Date(s) Skied: Saturday, January 9th, 2010
Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain
Conditions: Perfect Packed Powder on the Groomers, Nice wind loaded fluff on the Natural Trails
Trip Report:
Rolled into Ragged this morning at 8:45 and thought I had been transplanted to one of the more popular areas in NH. 12 Buses of kids were up from Boston for a race and the lodge was completely packed. Was a challenge to find a place to sit and boot up, but I welcome the business there; anything that puts money in the bank towards a HSQ on Spear or developing Pinnacle Peak.
I figured today would be spent primarily on groomers and started with a run down Exhibition to warm up. The grooming at Ragged this season has been very impressive. I'm sure part of it has to do with the lack of traffic to beat up the trails, but it really has been as good as I've witnessed anywhere I've been in 25 years of New England skiing. 2nd run I decided to hit Birches, which is probably my favorite trail open right now. On Monday some smaller bumps were forming and I fully expected to be skiing a fairly wind scoured trail with erratic bumps. Nope, not wind scoured, wind loaded.
The mini bumps from Monday were essentially 90% filled in with beautiful soft fluff that in some places got to 5-6 inches deep. Sweet! Seeing this I headed over to Spear to check out Tree Hugger Glades. Pretty well filled in in there as well outside of the luge track exit. I ended up doing the three variations over there and lots of other people caught on as well and it was completely tracked out. So, went back to the main mountain and checked out Reggae Glades. It didn't look promising as the what you could see from the entrance was boiler plate. Went for it anyway and once over the ridge it was again beautiful blown in pow, especially left side. In places I was getting in up to the top boot buckle. It was me and the ski patrol in there having a blast as well. Sweepstakes also was wind loaded, though not as deep as Reggae.
Run of the day for me was definitely Birches. By 11 bumps were starting to form pretty good. They're fairly erratic with lines only lasting 5 or 6 bumps at most before you have to readjust, but still very fun. I doubt this trail will ever have 'perfect' lines due to the areas of slight double fall lines and other terrain features. Still a lot of fun. Not as steep, long or turny, but it kind of reminds me of a poor man's Chin Clip from Stowe where you only see about 100 feet of the trail at a time. Ended up lapping this until I left at 12:30. I'd still be there now if it weren't for out of state company coming up.
I wasn't planning on going tomorrow, but am now due to how great the mountain was skiing today. I doubt the natural trails and woods will be as good as today, but hopefully the bumps will be more developed. I doubt they open it tomorrow, but they were burying Flying Yankee. It was whale city and easily has enough snow to groom out, but it seems they like to wait a couple days after they finish blowing before they open it up.
I'd highly recommend Ragged for anyone looking to ski somewhere tomorrow and find excellent grooming, a couple of enjoyable natural trails and minimal lift lines. Today was by far the busiest I've seen it this season and the longest wait for the Six Pack was five minutes tops. At 12:30 there was barely a skied off spot on the hill as well. Will be there from 8:30 to 11:30 tomorrow, so give a shout if you plan on heading up.
Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain
Conditions: Perfect Packed Powder on the Groomers, Nice wind loaded fluff on the Natural Trails
Trip Report:
Rolled into Ragged this morning at 8:45 and thought I had been transplanted to one of the more popular areas in NH. 12 Buses of kids were up from Boston for a race and the lodge was completely packed. Was a challenge to find a place to sit and boot up, but I welcome the business there; anything that puts money in the bank towards a HSQ on Spear or developing Pinnacle Peak.
I figured today would be spent primarily on groomers and started with a run down Exhibition to warm up. The grooming at Ragged this season has been very impressive. I'm sure part of it has to do with the lack of traffic to beat up the trails, but it really has been as good as I've witnessed anywhere I've been in 25 years of New England skiing. 2nd run I decided to hit Birches, which is probably my favorite trail open right now. On Monday some smaller bumps were forming and I fully expected to be skiing a fairly wind scoured trail with erratic bumps. Nope, not wind scoured, wind loaded.
The mini bumps from Monday were essentially 90% filled in with beautiful soft fluff that in some places got to 5-6 inches deep. Sweet! Seeing this I headed over to Spear to check out Tree Hugger Glades. Pretty well filled in in there as well outside of the luge track exit. I ended up doing the three variations over there and lots of other people caught on as well and it was completely tracked out. So, went back to the main mountain and checked out Reggae Glades. It didn't look promising as the what you could see from the entrance was boiler plate. Went for it anyway and once over the ridge it was again beautiful blown in pow, especially left side. In places I was getting in up to the top boot buckle. It was me and the ski patrol in there having a blast as well. Sweepstakes also was wind loaded, though not as deep as Reggae.Run of the day for me was definitely Birches. By 11 bumps were starting to form pretty good. They're fairly erratic with lines only lasting 5 or 6 bumps at most before you have to readjust, but still very fun. I doubt this trail will ever have 'perfect' lines due to the areas of slight double fall lines and other terrain features. Still a lot of fun. Not as steep, long or turny, but it kind of reminds me of a poor man's Chin Clip from Stowe where you only see about 100 feet of the trail at a time. Ended up lapping this until I left at 12:30. I'd still be there now if it weren't for out of state company coming up.
I wasn't planning on going tomorrow, but am now due to how great the mountain was skiing today. I doubt the natural trails and woods will be as good as today, but hopefully the bumps will be more developed. I doubt they open it tomorrow, but they were burying Flying Yankee. It was whale city and easily has enough snow to groom out, but it seems they like to wait a couple days after they finish blowing before they open it up.
I'd highly recommend Ragged for anyone looking to ski somewhere tomorrow and find excellent grooming, a couple of enjoyable natural trails and minimal lift lines. Today was by far the busiest I've seen it this season and the longest wait for the Six Pack was five minutes tops. At 12:30 there was barely a skied off spot on the hill as well. Will be there from 8:30 to 11:30 tomorrow, so give a shout if you plan on heading up.
