hiroto
Member
Oops, I put in the wrong date! Can a moderator fix the date of the title please?
Date(s) Skied: 2/18/2008
Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain
Conditions: SC, rain
Trip Report:
Making decision to going for Ragged mountain or skiing at all on this day was difficult due to weather. If it were only for me and my son, I didn't hesitate at all but with whole family, I didn't want to make it a miserable day for girls. But with the forecast of 1/10 inch rain and getting clear by afternoon, I purchased Liftopia tickets for four of us about 9PM the day before.
We were not in a hurry to get there in rain so we had relaxing morning and god there around 10:30. It has been three year for me and I forgot how much the approach road sucks :-D There were very small number of cars at the base lodge. It was raining heavily when we were driving but it was down to drizzle now. As billski mentioned, it was absolute no hassle to pick up Liftopia tickets. It was incredible to get tickets for family of four (two juniors) on holiday for $113.22.
I was first going to have my son and wife go take a look up the six pack to see the condition while I take my daughter to lower triple chair but my son pointed out that her sister can take Easy Winder down so we went right up on six pack in heavy fog. Kids got psyched by the fast lift. Quite a change from Pat's the day before.
When we got to the top and started down on Blueberry patch -> Side winder, I was delighted by the spring skiing condition instead of icy hard pack. Some hardish surfaces here and there but temperature was warm enough was I hoped for. We quickly followed this run with other green trails, Upper Ridge->Raggedy Andy-> Main Stree->Village Green. As we got on chair for this run, it started to rain and then heavily. We got totally soaked so evacuated in to the lodge and had early lunch.
It was clear again when we got back out around noon. I thought condition was good enough for my daughter to try Upper Extinction -> Lower Exhibition (why different names for uppwer <-> lower?). She was cautions for a few steeper spots but other wise came down happily and wanted to do more. As you expect in that weather, the mountain is empty. Only once we had one group in front of us when we got on the chair. Something like two/three runs, we would encounter nobody else top to bottom. That was great for my daughter to have nobody to worry about. We skied along the six pack for 5,6 run and my daughter was getting more and more comfortable at it. It was great day for her progression because it was too hard surface for her to go that steep at Pats the day before. And with six packs, she was getting lots of verts.
Girls went in for break and I explored a little more with my son to Birches, Lower Ridge. We wanted to ski Raggae Glades but it was closed. Took one fast run top to bottom along the six pack. We saw only one pair of slower skier along the way and it was all for our selves to blast down. What a treat.
My daughter joined back and had a few more runs along the six pack. Mom stayed in because her feet were getting too wet due to her 17 year old Lang boot developing a huge crack. Finally my daughter had enough of same runs so took her down to Lower Ridge. My son noted that Raggae Glades had opened up so he went down that way. He said it was really heavy and he fell 5 times. Then we took the revived Spear Mountain Triple and came down Cardigan Turnpike down. My son wanted to go up again for Flying Yankee but her sister voted against and we took six pack up again, then it started to rain again, heavily. We quickly came down along six pack. Kids evacuated inside and I took one more ride up in heavy rain. I wanted to check out how the Raggae Glades is. It was amusing to find bunch on untracked snow in there, socking wet and heavy. With shallow grade of the trail, it was quite a workout to maintain my speed through that stuff. I got drenched, and it was past 3 o'clock so it was time to call it for the day.
Over all, it turned out to be wonderful day. Kids had a great time to have whole mountain (well, except glades) to themselves with high speed six packs. We had shorter hours comparing to the day before but I'm pretty sure we did much more verts.
What was a good day for us was a tough day for the mountain. Looking at the lodge when it started to rain and everybody evacuated, it seemed to me that there were 100 skiers at the most for the whole mountain. I wish they can survive and thrive under the new management.
Date(s) Skied: 2/18/2008
Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain
Conditions: SC, rain
Trip Report:
Making decision to going for Ragged mountain or skiing at all on this day was difficult due to weather. If it were only for me and my son, I didn't hesitate at all but with whole family, I didn't want to make it a miserable day for girls. But with the forecast of 1/10 inch rain and getting clear by afternoon, I purchased Liftopia tickets for four of us about 9PM the day before.
We were not in a hurry to get there in rain so we had relaxing morning and god there around 10:30. It has been three year for me and I forgot how much the approach road sucks :-D There were very small number of cars at the base lodge. It was raining heavily when we were driving but it was down to drizzle now. As billski mentioned, it was absolute no hassle to pick up Liftopia tickets. It was incredible to get tickets for family of four (two juniors) on holiday for $113.22.
I was first going to have my son and wife go take a look up the six pack to see the condition while I take my daughter to lower triple chair but my son pointed out that her sister can take Easy Winder down so we went right up on six pack in heavy fog. Kids got psyched by the fast lift. Quite a change from Pat's the day before.
When we got to the top and started down on Blueberry patch -> Side winder, I was delighted by the spring skiing condition instead of icy hard pack. Some hardish surfaces here and there but temperature was warm enough was I hoped for. We quickly followed this run with other green trails, Upper Ridge->Raggedy Andy-> Main Stree->Village Green. As we got on chair for this run, it started to rain and then heavily. We got totally soaked so evacuated in to the lodge and had early lunch.
It was clear again when we got back out around noon. I thought condition was good enough for my daughter to try Upper Extinction -> Lower Exhibition (why different names for uppwer <-> lower?). She was cautions for a few steeper spots but other wise came down happily and wanted to do more. As you expect in that weather, the mountain is empty. Only once we had one group in front of us when we got on the chair. Something like two/three runs, we would encounter nobody else top to bottom. That was great for my daughter to have nobody to worry about. We skied along the six pack for 5,6 run and my daughter was getting more and more comfortable at it. It was great day for her progression because it was too hard surface for her to go that steep at Pats the day before. And with six packs, she was getting lots of verts.
Girls went in for break and I explored a little more with my son to Birches, Lower Ridge. We wanted to ski Raggae Glades but it was closed. Took one fast run top to bottom along the six pack. We saw only one pair of slower skier along the way and it was all for our selves to blast down. What a treat.
My daughter joined back and had a few more runs along the six pack. Mom stayed in because her feet were getting too wet due to her 17 year old Lang boot developing a huge crack. Finally my daughter had enough of same runs so took her down to Lower Ridge. My son noted that Raggae Glades had opened up so he went down that way. He said it was really heavy and he fell 5 times. Then we took the revived Spear Mountain Triple and came down Cardigan Turnpike down. My son wanted to go up again for Flying Yankee but her sister voted against and we took six pack up again, then it started to rain again, heavily. We quickly came down along six pack. Kids evacuated inside and I took one more ride up in heavy rain. I wanted to check out how the Raggae Glades is. It was amusing to find bunch on untracked snow in there, socking wet and heavy. With shallow grade of the trail, it was quite a workout to maintain my speed through that stuff. I got drenched, and it was past 3 o'clock so it was time to call it for the day.
Over all, it turned out to be wonderful day. Kids had a great time to have whole mountain (well, except glades) to themselves with high speed six packs. We had shorter hours comparing to the day before but I'm pretty sure we did much more verts.
What was a good day for us was a tough day for the mountain. Looking at the lodge when it started to rain and everybody evacuated, it seemed to me that there were 100 skiers at the most for the whole mountain. I wish they can survive and thrive under the new management.
