Saddleback - WOW!

[riverc0il]

Their lift setup seems a little funky. What's the story with the Kennebago quad? It looks like that services their big glade area, but you have to traverse halfway around the mountain on Dazzler to get to the Casablanca glade area. Is Dazzler actually a black diamond in pitch during that traverse? It looks pretty flat in the trail map.

The Kennebago Quad just was installed last year to replace a T-Bar that serviced the upper mountain expert terrain. A good many Saddleback fans miss the T-Bar but understand the reasoning of installing a chairlift instead. Dazzler is a flat traverse out to Muleskinner and the new Casablanca glade area. It is only marked black diamond to ensure beginner and intermediate skiers do not end up someplace they should not be because of looking at a trail map. You can get a feel for how long the traverse is out to Muleskinner in this video I made:



Dazzler at about 1:30 on that video. For what it is worth, Saddleback is only one hour longer drive than Sunday River so if you are staying at Sunday River (or Sugarloaf for that matter), Saddleback would make for a great combo trip. A very different mountain than either of the other two big resorts, I would take the extra hour drive to Saddleback any day.

 

[playoutside]

Saddleback is a bit farther than my normal tolerance for a weekend ski trip, but it is worth it. We've gone each of the last 2 seasons. The first year we drove to Mt Abram on a Friday (3.25 hrs) and skied for the day and then drove 1 more hour to Saddleback for Sat/Sun skiing. It's not a bad drive from Boston, most of it is highway. Last year we drove straight there, it snowed and was bitter cold, took about 4.5 hrs. The real advantage to going that little bit farther is that so many people won't do it. You really can feel like the mountain is all yours; lots of opportunities to have a trail to yourself...no Saturday crowds like the rest of areas w/i 3 hrs of Boston. I would recommend avoiding the Sundays that are Maine Ski days. The crowd is bigger and the lines grow near the doubles. Not awful, but surprising to wait in a line!

 

[Smellytele]

Why can't I get to anyhting on their site such as prices, trail map and the like? I plan on hitting it this year on a Friday in late Feb between days at Sunday River and Sugarloaf.

 

[wa-loaf]

Why can't I get to anyhting on their site such as prices, trail map and the like? I plan on hitting it this year on a Friday in late Feb between days at Sunday River and Sugarloaf.

http://www.saddlebackmaine.com/winter/rentals.php

http://www.saddlebackmaine.com/winter/trails.php

 

[Tin Woodsman]

FWIW, if I ever move to the Boston area, Saddleback would be extremely high on my list for second home locations. Yeah it's a long drive, but that just allows self-selection to work its magic. If you want lesser skiing and more crowds, take the shorter drive to Sunday River or NH (perhaps Cannon and Wildcat excepted). Sugarloaf is bigger, for the moment, but I'd much rather go to the place with zero competition for powder, big expansion opportunities, and a world class fishing/boating lake for year-round enjoyment by my family.

Despite his best efforts, even Steven Kircher can't sling enough mud to make me ignore Saddleback's attractive fundamentals.

 

[Edd]

I've gone the last 2 years. On our first visit there was no fresh snow and Dazzler was a seriously bumpy traverse; quite a workout to slog through it. Muleskinner was rock hard and visibility was pretty bad. Nevertheless, my first impression of the place was quite good.

Last year the new quad was closed the day I went but the snow quality was astonishing considering the recent weather. It ended up being a great day of skiing. If I ever hit that place fully open with fresh snow I'll be very pleased.

 

[snoseek]

I think I could get to ANY hill in NH or VT in less time than I could get to Saddleback. It looks like I could even get to Whiteface in about the same amount of time it would take to get to Saddleback. Then in Maine, Sunday River is way closer, and Sugarloaf as you say another viable option. With so many closer hills, I'd probably only be tempted if I was on a long road trip in the area and wanted to check it out. For some reason Maine doesn't seem to have bought into the idea of the interstate highway system. Probably good for the environment, but bad for their best ski areas!

