Date(s) Skied: Sunday 11/9/14
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA
Conditions: 39 degrees 15-20 forecasted winds (however don't believe it really blew that hard). Mostly cloudy or barely sunny . Typical "spring conditions" with some natural obstacles & thin cover in only a few spots
Trip Report: Awesome to see the Loaf making a commitment for getting open this early in the season...Their typical opening date is generally the weekend before thanksgiving with 1 or 2 exceptions in the most recent 10 years. Superquad was your stairway to heaven with two routes down Tote Road & Kings Landing. It was ski on the lift all day (which for me started about 10:30). Kings Landing dumped you back onto lower tote road (below chicken pitch). Conditions on Kings was excellent (for any time of year)! It was wall to wall with skiing on both edges possible with no worries about any unwanted obstacles in your way. Nice soft bumps (not mashed potatoes) had formed on Kings by early afternoon. Both kings & upper tote were groomed providing for some choice lines. Skiers left on chicken pitch was buried making for a nice short bump line before the long flat "boring" run out to the superquad. Lower tote road was left ungroomed...As expected this section was a little more deteriorated with a couple water bar crossing & a couple sections of thin cover/slush but definitely skiable. Overall I give the Loaf an A for pushing to open "earlier" than usually as well as for the cover they laid down. Trail conditions exceeded my expectations for this time of the year.
One negative...Surprisingly not one restaurant/bar was open (at least in the base area)...For that matter you had to wait until 4:00 (Rack or Tufulios) to get served a beer...Seems like they missed out on an opportunity.
TOD: Kings Landing
Last pitch on Kings
Looking up Kings
Mid winter cover on Kings
Resort or Ski Area: Sugarloaf/USA
Conditions: 39 degrees 15-20 forecasted winds (however don't believe it really blew that hard). Mostly cloudy or barely sunny . Typical "spring conditions" with some natural obstacles & thin cover in only a few spots
Trip Report: Awesome to see the Loaf making a commitment for getting open this early in the season...Their typical opening date is generally the weekend before thanksgiving with 1 or 2 exceptions in the most recent 10 years. Superquad was your stairway to heaven with two routes down Tote Road & Kings Landing. It was ski on the lift all day (which for me started about 10:30). Kings Landing dumped you back onto lower tote road (below chicken pitch). Conditions on Kings was excellent (for any time of year)! It was wall to wall with skiing on both edges possible with no worries about any unwanted obstacles in your way. Nice soft bumps (not mashed potatoes) had formed on Kings by early afternoon. Both kings & upper tote were groomed providing for some choice lines. Skiers left on chicken pitch was buried making for a nice short bump line before the long flat "boring" run out to the superquad. Lower tote road was left ungroomed...As expected this section was a little more deteriorated with a couple water bar crossing & a couple sections of thin cover/slush but definitely skiable. Overall I give the Loaf an A for pushing to open "earlier" than usually as well as for the cover they laid down. Trail conditions exceeded my expectations for this time of the year.
One negative...Surprisingly not one restaurant/bar was open (at least in the base area)...For that matter you had to wait until 4:00 (Rack or Tufulios) to get served a beer...Seems like they missed out on an opportunity.
TOD: Kings Landing
Last pitch on Kings
Looking up Kings
Mid winter cover on Kings
