Ragged 2.10.2013

[xlr8r]

Place: Ragged Mountain
Date: February 10th, 2013
Weather: Sun
Conditions: Powder, Packed Powder
Run of the Day: Reggae Glades

Last night I tried to convince myself to get up and out by 6:30am to make first chair at 8:30, but in the end my dreaming won out and did not get to the mountain until 9:30 to see that almost all the parking lots had been filled and grabbed one of the last spots (they ended up parking people on the access road later). The place was jammed for Ragged standards, 10 minute singles line for the six pack most of the day, and a five minute singles line for spear. Places like Sunapee, Gunstock and Loon must have been absolute gridlock in the lift lines. But good to see Ragged get some good business, hopefully it will help them get a new chair for spear next year.

Majority of the place was open including some of the Ravine glades. But on my one run into the Ravine I hit one rock after another, and added way too many scars into my bases, so it was not worth it. All of the open trails skied great including ungroomed Birches, Sweepstakes, and Reggae Glades. The groomers were perfect packed powder for the most part. Beautiful day overall, and even with the crowds I managed to get 20 runs in.

 

[St. Bear]

One thing I've found about Ragged in my 3 trips there, is that you really need to follow the sun. I hit Birches on my 3rd run of the day, when it was still in the shadows, and it was chunky hard snow. The same conditions on Show Off at the end of the day were outstanding, though.

 

[Abubob]

Parking all the way down the road! A corral for the Spear Triple! An absolute mob scene. Birches was good though. Soft moguls and nobody on it.

I had plans to meet with dmw but I thought I'd never find the guy in the massive crowd. Then this guy behind me says, "Are you Bob?" I must REALLY stand out.

Oh yeah - one more thing - I blew out an edge in Rags to Riches.

 

[dmw]

Looks like we had a mini AZ summit today and didn't even realize it - I was there and met AZer Abubob for one run. Agreed on the crowd - I've only been there a few times, but locals were telling me they'd never seen so many people there. And although the lift lines were a bit long (looked much worse than actual time), trails never seemed over crowded. Awesome place.

One quick pic I took on Rags / Riches -

 

[Abubob]

Looks like we had a mini AZ summit today and didn't even realize it - I was there and met AZer Abubob for one run. Agreed on the crowd - I've only been there a few times, but locals were telling me they'd never seen so many people there. And although the lift lines were a bit long (looked much worse than actual time), trails never seemed over crowded. Awesome place.

One quick pic I took on Rags / Riches -

View attachment 7655

Yeah, this is the lower snowy section. Further up the trail it was boney and riddled with land mines! Ouch. Birches was much better. Ya know what I only skied three trails today. Rags to Riches - once. Showboat - twice Birches about 4 times. Oh yeah bombed Exhibition to make last chair. Four trails.

 

[dmw]

Yeah, this is the lower snowy section. Further up the trail it was boney and riddled with land mines! Ouch. Birches was much better. Ya know what I only skied three trails today. Rags to Riches - once. Showboat - twice Birches about 4 times. Oh yeah bombed Exhibition to make last chair. Four trails.

This is a good point - we only take photos of the good looking parts! Sorry I bailed on you guys so quick, but as you say, crowds were tough to accumulate runs, and I was trying to get a few more in by 3pm - wasn't gonna happen on Spear.

I've only ever really riden any woods with bad coverage, so I thought it was all pretty great! Though that run was a bit of a slopfest.

 

[xlr8r]

This is a good point - we only take photos of the good looking parts! Sorry I bailed on you guys so quick, but as you say, crowds were tough to accumulate runs, and I was trying to get a few more in by 3pm - wasn't gonna happen on Spear.

I've only ever really riden any woods with bad coverage, so I thought it was all pretty great! Though that run was a bit of a slopfest.

For me the glades also looked really good and tempting, but was just jagged underneath every other turn in the Ravine (I think it was Pel's Pass that I was on).

The lines were at their worst between 11-2, but then moved pretty well 2:00-4:00. I got 10 runs off the six pack just from 1:45-4:00, so it was about 15 min per run. when it was really bad I did a couple laps off the double just to stay occupied when the lines were 15 min+

 

[Robbski]

I got there even later, 10:30, and parked in an overflow lot with shuttle service (at Ragged?!?). Mostly lapped Spear due to my pathological aversion to lines (at Ragged?!?) and the triple line were more reasonable. Got in about a dozen runs on some really fine snow and had a great time.

Seems like a number of folks from VT were there yesterday, based on my unscientific analysis of conversations on the chairs. They were looking for higher snow totals, smaller crowds and deals on lift tickets.

 

[St. Bear]

My friend is a pass holder, and she was told by management that yesterday Ragged had their highest number of presold tickets ever at 700.