Saddleback 4/15/07- powder ending

[loafer89]

Area skied: Saddleback, Maine.

Date skied: April 15th, 2007 from 8:00am to last summit chair of the season at 3:45pm.

Surface conditions: machine groomed packed powder, 2-3" new powder by 4pm.

Today was Saddlebacks last day of the season with free skiing for everyone.

The day started out with firm corduroy on the groomers and we got third chair and first tracks on Green Weaver and we basically just flew down it with wide arching turns in the snow.

We stayed on the groomers and Royal Coachman had great snow as did Grey Ghost, Silver Doctor and Blue Devil. The snow stayed mid winter firm all day and it was like skiing in February rather than April.

By around 1pm it started to snow and the wind at the top really got gusty. We skied a very firm and unyielding Golden Smelt and then skied Green Weaver to Nightmare Glade which had great soft snow and deep cover.

We skied Peachy's Peril which was firm but sugarcoated with new snow and had nice mini moguls.

By 2:30pm it was snowing fairly hard with about 2" new at the summit. I took a run down Governor which had fantastic powder coated moguls from top to bottom.

Warren and I skied Muleskinner at 3:30pm and patrol swept and closed the trail for the season behind us. The same thing happened on Tightline which had 2-3" of powder over groomed snow which made for nice turns.

Warren and I got THE LAST CHAIR to the summit in front of patrol and the chair stopped running when we got off with patrol saying "thats a wrap boys".

Our last run was down a powdery Peachy's Peril with creamy soft moguls and a heavily falling snow.

And so the mountain closes with 100% snowcover and probably 4-6' of natural snow at the summit.

 

[salsgang]

We were at Saddleback both Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday was a super-soft day with temps reaching Mid 40's by mid-day. Peachy's Peril was a favorite run for me and the boys as we pounded that trial 3 times. The bumps were super-soft and we are steadily improving in that area. We snuck a couple of Intimidator glade runs in too. My oldest and I took our first T-Bar ride to the summit and skied down Tri-Color to Peachy Peril. I am too old for T-Bar's I think, but it was good to get to the top for once. I will be glad when Saddleback replaces the T's as is in their plans.

My wife and oldest took a try at learning snowboarding in the afternoon, so my youngest and I pounded the blues off the double-chair, taking great runs down Red and Blue Devil, along with a Royal Coachman to Lower Professor. The snow was super soft and the temps were warm. We finished up with a few greenie runs with our new snowboarders.

I back up Loafer89 on Sunday. It was mid-winter at Saddleback. The snow was much faster than Saturday, but still very edgeable and we took some screaming runs down the groomers... particularly Royal Coachman to Lower Professor. Red Devil, Gray Ghost and Blue Devil Ruled too. We discovered Sneaky Pete and that was a nice little fun dip that brought us back up to Gray Ghost. It was really awesome to have fast conditions in Mid April and be able to make big arching turns in the deep base. The non-groomers were crusty, and we skidded down Parmachenee Bell, but that trial would have been a lot of fun on Saturday.

The wind really started to howl by early afternoon, so we took a couple of greenie glades off the quad and called it a season at 1:30. Really something Saddleback is closing up with the mountain buried in snow and a probably 2 more feet on the way. At this rate they will have a good snow base for next year! ;-)

Excellent Season. Blew a big hole in my family budget with all this late season skiing, but it was worth it!

 

[loafer89]

I got a copy of Saddleback's 10 year development plan map. If this has not been posted I would be happy to do so when I get home.

Two new trails are to be cut this year in the summit area between Wardens Worry and Muleskinner.

 

[salsgang]

Yeah - that would be cool to see the 10 year plan map. Post it when you get a chance. Have fun the rest of the week at 'loaf.

 

[snoseek]

I got a copy of Saddleback's 10 year development plan map. If this has not been posted I would be happy to do so when I get home.

Two new trails are to be cut this year in the summit area between Wardens Worry and Muleskinner.

more sick terrain at saddleback? i wish they were open one more week. I'd give my left nut to ski there tomorrow!

 

[loafer89]

Warren and I where both sad to see the mountain close, especially with an historic snowstorm occuring on closing day.

Hopefully we can get some turns in tomorrow with the high winds in the forecast.

 

[klrskiah]

Agreed. Saddleback was sick today. the glades were absolutely buried, probably 40"+ of packed natural, so much snow in the governor glade that you were skiing through the treetops. Great snow all over the mountain except the usually unskiable entrances to tight line and wardens worry...

Loafer89, i think i saw you early morning when i was riding up the double. saw the same groups of people all day, but must have missed ya. Thats awesome, closing out the season on muleskinner! we left around 3:15 before the roads turned to crap.

one thing saddleback needs to do, is when they cut new trails dont leave freakin 3 foot high stumps everywhere. some of those stumps on governor could be deadly:-o

 

[Joshua B]

I was also there Sunday and loved it. I had my first opportunity to ride the summit T and ski Muleskinner and Supervisor. It wasn't easy to see the bumps as the first few hundred vertical feet were cloud-covered.

I can't agree with salsgang about replacing the T-bars. They are great when chairs might otherwise have to be shut down due to wind and they remind me of my early years of skiing in the '70s. No doubt, it's nice to have the chairs there to rest your legs and warm up your feet in between T-bar rides.

 

[loafer89]

Here are two pictures from Saddleback on closing day. They really had alot of snow but closed for budget reasons according to the employees that I spoke with. What a shame to have to close with tremendous snow depths.


Nightmare Glade:

Powder and heavy snow falling on Peachy's Peril on the last run of the season from the summit with the Rangeley Chair:

 

[salsgang]

Thanks for the pics Loafer89 - can you post that 10 year plan map?