Date(s) Skied:
3/11/06 - 3/12/06
Resort or Ski Area:
Attitash / Bear Peak
Conditions:
Icy mornings, soft spring skiing afternoons. Puddles at the lifts. Some mashed potatoes on Sunday. Overall, excellent spring skiing; mostly softness and bumps, not really loose granular at all.
Trip Report:
This was my first trip to Attitash, so I went in with absolutely no expectations at all, and walked out on Sunday very pleased with the resort. This was a fun mountain to ski, with a lot of nice variety.
The whole trip started out Friday night at the Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing Company in North Conway. Any ski weekend that includes smoked pork loin and a stellar pint of porter is going to be a good weekend.
Saturday morning my first run was off the quad, heading over to Inside Out, just to get warmed up, judge everyone's skill level, and feel the conditions, which were scratchy in the shade but easily edgeable with a good grip. We then headed for the summit triple, and Saco to Ammonoosuc to Lower Cathedral was similar in the shady spots, but the sunny corners you could tell would soften and bump up later in the day.
We heard that the place to be was Bear Mountain, and from the lift it was clear that those wide, beautiful trails were toasting in the sun (clear, sunny, temps in the 30's to low 40's), so we took Northwest Passage over, which was also in fine condition, and went through the pass and up the Abenaki Quad. We didn't want to end up on the flats leading in from Snow Dancer again, so we took Cubs Cut to Bearfoot, which were starting to feel like a loose cover but not a soft base, and weren't seeing a lot of traffic (presumably due to the isolated nature of the quad) and made our way to the Flying Bear Quad.
We'd spend the next several hours there, running Wandering Skis, Illusion, and Avenger, all of which had soft cover, a firm base, and some beautiful natural bumps in the upper sections (particularly the short steep stretch from the top of the quad to where WS crosses Illusion). It wasn't loose granular, and it wasn't mashed potatoes. It wasn't winter, either. It was just soft on top and formed into firm bumps. The weather was perfect and we didn't mind waiting in lines about 5-10 minutes at their worst at the quad.
Some folks took a lunch break, others continued skiing, pretty much repeating the same trails over and over.
Around early afternoon was the breakdown of the Flying Bear quad. We waited for our friends who were stuck on it to come down, but in fact they'd made their way to the other side past us. We finally gave up waiting and by utter chance found them at the top of the Kachina Triple, and from there started an up-and-down traverse back to the Attitash side for the rest of us to have lunch.
Being much busier and not as sunny, the Attitash side had more spots where the trail was scratched off, and looser unset bumps, as well as more people. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as fun, and with our sore legs after just two summit runs, I and a friend headed for Moat while a couple others headed for Grandstand. It was ungroomed and the intermediate moguls were ... challenging ... but fun, and, well, would be a bit of inspiration the next day. A very yummy dinner at Café Noche topped Saturday off.
Sunday I could tell would start off interesting, since the cars had frost on their windshields in the morning. That would mean a refreeze and plenty of ice. We took a friend who hadn't skied in 7 years up the green slope, and started out with an icy crust, not slippery but rough and with a good enough grab to be sorta-carveable. She aced it, so we immediately went back up to the Attitash summit to come down the Saco-Ammonoosuc-Lower Cathedral route. Because I couldn't say no again, after resisting all of Saturday, I went down Idiot's Option, which was very steep but smooth and consistent, and while it was a wicked scratcher the whole way, it was quite fun. We then went back up top and took Northwest Passage to Far Out and over through Bear Notch Pass to Bear Peak.
The clouds remained, which probably was a good thing since under the warm temps we didn't just get soft and piles like Saturday, but mashed potatoes, the kind that can grab, that you have to hit but can't scrape at all. We did a lot of runs over there, starting with Snow Dancer to Cub's Cut to Bearfoot and over to the main quad. I scoped out the harder trails while others did Wandering Skis, and eventually we all did Illusion and Avenger, both of which had nice bumps and in spite of everything else about the spring conditions were wonderful rides.
We hung out on Bear Peak all morning into the afternoon, even doing the shorter Trillium and Moonbeam runs, until finally hunger caught up, and so a final run down Snow Dancer brought us back through the pass to Attitash. At that point, two of our four ended for the day, while one expert skier friend came with me on my glorious expedition down Grandstand. Yeah, the black diamond mogul field. What was I thinking - yikes! That
thing kicked my butt but I got down (my friend had no problems - @#$%!). At that point I just wanted one last sweet run, so he and I went up to the top and did the Saco-Ammonoosuc-Lower Cathedral run one more time. It was scratched off in the middle and soft on the edges, with sticky mashed down low, but still emminently skiable.
At that point, I was done for the day, so after I did a classic hiker-style clothes-changing in the parking lot, it was up to a deserted Ptarmigan lounge while one friend stayed out on the trails. We got to enjoy pulled pork and steak & cheese subs, lotsa fries, fantastic Maine Root root beer, and a comfy couch before going our separate ways. That lounge is a beautiful space; too bad it's done up with such cafeteria-style tables and chairs. Is it a mob scene midwinter?
Next year, I'm definitely going back and tearing up that whole mountain. While it was wonderful for spring skiing, there are some trails there that I'm itching to try with "real" snow.
