loafer89
New member
Area skied: Saddleback Maine.
Date skied: February 16th, 2008 from 9:15am - 3:00pm
Surface conditions: Machine groomed, hardpacked, breakable crust with limited powder.
Weather: clouds and sun early, then clear with gusty winds at the summit. -2F at 9:15am
11F at 3:00pm.
Saddleback Summit:
After much debate on where to ski today and after reading various first hand snow reports, we decided to drive the 90 miles from Gorham to Saddleback in the hopes of avoiding the freezing rain crust on the surface of the new snow that exists around this area of New England, unfortunately we where not successful.
Our day began with a run down Grey Ghost to Golden Smelt, which had frozen crud with breakable crust that revealed powder with strong turns, but overall was not great. Next up we took the Rangeley Chair to NW Pass and traversed through remarkably deep snow to Intimidator Glade which had powder underneath a 1/16" - 1/2" ice crust that made turns difficult and dangerous. This glade would have been better with higher skier traffic to break up the crust, but the trail only had 1-2 tracks down it, all from before the freezing rain.
All was not lost however as more skiers arrrived to break up some of the crust and we moved on to some good groomed trails. Red Devil was alot of fun with the closest that the mountain came to true packed powder. Blue devil was much the same, but Parmachenee Belle was ungroomed unyielding crud that made for a bumby ride.
We went back to the Kennebago T-bar and took the long traverse to Muleskinner which was pretty good with powder and some unbroken crust, but decent overall with very deep cover and no rocks or stumps showing.
Deep snow near the summit:
Muleskinner with very deep snow:
Warren and I finally got to ski America for the first time, but this is more of a cross country trail that has very little pitch and headed directly into the strong west wind.
Supervisor was groomed and had some windblown powder cover and was the groomed trail of the day. I skied it alone when Warren skied down Tightline. Warden's Worry was decent with ungoomed semi-packed powder and snow that covered up all of the rock, stumps and saplings that this trail normaly has.
Jane Craig and Professor both had extremely deep cover and where much easier to ski than normal due to the cliff areas of both trails being buried in snow.
Steep section of Professor:
Overall the mountain has great cover, more in my estimate than at this point in April of 2007 and we still have two months of winter still to come in the North Country. The bad part is a little bit of freezing rain made what would have been an epic powder weekend into a bland one.
Oh well, at least we made the most of it and had a good father and son day and Warren rode the Cupsuptic T-bar alone for the first time and for the first time alone on any T-bar
Riding the T-bar alone:
Date skied: February 16th, 2008 from 9:15am - 3:00pm
Surface conditions: Machine groomed, hardpacked, breakable crust with limited powder.
Weather: clouds and sun early, then clear with gusty winds at the summit. -2F at 9:15am
11F at 3:00pm.
Saddleback Summit:
After much debate on where to ski today and after reading various first hand snow reports, we decided to drive the 90 miles from Gorham to Saddleback in the hopes of avoiding the freezing rain crust on the surface of the new snow that exists around this area of New England, unfortunately we where not successful.
Our day began with a run down Grey Ghost to Golden Smelt, which had frozen crud with breakable crust that revealed powder with strong turns, but overall was not great. Next up we took the Rangeley Chair to NW Pass and traversed through remarkably deep snow to Intimidator Glade which had powder underneath a 1/16" - 1/2" ice crust that made turns difficult and dangerous. This glade would have been better with higher skier traffic to break up the crust, but the trail only had 1-2 tracks down it, all from before the freezing rain.
All was not lost however as more skiers arrrived to break up some of the crust and we moved on to some good groomed trails. Red Devil was alot of fun with the closest that the mountain came to true packed powder. Blue devil was much the same, but Parmachenee Belle was ungroomed unyielding crud that made for a bumby ride.
We went back to the Kennebago T-bar and took the long traverse to Muleskinner which was pretty good with powder and some unbroken crust, but decent overall with very deep cover and no rocks or stumps showing.
Deep snow near the summit:
Muleskinner with very deep snow:
Warren and I finally got to ski America for the first time, but this is more of a cross country trail that has very little pitch and headed directly into the strong west wind.
Supervisor was groomed and had some windblown powder cover and was the groomed trail of the day. I skied it alone when Warren skied down Tightline. Warden's Worry was decent with ungoomed semi-packed powder and snow that covered up all of the rock, stumps and saplings that this trail normaly has.
Jane Craig and Professor both had extremely deep cover and where much easier to ski than normal due to the cliff areas of both trails being buried in snow.
Steep section of Professor:
Overall the mountain has great cover, more in my estimate than at this point in April of 2007 and we still have two months of winter still to come in the North Country. The bad part is a little bit of freezing rain made what would have been an epic powder weekend into a bland one.
Oh well, at least we made the most of it and had a good father and son day and Warren rode the Cupsuptic T-bar alone for the first time and for the first time alone on any T-bar
Riding the T-bar alone:
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