granite
Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2013
- Messages
- 213
- Points
- 16
Sunday River, Saturday 01-07-17.
With a ton of new snow reported in the past week, I headed to Sunday River for a day trip on Saturday. I left at 4:30 am and arrived at the mountain in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. My goal was to ski first chair to last chair and a lot vertical. I obtained both goals by skiing all over the mountain on my 187 Blizzard Brahmas that were all tuned up to let em rip. I started at South Ridge with four fast top to bottom runs down North Peak Slopes. I then crossed over to Chair 12 and Aurora Peak for two runs down Air Glow. Next up was Chair 14 at Jordan bowl for many laps down all the open terrain over there. The run of the morning was Ruby Palace under the closed chair 15 at Oz, with great cover and soft snow on all sides of the moguls. Blind Ambition has had a lot of traffic but still skied well. Rouge Angel and Lollapolooza were groomed smooth and fast without a lot of skiers so I could really let the skis go. There were no lift lines and all my runs were nonstop-top to bottom, except for Ruby Palace, resulting in a lot of vertical.
I took a break around 11 am at the North Peak Lodge and then hit a really good Escapade twice off Chair 6. Next up was Barker Mountain where I did four laps on the combo of Ecstasy-Lower Upper Cut-South Paw-bottom of Agony and the run out back to the Barker Mountain Chair One. This made for a real nice mix, groomed down to the whalebacks on South Paw and then the moguls on the bottom of Agony and then the groomed run out back to the lift. The whalebacks on South Paw were so good with some of the best snow on the mountain. I had no idea why Agony under the Barker Mountain Quod wasn’t opened, it looked like it had plenty of cover and would have been just great.
I saved White Cap for last where I couldn’t decide which was better, White Heat or Shock Wave? So, I just kept doing laps on both of them. White Heat was groomed smooth down the middle and had a pretty good mogul line starting to form on skier’s left. Shock Wave had huge whale backs and fantastic snow and was a blast. Obsession was groomed smooth and fast but was pretty skied off by the time I got to it. I skied White Cap till about 3 pm. After that I did runs on greens off the Chondola to burn off the lactic acid in my legs until they shut the lift down.
It was cold the whole day, near zero to start and maybe ten at the end. The sky was overcast making the light just a little flat, but really no problem. There was very little wind so the cold temps weren’t too bad at all. Except for the one run in Blind Ambition, I didn’t go into the woods with my long Brahmas, but I would think there was a lot of good snow left in a lot places.
For après ski I went to the crowded, hot and stuffy Foggy Goggle. I had a Shipyard Export 16 oz. draft that cost $7 and change and stood next to the bar, drank my beer and listened to a band. I had never heard the first song and their second song was a crappy rap song. I chugged down my beer and got out of there for the more than 3 hour drive home. Snow started to fall as soon as I got on the Maine Turnpike and did not stop causing a drive of more than three house back to my NH home. It was a long day but I’d do it again any time, any day, anywhere.
With a ton of new snow reported in the past week, I headed to Sunday River for a day trip on Saturday. I left at 4:30 am and arrived at the mountain in about 2 hours and 45 minutes. My goal was to ski first chair to last chair and a lot vertical. I obtained both goals by skiing all over the mountain on my 187 Blizzard Brahmas that were all tuned up to let em rip. I started at South Ridge with four fast top to bottom runs down North Peak Slopes. I then crossed over to Chair 12 and Aurora Peak for two runs down Air Glow. Next up was Chair 14 at Jordan bowl for many laps down all the open terrain over there. The run of the morning was Ruby Palace under the closed chair 15 at Oz, with great cover and soft snow on all sides of the moguls. Blind Ambition has had a lot of traffic but still skied well. Rouge Angel and Lollapolooza were groomed smooth and fast without a lot of skiers so I could really let the skis go. There were no lift lines and all my runs were nonstop-top to bottom, except for Ruby Palace, resulting in a lot of vertical.
I took a break around 11 am at the North Peak Lodge and then hit a really good Escapade twice off Chair 6. Next up was Barker Mountain where I did four laps on the combo of Ecstasy-Lower Upper Cut-South Paw-bottom of Agony and the run out back to the Barker Mountain Chair One. This made for a real nice mix, groomed down to the whalebacks on South Paw and then the moguls on the bottom of Agony and then the groomed run out back to the lift. The whalebacks on South Paw were so good with some of the best snow on the mountain. I had no idea why Agony under the Barker Mountain Quod wasn’t opened, it looked like it had plenty of cover and would have been just great.
I saved White Cap for last where I couldn’t decide which was better, White Heat or Shock Wave? So, I just kept doing laps on both of them. White Heat was groomed smooth down the middle and had a pretty good mogul line starting to form on skier’s left. Shock Wave had huge whale backs and fantastic snow and was a blast. Obsession was groomed smooth and fast but was pretty skied off by the time I got to it. I skied White Cap till about 3 pm. After that I did runs on greens off the Chondola to burn off the lactic acid in my legs until they shut the lift down.
It was cold the whole day, near zero to start and maybe ten at the end. The sky was overcast making the light just a little flat, but really no problem. There was very little wind so the cold temps weren’t too bad at all. Except for the one run in Blind Ambition, I didn’t go into the woods with my long Brahmas, but I would think there was a lot of good snow left in a lot places.
For après ski I went to the crowded, hot and stuffy Foggy Goggle. I had a Shipyard Export 16 oz. draft that cost $7 and change and stood next to the bar, drank my beer and listened to a band. I had never heard the first song and their second song was a crappy rap song. I chugged down my beer and got out of there for the more than 3 hour drive home. Snow started to fall as soon as I got on the Maine Turnpike and did not stop causing a drive of more than three house back to my NH home. It was a long day but I’d do it again any time, any day, anywhere.
