Heli Skiing in The East-Saddleback

Wow. Interesting...Great idea but not sure how sustainable this is...See the link below

Saddleback and the surrounding peaks do have 4,000 ft. of elevation...But that only lends itself to a dozen or so turns above treeline. If they are able to do somecutting (as they allude to) below tree line they may have something…Gotta lovethe ambition at the very least.


http://heli-bear.com/

Interesting....having hiked to the top of Saddleback and done some skiing up there back down to the resort I can tell you there's a fair amount of terrain. The interesting play would be off the backside which is very steep and south facing so fairly wind protected to hold snow.
Unsure how far down skiers could go and where the logical pickup point would be.....not a place you would want to get lost.

there is Heli Skiing in the east already! Just gotta go North

http://www.chic-chac.ca/en/skiing-packages/heliski/

http://www.rochellelash.com/articles/2011-11-17-Massif du sud to offer heli-skiing.pdf

Not sure how active either of those are

The only Heli skiing in the New England would be from Greenwich to the Hermitage...

JamaicaMan said:

The only Heli skiing in the New England would be from Greenwich to the Hermitage...

Click to expand...

Hahaha, so true


Sent from my iPhone using AlpineZone

xwhaler said:

Interesting....having hiked to the top of Saddleback and done some skiing up there back down to the resort I can tell you there's a fair amount of terrain. The interesting play would be off the backside which is very steep and south facing so fairly wind protected to hold snow.
Unsure how far down skiers could go and where the logical pickup point would be.....not a place you would want to get lost.

Click to expand...

Heading to Saddleback end of March... I'll have 2 days there so def plan to check out the ridge if possible.

Any tips, advice, suggestions on how to best go about this would be greatly appreciated!

Also, how's the terrain on the front side? Should I expect to crap my pants at all?

bdfreetuna said:

Heading to Saddleback end of March... I'll have 2 days there so def plan to check out the ridge if possible.

Any tips, advice, suggestions on how to best go about this would be greatly appreciated!

Also, how's the terrain on the front side? Should I expect to crap my pants at all?

Click to expand...

The hike up is fun...you can immediately say that you bagged a New England 4k footer! It's about a 25 min hike but not overly steep....trail is well marked as its part of the AT so you should see tracks.
If the tops of the trees just above the Dazzler trail are covered then you can ski from the summit all the way down to the base w/o ever taking your skis off.
If they aren't covered it becomes a chore to slog through them (i.e. crawl out/down) once you have done the top section off the summit.
I think the best route is start at the top and ski down into Warden's Worry...the further skiers right you go the more untouched, real deep stuff you will find.
Be careful though....tree wells could be a real issue towards the bottom when u can;t see the tops of trees.

On the main resort, everything is awesome. Make sure you hit Casablanca and Muleskinner.
The terrain off the T Bar is also fun....nothing is insanely hard but the mountain delivers for every level of skier. With likely no lines by end of March, incredible views, and still likely 100% open and choked with snow that's a pretty awesome time to be up there.

Happy to chat more if you want---was a passholder for 3 yrs and long term dream is to buy property up there and make it my official home mountain.

Thanks for the info xwhaler.

The map makes it look like Wardens, Tight Line and Supervisor are clear shots from the ridge into the trails. But you're saying if there's plenty of snow it's doable further out as well, crossing Dazzler into Black Beauty or Frostbite?

Hopefully tree wells will be settled in by the end of March. It should be awesome up there then I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 2 days of Saddleback and then 2 days at Sugarloaf back to back. Both first time visits.

Hows the angle and technicality of the Saddleback ridge stuff? My girl has been handling some steeps lately but I don't want to take her down anything as hard as, say Pumphouse off the ridge at Jay.

Normally I research this kind of stuff on YouTube and whatnot, but footage of Saddleback above treeline seems pretty sparse.

Thanks again!

So let me get this straight. 14 Grand to take a helicopter up something that requires a 25 minute walk?

The frontside of Saddleback off the summit is pretty mellow.....actually not very steep at all.
I've never skied off the backside but I've seen it from up top and its very very steep.
You can go further skiers right yes and I've actually seen tracks down there towards Casa/Muleskinner.
If I were you for the first time, just hike up there and cruise down via the route I suggested. It's really awesome just being up on top for the views.

JamaicaMan said:

The only Heli skiing in the New England would be from Greenwich to the Hermitage...

Click to expand...

This forum needs a like button

xwhaler said:

The hike up is fun...you can immediately say that you bagged a New England 4k footer! It's about a 25 min hike but not overly steep....trail is well marked as its part of the AT so you should see tracks.
If the tops of the trees just above the Dazzler trail are covered then you can ski from the summit all the way down to the base w/o ever taking your skis off.
If they aren't covered it becomes a chore to slog through them (i.e. crawl out/down) once you have done the top section off the summit.
I think the best route is start at the top and ski down into Warden's Worry...the further skiers right you go the more untouched, real deep stuff you will find.
Be careful though....tree wells could be a real issue towards the bottom when u can;t see the tops of trees.

