AZ Summit at Sugarloaf: 3/25 - 3/28

thetrailboss said:

I give you probably the happiest man at Sugarloaf:

LADY'S MAN!!!!

And the one under his right arm just appeared in SKIING magazine's segment on the Widowmaker.

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Lame. He's not wearing his AZ creds. :razz:

Nice work snowmonster! :beer:

WJenness said:

Still kicking myself for not going to the Rustic Overtones show...

I was so tired, but I should have just sucked it up and gone... All reports are that a great time was had.

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+1. We barely made it through dinner.....

Thank you very much to Alpinezone and the Alpinezone community -- Greg and the mods, my roommates who had to put up with me (wa-loaf, 03Jeff, and Paul), trailboss and (Mrs.) trailboss for the company and all thirty of you for all the great conversation and skiing! This has to be my best trip to the Loaf ever.

Thanks also to Brad and Ethan for putting this all together and giving us the royal treatment. I shared a chair with Brad and enjoyed the information he shared about the ski industry and the Loaf's plans moving forward. All I can say is that it looks like a good year ahead for the Loaf and early vacation planning will be useful and more financially rewarding.

I skied until about 330 on Sunday. From the time we started at 730 until I got off the mountain, I experienced the whole range of weather conditions -- sunny bluebird, dark and raw, then overcast with the sun peeking out. Good days at the Loaf. It was mid-winter up there, especially mid-day when it resembled January. Not a brown spot on the ground and, if they make it through this storm, it looks like we'll be sking into May.

Thanks again! I look forward to the next summit -- and to skiing and riding with some of you fine folks in the near future.

Some pics from Day 2 (Sunday):

Three views from first tracks at King's Landing:




The weather rolling in (literally) as we crossed Spillway into Gondi at around 930:


Mid-day weather with all upper lifts (King Pine, Timberline, Spillway) shut. Superquad was open for lapping:


End of the day run on King's Landing:


The "infamous sign" at Gepetto's. Dem's fightin' words for Sunday River fans!

Some of my pics:

"Oh My Gosh" Corner:



Access Road:



Saturday:



Gondi Line First Thing on Saturday:





Roark, wjenness, and wlopowski peer down White Nitro:

snowmonster on White Nitro:



wlopowski on White Nitro...Sugarloafer since 1986!



From the NEK and snowmonster doing recon on Flume:



The boys on Timberline:



All smiles on Narrow Gauge:

Greg said:

Lame. He's not wearing his AZ creds. :razz:

Nice work snowmonster! :beer:

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OMG, I can't believe TB posted this. And, TB, that was SKI magazine.

Greg, my bad. I'll bring my AZ creds next time I see her. =)

snowmonster said:

OMG, I can't believe TB posted this. And, TB, that was SKI magazine.

Greg, my bad. I'll bring my AZ creds next time I see her. =)

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Could not resist....

thetrailboss said:

Some of my pics:

"Oh My Gosh" Corner:

Access Road:

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Best view of a ski area as you drive there that I've ever been to.

snowmonster said:

Three views from first tracks at King's Landing:

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That may have been my favorite run on a groomer ever... It was absolutely perfect.

I chased WoodCore and SkiBum9995 down and tried to mimic their movements and I felt like my carving got WAY better from that one run alone.

-w

Weekend recap.

I'll try to keep this brief, but I suspect it will still be quite long.

Left CT a bit after 8 am on Thursday. Hauled ass up to Maine. Only stopped twice to fill up and get lunch. Made it to Sugarloaf in a bit under 6 hours. Not bad! Roads were clear, relatively traffic-free, even through Hartford, and it was actually quite a pleasant day for a long drive. As I finally saw the backside of Sugarloaf, I thought for a moment the backside snow fields might have softened enough to open. It turned out Timberline wasn't even open so no luck there.

I think by the time I parked the car and got skiing, it was only 2:15. Two laps off the Superquad, then onto Spillway and eventually King Pine where I spent the rest of the day. Like I said earlier, amazing how many conditions I found on a single run. Happy to get on lower Misery Whip and even the first 2/3 of Ripsaw. Finished up around 4 pm. Got checked in, had a Bag burger and some beers and took a walk around the base area. It was still warm in the evening. I was in bed by around 9 pm.