This is why it is maybe my favorite hill in the East. As a midweek skier I would often head over after fresh snow and find untracked all day long. The terrain and vibe are excellent and competition for powder is better than any major mountain I can think of in the East. It doesn't get quite the snow as Jay ect.... but their reporting is extremely truthful and the base elevation is high and latitude=45th parralell(less rain/thaw) meaning the overall snow preservation is really really good. Drive by sometime in June. I have been a Saddlebacker since 1981!

 

[wa-loaf]

Another person was bragging about Sugarloaf from Boston in 1:45. I asked him not run me off the road on the way. He came back and admitted even at hair raising speed, the time was "embellished".

That guy's probably never been to Sugarloaf. I drive about 75 on the interstate but don't push the speed limit much on the side roads. It's 4 hours in the best of conditions.

 

[Masskier]

Saddleback is a bit farther than my normal tolerance for a weekend ski trip, but it is worth it. We've gone each of the last 2 seasons. The first year we drove to Mt Abram on a Friday (3.25 hrs) and skied for the day and then drove 1 more hour to Saddleback for Sat/Sun skiing. It's not a bad drive from Boston, most of it is highway. Last year we drove straight there, it snowed and was bitter cold, took about 4.5 hrs. The real advantage to going that little bit farther is that so many people won't do it. You really can feel like the mountain is all yours; lots of opportunities to have a trail to yourself...no Saturday crowds like the rest of areas w/i 3 hrs of Boston. I would recommend avoiding the Sundays that are Maine Ski days. The crowd is bigger and the lines grow near the doubles. Not awful, but surprising to wait in a line!

That's exactly why I like Burke. No crowds, great powder, you feel like the mountain is all yours, but its an easy 3 hour ride from Boston and all highway.

 

[riverc0il]

That's exactly why I like Burke. No crowds, great powder, you feel like you the mountain is all yours, but its an easy 3 hour ride from Boston and all highway.

Burke and Saddleback have a very similar vibe. Rustic facilities aside, I would throw Magic in the ring with these other two mountains as the best of the best kept secrets that few people are skiing in New England.

 

[salsgang]

I can make it to Saddleback in about 2hrs non-stop from Freeport. Route 4 is a bear the last 20 miles, but the skiing is worth it for sure. They were doing some construction to straighten out a couple of hairpin turns last year. Be interesting to see if that got completed over the summer.

We won season passes for the entire family in a video contest they had last year... we are absolutely pumped for opening day Nov 27th. COME ON SNOW!

 

[Tin]

Also I just checked out a better trail map of Saddleback on snocountry.com and they show a lot proposed new lifts and trails. Like 5 more lifts to random places giving it a hell of a lot more terrain.

 

[Tin Woodsman]

Also I just checked out a better trail map of Saddleback on snocountry.com and they show a lot proposed new lifts and trails. Like 5 more lifts to random places giving it a hell of a lot more terrain.

Exactly. Assuming the funding is there, they plan to double or even triple the lift-accessible terrain. The slackcountry will be ridiculous, though I wonder if it's too far north to get that good hardwood tree skiing. I read a lot of things about the dense softwood forests there, so that makes natural and enhanced slackcountry a lot more difficult.

 

[riverc0il]

Exactly. Assuming the funding is there, they plan to double or even triple the lift-accessible terrain. The slackcountry will be ridiculous, though I wonder if it's too far north to get that good hardwood tree skiing. I read a lot of things about the dense softwood forests there, so that makes natural and enhanced slackcountry a lot more difficult.

The White Mountain ski areas are much different than the Green Mountains. There are very few naturally occurring hardwood areas that make for good tree skiing. A lot more effort is usually required than just thinning out anything less than an inch in diameter. Saddleback's woods are especially dense from my inspections and their on map glades are amongst the tightest around, especially Dark Wizard which I rank as the toughest on map glade that I have skied (perhaps toughest tree skiing period, including off map). That is a huge disadvantage of the White Mountains... very little choose your own adventure tree skiing. But if they keep expanding and cutting out tree shots, it won't even matter, especially mid-week!

