Date(s) Skied: Sunday, 1/17/2010
Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain
Conditions: Packed soft snow, not quite corn, but spring like
Trip Report:
I decided to take route 4 and New Canada road instead of 104 today. This is almost 20 miles shorter and is definitely the fastest way. Even getting caught behind some slow pokes, it was 10 minutes faster than normal. New Canada Road is perfectly fine to travel in a FWD sedan if you have decent tires. I'm sure in the spring it should be avoided, but this will be my route during mid-winter.
I typically get there around 9 and have been in the front parking lot every time so far this year. Today, I was in the one just across the street, which is still very convenient. They did use all of their parking lots and had a line of cars parked down the road.
After hearing how busy yesterday was and how skied off it got, I wasn't expecting things to be so great. Today was also quite busy, but if 10 minutes in the singles line for the 6 pack and ski right on in the singles line for the Triple is as busy as it gets, you won't hear me complaining. Snow skied beautifully from start to finish. A couple of minor scratchy areas, but I thought the snow was great.
Met up with 2knees for a couple of runs and got to meet his wife and two cute little girls who were taking a lesson before skiing with their dad. Best bumps on the mountain right now are Reggae Glades. While not 'stellar', they're fun enough. A few Ski Patrolers were on the trail and were impressed with 2knees, shouting to 'eat em up'. Bumps on Birches will need significant snow and traffic to build up.
Glades on Spear are boney and in need of snow, but I for one am glad they're open. If you're not quick on your feet, yes you'll damage your boards, but for me that's part of the challenge of skiing woods. Guns were lined up Showboat, so hopefully that gets going for next weekend. If they seeded that trail, I think it could be one of the better bump runs in New Hampshire. Hope Bob Fries is a lurker and reading this.
Had one casualty today. Threw a twister off a water bar and spun out of my binding. If my brother didn't have my camera I'd show a picture, but I have the Rossi/Look PX bindings and the heel piece is now past vertical. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. Was a bitch skiing down on one ski and I was glad I had a second set of skis in the car.
For the first time that I've noticed this season, the Discovery Center was open. It was great to see the master plan. The woman working it said what many others have and that the plan is a HSQ for Spear next season. They hope to start building some single family homes up on Spear as well. Pinnacle peak development is probably 5 years off. Ambitious plans though with about 100 more acres of skiing and 2 or 3 lifts. Pinnacle's summit is a bit higher and the base a bit lower, so it will probably ski a couple hundred feet of vert bigger than the main mountain. One idea they're kicking around is cutting some of the planned glades on Pinnacle and offering cat skiing in the coming years to give people a taste of what's to come. Very cool. They really need to take a few pages out of the Saddleback handbook and plaster their website with all of their plans. It might help generate interest in the Real Estate they need to sell to fund the ski area expansion.
Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain
Conditions: Packed soft snow, not quite corn, but spring like
Trip Report:
I decided to take route 4 and New Canada road instead of 104 today. This is almost 20 miles shorter and is definitely the fastest way. Even getting caught behind some slow pokes, it was 10 minutes faster than normal. New Canada Road is perfectly fine to travel in a FWD sedan if you have decent tires. I'm sure in the spring it should be avoided, but this will be my route during mid-winter.
I typically get there around 9 and have been in the front parking lot every time so far this year. Today, I was in the one just across the street, which is still very convenient. They did use all of their parking lots and had a line of cars parked down the road.
After hearing how busy yesterday was and how skied off it got, I wasn't expecting things to be so great. Today was also quite busy, but if 10 minutes in the singles line for the 6 pack and ski right on in the singles line for the Triple is as busy as it gets, you won't hear me complaining. Snow skied beautifully from start to finish. A couple of minor scratchy areas, but I thought the snow was great.
Met up with 2knees for a couple of runs and got to meet his wife and two cute little girls who were taking a lesson before skiing with their dad. Best bumps on the mountain right now are Reggae Glades. While not 'stellar', they're fun enough. A few Ski Patrolers were on the trail and were impressed with 2knees, shouting to 'eat em up'. Bumps on Birches will need significant snow and traffic to build up.
Glades on Spear are boney and in need of snow, but I for one am glad they're open. If you're not quick on your feet, yes you'll damage your boards, but for me that's part of the challenge of skiing woods. Guns were lined up Showboat, so hopefully that gets going for next weekend. If they seeded that trail, I think it could be one of the better bump runs in New Hampshire. Hope Bob Fries is a lurker and reading this.
Had one casualty today. Threw a twister off a water bar and spun out of my binding. If my brother didn't have my camera I'd show a picture, but I have the Rossi/Look PX bindings and the heel piece is now past vertical. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. Was a bitch skiing down on one ski and I was glad I had a second set of skis in the car.
For the first time that I've noticed this season, the Discovery Center was open. It was great to see the master plan. The woman working it said what many others have and that the plan is a HSQ for Spear next season. They hope to start building some single family homes up on Spear as well. Pinnacle peak development is probably 5 years off. Ambitious plans though with about 100 more acres of skiing and 2 or 3 lifts. Pinnacle's summit is a bit higher and the base a bit lower, so it will probably ski a couple hundred feet of vert bigger than the main mountain. One idea they're kicking around is cutting some of the planned glades on Pinnacle and offering cat skiing in the coming years to give people a taste of what's to come. Very cool. They really need to take a few pages out of the Saddleback handbook and plaster their website with all of their plans. It might help generate interest in the Real Estate they need to sell to fund the ski area expansion.