Woke up to a much colder Saturday as expected. I got out and was skiing by 8:45. COLD. Not used to cold weather after all the spring weather we had. Cruised for an hour and a half, then took an hour long break waiting for the sun to come out fully. Skied for another hour or so and then grabbed lunch at Gepetto's. After lunch, I got to meet Brad finally and we took a bunch of runs. After we scoped Winter's Way we both agreed a fun race through the gates was a better option for Saturday. Skied a few more runs after Brad left, and around 3:45, I got off the hill and got checked into the mod condo.

TTB and wlopowski were the first to arrive, followed soon by DHS, the Viberts and JimG. We all got settled and had a few beers. Hit up Gepetto's again for an awesome dinner with Jim, Ryan, Brian and Carrie. We then went to the welcome party and enjoyed many beers and drinks with the other AZers. Staggered out of there around midnight, and capped the night off with a foot race up Mountainside road against DHS. :lol: I let him win.

DHS saved us all the next morning by whipping up an awesome breakfast of eggs, bacon, and coffee on Saturday morning. Thanks again. Heading out early for additional breakfast supplies was very nice of you. After the food intake I was feeling human again. We all got out for the planned 9:30 am meet-up by the Superquad. The pics above kinda tell the story there. The groomed trail skiing was much improved on Saturday. Bluebird day with amazing views. Cool but virtually no wind. Lunch with a few of the guys at Bullwinkles was great! My favorite runs were on Gondi Line and the Sheer Boom bumps. Skidder was interesting, but after 2 and half days of skiing groomers, I had trouble getting the feet working the way they needed to. Amazing how hot I got after that one run. Helmet off on the lift.

Finished the Saturday ski day a bit before 4 pm. We decided to get out of the ski clothes for the apres party. Then went to the Widowmaker loft and enjoyed chatting with everyone about the day. It was a lot of fun skiing with all of you. I think we were all pretty compatible skiers, and we all ripped those groomers. In a weird way, the mostly groomer-only ski conditions kept more of us together. Cool to have the bump nuts skiing with the carver guys and trees/back/slackcountry guys most of the day. I was pretty cooked though. Lots of fast vert. Presented WodCore with his Golden Mouse. We all then dispersed. A few of us decided to get Bag burgers as take-out for dinner. Good move. Some Sailor Jerry's after dinner and then a few of us headed to the base lodge for the Rustic Overtones. WoodCore was on fire and having a blast. I kept telling myself "one more song" but the RO were awesome and Jon, Carrie and I stayed til the end. Got back to the condo a bit before midnight and watched the fire die out for a half hour before heading to bed.

Slept great, got up early and got ready for first tracks. Not sure about anyone else, but I was surprised just how cool that was. It kinda made us feel "special" being able to ski on while the masses waited in line. Plus the fresh cord was awesome (did I just day that? ). Sometime, around 9:30 am, it was like someone shut the lights off on us. After, 3 days of predominantly bluebird skiing, that flat light really screwed me up. I decided to get a jump on the drive home. After saying goodbye to several AZers at King Pine and then to Jim, Ryan and the Viberts at the condo, I was off at about 10:20. Easy drive home. Seemed quick, but I didn't get home until 5:30 due to a stop at Guitar Center in Manchester, CT to buy a new guitar (yay for me!).

Anyway, great to meet some new people and I really enjoyed skiing with all of you. Railing groomers for four days is not usually my thing, but I honestly enjoyed all that speed and vert, and the snow was really pretty much perfect for that. I still can't carve for crap, but it was fun trying. WoodCore is an absolute pleasure to watch ski, but really everyone was ripping. I have to admit looking at the strip club bumps on Winter's Way, Bubblecuffer, Ripsaw and Misery Whip was painful, but at least we got on some ungroomed on Skidder and Sheer Boom. I would like to again thank all of you for making the journey up there. The AlpineZone Summit was a huge success. Thank you Brad and Ethan again!

