granite
Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2013
- Messages
- 213
- Points
- 16
Wanting to ski at different mountains this winter I decided not to buy a Cannon pass this year as normal. After an extremely busy 3 month period of working very long hours I finally made it out for day number one on Saturday. I wanted someplace close and easy for the first day so I arrived at Ragged Mountain, an easy one hour drive from my home, to about a half inch of fluff covering the mountain. I purchased a lift ticket for $39 and was able to sneak onto the lift at 8:15 am, 15 minutes before they officially opened for my first turns of the year. The Ridge Run was open and groomed from top to bottom, the half inch of snow made for very nice conditions on the run which held up well the entire four hours I skied. The run of the day though was the skiers right of Wild Side, their terrain park slope. The snow guns on the opposite side blew enough snow across the slope to cover the far side which had not been groomed. There were tiny whale backs, some little bumps and the snow was soft and creamy with the half inch of snow. As far as I was concerned, this was the best skiing on the mountain even though I only saw about 5 others skiing and riding it the entire time I was there. I began having a little boot problem around my right heel to the point that I decided to call it a day after 4 hours. My legs and lower back were starting to feel it too so I’m not too disappointed that I quit so early. For après ski I headed to the second floor bar inside the Barn Lodge that has a huge wood burning fire place open on three sides. I ordered a very tasty pint of Czech Pilsner for a mere two dollars, maybe the best bargain ever for an on mountain ski bar. Overall, I was pretty satisfied with the Rag, especially considering what all the ski areas have had to deal with this winter. Lift lines were not a problem, never more than a few minutes as I was skiing alone and the slopes were not too crowded or dangerous. I was contemplating going to Killington but I wasn’t up for a longer drive as I drive so much during the week for work. I was also worried about the crowds, which according to other reports here were very bad. In addition, the challenging Beast would have whipped me, but now that I’ve got some ski legs going I’ll be better prepared in my attempt to slay the Beast later this month and hoping for more snow, lifts and terrain to spread out the maddening crowd.
