Attitash - 3/11/06

[badskier]

Date(s) Skied: 3/11/06

Resort or Ski Area: Attitash

Conditions: Wet Snow, groomed in the morning, kudos to ASC for keeping the trails in good condition despite the whacked out weather we've been having.

Trip Report:

We drove up last night to be able to get to Attitash at 8:00am, which we did. Parked at Bear mountain because its much easier to get to the lifts than parking at Attitash. Went up the quad, started off on Morning Star to Snow Dancer - nice and groomed - and skied over to Attitash. We then went up the #3 triple to the summit and skied Saco down through Ammonoosuc a few times and warmed up nicely, so next it was on to Tightrope. What a great run - probably the best of the entire day: there were very few people on the trail, and it was still nice and smooth and groomed - no bumps had formed yet. After Tightrope, we did a run down Upper and middle Ptarmigan and then took the Northwest passage back to Bear mountain.

We decided to take a break round about then, sat down and chilled for a little, and then back up the bear mountain quad to Illusion - by this time (about lunchtime), there were a number of bumps, so we took it much slower than earlier in the day. Next up was Avenger - as we were going up, the lift stopped and were stuck on it for about 20 minutes (electrical problem), and then they fired up the generator and we made it to the summit whereupon we were given discount passes to Attitash (very cool of them!) and sadly they had to close the quad, so we managed to get one run down Avenger - challenging, and hard on the thighs, but fun.

We took a run down Kachina as well, but the top part was very thin snow and I just managed to avoid some rather large rocks - don't want to trash the almost-new skis quite yet. Then back to Attitash for a run down Wilfred's Gawm and it was time to head back to the parking lot because our legs were pretty much trashed.

All in all, a great day of spring skiing.

 

[MichaelJ]

I was at Attitash all weekend (I'll post a full TR later). You were there the better day, I think; Saturday was soft while Sunday was soft and sticky. 2 members of our group were also stuck on the chair; we fared better, though, as we did the opposite of you; we took 2 runs on Attitash in the morning then took off to Bear Peak, so we got in a ton of runs before the lift problem, and afterwards just went back to the Attitash side and got a late lunch.

Avenger was, indeed, sweet.

 

[kickstand]

I was at Attitash on Sunday as well. Only skied until about noon, but it was pretty sweet. Runs of the day (or morning, at least):

Attitash - Ptarmigan
Bear Peak - Mythmaker

 

[MichaelJ]

Mythmaker was open? I looked from the bottom of the Abenaki Quad and saw only grass.

 

[kickstand]

you were looking at the lower part. It was open all the way down to Tilt/Pinball Alley. If you took the Abenaki Quad up, it goes right over the top of Mythmaker.

 

[MichaelJ]

Dang. We were coming from the summit quad and so I missed the top turnoff. Then I looked at the bottom and assumed that I hadn't missed it, that it was just closed the whole way.

Oh, well. Wandering Skis, Illusion, and Avenger more than made up for it.

 

[kickstand]

to hit the top of Mythmaker from the summit quad, you'd have to take Kachina Falls down. There were markers noting it was ungroomed, but it really wasn't that bad. Can see how you'd miss it, though. Illusion was a close #2 behind Mythmaker, though. I just liked the small bumps that started to form around 11:30.

 

[Terry]

I was theren sunday as well. Skied till about 130. Had a great time, everything softened up nicely. The summit triple stopped a lot of times though.Mythmaker was fun, as was tims trauma, and idiots option.

 

[BLESS]

that summit triple is a complete disaster. When Are they gonna upgrade that?

 

[kickstand]

they've been talking about it for years, but don't hold your breath. Even though it is 11 or 12 minutes to the summit, it does a good job of controlling skier traffic. When you only have 2 ways off of 1 summit, a slow lift helps spread out the people. The way those trails are cut is a recipe for disaster with a high-speed quad. Plus, the Forest Service controls the top half of the mountain. I bet there is a ton of red tape to go thru to get anything done, if they were going to replace it.

 

[AdironRider]

While I agree that the ride up the triple can be long and painful sometimes the mt would be a complete mess. The trails off the summit arent wide and couldnt handle any major mass of people.

 

[Terry]

I agree. The ride isn't all that bad but sunday it stopped 3 or 4 times everytime we were on it. Don't know if it was mechanical problems or just inexperienced riders. Any time else this year it hasn't stopped like that. I don't think that those trails can handle anymore uphill capacity.

 

[AdironRider]

Especially those tight double blacks, I feel crowded out with 3 people on those trails.