 

[tipsdown]

I can make it to Saddleback in about 2hrs non-stop from Freeport. Route 4 is a bear the last 20 miles, but the skiing is worth it for sure. They were doing some construction to straighten out a couple of hairpin turns last year. Be interesting to see if that got completed over the summer.

We won season passes for the entire family in a video contest they had last year... we are absolutely pumped for opening day Nov 27th. COME ON SNOW!

OK, some insight from someone that makes the trip from Boston a handful of times per year....
Leaving on a Friday evening (with rush hour traffic) = 4.5 hours.
Coming back on a Sunday (or not dealing with Rush hour) = 4 hours tops. If I don't stop it's just under 4 hours.

I know a couple of short cuts, which may trim about 10-12 minites off the drive so keep that in mind..

I went up for some golf/foliage 3 weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised with the new sections of Rt. 4…The road construction Salsang is referring to are sections of Rt. 4 that they re-routed to avoid the bumpy winding roads as you approach the last 15ish miles heading into Rangeley. It was a much more pleasant ride and probably cuts off 5-10 minutes (in perfect driving conditions) of the trip since it's now a more direct route..The road now goes up and over the hills instead of around them. During more difficult driving conditions in the middle of the winter, I can imagine this will be even more valuable…Also, there were sections of the roads that they widened to allow for 2 lanes, which is nice in case you get stuck behind one of those painfully slow cars or trucks..

I can tell you that it definitely takes no longer to get to Saddleback than it does to Sugarloaf from points south with the new and improved Rt. 4..And people forget, Saddleback is actually SW from Sugarloaf.

 

[speden]

I know a couple of short cuts, which may trim about 10-12 minites off the drive so keep that in mind..

What are the short cuts? On google maps it puts the trip at 4 hours and 58 minutes for me from Newton (which adds about 20 minutes to first go downtown before heading north). Do you go much over the speed limit to make it in four hours?

 

[tipsdown]

What are the short cuts? On google maps it puts the trip at 4 hours and 58 minutes for me from Newton (which adds about 20 minutes to first go downtown before heading north). Do you go much over the speed limit to make it in four hours?

Here is the route I take....

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

According to Google maps, it actually lengthens the trip, which is innacurate..
I do go over the speed limit on the highways. I drive around 75 MPH. I stay within 5-7 MPH of the limit on most of rt. 4. I guarantee you it's a substantially shorter drive than it indicates.

As a side note, the distance to Sugarloaf from Boston is actually 13 miles longer than it is to Saddleback per Google Maps.

 

[St. Bear]

Hopefully, I'll be there Friday 3/26/10 before the AZ Summit at Sugarloaf.

Now I just need to convince my wife that it's ok for me to take a 4 day ski weekend when she's 8.5 months pregnant.

 

[tipsdown]

Their lift setup seems a little funky. What's the story with the Kennebago quad? It looks like that services their big glade area, but you have to traverse halfway around the mountain on Dazzler to get to the Casablanca glade area. Is Dazzler actually a black diamond in pitch during that traverse? It looks pretty flat in the trail map.

The lift set up is a little funky in it's current state....
First of all, they have increased their terrain dramatically over the last 5 years, and they've focused on replacing old lifts that service existing terrain before installing new lifts that serivce the new terrain. As a result, there has become a shortage on lifts..The good news is uphill capacity is low....They would really benefit from a top to bottom 2+k lift in the future. And as others have elluded to their plans for many more lifts that will open up all kinds of new terrain. If Casablanca looks nice, check out the West Bowl on Google Maps. I've heard they may glade the area as well...It's a huge steep bowl with tons of potential..Looks nastier than the front.

 

[wa-loaf]

Here is the route I take....

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

According to Google maps, it actually lengthens the trip, which is innacurate..
I do go over the speed limit on the highways. I drive around 75 MPH. I stay within 5-7 MPH of the limit on most of rt. 4. I guarantee you it's a substantially shorter drive than it indicates.

As a side note, the distance to Sugarloaf from Boston is actually 13 miles longer than it is to Saddleback per Google Maps.

That links not working for me.