Ragged Season 23 - 24

[Abubob]

Resort or Ski Area

Ragged Mountain Resort

Date

Dec 1, 2023

Snow Conditions

1. Powder
2. Packed Powder
3. Slush or Spring Snow
4. Cord
5. Sticky
6. Chopped or Crud
7. Dust on Crust
8. Ice
9. Crust
10. Moguls

Got some catching up to do here here’s all the times I’ve been this month to date.

And I’m gonna go on a little rant here that adding to this report page is a total pita! I would like to add a report every time I ski at Ragged but its required field make it completely tedious. Not to mention the word processing here is more than a little wonky.

 

[Abubob]

For Wednesday Dec 13, 2023

Warm start to the day cooler by lunch with snow squalls moving in.

 

[Abubob]

Temperatures under 40 for a changes with snow showers and a nearly empty (considering the holiday and a Saturday).

Snow was wet but firm. They added Lower Ridge during the last week. So after a week of skipping it was good to be back.

And we found the Festivus tree.

 

[Abubob]

Beautiful day at Ragged. Temps in the 20s, some sun. My only regret is that I had to stop at noon. Nice to ski on some natural snow and finally got to ride the Spear lift for some turns on Cardigan Turnpike. Still blowing snow on Flying Yankee and also building the snow bridge on Showboat.

 

[Abubob]

Another beautiful bluebird day. I got a late start and asked someone how it was and they said, “it’s good if your edges are sharp”. Later Newfound Ridge opened after race training and again someone on the lift said “it’s nice after the first steep part but before that it’s kinda chattery”. Hate to say it but those guys can’t ski. Everything was firm, to be sure, but very edgable, practically hero snow.

They were almost finished grooming Flying Yankee and the snow bridge at the base of Showboat about finished.

 

[Abubob]

January 17, 2024

Sunny and cold today. Didn’t get windy until around lunchtime which is when I called it a day, went home and had, well, lunch. On the Spear side they’re still blowing snow on the top of Flying Yankee while the lower 3/4s wasn’t as sweet as thought it would be. It was quite crusty as a matter of fact. Showboat has huge gnar whales that stretch top to bottom and they’re even filling in the gorge that cuts across the bottom third so skiing on there should be skiable side to side for the entire length when it finally groomed. Cardigan Turnpike was groomed and soft with natural snow filling in the cord the entire length so I don’t quite understand why Yankee was so crusty.

The rest of the groomers on the Ragged were similar to Cardigan, soft corduroy with some fresh natural filling in. Sweet.

Some of the glade runs were open too. I saw a squad of patrol slip into Rags to Riches but it remained closed. It’s just as well, I tried Reggae Glades but it has about 3 inches of powder on top of broken crust. There were short pockets of untracked but it wasn’t worth it to me. So I skipped going into Moose Alley or Treehugger glades.

Anyway, shaping up well so far. Some more natural would be nice but I’ll take the quiet and cold weather in the meantime. Good snowmaking weather.

 

[Abubob]

How many runs can I get in an hour and a half with absolutely no lift line? Turns out 10.

Showboat and Flying Yankee fully open. I hit a patch of ice on Showboat and almost became a flying yankee myself. Lots of glades and the ungroomed side of Showboat are some traffic. I’m waiting for more natural. I may not get a chance but with my hamstring still healing from last year I’m taking it easy.

Anyway, gnarwhales up and down Wildride shows they’ll be getting the park in shape. Also gnarwhales on the top of Exhibition and down Birches. Zeroing in on 100%

 

[Abubob]

After a two week hiatus fighting a head cold I finally made it back to Ragged. In an effort to earn a merit badge I helped a friend ski from the top for the very first time. He had completed the Bebe Woods program the week before. He was soooo stressed he couldn’t do anything I suggested. But he made it! After a long rest on the patio he went back over to Barnyard and was much happier there. I would have warmed him up with a couple runs there but when we first got there but the Barnyard triple was not running. Hence the ride to the top - on the first run of the day. He did fine though. Didn’t crash into the woods once! In fact he did not even fall.

Anyway, after that I was able to ski a nearly normal set of runs. Everything was edgable sugar on hard crust so by the end of the day there were a lot of icy patches. But it was a beautiful mostly sunny day, reasonably cool and only slightly crowded with Massachusetts vacation week In full swing.

 

[Abubob]

Gorgeous day at Ragged today! Still firm but with warmer temperatures it was easier to edge. Also the place was pretty empty. I think a line formed briefly after lunch.

It’s really nice to have all the options open except for glade runs sadly. Still lots of variety. Compressors are of course gone so no more snowmaking but the trails were all groomed to corduroy perfection. Wildride has jumps and features from top to bottom and the border cross is, as always fun.

 

[Abubob]

Friday March 1

Another blue bird day. Started out a bit chilly and breezy with temps in the 20s. The afternoon was a bit warmer in the 30s and calm.

Again the surface was well groomed and fast with a few ice patches but PLENTY of snow. Just three groomed slopes were closed: Wildride for grooming, Lower Chute for an event, and Flying Yankee for race training. But Blueberry, Headwall, Lower Ridge, Newfoundland Ridge, Main Street, Exhibition, Birches, Showboat and Cardigan Trpk left plenty of room for the few skiers that came out.

View attachment IMG_2963.mov

 

[Abubob]

Things were looking mighty good at Ragged today.

 

[Abubob]

Double Header

Day 1, March 19, first day of spring!

With low temps dropping into the 20s and predicted to rise to 40 I thought everything would have been slightly crusty but soften quickly. I was only half right. Everything on the Ragged side skied like a washboard with frozen corduroy for the morning. But the Spear side was actually a little powdery at the top and easy softer cord. So we skied several runs on Flying Yankee while some race training was going on. After lunch Ragged peak skied much better with the exception of the Ski Cross Terrain and Wildside. Both were ungroomed and difficult to ski because the lumpy snow was still too stiff to ski smoothly. But Exhibition, Newfound Ridge and Lower Ridge all skied very nicely. Having to save gas for the next day I stopped early 1-ish.

Frozen slush at the base of Village Green early Tuesday morning




Day 2. Spring snow squalls.

Everything skied beautifully with temperatures starting in the 30s and rising to about 40. The only thing not skiable was the manufactured moguls for an upcoming competition. I should’ve taken a photo but take my word for it, they were awful.

So while many are chasing power in Vermont with recent storms I and a couple friends were content with Ragged corduroy.

Snow squalls coming in over Spear Peak

 

[Abubob]

Another double header ... after all the powder hounds went home.

Yeah, skipped all the bruhaha this weekend ... just cause I'm sorta old and cranky now. But anyway, Monday (March 25, 2024) was super nice! I stayed out of the woods (but from what I heard there's a lot of untouched powder if you know where to go but I'm not sayin' here) however I could not resist Easy Winder. It's sort of my mecca. I felt like I took my life in my hands though, because the connecting trail was ungroomed and ... sketchy to say the least. Also the natural snow over there was a chopped and refrozen mess. Everything groomed on the rest of the mountain, Spear included was fantastic.

Tuesday morning was cut short by driving mist but so sweet.