Ragged Mountain, NH - 2/21/09

[skifastinvt]

Great day at Ragged Mountain on Saturday. We arrived at the mountain at 8:15AM, and were on the 6-pack by 8:30AM. I love the early riser laid back feel around the lodge prior to the lifts firing up. Groomed cruisers were just about perfect. Exhibition was in excellent shape. It was Saturday morning at 9:30AM, and my girlfriend and I did top to bottom high speed laps. Where is everyone?!? Birches was in super shape with nice soft bumps top to bottom (pic attaced). Woods are in great shape! In my opinion, Ragged has the best in-bounds gladed terrain (when the snow is good) within two hours of Boston, and maybe the best in NH. 1/2 day crowd showed up at 1PM with 5 minute lift lines on the 6-pack and Spruce triple. Groomed trails were starting to get skied off (in high traffic areas), but it was easily avoidable. Ended the day with a run down Big Rock. The soft bumps and rock jumps made it worth the run-out on Easy Winder. Overall super day at Ragged! If they get six inches +tonight, conditions will be outstanding next week. If they get 12+ (as predicted), conditions will be epic! Honestly, I have no idea why people are willing to battle the weekend/holiday crowds at Loon, Waterville, Sunapee, etc. when they could have a great day at Ragged. I wish I could ski the new snow on Monday.

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

nice pictures..Ragged looks sweet..

 

[tcharron]

Man, their tree skiing is insanely fun. I was there Thursday.

 

[thetrailboss]

Looks like a nice place. Some nice terrain. I am sad to see that they have had so much trouble as of late. The previous long time owners made a few bad decisions and ended up in trouble. Having Mr. Fries running the place is probably their best bet of making it work. He did a good job with Bolton Valley and Waterville Valley back in the day....

 

[tcharron]

Looks like a nice place. Some nice terrain. I am sad to see that they have had so much trouble as of late. The previous long time owners made a few bad decisions and ended up in trouble. Having Mr. Fries running the place is probably their best bet of making it work. He did a good job with Bolton Valley and Waterville Valley back in the day....

Yea, I really hope that the problems don't continue. The whole ravine area of the mountain is insane fun. And that 6 pack cruises.

 

[thetrailboss]

Yea, I really hope that the problems don't continue. The whole ravine area of the mountain is insane fun. And that 6 pack cruises.

The problems had to do with the previous owners overextending themselves financially and not maintaining things as they should have. Installing the 6-pack killed them financially I think. A lot more expense operationwise and installationwise when compared to the used or rebuilt fixed grips they were installing. Not to mention a softening economy and some bad snow years when they had not much snowmaking to work with.

 

[deadheadskier]

I had read of struggles in a couple years back, but really hadn't read anything for the past two seasons? What's up?

I might be skiing there tomorrow.

 

[tcharron]

I had read of struggles in a couple years back, but really hadn't read anything for the past two seasons? What's up?

I might be skiing there tomorrow.

Well, they got bought out, and the new owners appear to be doing a superb job. If it snows a bunch tommorow, your in for a treat. If you decide to hit rags to riches or sweepstakes, beware the cross train from upper exhibition. :-D It's a doozy. :-D