On the main resort, everything is awesome. Make sure you hit Casablanca and Muleskinner.
The terrain off the T Bar is also fun....nothing is insanely hard but the mountain delivers for every level of skier. With likely no lines by end of March, incredible views, and still likely 100% open and choked with snow that's a pretty awesome time to be up there.

Happy to chat more if you want---was a passholder for 3 yrs and long term dream is to buy property up there and make it my official home mountain.

Click to expand...

xwhaler thanks for the info, going up to saddlback for the first time this weekend

bdfreetuna said:

Should I expect to crap my pants at all?

Click to expand...

I thought that was kind of your thing... :-D

This is heli-skiing is wild. We were just talking about this on the way home from Saddleback yesterday. If they can get access to other mountains in the area this could be pretty awesome. Mt. Abraham from Rt 4 on the drive to and from Saddleback looks pretty sick.

deadheadskier said:

So let me get this straight. 14 Grand to take a helicopter up something that requires a 25 minute walk?

Click to expand...

Yea I fail to see the logic there as well.

Domeskier said:

I thought that was kind of your thing... :-D

Click to expand...

If I could avoid a hat trick that'd be great..

xwhaler said:

Interesting....having hiked to the top of Saddleback and done some skiing up there back down to the resort I can tell you there's a fair amount of terrain. The interesting play would be off the backside which is very steep and south facing so fairly wind protected to hold snow.
Unsure how far down skiers could go and where the logical pickup point would be.....not a place you would want to get lost.

Click to expand...

Problem with the back side of Saddleback is there's no way out besides a very long hike once you're at the bottom. Can't remember the thread but a while back somebody posted that ski patrol prevented him from hiking above the lifts. Basically they said they couldn't risk somebody accidentally riding down the back of the mountain and getting lost/stranded in the woods.

Rowsdower said:

Problem with the back side of Saddleback is there's no way out besides a very long hike once you're at the bottom. Can't remember the thread but a while back somebody posted that ski patrol prevented him from hiking above the lifts. Basically they said they couldn't risk somebody accidentally riding down the back of the mountain and getting lost/stranded in the woods.

Click to expand...

Ski Patrol doesn't prevent you from going up top. Heck, I've seen them up there unofficially patrolling/making turns themselves.
Best advice for Tuna and others is just tell them you are headed up top and ask for a conditions report.
Unless it's super windy/whiteout conditions I see no reason not to attempt it.
I'd call it more of a short hike with incredible views followed by some mellow skiing vs an extreme hike for extreme turns.

It doesn't really make much sense unless they have A LOT of terrain to access. Otherwise a cat could do the job. It'd be much safer, and much, much cheaper. It's not really about getting up and down a particular mountain that makes the heli awesome, it's being able to access zones beyond where you can go with a cat. I agree there would be less environmental impact since you wouldn't have to cut cat roads but you'd still need landing areas. There aren't many mountains in the East where you couldn't take a cat, and even if you couldn't take a cat to the top, you could take it close enough that a short hike/climb would be all you'd need to summit. If this works at all it'll only be because there's enough rich people around here that don't find it cost prohibitive.

This idea seems very silly to me. Cats and snomo accessed backcountry has potential in some areas of Maine, but hunting down natural open hardwood glades in Maine takes a bit more effort than other areas of New England (we pride ourselves on our "working forest" and the forest products industry has a very noticeable presence in our woods). That said, there are some good spots if you look hard and can get access (snowmobiles are a necessity). As soon as I get my snomo running, I'm going to check out the north facing aspects on Bigelow. I live walking distance to the bigelow preserve and have done a lot of bushwack exploring on the south faces. There are a ton of open hardwood glades and cliff bands galore (especially on the west end). but being south facing, the snow quality is problematic. The slide on the north face of Crocker has good skiing too but limited vert.

The caveat with New England backcountry skiing is that you have to get on the good snow immediately after a storm - quality snow simply doesn't last with our freeze-thaw cycles, windpack, rain, etc. I personally don't bother trying to find terrain "above treeline" because it's wind scoured 95% of the time. The goods are in the woods. It's very tricky to be a New England backcountry skier. If you want powder, having a flexible work/family schedule is infinitely more important than being able to afford a helicopter or have fancy AT gear and such. You simply need to be able to drop what you are doing and go right after a storm. Wait a day and it's probably too late.

That's my thoughts. BTW, I'm new on here. If any of you are interested in backcountry skiing in the Maine High Peaks Region of Franklin County, let me know. Helis are for an exclusive group that can afford them and the idea doesn't really interest or affect me in any way. I'd be interested in forming some kind of group, or club that serves real Maine backcountry skiers (although I may be a lone wolf here - I don't see too many other skiers in the woods). There are immediate needs: Like opening up the AT trailhead in Wyman in the winter months so skiers have an access point. I worked on this about 3 years ago but my lone voice got me nowhere. If we want backcountry skiing to have a real presence in Maine (aside from MH&T) we need to organize or at least get together and do some skiing!