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Sunday River or Sugarloaf April 2? Anyone been there recently?

tnt1234

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Has anyone been to Sunday River or Sugar Loaf recently?

Long shot possibility I will be in ME and have a free day Sunday to ski. But this will take some effort re: changing some travel arrangements and bringing skis etc....

Trying to decide if it's worth the effort...SR would be most convenient to my commitments monday, but I'd love to make it to SL and try Brackets Basin if it would be worth it....Would be a list bit of a hit and run kind of day - 2-3 hour drive in rented car Saturday evening, then bugging out as soon as I was done skiing Sunday.

Anyone been to either recently?
 

tnt1234

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Well after today conditions will be very different then anyone has experienced recently so hard to say.

Hm. Yeah, weather doesn't look great for the next couple of days. Chance of snow Saturday, and who knows, might be a fine spring day Sunday, but probably won't put in the effort for one day....
 

snoseek

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I was going to drive to the loaf today but didn't want to spend the money on a risky day. Currently at the bar at mount snow as the drinking forecast is ideal.

I bet things aren't so bad at the loaf right now.....
 

KustyTheKlown

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i am extremely pleased with my decision to do the long drive and ski sunday river this past weekend, especially seeing how vermont got hit with icing and mixed precipitation.

left nyc with a buddy at 6 PM on friday. pulled up to the motel in woodstock maine at about 12:30. woke up to a report of 2-3" of new snow and 115 open trails/woods. got to sunday river around 9 and the skiing was fantastic. the 3" made everything soft and playful, including the glades. things that were closed were easily poachable (one entrance to poppy fields was closed and i got epic untouched snow top to bottom; eureka was closed because skier's right was totally exposed, but skier's left was perfect windblown untouched powder. pretty much skied every set of woods on the map and then some (ie., off map woods near the tower off of bim's).

then on sunday, perfect bluebird day with groomers in the morning and natural trails and woods by the time the sun got high at ~11 AM. at about 1:45 we were wrapping up, skiing the woods to skier's left of white heat, and we hear faint grateful dead sounds coming up from white cap lodge, which is where we parked. we skied down to the end of a band playing a totally ripping shakedown street. we danced in our skis for 5 minutes, and then got on the road at 2:30. stopped in portland for a lobster roll. home in brooklyn at 9:45.

fwiw - according to open snow maine will get mostly snow today

my next plan is vt next saturday. potential big snow friday night>saturday morning.
 

tnt1234

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i am extremely pleased with my decision to do the long drive and ski sunday river this past weekend, especially seeing how vermont got hit with icing and mixed precipitation.

left nyc with a buddy at 6 PM on friday. pulled up to the motel in woodstock maine at about 12:30. woke up to a report of 2-3" of new snow and 115 open trails/woods. got to sunday river around 9 and the skiing was fantastic. the 3" made everything soft and playful, including the glades. things that were closed were easily poachable (one entrance to poppy fields was closed and i got epic untouched snow top to bottom; eureka was closed because skier's right was totally exposed, but skier's left was perfect windblown untouched powder. pretty much skied every set of woods on the map and then some (ie., off map woods near the tower off of bim's).

then on sunday, perfect bluebird day with groomers in the morning and natural trails and woods by the time the sun got high at ~11 AM. at about 1:45 we were wrapping up, skiing the woods to skier's left of white heat, and we hear faint grateful dead sounds coming up from white cap lodge, which is where we parked. we skied down to the end of a band playing a totally ripping shakedown street. we danced in our skis for 5 minutes, and then got on the road at 2:30. stopped in portland for a lobster roll. home in brooklyn at 9:45.

fwiw - according to open snow maine will get mostly snow today

my next plan is vt next saturday. potential big snow friday night>saturday morning.
Sounds like a great trip!

Sunday River report says it's moving to all snow now....SL still calling it mixed.

Guess I'll take one more look at the logistics...would love one more day, but this will be a little bit of a PITA to pull off...We'll see.
 

Jully

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Given twitter is far from the most accurate weather source, but SR did tweet a few hours ago a picture saying it was snowing. The picture was taken at the base too.
 

skiMEbike

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Just back from 3 days at the Loaf....Mid Winter with true packed powder conditions. Everything is open minus the backside & a few of the front face extensions. Trails & glades are skiing great right now....Some of the heavier traveled glades/natural trails are starting to get a tad firm between the bumps, however there's still plenty of pow on the top sides of the bumps. The Loaf really has not gotten above freezing since before the Stella storm back on 3/15...So they have not gone through some of the freeze/thaw cycles like other areas...In addition they got another 7-9 inches of snow since the big one on 3/15.

As Smelly mentions above....this could all change with this current weather system which won't move out till Tuesday, and then we go back to below freezing temps at the Loaf. Current forecasts are calling for some mixed precip & some possible rain into Tuesday at the Loaf. Right now I'd say the Loaf, but after tomorrow it may not matter much if it all freezes over.....

One pic from the weekend of Max Headroom:
MaxHDRoom.jpg
 

SkiFanE

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What Krusty said. Incredible weekend. Softened up nicely, plenty of woods and bumps. I don't think today's mix will do too much damage. Supposed to be a nice weekend - parrothead weekend too - or SpringFest or something now.
 

darent

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skied SL on Friday and Saturday, excellent conditions and good cover. king pine was down on windhold Friday but opened on Saturday,. spent the previous 4 days at sunday river, two nice warm days and two frigid days, good cover excellent sow conditions. Barker chair was down all week and don"t know if it opened on Friday as we left and went to SL
 

machski

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skied SL on Friday and Saturday, excellent conditions and good cover. king pine was down on windhold Friday but opened on Saturday,. spent the previous 4 days at sunday river, two nice warm days and two frigid days, good cover excellent sow conditions. Barker chair was down all week and don"t know if it opened on Friday as we left and went to SL
Barker reopened Thursday around noon. All main lifts should be running this weekend at SR. Still great coverage on the mountain in glades/natural trails.

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tnt1234

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Well, it's not gonna work out for me...sesasons over. Rack coming off the car this weekend.
 

prsboogie

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Really, should at least hit SoVT this weekend man, big rain event coming 😉


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tnt1234

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Really, should at least hit SoVT this weekend man, big rain event coming ��


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The ME thing - which wasn't ski related - fell through. Shit ton of things on the schedule for the weekend....BUT! suddenly there is an outside chance of saturday clearing upper a quick shot to the catskills!

Rack is staying on!!!!

(pretty slim chance, but we'll see!)

God I love ski season!
 

Edd

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I've called out a ski area or two on Twitter when the snow report is bogus. First world problems, to be sure but sometimes I make a last minute call where to go so accurate reports shouldn't be too much to ask.
 

nkLottery

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I love both of these mountains but time and time again I draw the conclusion that Sunday River has the worst snow reporting in the entire industry
 
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