Ragged Mountain 3/1

[deadheadskier]

Date(s) Skied: March 1st

Resort or Ski Area: Ragged Mountain

Conditions: Hardpack, Frozen Granular, Death Cookies, Boiler plate, Frozen Styrofoam

Trip Report:

Went up to check out Ragged today; first time there since the early 90's. It was unfortunate, but the place definitely got hit hard by the rain on Friday and none of the glades I have read such good things about were open. I wasn't expecting much, but I had a ticket to use and skiing is skiing.

Nice little mountain even without the glades open. Even the wider boulevard type trails like Flying Yankee had some fun changes in pitch and fall line. I essentially skied all of the groomers that were open and hit Cemetery Gates and Birches, both of which had not been groomed and were the Frozen Styrofoam conditions. CG though only about 100 feet long is damn steep, kind of reminds me of a mini Black Hole from Sunday River. The whole Ravine area looked very cool. I would've liked to have waited to ski there when conditions were ripe for their glades, but with the season now into March and me still having several vouchers to use up, it was either Ragged or Burke for today. Ragged won out on account of being half the drive time.

I recently read that the Pinnacle Mountain expansion project has been shelved due to the economy. Anyone seen any renderings of what that trail pod is expected to look like if they ever complete it? A quick search online yielded very little information and no artistic renderings. Depending on what they do at this area, I could easily see it becoming a more popular destination than comparable places in the area like Mount Sunapee. The mountain just has better topography than it's competitors in the region.

 

[mikestaple]

Thanks for the report. Hopefully they get bombed with snow tonight. Looking to get out there on a Tuesday (2 for 1) or Weds ($79 per car load) in the next two weeks.

I have a handful of kids and they are getting old enough to throw them in the car at 6am for day trips. I'm looking to check out Ragged and Tenney as potential targets for day trips without the crowds (ala Loon). Both of these are between 2 and 2.5 hours from the Cape and cheaper than Mt. Sunapee.

How do these compare to Sunapee and have you skiied Tenney too?

 

[deadheadskier]

Pass holder at Tenney

I do enjoy Tenney, but Ragged is the better mountain. The runs are a bit longer at Tenney, but there's more pitch at Ragged and there appears to be awesome tree skiing there too, where as Tenney just has a little. The double to the top of Tenney is perhaps the longest lift time wise in all of New England, takes forever.

You'll never wait in a line longer than five minutes at Tenney and the trails are uncrowded. At Ragged, I'd imagine the only time there would be a liftline of any significance is on a Powder day and only on the Spear Mountain triple.

 

[deadheadskier]

Oh and to compare to Sunapee. Sunapee you'll have better snowmaking and recovery after freeze thaws. Ragged appears to offer more challenge than Sunapee. Sunapee has a fair bit more vert though.