Black Mountain Of Maine 3-02-08

[loafer89]

Area skied: Black Mountain Of Maine

Date skied: March 2nd, 2008 from 10:00am - 2:00pm

Surface conditions: Windblown loose powder, packed powder, machine groomed.

Weather: Sunshine and gusty winds throughout the day, 23F at 10:00am, 28F at 2:00pm.

Today was an interesting day and before I can go on with the conditions at Black Mountain I have to explain how we got there. We started our day leaving our hotel in Rumford Center at 7:30 and arrived to the Grand Jordan at 8:00am to a near whiteout with a snow Squall and 20-30mph wind gusts.

Warren and I booted up and marched up to the Grand Jordan to discover that only the South Ridge area had any lifts operating:angry: and winds where too high for any other lifts at that time. After a quick call to Black Mountain to ensure full operation we were on our way back to Rumford again:blink:. About 1 mile above Martin Lane on the access road, traffic leaving Sunday River came to a total stop for about 15 minutes due to a flipped over car blocking one lane, so far so go for our ski day.

We arrived to a near windless Black Mountain and booted up and paid $46 for the two of us which is very cheap for a mountain with a modern triple chair (2005) and 1,150' of vertical.

Our first run of the day was down Piscataquis/Penobscot/Kennebago which make up a top to bottom run with all natural snow. Conditions ranged from cut up powder to boot deep fluff and we had alot of fun:

We skied Upper Androscoggin next which is the main top to bottom run on the mountain and it follows the fall line under the summit Triple Chair. We took this down to the Webb trail which is a short, but powder filled black trail:

Overall we took in 11 top to bottom runs in three hours time with non existent lift lines and plenty of packed powder on every trail.

Black Mountain:

 

[salsgang]

Thanks for the report. Too bad you had such a tough start - but you got some skiing in anyway. I was wondering what Black was like and now I know. Looks like fun!

 

[loafer89]

We had a great powder day yesterday, so you have to take the good with the bad. I was only a bit upset at having to backtrack back to Rumford, but we still had a good time.

Black mountain is a family mountain with nothing too steep or flat, more of an intermediate cruising type mountain. The base lodge is beautiful and the parking lot is 100% paved.

 

[klrskiah]

Glad you guys had a good day at black! Libra foundation did an awesome job with that place.

The morning was pretty sketchy at the river, the wind was ripping, trucks on their roofs:blink:, insane lines at south ridge, but around 1130 the wind died and everything but white cap opened up, no lines and powdah everywhere

 

[loafer89]

Glad you guys had a good day at black! Libra foundation did an awesome job with that place.

The morning was pretty sketchy at the river, the wind was ripping, trucks on their roofs:blink:, insane lines at south ridge, but around 1130 the wind died and everything but white cap opened up, no lines and powdah everywhere

I just could not wait 3 1/2 hours for more mountain to open up, especially on a sunday when we had to get an early start home,, so we left and went to Black. I have been there before and I know it is a lower elevation mountain than most of Sunday River and likely not affected by winds and I was right.