Day 3 of my Northern New England Use-As-Many-Vouchers-As-I-Can Tour was at Smuggs today.
They reported 5" over 36 hours this morning. Not sure what was overnight, but there was certainly a fair amount of fresh to be found. Only my second ever visit and my first was 6 years ago, so I didn't remember much. Booted up in Lot 1 and headed down to the lodge to get my ticket. Started on Madonna 1 which already had a decent line before 9:00. My plan was a nice groomer warmup, but when I found a glade entrance 1/3 the way down (Shakedown), those plans were altered. Coverage was again good in the glades, but I certainly had opportunities to work on my skills at avoiding rocks and the like at times. Took another run up Madonna 1 which now had an even longer line, so I ended up on Madonna 2 for a few hours. The snow was too good to wait on line. My favorite runs off that chair were right under the chair and the Bermuda glade. I hit each of those a couple times, plus a bunch of other good runs. After awhile though, I wanted something different so I went back to Madonna 1. The line was a shortening a bit by this point and I hit FIS. Unfortunately the weekend theme of frozen fog for a few hours had hit at that point making visibility pretty difficult. Since I hadn't tried the Sterling lift yet because of its earlier line, I went there next. Found some good snow and fun trees there too. It was now about 1:30, so I got a quick lunch before several more runs on Sterling. Not sure of names, but since I had to ski back to Lot 1, I stayed to my left for the last run and there was still a significant amount of loose fresh snow. Even right above the lot, far left of the terrain park had some wonderful snow to finish the day.
Smuggs is a fun mountain, especially with today's snow. It's been mentioned here before - the lift system is not conducive to handling crowds. I shudder to think what it would be like on a holiday weekend. Next visit, I'll aim for a midweek day.
They reported 5" over 36 hours this morning. Not sure what was overnight, but there was certainly a fair amount of fresh to be found. Only my second ever visit and my first was 6 years ago, so I didn't remember much. Booted up in Lot 1 and headed down to the lodge to get my ticket. Started on Madonna 1 which already had a decent line before 9:00. My plan was a nice groomer warmup, but when I found a glade entrance 1/3 the way down (Shakedown), those plans were altered. Coverage was again good in the glades, but I certainly had opportunities to work on my skills at avoiding rocks and the like at times. Took another run up Madonna 1 which now had an even longer line, so I ended up on Madonna 2 for a few hours. The snow was too good to wait on line. My favorite runs off that chair were right under the chair and the Bermuda glade. I hit each of those a couple times, plus a bunch of other good runs. After awhile though, I wanted something different so I went back to Madonna 1. The line was a shortening a bit by this point and I hit FIS. Unfortunately the weekend theme of frozen fog for a few hours had hit at that point making visibility pretty difficult. Since I hadn't tried the Sterling lift yet because of its earlier line, I went there next. Found some good snow and fun trees there too. It was now about 1:30, so I got a quick lunch before several more runs on Sterling. Not sure of names, but since I had to ski back to Lot 1, I stayed to my left for the last run and there was still a significant amount of loose fresh snow. Even right above the lot, far left of the terrain park had some wonderful snow to finish the day.
Smuggs is a fun mountain, especially with today's snow. It's been mentioned here before - the lift system is not conducive to handling crowds. I shudder to think what it would be like on a holiday weekend. Next visit, I'll aim for a midweek day.