Told you I would be brief... :roll:

WJenness said:

That may have been my favorite run on a groomer ever... It was absolutely perfect.

I chased WoodCore and SkiBum9995 down and tried to mimic their movements and I felt like my carving got WAY better from that one run alone.

-w

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That's awesome. That run with most of us on King's Landing was a damn fun run.

Awesome pics and TR guys! Looks like a really really good time. :beer:

Good time this weekend. Couldn't ask for better roomies (well, except for my girls) and the skiing was much better than anticipated. Being the terminal upper intermediate I wasn't too concerned about bumps or anything, but it was cool checking-out a new place. I can now see what all the hubub is about. Definitely working on plans to bring the fam there next season.

A few things...

Greg, you're just jealous that you missed the shower. It was a mind-scrambler.

Despite the rumors, there were no moon landings.

Snowmonster is one smoooooth operator

Those were some great appetizer spreads, but Sev's Whoopie pies trumped them.

Need to add Wi-Fi to the condos, maybe a cell repeater, those buildings were like Faraday cages.

Woodcore has no nerve endings in his head. Amazing.

Paul said:

A few things...

Greg, you're just jealous that you missed the shower. It was a mind-scrambler.

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:lol: I should really fill everyone in on the shower thing, but it's funnier not...

Paul said:

Despite the rumors, there were no moon landings.

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I'm not gonna even ask.

Paul said:

Snowmonster is one smoooooth operator

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Indeed. Please invite us to the wedding, Martin.

Paul said:

Those were some great appetizer spreads, but Sev's Whoopie pies trumped them.

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I just realized I didn't have a whoopie pie all weekend, but I've had them before, and can concur...

Paul said:

Need to add Wi-Fi to the condos, maybe a cell repeater, those buildings were like Faraday cages.

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My cell phone totally freaked on me up there. It seemed to jump to central time zone for no apparent reason....

Paul said:

Woodcore has no nerve endings in his head. Amazing.

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No kidding. :lol: I've never seen anything like that in all my life. I'm still convinced he's a cyborg.

thetrailboss said:

I give you probably the happiest man at Sugarloaf:

LADY'S MAN!!!!

And the one under his right arm just appeared in SKIING magazine's segment on the Widowmaker.

Click to expand...

BTW, this needs to become SM's avatar. :lol:

severine said:

:lol: Awesome!


I think that's when I was texting trying to figure out where wa-loaf, o3jeff, and Paul were.

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We were right behind you

o3jeff said:

We were right behind you

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You freaked me out when you texted just as I texted you! Were you spying on me? :lol:

Paul said:

Those were some great appetizer spreads, but Sev's Whoopie pies trumped them.

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Aww....thanks!

Greg said:

I just realized I didn't have a whoopie pie all weekend, but I've had them before, and can concur...

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Should have sent the remaining 5 home with you!

Paul said:

Need to add Wi-Fi to the condos, maybe a cell repeater, those buildings were like Faraday cages.

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Agreed! I had a hard time getting a connection and kept losing it. Of course, that just made the perfect excuse for not working on my research paper...

Paul said:

Woodcore has no nerve endings in his head. Amazing.

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I am amazed! I can't believe there's a photo of him wearing a hat on Friday but he didn't wear one Sat or Sun! It was COLD!!!!

Paul said:

Need to add Wi-Fi to the condos, maybe a cell repeater, those buildings were like Faraday cages.

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I think it's a way to bring more money into the Widowmaker. Besides the hot waitresses, the free wifi there was good for catching up on emails. We might not have spent so much time there without it.

severine said:

I am amazed! I can't believe there's a photo of him wearing a hat on Friday but he didn't wear one Sat or Sun! It was COLD!!!!

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It was much colder on Friday than Sat or even Sunday when the weather turned. He still didn't have it covering his ears.

I had a great time and was nice to meet and ski with some new people and the old ones as well. A big thanks to Sugarloaf, Brad, Ethan, Greg and the Widowmaker bar for all the did for us(and for putting up with us :grin: ).

Look forward to hitting SL next year and hopefully another AZ Summit.

PS: Greg, maybe we can do the shower thing after biking sometimes....)