Black Beauty actaully were skiable over the weekend from the first crosscut you hit off Warden's Worry. As mentioned, the top part's of them need a significant amount of snow for a substantial cover. What they plan to do is keep trimming the top of them during the off season since it wasn't done correctly the first time. But they were actaully groomed out to pack down the base and they skiied very well from the crosscut. However, they do plan to leave all trails skiier's right of Tightline natural and only are using snowmaking/grooming to build up cover.

As mentioned before, the features of the trails are similar to Governer. There appears to be some nice headwalls towards the top of the trails...