3/11/06 - 3/12/06
Resort or Ski Area:
Attitash / Bear Peak
Conditions:
Icy mornings, soft spring skiing afternoons. Puddles at the lifts. Some mashed potatoes on Sunday. Overall, excellent spring skiing; mostly softness and bumps, not really loose granular at all.
Trip Report:
This was my first trip to Attitash, so I went in with absolutely no expectations at all, and walked out on Sunday very pleased with the resort. This was a fun mountain to ski, with a lot of nice variety.
The whole trip started out Friday night at the Moat Mountain Smokehouse & Brewing Company in North Conway. Any ski weekend that includes smoked pork loin and a stellar pint of porter is going to be a good weekend.
Saturday morning my first run was off the quad, heading over to Inside Out, just to get warmed up, judge everyone's skill level, and feel the conditions, which were scratchy in the shade but easily edgeable with a good grip. We then headed for the summit triple, and Saco to Ammonoosuc to Lower Cathedral was similar in the shady spots, but the sunny corners you could tell would soften and bump up later in the day.
We heard that the place to be was Bear Mountain, and from the lift it was clear that those wide, beautiful trails were toasting in the sun (clear, sunny, temps in the 30's to low 40's), so we took Northwest Passage over, which was also in fine condition, and went through the pass and up the Abenaki Quad. We didn't want to end up on the flats leading in from Snow Dancer again, so we took Cubs Cut to Bearfoot, which were starting to feel like a loose cover but not a soft base, and weren't seeing a lot of traffic (presumably due to the isolated nature of the quad) and made our way to the Flying Bear Quad.
We'd spend the next several hours there, running Wandering Skis, Illusion, and Avenger, all of which had soft cover, a firm base, and some beautiful natural bumps in the upper sections (particularly the short steep stretch from the top of the quad to where WS crosses Illusion). It wasn't loose granular, and it wasn't mashed potatoes. It wasn't winter, either. It was just soft on top and formed into firm bumps. The weather was perfect and we didn't mind waiting in lines about 5-10 minutes at their worst at the quad.
Some folks took a lunch break, others continued skiing, pretty much repeating the same trails over and over.
Around early afternoon was the breakdown of the Flying Bear quad. We waited for our friends who were stuck on it to come down, but in fact they'd made their way to the other side past us. We finally gave up waiting and by utter chance found them at the top of the Kachina Triple, and from there started an up-and-down traverse back to the Attitash side for the rest of us to have lunch.Being much busier and not as sunny, the Attitash side had more spots where the trail was scratched off, and looser unset bumps, as well as more people. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't as fun, and with our sore legs after just two summit runs, I and a friend headed for Moat while a couple others headed for Grandstand. It was ungroomed and the intermediate moguls were ... challenging ... but fun, and, well, would be a bit of inspiration the next day. A very yummy dinner at Café Noche topped Saturday off.
Sunday I could tell would start off interesting, since the cars had frost on their windshields in the morning. That would mean a refreeze and plenty of ice. We took a friend who hadn't skied in 7 years up the green slope, and started out with an icy crust, not slippery but rough and with a good enough grab to be sorta-carveable. She aced it, so we immediately went back up to the Attitash summit to come down the Saco-Ammonoosuc-Lower Cathedral route. Because I couldn't say no again, after resisting all of Saturday, I went down Idiot's Option, which was very steep but smooth and consistent, and while it was a wicked scratcher the whole way, it was quite fun. We then went back up top and took Northwest Passage to Far Out and over through Bear Notch Pass to Bear Peak.
The clouds remained, which probably was a good thing since under the warm temps we didn't just get soft and piles like Saturday, but mashed potatoes, the kind that can grab, that you have to hit but can't scrape at all. We did a lot of runs over there, starting with Snow Dancer to Cub's Cut to Bearfoot and over to the main quad. I scoped out the harder trails while others did Wandering Skis, and eventually we all did Illusion and Avenger, both of which had nice bumps and in spite of everything else about the spring conditions were wonderful rides.
We hung out on Bear Peak all morning into the afternoon, even doing the shorter Trillium and Moonbeam runs, until finally hunger caught up, and so a final run down Snow Dancer brought us back through the pass to Attitash. At that point, two of our four ended for the day, while one expert skier friend came with me on my glorious expedition down Grandstand. Yeah, the black diamond mogul field. What was I thinking - yikes! That
thing kicked my butt but I got down (my friend had no problems - @#$%!). At that point I just wanted one last sweet run, so he and I went up to the top and did the Saco-Ammonoosuc-Lower Cathedral run one more time. It was scratched off in the middle and soft on the edges, with sticky mashed down low, but still emminently skiable.
At that point, I was done for the day, so after I did a classic hiker-style clothes-changing in the parking lot, it was up to a deserted Ptarmigan lounge while one friend stayed out on the trails. We got to enjoy pulled pork and steak & cheese subs, lotsa fries, fantastic Maine Root root beer, and a comfy couch before going our separate ways. That lounge is a beautiful space; too bad it's done up with such cafeteria-style tables and chairs. Is it a mob scene midwinter?
Next year, I'm definitely going back and tearing up that whole mountain. While it was wonderful for spring skiing, there are some trails there that I'm itching to try with "real" snow.
